Chapter 13: Concrete Jungle
1190 Words
"Catch!" Virgil threw a bottle to her.
"Here you go," said Virgil as he threw another bottle to Diana. He took out the third bottle, uncapped it, and drank a bit.
"This time, we should drink slowly."
"What now?" asked Diana as she scanned her eyes across the walls and looked outside. "When it gets dark, what should we do?"
Virgil pointed at her with a tilt of his head and dug in his backpack.
"What are you looking for?" Alecia gazed at his hands rummaging inside his backpack. He took out a small black column and pointed at her; with a click came a bright source of light beaming on Alecia's face.
"Please don't shine that on me," said Alecia, shielding her eyes.
"It's bright, hey!" Virgil smiled and shone it at Diana who scolded at him to stop.
He chuckled and turned it off.
"Charged by the sunlight." He looked at it in his hand, grinning. "From what little sunlight there is, anyway."
Diana frowned. "That's your plan?"
"Do you have a better one?" Virgil looked at her as if his eyes sparked a challenge. "You must enjoy your rest while you can."
He turned to Alecia. "We shouldn't waste valuable daytime, we're gonna start walking again soon."
"I think we should do it now," Alecia said as she placed the blade in her boot.
"I don't think we should waste time either." She stood and wiped off any ash dirt on her jacket.
"Okay." Virgil stood as well, holding the bag by its strap. "You're sure you don't want to rest more?"
"What I know is if we rest long enough," Alecia said while tightening the jacket around her waist, "they might surprise us, and before we know it, we're surrounded."
Alecia walked towards the other entrance. Virgil swung the backpack over his shoulder.
"Okay. You first." He gestured towards the exit. Diana chuckled as she walked past him.
Alecia stared at the building across her. With haste, the day became night, and the buildings were covered in a blaze of fire and smoke, the air heated up with flakes of ash falling all around her.
"No." She shut her eyes. "It's not real."
A hand touched her shoulder. She opened her eyes to see everything around her was back to normal.
Virgil stepped in front of her. "What are you doing? What's wrong?"
He gazed at her, puzzled.
"No, I was just. . ." She shook her head. "Nothing, never mind."
She gave him a slight smile, hoping that it brushed off his curiosity.
"Which way are we going?"
"Down this street." He pointed at the long road that led far into the distance of crowded buildings.
"Let's continue," said he, traipsing down the pavement with Diana following from behind.
Alecia watched for a brief moment and followed.
-
They trudged onto a street populated by scorched cars with tires that had long been melted. Alecia looked ahead and spotted a small black four-legged creature surreptitiously running across the street. It took one look at them through its piercing green eyes and ran out of sight.
"What was that?" asked Alecia.
"Just a cat, Alecia." Virgil chuckled, amused.
"Did you forget what a cat looked like, too?" Diana retorted.
"No, I just didn't see it properly," said Alecia irritably.
"This place is a mess." Virgil kicked over a nearby wooden box, creating a cloud of dust as it hit the ground.
"Wait," Diana said while putting her hand out in front of them both. She hissed quietly as she placed her finger on her lips.
"Look over there," she whispered.
In the distance stood three figures, picking up scraps and dropping several unusable objects.
"There's an alleyway on our right." Virgil murmured, pointing at it.
"Let's try and walk there without drawing attention to ourselves."
Alecia, Diana, and Virgil stealthily pattered towards the alley, eyes focused on the group ahead.
"Hey, look there!" one of them shouted out, pointing in their direction.
"Dammit." Virgil stood still.
"You two, go," he ordered, and Diana and Alecia dashed into the alley.
"Don't think about running!" a man said as they started moving fast towards him.
Virgil took out his weapon and shot the one who was pursuing. Alarmed, the other two sprinted towards him. He prepared another shot at the other one, and several others came out of the buildings.
"Great." Virgil ground his teeth as he made another shot at the sky, which made a crowd of them duck. He took this chance and ran to the alleyway, where Diana and Alecia were waiting.
"Run!" Virgil shouted, out in panic.
"What happened?" asked Alecia, taking a look behind.
"Just run!"
They rushed down a narrow passage and out into a broad pathway.
"This way!" Virgil turned to another road, but before they could run there, a crowd of people moved towards them from both sides of the road.
"No, not this," Alecia mumbled, fear in her eyes, "not now."
She stepped back as the crowd slowly towards them.
Alecia hit her back against something, a wired fence.
"We're trapped!"
Alecia said as she took one look at the fencing. She brought out her weapon and aimed it at them while flicking her eyes at each of them.
Diana turned to Virgil. "What should we do?"
Virgil glanced at Diana as he tried to keep his cool. A sound of an engine from behind the fence echoed within the vicinity. Guns were blasted as the crowd got shot. Alecia, Diana, and Virgil ducked down, shielded by a slab of cement. Several men and woman surrounded an armored vehicle behind the fence, while they picked off each person in the crowd. A loud song played from the armored vehicle as they continued shooting at them.
Alecia raised her head, and a girl in black stood on the other side of the alley where she was out of the line of fire. Alecia narrowed her gaze.
"Follow me!" said the girl, gesturing for her to follow.
They ran towards her while crouching as they barely dodged the bullets that hit the entrance of the alley. They followed into a dead end, nothing but a curved wall and drain pipes leading up on the walls.
"What are you doing, kid? This is a dead end!" Virgil shouted.
"Relax, you!" the girl said as she kneeled down and pulled off the drain cover. She looked up at Virgil with a raised eyebrow.
Virgil smirked.
"Are you kidding me?"
"Do I look like I am, genius?" she said with a wide-eyed look.
Diana wore a look of disgust. "Are we really going in there?"
The girl sighed irritably.
"Do you want to live, or do you want to be idiots and die just because you don't have the stomach?"
"Okay, smart mouth," Virgil said as he looked behind himself a moment, "we'll play."
He climbed down the drain.
"You go first," Diana said as she stepped behind Alecia. Alecia frowned as if she wasn't bothered.
"Fine, why not," she said calmly as she climbed in.
"You've got seconds." The girl looked up at Diana, who sighed as she trudged towards the drain and climbed down. The girl looked into the alley as the gunshots ceased. She climbed in the drain, her hand on the iron lid, dragging it towards the opening while ducking her head under and closing herself in.
- Writer
