Chapter Text
“We need to go Tracy,” Kathy said in a worried tone, glancing around, “C’mon.”
Tracy was knelt down on the floor next to Elias’s cold limp body, not in a hurry to move even as they were in a building full of metal monsters.
Kathy glanced around, afraid something might emerge from the shadows.
Matt stood next to her, carefully balancing on his good leg, a small, slightly bloody piece of fabric was tied around the wound on his left leg. He stood there patiently waiting.
“Tracy please, we need to go now.” Her tone was a little louder as she placed a firm hand on her shoulder. She waited to see if Tracy would move.
Finally fed up, she grabbed Tracy’s hand and pulled her up and began dragging her to the door.
Tracy’s eyes narrowed, a slight glare in her eyes, “Let go of me.” She attempted to shake Kathy’s hand off.
“We’re leaving.” Kathy replied, ignoring Tracy and tightened her grip.
“Guys come on, let's just calm down, deep breaths here,” Matt spoke up, taking a deep breath as an example. “Maybe we go somewhere safer and then settle this?”
“We can’t just leave him here!” Tracy exclaimed, ignoring Matt.
She jerked her arm, breaking free from Kathy’s grasp. She stumbled backwards, the momentum causing her to fall as she reached out, grabbing the air for something to hold on to, instead hitting a wall.
Click.
And a button?
“Oh, god,” Matt sighed. “What have we done?”
A loud fire alarm began to blare, only making Kathy’s throbbing headache worse.
“PLEASE EVACUATE THE BUILDING IMMEDIATELY,” A loud robotic voice screamed.
“CODE RED. EVACUATE NOW, REPEAT EVACUATE NOW. EXPLOSION TIMER STARTING NOW,” It continued.
Explosion timer?!
A soft ticking sound began.
“TEN MINUTES,” the robotic voice stated.
“Ten minutes?” Tracy whispered, looking down at her shaking hands.
“What are you guys doing? C’mon we have to go.” Matt said, his calm now replaced with concern as he waved his hand, signaling to come over to the exit in which he stood next to.
How did he get there so quickly?
“That’s what I’ve been saying,” Kathy mumbled, moving towards Matt.
Tracy straightened herself, “Bu-but what about Elias?”
She looked back at the bleeding body on the ground.
“He’s dead,” Kathy said in a cold tone, already walking away.
Tracy slumped, making herself smaller and fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.
She then made her way to the exit, stopping to look back at Elias before entering the doorway and continuing down the hallway.
“Let’s hurry.” Kathy picked up her pace, speed walking down the hall, she could feel her pendant losing its glow as she moved away from the core.
“Ahem.” Matt cleared his throat, “Kind of limping here?”
“Oh yeah, sorry Matt but we hav-” Kathy was cut off.
“EIGHT MINUTES.” They all flinched at how loud it was.
Suddenly Kathy made a sharp turn, facing the wall.
“Umm, what are you doing? You know that’s just a wall, right?” Tracy asked.
Kathy ignored her instead pushing on the wall as it gave way.
“It’s a door, I could see the light seeping through the bottom,” She explained.
“FIVE MINUTES.” It echoed through the walls.
They began climbing steps until they reached another door.
“Man, that took forever." Matt panted.
Kathy opened the door, revealing natural light and the outdoors.
Tracy took a deep breath of fresh air.
“Let's go!” Kathy said as she ran, Tracy followed and looked back at Matt who trailed behind.
“ONE MINUTE.”
They sprinted trying to reach as far as possible, away from the building, from the core, from the metal creatures.
Seconds began counting down.
“TEN, NINE, EIGHT.” The voice counted down as they ran, tripping and stumbling just to get as far as possible.
“SIX, FIVE.” It continued.
Each of them fell to the ground, either having tripped or just out of exhaustion.
“THREE, TWO.”
They had stopped here as they thought they were far enough away.
They better be.
“ONE.”
They ducked their heads, bracing themselves.
BOOM.
The building exploded, walls collapsing inwards, crumbling pieces of concrete as dust filled the air.
Tracy coughed, the cloudy air filling her lungs.
Kathy slowly lifted her head, seeing the debris in the air, she could feel the weight of the cold pendant on her chest.
Matt was laying on his back, breathing heavily as he cradled his left leg.
“Hey we’re alive!” Matt joked.
“Yeah, we’re alive.” Tracy echoed, looking back to the smoky building.
It was peacefully quiet even after all the recent events.
That was until, “Guys look!” Kathy pointed to the sun.
Gorgeous, vibrant colours painted the sky, an ombre of pink and purple.
“It’s so pretty.” Tracy happily sighed, smiling.
The three stared at the beautiful sunset as the dust settled around them. The collapsed building behind them and a bright sunset before them.
They each took a deep breath, letting the calming silence take over.