Work Text:
Chapter 44- On With The Journey
Part 1- A New Low Point
Liz eyes slowly began to pull open as she woke up. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she turned her head to see Alex laying next to her taking up the majority of the bed. She sat up, swinging her legs out of the bed and stood up. She stretched out her arms over her head before making her way towards the door making sure not to wake up Bip who slept soundly on the small dog bed in the corner of the room. Liz slowly opened the door and walked out into the lounge room. Sitting on the couch in the center of the room was Tom looking down at the ground in complete silence.
“Morning,” Liz said half-heartedly
Tom looked up to her, his eyes sunken back with heavy black bags underneath them.
“Morning…” Tom said in a croaky, tired groan. “You’re welcome to any of the food you can find in the fridge. The generators still running so none of it should have spoiled.
Liz turned to look at the fridge in the kitchen. She walked over to it and opened up the door. After scanning the inside of the fridge for a few seconds before pulling out a black tray with a few strips of bacon on it. She walked over to the stovetop, grabbed a pan and began to cook the bacon. The room was overcome by a complete silence only broken by the sound of the bacon crackling in the pan. After a few minutes passed the door to the bedroom pulled open revealing Alex and Bip behind. Alex walked over to the kitchen bench and lent on it.
“Something smells good,” Alex Yawned.
“Yeah well you can get your own breakfast,” Liz hissed back.
Tom stood up out of his seat and walked across to join the rest of the group. There was an uncomfortable silence. Tom placed his hand down on the benchtop holding in it a small sheet of lined paper.
“I found this this morning when I woke up,” said Tom as he removed his hand from the counter leaving the sheet behind.
Liz Alex and Bip all looked down at the piece of paper. It was a simple note with only two words scrawled messily on it. It read Good Luck.
“Edgar and Calem are gone, I guess they must have left it behind.”
Liz and Alex looked up from the paper to Tom in confusion.
“What do you mean they're gone? Where did they go?” Asked Liz.
“Don’t know, guess they're making there way back to the checkpoint or the survivor camp. I’m sure they'll be fine… it's not like there’s anything we can do to stop them now anyway. What we should be thinking about now is what we should do next."
Liz turned off the stove and moved the strips of bacon from the pan to her waiting plate. She turned around and moved over to the benchtop and began to eat.
“What we should do next? I thought you didn’t care about the mission and just wanted to find your family?” Asked Alex.
Tom looked down to the ground, feeling the full shame of his deception. He looked back up to face Alex.
“I’m still a soldier and I’ve still got a mission to complete. Plus if there’s any chance that my family is still alive then the best chance for me to keep them that way is to take down the bastards responsible for all of this.”
Liz finished with her meal and took the plate over to the sink.
“Well as long as you don’t lead us on another wild goose chase then I don’t care. So what’s the plan from here then?” Asked Liz.
“I checked when I got up and there’s still too many of those things out on the street to safely make a move. Luckily the roofs are pretty close together for the next couple of blocks so if we’re careful we should be able to make our way to the Ora building safely.”
“Sounds like a plan to me. We should get a move on if we wanna get there before dark,” Liz said as she made her way towards the door.
Tom followed on after Liz towards the door.
“Hang on a second let me just grab something to eat,” Alex chimed in.
Liz quickly ducked back into the kitchen and grabbed Alex by his cloths, dragging him behind her as she began to walk towards the door again.
“No time,” Liz said.
“Hey what… no fair,” Alex moaned as he was dragged out of the room.
Part 2- Code Three Eleven
Tom placed a long metal ladder on the edge of the building before carefully letting the other end drop down to the other roof, bridging the gap between the two. He placed his boot on the ladder and stomped down on it heavily and shook it around. He turned around to look at the rest of the group.
“Seems pretty stable, as long as we’re careful and don’t do anything stupid we should be able to get there without any trouble.”
“Well, what are we waiting for then,” replied Alex as he went to walk across the makeshift bridge.
“Hang on a second,” Tom chimed in drawing the rest of the group's attention towards him.
“What’s up?” Bip asked.
“It’s about that code General Barker kept saying.”
Liz Alex and Bip’s ears all widened as they listened to the captain's words. Tom let out a long sigh.
“The truth Is… Code Three Eleven isn’t broken. Before we moved into the city all the military higher-ups met for an emergency meeting. Their goal was to figure out a plan b in case we failed at our mission, their solution was code-named Three Eleven. No one outside of the meeting was meant to know their decision but the General thought that I should know what was at stake.”
“So then what is it?” said Liz.
Tom relented for a moment before continuing with his explanation. He looked Liz dead in the eyes, a serious ora overcoming him.
“They’re gonna burn the city to the ground.”
Alex and Liz's eyes widened in shock as they heard Toms's words.
“w… what do you mean to burn it to the ground.”
“They scrounged up a small army of powerful fire mages. The plan was that if they lost contact with us then three days after they would send them in to clear out the city with cleansing fire, nothings gonna be left once they're done with it. Since they failed to make contact with us on the first night here that will give us until tomorrow night to get out of here before they activate the plan.”
“And what happens if we’re still in the city when that happens?” Bip asked.
“Nowhere in the city will be safe, we’ll be burnt into a pile of ash in an instant.”
The group was plunged into an uneasy silence as they thought on Toms's words. Tom looked down and let out a quick sigh. He looked back up to the rest of the group.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. If you wanted to head back now I wouldn’t blame you, you probably have time to get out of the city limits before it happens.”
Liz, Alex, and Bip turned to look at each other, all already certain of what they had to do. Alex turned to look at Tom, his eyes burning with determination.
“We have our own reasons for coming here, we’re not gonna turn back now just because things got a little more dangerous,” Alex affirmed.
Tom smiled as he listened to Alex's words.
“Glad to hear it,” Tom said as he waved his hand gesturing for Alex to continue across the makeshift bridge. “Come on getting moving, if we’re quick we might get out of here alive.”
Part 3- Outside The Ora Headquarters
Liz, Alex, Tom, and Bip lined up on the edge of the tall building. In front of them was a wide-opened courtyard with the Ora headquarters standing in the middle of the yard towering high above them.
“Looks like we made it,” said Tom
“I’m surprised the rooftops took us as far as they did,”
Alex's gaze dropped down from the building to the courtyard below. His jaw dropped and eyes widened as he stared bellow.
“Ummm… ahh guys,” Alex stuttered as he raised his finger to point to the courtyard.
The rest of the group followed Alex's finger to where he pointed only to be greeted by a horde of creatures larger then they had ever seen before flooding the courtyard, shuffling about aimlessly. Liz looked down in horror as it seemed their only entrance into the building had been blocked.
“Looks like they’re keeping a couple of them around so people stay away,” said Tom nonchalantly.
“That’s an understatement, how the hell are we gonna get through all of that?” Liz exclaimed.
“Oh… well, that’s the easy part,” Tom replied.
Tom reached down to his belt and grabbed a small metal cylinder that was connected to a rope. He placed the cylinder on the edge of the building and aimed it towards the other building. He pressed a button on the side of the cylinder and with a loud bang it launched out a hook at breakneck speed followed by the length of rope. The hook reached the other building and dug into the concrete wall. Tom reached out and grabbed the rope, giving it a few strong tugs to make sure it was sturdy.
“Looks like we’re good… let's get a move on,” Tom said.
“No way you can't be serious!” Panicked Liz.
“Huh… why not?”
“What if we fall, we’ll be goners for sure,”
“You worry too much, this is the easy part. Trust me nothing can go wro…”
Tom’s words were suddenly cut off by a loud bang coming from one of the nearby buildings. A small bullet came shooting by toms face, slamming into the wall behind them. The group quickly ducked down behind the lip of the building to get out of sight.
“What the hell was that,” Alex exclaimed.
Tom popped up quickly from behind cover to look around. He noticed a series of small glints of light coming from various rooftops in the surrounding area. From one of the glints of light came another shot passing over Toms's head. He quickly ducked back down behind the cover.
“Looks like our friend with the snipers back, and he’s brought some company.”
“What are we gonna do, there’s no way we can get to the other side with all them out there.”
“Well…,” Tom said, trailing off into thought.
The group sat in silence broken only by the occasional sound of gunfire as Tom continued to figure out their next move.
Part 4- Outside City Limits.
General Barker stood atop the large wall looking out over the quite and empty city. He tapped his foot quickly aginst the ground and bit his bottom lip as he looked intently for any sign of life outside.
“Sir, the Magic-user you hired has arrived,” Came the voice of a soldier approaching from behind.
The General closed his eyes as he let out a quick, disappointed sigh.
“Looks like times up Tom,” The general muttered under his breath.
He turned around to face the soldier and the unfamiliar magic-user who had approached with him.
“Very good… dismissed,” The general said, returning to his professional demeanor.
The soldier soluted before turning around and walking back the way he came. The General walked closer to the stranger holding out his hand to greet him.
“It's good you arrived when you did, from what I heard you're near unmatched in your field, though I didn’t quite catch your name Mr…”
“Es General… The names Es,” said Es, smiling a wicked smile as he raised his hand to meet the generals.
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TO BE CONTINUED
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Thanks you for reading Chapter 42 of Mage. If you like what you see please consider dropping a Kudos and maybe checking out the rest of my work. Also for any updates or if you just wanna see my cosplay adventure please consider follwing my tumblr here https://www.tumblr.com/blog/50funny and until next time have a good one.