Chapter 10

THIS TOOK TOO LONG TO WRITE :CCCC

Chapter 10

The sun basked over the broken city, shining in areas that it could reach, but defeated by darkness in areas it couldn’t. The small alley’s and streets that the group of three now walked down were dark and gloomy, light struggled to create the path they so desperately needed.

Felix held the map out front himself, following its streets and alleys to get them to this so called sanctuary. Tommy had already lost the privilege of giving directions the moment he had led them to a dead-end and Milly… She didn’t want to face the embarrassment of shame if she did the same and instead gave the duty to Felix, who had gruntingly accepted �" much to his reluctance.

Dark shadow’s crept around their feet, dragging their every step closer to the ground. Lines of light shone through the small cracks of the building, over their faces and bodies just before they returned to the darkness of the alley. The walls were covered in spray paint and suspense’s red drops. When Michael had said to them that the place was creepy… They realised he wasn’t kidding.

To ensure, that the rest of the city didn’t find out about Michael’s betrayal, he had returned to the main city streets and had just left them with the map and simple directions to get to the subway… until Tommy got them lost. While they knew where the subway was on the map, they didn’t know where they were pre-say.

It was a clear thought that nothing looked the same and all the walls had their own different calligraphy mirroring over the bricks. Of course, that wasn’t the only thing on the wall’s, old messages of ‘such-and-such loves- ‘were on every corner, along with insults and threats of murder and death, they drowned the walls in vail words.

Felix’s foot slightly shifts a can as he walks and Milly and Tommy can’t help but entertain their boredom with watching it roll only millimetres away. The small sounds of scratching and hollowness broke the quiet area as the can rolled away. They couldn’t help but slightly freeze and listen carefully for sounds of movement. The sudden flapping of wings made both Milly and Tommy jump and take a sharp intake of air, before letting out a large sigh.

“Feel like a deer being hunted…” Tommy grumbled.

“It’s ‘deer in headlights.’” Milly corrected

“I don’t care.” Tommy growled under his breath as he followed after Felix.

Felix didn’t really take mind of the conversation but kept his whole focus on the task in front of him. He still hadn’t figured out where about in the backstreets of the city where they were. Even with the constant changing graffiti, everything still looked and smelt the same as before.

Felix came to an abrupt stop and for the first time since getting the map from Tommy, he looked up for more than a second. He took in his high surroundings, all the cracks of light that shone through up above, all the rusted steel and platforms of stairs on the building's sides and the horrid smelling and rusting garbage bin that 

stood only metres from where they were.

Tommy watched as Felix’s eyes darted around the surrounding area, and couldn’t help but feel an air of uneasiness at watching his eyes panic. Steadily he took a step towards him and placed his hand on his shoulder and look him in the face when he turned around.

“What’s wrong?” Tommy asked

“Need higher grounds…” Felix mumbled out. It was hard to hear at first and Tommy strained his ears to hear what he had said, but Felix had already turned around and grabbed the railing to an ascending stairway. 

Holding the map in one hand, he slowly ascended the stairs, going higher and higher with each step, until he came face to face with an iron platform, with more stairs.

Milly and Tommy watched from the ground surface, as he continued to climb. Stepping back, Milly leaned up against the wall when he became too hard to see from her position. He had travelled up at least three roofs now and was still aiming to get higher. They watched as he entered the sunlight from the east and how his hair shone just like it. When he finally reached the top of the building he was truly in the spotlight of the sun. 

He carefully looked around the city from above, hoping to spot anything slightly familiar, but it all looked the same. Except for the large park and fallen rubble that was at least 100 �" 200metres away from them.

He started creating pathways with his eyes and taking in directions between the streets. Trying to come to the conclusion of where the entrance of the subway was. Milly stood balancing herself on the wall as she tiredly played with the ends of her hair, while standing just opposite of Tommy, who was still looking towards Felix, waiting for him to come down from the building.

Several minutes passed and it was starting to eat at Tommy’s nerves, as his concern grew steadily for Felix. Milly wasn’t fazed in the slightest as she now sat on the ground of the streets leaning against the building block wall, as she inspected her dirt covered nails with interest.

Tommy’s fingers drummed against his side in irritation as the time slowly passed. His worry for Felix was increasingly growing the longer he stayed up onto of the building. He feared the worst for his, but more than anything he feared he’d jump straight off the side of the building and land in a mess of blood and guts on the ground before them.

“You fret too much.” Milly spoke out breaking the silence between them.

 “I’m sorry I worry so much for our friend.” Tommy snapped back with force.

“He won’t jump, Tommy.” Milly says with a sense of sincerity.

“How do we know he won’t?! He’s been living in the past these last few days! How do we know it hasn’t got to him?” Tommy explained with fear, his voice shaky as he looked back up at Felix, who stood on the corner of the said building.

“You know he won’t.” Milly states as she stands from her place and walks over to him.

“I don’t know that….” Tommy whispers softly, but loud enough for Milly to hear. She looks at his eyes that concentrate so hard on the lone figure and feels herself fall into pity for the man. He worries so much, that he doesn’t even worry about himself anymore.

“Worrying so much will turn you old and grey before you even reach 30.” Milly states bluntly as she stares directly at him, waiting for his response.

“Then I guess you’ll look like an old hag by the time you’re 25, then?” Tommy counters back at her. Milly’s face turns a light shade of red and just stares daggers at him before she turns on her heel and goes back to leaning on the wall of the stone building.

Tommy lets out a light laugh at her reaction, but can’t help but feel somewhat relieved. As if some of the stress and worry had just fallen off his shoulders. ‘Thank you.’ He can’t help but think towards her.

Then there was a rattle and a thump of the metal stairs above Milly and Tommy’s heads. Felix had jumped from the roof and onto the first set of platform stairs of the building. However, the rest he actually walked down the stairs towards the ground �" occasionally skipping a step or two to the next platform. From the last set of stairs, Felix jumped off and landed swiftly onto the ground, straightening himself afterward.

Milly pushed herself off the way with her foot and keeping her arms crossed walked over to Felix with curiosity written all over her face �" it was very obvious. Felix held the map out in front of himself and created the route he had established in his mind onto the paper by running his finger over it.

“What did you see?” Milly said first before Tommy could go on a rant about how much he feared his friend would jump.

“Everything.” Felix mumbled as he keeps his eyes on the task in front of himself.

Suddenly Felix crunches up the map into a ball and shoves it into his pocket. Milly and Tommy give a look of sudden shock and surprise at this and just looked at Felix as if he were crazy.

“It’s outdated �" Michael may not have noticed. We’ll follow what’s in my head, any complaints?” Felix bites at the two. When neither spoke he took it as their answer and started walking back the way they came.

“Wait, wait, wait. Where are you going?” Tommy retorted loudly towards Felix.

“The correct way.” Felix quickly replied and Tommy couldn’t help but remember his previous embarrassing fail to find the correct way and quickly shut up after that. Milly couldn’t help but let out a few little giggles at the short-lived argument �" Tommy did nothing but glare at her for several minutes afterward.

“The second alley back is what we should have gone down.” Felix states as he starts walking off, somewhat leaving the other two, before they decided quickly to follow before they got lost.

Coming back to the alley Felix had mentioned, Milly and Tommy noticed that it was actually quite small and it would be lucky if they were able to walk straight without turn on their sides and walking sideways. However, Felix turned slightly and carefully but quickly walked down the small alley. Milly and Tommy followed suit and carefully kept close to Felix as they all headed towards the end of the alley.

When they finally did exit the alley, they all left out a large breath of air and relished the feeling of the sun’s heat. Looking right Tommy saw the continued miles of buildings just like the on the other side of the alley. Just the walls of the buildings they had just come out of, that side was covered in a golden light from the sun, emulating the words of graffiti and splashes of paint over windows and brick.

Catching his breath, Felix started walking down the miles long street of sunlight, Milly and Tommy following steadily behind. As they walked Milly carefully looked through the cracks between the alleys taking in the sight of the next over streets, when she saw several groups of people all standing together, guns in hand.

Stopping in her tracks she watched in silence as they all stood together, making movements of laughter and lazily holding their guns in their hands. She took a steady step forward, her eyes trained on one of the many guns before her, only metres away. She felt such a desperate need to take it, to hold it in her hands, to feel the safety of its grip and bullets. Her eyes seemed to retract and her fingers lifted slightly at her-

“Milly!”

Tommy yelled out to her. She quickly spun around and face them both. “Come on.” Tommy said with the motion of his hand.

She looked back for a split second towards the group of chattering people, then back to Tommy and Felix, who both stood at their spots waiting for her.

“Ri-Right!” Milly spoke and slightly jogged over to them. They turned around and Milly felt the sudden need to go back to the gun and take it, but she forced it down. She didn’t need it. Not right now. Not yet.

 Her fingers fidgeted at her side for a moment as if she was playing the piano, of course, she had never played the massive instrument before. But her body just subconsciously did things she would never be able to explain to even herself.

While the street was quiet like nothing you could believe, it felt as if a whole orchestra was playing all around them. The pounding of their footsteps felt and sounded like that of giants and their breathing hitched each time they breathed out a long stretch of air from their lungs.

It was torment….

To feel as if you were the centre of all the attention while not wanting it or even having it, it was largely distracting to them. Their brains were packed with ideas and possibilities of what could happen in the next few minutes or even seconds.

The sun slowly filtered over them, basking them in its glorious light and heat. Shadows slowly crept to nothing; hiding against the walls of the buildings, while anxious nerves grew rapidly with each passing minute.

A long breath stretched out between them as the heat started to steadily increase. Milly having stripped off her jacket was shakily tying it around her waist in heist; worried about having to concentrate on something besides her surroundings. The sudden crinkling of the map had made her head dart up and her eyes rapidly follow Felix’s movements as he folded the map up smoothly before shoving it into one of his pockets for safe keeping.

Light streamed in through a small crack between two of the many builds. The streams of light coated themselves over Felix’s face as he leaned forward and looked through the crack and out to the other side. Leaning down, he let Tommy look above him while placing his hand on Felix’s back, steadying himself as he looked. Milly stood back and watched for any reaction from the two.

Looking out beyond the crack they took in the sight of the open area of concrete and buildings. While they couldn’t see the subway entrance they could guess they were close by, as they could see the familiar spot of where they were standing last time on the opposite side of the road.

Suddenly a soldier passed by the crack and Tommy and Felix rushed to get out of the viewpoint of the soldier. Tommy motioned to Milly to crouch down and she did so without question �" though she did have a confused look on her face.

They waited a few seconds and then Felix slowly peeked out through the crack and quickly checked the small proximity of the area. When his shoulders and body slackened it sent a signal to Milly and Tommy that it was all good and clear.

Milly steadily moved forward towards the crack �" her feet dragging slightly, flicking some small rocks. Light emulated itself over her eye and skin, as the scene played out before her eye. The hot sunlight shone down over the concrete grounds, buildings hid quietly in the shadows of themselves as nothing disturbed the area. Suddenly the pressure of Felix’s hand was over Milly’s shoulder and as she looked up towards him, she saw him go from looking through the crack to looking down at her: just before he spoke.

“Milly, you wait here. Keep an eye out and watch for any movement.” Felix said quietly.

“Tom you’re coming with me.” Felix says as he directs his thumb in the direction of further down the alley.

As they stand and take a few steps away from Milly, she shakes off the confusion over her face and stands as well and quietly yells out to them.

“How will I signal you? Not like I have a phone on me!” Milly quietly raged.

“Throw a rock?” Tommy sarcastically stated.

“I’ll throw a rock at you.” Milly grumbled as she crouched back down to look through the crack.

Tommy and Felix lift Milly to her own soon after, stationing themselves much further up the alley and away from Milly. She could only assume that they could both see the subway otherwise they both would have come back already.

Leaning forward - while letting out a sigh �" she let her forehead gently hit the concrete of the wall and the edges of the crack dig into her skin. After a while, she fell to sitting on her hipbone and rested her head against the wall. Eyes drifting over the rough blades of the concrete.

“HEY!” a sudden voice entered her area of hearing, making her jump slightly in her skin.

Her head spun quickly around to face the voice and what came into sight was what she feared most at this point. The bloke stood there holding his gun at point range in her direction, just waiting to shoot her.

His hair was cut short and was a dirty and greasy looking brown. His finger flexed over the trigger when Milly accidently kicked a rock with the tip of her boot. Her breathing was harsh against her chest as her eyes traced themselves over the gun and the trigger.

The bloke took a slow step forward but he never lowered his gun.

“Who are you?! What are you doing?!” He yelled his questions at her.

She flinched at his tone and swift, quickly had her hand firmly on the ground and was pushing herself up and into a run. Her leg reached forward and the tip of her boot extended forward to reach the ground and push her off, but:

Abruptly she was in agony and was screaming in pain as the bullet ate and tore at her skin, digging itself deep into her skin. She crashed to the ground and shakily grabbed her leg, pain written all over her face and blood painted over her hand as she applied pressure to the wound.

She groaned at the pain and laid her head down on the ground as she heard dragged feet make their way over to her. The bloke stood over her as if she were a hunting prize, gun pointed right at her head and eyes menacingly looking down at her.

Gradually he nudged her in the shoulder with the end of the rifle. When she didn’t make any movements he purposely flicked off the safety and held it to her temple, watching her chest flicker at the sudden cold contact.

“Move.” He said flatly.

Shakily Milly pushed herself up with her arms �" her leg staying outstretched. She grabbed her thigh when she was halfway to standing, roughly she squeezed it, so she could forget the pain in her calf �" it didn’t help much.

The man motioned a direction with his gun before looking at her and doing the same with his eyes. Catching what he wanted Milly limped forward, hissing each time she stepped on her shot leg.

“Where that light is, turn there.” He said plainly

Milly just grunted in response and kept moving forward, feeling the pressure of the muzzle hitting her back occasionally, in which she knew she couldn’t escape with his stone grip on the trigger.

Emerging into the light, Milly did as she was told and turned into the open area of the massive street. The first thing she noticed was the dark ominous stairs of the subway on meters from her, but there was also the two guards in that image, standing at both sides of the railing staring right at her.

The muzzle of the gun pressed into her back as she was pushed forward reluctantly. She stumbled forward, towards the two other men with the third behind her.

“Who’s this?” One of the two asked the bloke behind Milly.

“Hell, if I knew.” He said with a shrug.

“What’s your name, little lady?” the other man of the two asked, leaning forward with his gun at his side.

Milly just stood quietly looking up at them threateningly through her dark strands of hair.

From afar and well hidden behind the massive structures of buildings was Tommy sitting quietly peeping through the holes and gaps in a metal fence. His eyes were trained on the sight before him and the scene that played out quietly and out of ear range.

He had seen Milly come into view from afar and watched with shock and horror as she moved forward with a gun pressed to her back and a limp in her step. Tommy shifted on his feet when he saw her stand within the middle of the three men. Feeling the need to figure out what was going on, Tommy looked away from Milly and searched the grounds for a small rock or pebble.

When he found the small concrete rock, he stood up and took a few steps left until he could see Felix, just a little bit further down the alley. Getting a grip on the rock, he threw it high and far, managing to hit Felix just on the shoulder causing him to slightly jump and look around for the culprit.

Spotting Tommy he stood and looked at him in confusion, rubbing his shoulder slightly as he gave a shrug and expression of concern and confusion to him. Tommy just gestures of the name Milly and capture but it all just went over Felix’s head as he just looked more confused with each passing second.

Tommy started to mouth Milly’s name at that point and it still just muddled the poor bloke as he put his hands up and shrugged his shoulders to express his confusion on the matter. Shifting on his feet, Tommy let out a puff of irritation and looked at Felix but could only feel more annoyance at his expression.

“Milly.” He whispered to Felix.

Felix made a face as if saying ‘what?’ and was about to jog over to Tommy when he yelled it out a bit louder to the blonde man.

“Milly!” Tommy quietly shouted out.

Felix tilted his head slightly lost and confused as to why it felt like he was saying Milly. So, he mouthed her name back to him and received a frantic amount of nodding and what he assumed was quiet swearing and cheering.

“What about her?” Felix quietly spoke out to him.

Tommy seemed to be at a loss for words and just scratched his head before he put his wrists together and held them in the air for Felix to see. Felix narrowed his eyes at the sight and it didn’t really click for a minute. Crouching down again Felix looked as far to the left as he could from his vantage point, but all he saw was the slight edges of the railing outskirt.

Felix quietly stood up and turned to face Tommy but saw that he was gone. Swiftly but with slightly frantic movements Felix speed walked over to Tommy’s area, where he felt a breath of relief escape him when he saw Tommy sitting down looking through the small gaps in the metal.

Seating himself down next to the brunette man Felix peered through the open spaces and down to the left at the subway and the four people standing at its entry, one being unmistakably Milly. Felix shifted on his feet and swallowed thickly at the sight.

From their position, they couldn’t see the blood that was dripping down Milly’s leg and bleaching her skin red. Her heart raced against her chest while she took in her surroundings of the brick walls and concrete floor before her eyes followed the horizon up into the sun and blue sea of a sky.

“Is there anyone with ya love?” The bloke to her left asked with the slight stage of an accent.

Milly’s head just dropped down onto her shoulder and rolled slightly to look at the man, her eyes leaving the blue sky and looked directly into his as she spoke.

“Hundreds. Thousands maybe?” Milly joked, sarcasm dripping from her lips.

The man let out a slight laugh and gruff sound at the same time and looked down at her.

“And where are these hundreds and thousands of men?”

“Hidden.” She states simply.

The small sound of rocks fallings catches the attention of the guards and the single man who had caught Milly turns right round, taking a step forward. His eyes narrowed scanning over the area quickly before spotting what seemed like a foot.

“Not well enough it seems.” The man says as he starts to walk away from the other two guards and Milly. The other two guards brought their attention back to Milly and kept close eyes on the dark-haired woman.

“So, where were those men, love?”

Milly steadily turned back to the two guards quickly glancing them over before her eyes drifted to behind them and to the two soul figures trying to stay undiscovered. She let out a breath of air and looked back up into the blue hues of the sky before her head fell back down to look at the man with a slight grin catching the man by surprise.

“In my head.” Her voice seemed to drop an octave at the words.

Their bodies fell limply straight after, hitting the rough surface of the concrete as new faces replaced their own.

Tommy and Felix stood behind the fallen bodies holding inadequate objects in their hands as they panted somewhat, looking at her all the while. Felix dropped the wood box his hands and went over to her pulling her into a hug as he went.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you there. I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Felix apologised over and over to her as 

she gently rubbed the back of his neck telling him it was fine.

As the two separated Tommy came over and gave Milly a quick glance over before asking:

“You alright?” he asked awkwardly

“Fine.” She said simply.

“Good. Let’s go then.” Tommy urged as they stood only centimetres from the entrance of the subway.

Quickly they walk down the filthy stairs of the subway just as a bullet hits one of the many tiles �" shattering it �" on the walls. Hurriedly Tommy looked back over his shoulder as he saw the one lone standing guard standing at the top of the stairs glaring down at them.

“Move! Move!” Tommy yelled to the two, hurrying them down the stairs.

Just as they reach the bottom of the stairs another bullet hits the grounds near Felix’s feet. Tommy dodges right and Felix grabs Milly’s forearm and runs left hiding behind the tile wall, looking at Tommy who had slid to the floor holding his head in his hands trying to protect himself.

When the shooting stops is when Tommy lifts his head from his hands and looks up at Felix and Milly who stood standings against the tile wall.

“You got away this time! But next time you won’t be so lucky!” He yelled down at them.

Minutes passed before any of them moved. Tile fragments laid all over the concrete floors in small and large pieces. Tommy stood slowly and stepped away from the wall and as did Felix and Milly - she mostly limped.

“I think they like us.” Tommy says sarcastically holding his hand over his eyes blocking the sun as he looked up at the entrance. Milly scuffed:

“Totally.”

Taking in their surroundings, they see the open area of darkness that they had entered and the abundance of empty space. Quietly they walked and limped on into the darkness of the abyss before they heard the silent click of a gun behind them.

Looking ahead they couldn’t see anything, but the more they looked the clearer they could see the dark shades of red of hair and the silver shine off the handgun pointed directly at them.

“Welcome. Now, get out.”

Author's Note

Over course, when i finally upload the first chapter of the other book I finish this one :c I just quickly want to say I'm sorry about the like five or six month wait for this chapter I had major writers block for most that time. So here is the long awaited chapter 10!~

Reviews

[aj milton]

As I only joined Writers Cafe a few months ago I missed the start of this piece. But I have now just read the whole story so far, and enjoyed it. It's a nice a addition to dystopian type stories. Keep writing!

One piece of technical critique: your story sometimes bounces between Present "Milly says" and Past "Milly said" tenses. If you do it should be consistent for a particular reason i.e. to add emphasis. Otherwise really it's better to stick entirely to one tense throughout.

[PenguinEmpiress]

Thank you so much for the criticism!! No ones really ever tells me the simple problems of my writing so thank you so much for pointing it out to me! It's much appreciated! And I'm glad to hear you've enjoyed the story so far!