No second chances: The beginning of the end

Chapter 13: The Escape.

In the current world, there are many kingdoms that form a continent. The world has 4 continents left on which these kingdoms try to rule over the rest in a constant competition of power and diplomacy. Borders are constantly patrolled and even guild missions are meant to capture illegal trespassers before they step on the next side of the border.

“So Gree, what are we going to do in case we run up to heroes? Will your weapons be able to hold them back or do we avoid any contact?” –Phill asked as he kept on driving off the road to avoid being easily tracked.

“Isn’t there any friends you guys have in the guild so we can safely cross the border? This whole situation is making me rather nervous, I still don’t even know why we are being chased down by the government“–Nat complained as she popped her head between the two front seats while frowning.

“We will explain everything once we can assure your safety, Nat. Right now we can’t really focus on anything else than dealing with the border guards and the very possible mercenaries and/or heroes sent by the guild” –Gree explained while researching through some military documents since she could have access to them thanks to the virus previously left in the convoy. The main problem is that we have to face them or else we won’t be able to pass through the border, we don’t have many options but to fight our way through it –She thought while reading the personnel files of those who attended the convoy ambush.

“Do we have a map of the general direction on which we are going? There might be a way to cross without being noticed, right? –Phill asked noticing Gree was stressing herself with more information than she needed.

Nat began to rummage within the bags they had and took out a relatively large map of the zone they were heading to. On the west of Delcyt, a formation of rugged mountains serves as the border between Falladis and Delcyt.

The mountains are a neutral zone that is often explored by Heroes to capture Wyverns and explore the natural caves. Requested missions from the guild often send heroes to confront dangerous fugitives in this area. “There will be guards everywhere on the foot of the mountains, what should we do with them to get through?” –Nat asked.

Gree’s eyes lit up when she remembered about a device she salvaged before leaving the first town before meeting Chronos. Suddenly, she went to the backseats in a jump as Nat moved aside to give her room to move with a curious look. “Nat, remember the device that exerted this weird pressure on everyone? I took one of those speakers and tried to make it work. I still don’t know if it works though, but we lose nothing if we try it against the guards” –Gree said while rummaging within the devices she built and repaired, successfully taking out the speaker from which the deafening noise was produced from.

The car stopped a few miles away from the mountains’ camp where 2 Heroes and a whole tactical squad were expecting the group to show up. They were patrolling fully armed and very aware of any anomaly that could lead to the escapees.

“What if they don’t come here? We would be just guarding for nothing? Or are we still getting paid?” –One of the Heroes asked the other with visible annoyance as he held a modified sniper rifle.

“It’s not like we have any option other than doing what the government wants, these guys have a bounty on their heads after all” –The next hero mentioned while walking away from the campsite as a safety measure to not be heard by the soldiers.

“Michael, can you please describe to me the appearance of the fugitives again? I don’t remember what the soldiers said” –The first hero asked with a very pushy tone while catching up with the other one.

“I can’t believe you forgot already, john. There are four of them; a tall, rather tanned middle-aged man with white hair and a soldier stance called Phillips Moroc; a dark-skinned dwarf girl with black hair, who is known to be able to craft high-quality materials for weapons such as your rifle, her name is Natasha Martinez; a small blonde girl with a sassy attitude and presumed to be a half-elf due to the records in the government files, we need to be extra careful with her since she is a former weaponry developer of the military her name is Grace Myers. Any encounter with them has to end on either subjugating them or killing them” –Michael explained while turning around and checking on his notes.

“Wait, you mentioned four, why did you just describe three of them?” –John asked while making sure his rifle was loaded.

“It is because the government doesn’t want to give much detail about this one, it is rumoured between the soldiers that it is a guardian left by DD itself, managing to escape from government custody thanks to the other three fugitives, so I suspect he is one valuable target, we should kill all but that one” –Michael replied with a malicious smile as symbols slowly began to appear on his skin, moving towards his wrist and hand.

After some hours of driving, the group managed to reach a hill prior to the rugged mountains which had some houses and a service station; this small settlement had a sign with the name “Elvira”. The gas station wasn’t really a big deal, just an average spot for filling up a vehicle’s tank, seemingly ran by a family that has built their houses around it. “Gree, what are we going to do if the device doesn’t work on the heroes?” –Asked Phill rather worried while filling up the tank of the car.  

“We will have a small opportunity after we activate the device, even if they get back to their senses faster than the rest, we will use that to take them down. EZ” –Gree quickly explained while attaching the device to the car and fixing the electronics into the dashboard.

“Are you guys going to kill them...?” –Nat asked with residual sadness, remembering the friend she lost in the first town and the m******e left by the peacemaker. Can’t we just escape as soon as they are incapacitated?” –She added with a weak tone.

With a sigh, Phill got closer to Nat and crouched in front of her. Natasha if we want to survive and make it over to the next kingdom in one piece, we need to strike them down while we can, any open window for them to capture us or even kill us will definitely crush our only opportunity” –He explained with a very serious tone as he placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Just remember, the badies want us caged or dead, so it’s fine to take away their human rights too” –Gree yelled with a thumbs up from the front of the car.

Phill glared at Gree as she quickly hid; Nat gritted her fists and looked down in defeat while she let out a small sigh. “Are you guys sure there is no other way? What would make us better than them if we kill them?” –Nat tried to reason with pleading eyes as the last struggle.

“We are not better than them Nat…” –Gree whispered while finishing off the modifications on the car.

“We just need to pray then, because if we fail, we could all die, Nat” –Phill replied to Nat while standing up and going to pay for the fuel.

As Phill walked up towards the closest building in the zone, he felt many eyes were looking at him but couldn’t turn around for some reason. Pressure built upon his back as he felt how something was getting close to him, making him sweat cold; he couldn’t knock the gate in front of him as his hand was fixated in place. This presence was that of an apex predator about to absolutely s*******r a prey that lost its will to escape. Suddenly, a hand tapped him on his shoulder. “You guys shouldn’t be here, it is far too reckless to cross a border, and I bet you are not even sure what is currently going on in Falladis” –Said a rather tall, black-haired girl with the looks of a farmer but with animal features such as her ears over her head and fur covering the side of her face and arms. Her eyes gazed upon Phill with an eerie shine as her general attitude was calm and reserved.

“I believe you ar-“–Phill tried to speak while turning as he was suddenly interrupted.

“There is also a camp of soldiers waiting in the border expecting a group of people. I’m quite sure you are the people they are looking for; you have a lot of guts to come here and face them, they even hired heroes.” –The tall lady continued.

Phill only raised his hands as a sign of no resistance while Gree walked up to the two of them. “Phill, come on; stop flirting with unknown girls, last time you did I found you wasted on a random trashcan” –Gree crossed her arms while looking at the two of them.

“You seem to be the one who leads them there. Do you understand the danger you guys are going to face if you don’t turn around and leave?” -The unknown lady repeated as she faced Gree.

“There is no point in hiding here forever, they won’t stop looking for us, and we can’t overpower them. We will escape from this kingdom, Elvira” –Gree spoke with certainty and determination.

Elvira sighed and turned around. “Don’t complain when you get killed or treated like a lab rat again, Grace. If my family gets in trouble because of you I will search for you myself and punch the crap out of that sassy face of yours. Just pay for the fuel, I don’t know you and I never saw you” –She said while cashing out the money from Phill and going back to her house.

Gree simply smirked and nodded while getting back to the car along with Phill in silence, while they were mentally preparing themselves to fight one more time to escape the kingdom that has placed a bounty on their heads.

Nat simply prepared the gear she thought would be necessary in case they would need to fight the heroes, while Gree sat on the co-pilot seat to begin fidgeting with her laptop and the car dashboard to test the power source and connections. Any mistake will hinder us to the point of failing the escape –Gree thought with stress building up on her back. As Phill sat on the driver’s seat he noticed Gree getting nervous and patted her head while giving her a thumb up. “You suck at cheering up people my dude, but thanks” –Gree scoffed as she sighed while closing her laptop and putting it in the back seat.

The soldiers were on guarding spots all around the foot of the mountains as the heroes kept guard on top of a communication tower, trying to catch a glimpse of what is on the horizon and the mountains. A few hours after the group finally got ready, they decided to move forth and escape, and well aware they would have to fight in one way or another.

Once the sun was setting, the car was reaching the camp and an alarm was set off, making all soldiers notice the fugitives were on sight. “They are finally here, those dumbasses, I believe they just want to simply give up” –John pointed out while reading his sniper rifle and aiming it from the top of the tower.

“It’s now or never Gree, you better activate that device!” –Phill exclaimed while accelerating the car.

“I need to confirm one more man in this place before we actually turn the device on, or else we won’t make it” –Gree countered while looking around.

After a few seconds, the soldier began to shoot towards the car and Phill did his best to not get hit by many bullets. Michael jumped from the tower and the symbols that were once forming on his wrist, now propagated all over his body, granting him abnormal strength and seemingly no backlash from falling from such height. “There he is, the guy we have to be careful with, it’s time to start it, guys cover your ears as tight as you can” –Gree said while handing a couple of noise-canceling headphones to both Nat and Phill to therefore activate the device and let a screeching noise that lasted for a second, the soldiers were a bit confused but continued to shoot as Michael laugh and began to charge at the car. “Well, f**k” –Gree spat while lowering the window and grabbing a wrench to quickly smack consecutively the device on top of the car until it began to emit the screeching noise once again. Quickly she went back into the car and raised the window back up as the majority of soldiers in the zone got disturbed and couldn’t hold their weapons anymore. Even Michael and John couldn’t move as the device was active and simply trembled as they tried to cover their ears. Phill took this opportunity to run over Michael and Gree middle fingered towards him as he got knocked to the side. Nat was looking through her window in silence, recalling the time her town was destroyed for no apparent reason and sighed. The team successfully managed to get through the customs gates and enter the mountain range in no time, their new destination was the closest town in Falladis to the border with Delcyt, a small village that mostly focused on mining called Casamira.