EPISODE 6 - PART 1

- SAFETY MEASURES -

[WHITE]

He runs throughout the narrow alleys, puffing and sweating, the thing he wants the most is to take that damn heavy uniform off, but there’s no time.

“Anyone? Call the guards!” Vincent yells for the cold stone walls, glancing up at the closed windows, hoping for any movement or answer until his eyes meet someone else’s on the second floor, a woman with disgust on her face, closing the only open window, and so the only light there was vanishes.

Vincent trips on a displaced stone, but he recovers balance and continues running, looking down now, he has no weapons, no advantage, no help.

Screaming would only help to pinpoint his location.

The houses are like dull squares, they all are compressed together with at least a couple floors for efficiency’s sake and the majority has no windows on its first floor, so it has a second safety measure in case of a SAE attack, so it’s like running through a dark stone corridor with no ceiling.

And the closer you are from the great wall, more the streets and alleys are straight, long and desolated, when it’s simply not only a dead end. Each step echoes in this environment, allowing for any pursuer to track him easily.

He looks back, there’s nothing until a figure in black appears far away. Vincent immediately goes to an alley at his left, the sound of the wind becomes more muffled and the scenery darker, until his vision brightens again, being now on a parallel street.

Vincent stops, trying to catch his breath.

Who would have thought?

His blue hair reflects the yellowish bright of the light pole behind him, smiling just as when he had fallen to some of the Andriel’s pranks, a mix of fear, surprise, and shame for not realizing it sooner.

There’s nothing wrong with it…

He looks at the great wall far away, between the houses in front of him.

There was no invasion… not even one of those monsters came in…

He looks back with his awkward smile and shivering eyes with fear, the same figure is running at his direction, Patrick and his devilish grin.

So how come I’m so afraid of dying right now?

Vincent is shaking from the cold night, but sweating as if it was the hottest day of his life. The monsters growl and flap their wings in the background, as when he was a kid, a man with devil eyes and snoring like a bull wants to kill him.

There’s no time to be standing still. Patrick reaches his hand on his inner pockets, and so Vincent runs into another alley.

From darkness to light and darkness again, from parallel street to alley to parallel street, Vincent is going away from the great wall, where it’s safer.

‘There’s only one trick though…’ He looks back to Patrick, and so he follows the street just to go to the next alley.

‘To get out of the outermost ring district of the fortress, I need to pass through one of the gates in a second wall to go on to the next layer. But I don’t know where it is.’

(“Like anything in life, luck is an essential part to succeed.” Andriel starts his teaching voice once again. “But never, never rely on it if you are in a risky situation. It's okay for you to consider it, but what I always say? always…?”)

“Always expect the worst… I got it, dammit.” Vincent grabs the corner of a house to turn quicker. “I’m starting to think your teachings aren’t that useful, old man.”

‘What am I supposed to do? I need to think rationally about this, my legs are hurting like hell and my stamina is basically nonexistent anymore… C’mon, the second wall is about four minutes away now, I can keep going, but the gate… I didn’t see the main street until now, after running for so much I might say I must be at least at the middle of the civil area’s left side,- ’

Vincent kicks something and falls on the ground, why it has to have so many holes and displaced stones?

‘I need to keep going,’ He gets up, looking at his grazed arm and continuing to sprint. ‘If I’m in the middle of the way to one, I know there’s a gate in this direction and at the main street, there is the bigger gate. I just need to-’

He gets off to the streets, but a loud bang stops him, followed by a metallic spark in the wall near Vincent, forcing him to reenter the alley he came from, to the great wall.

‘Fucking hell, it's hard to think while I’m out of energy and being chased to death.’

“Stop running already, little boy!” Patrick yells. “My propose is still on, so let's just talk!”

‘I don’t know what makes me angrier, the fact that he thinks I’ll fall for such a trap, or because he can scream after running for so long.’

“Why… don’t you… give up already, huh?!” Vincent yells.

‘Fuck, I shouldn’t have said anything, now he knows I’m tired and right after I thought to myself that… I’m an idiot.’

Then another loud bang from Patrick’s pistol, hitting the side of Vincent’s right leg before entering another alley.

‘He’s forcing me to go back near the great wall. This damn fortress’ layout and its protective barriers against SAE, its alleys are always in the middle of the other side house’s block, so when he’s so close to me, I’m being forced to always go to my left.’

Someone opens a window on the second floor, a man looks down confused. “What’s this noise?”

“Hoy,” Patrick says in a deeper distinct voice, covering half of his face with his black hat and pointing the pistol at him. “Better close that window and keep quiet, right?”

The man nods in fear and closes it without any hesitation.

“Tired and bleeding…” Patrick mumbles, looking at the trail of blood. “Why don’t you just give up already?”

He begins to walk, trying to listen to Vincent’s steps, but there’s nothing. He’s not running anymore.

Patrick confidently follows the blood drops, his pistol leaning against his side, aiming forward as he partially hides it. But soon after, there’s a problem, there’s no more trail to follow.

He stops to look around. However, there’s nothing besides the stone bricks of the alley’s walls.

‘He stopped the bleeding as he was sprinting,’ Patrick thinks. ‘But I doubt he did it right, his wound is going to continue bleeding shortly, though he probably knew it…’

Patrick continues to walk.

‘Well, he isn’t running right now, so he’s not fleeing…’ the silence reassures that. ‘He probably isn’t planning to fight me, because he’s tired…’ his voice from before plus the blood makes it clear.

‘So the only thing left, is hiding.’ He opens a smile. ‘And the only place he could be hiding in here, is inside the houses.’

Patrick found himself in front of the nearest metallic door, looking to the sides, the second closest door is a few meters away, meaning it would be too risky to spend time going there, so this one is the winner, not the perfect place to hide, but it’s what he could manage with the little time he had.

Slowly, Patrick puts his ear to the door, carefully listening to what’s inside.

“What’s happening, kid?” And older voice asks quietly.

“I’m… being… followed,” Vincent says trying to catch his breath, seating on the floor. “Someone’s trying to kill me.”

“That’s horrible.” The man’s face changes completely, putting one hand to his short black hair and feeling a mix of pity and anger with his dark eyes. “But why’s that? He’s trying to rob you or something?”

“No, it might look crazy, but that guy’s a terrorist, so who knows why he’s doing that.”

The man goes a step back with surprise and fear on his face.

“What’s happening with this fortress…?” He looks to Vincent’s leg, which has a handkerchief with some blood oozing out. “L-let me take care of that; I’ll see if there’s something to make it stop bleeding.”

“Thanks, if you hadn’t opened the door, I would be dead by now,” Vincent whispers before the man goes up the stairs.

The man nods with a fake smile trying to hide his fear, leaving Vincent alone, after some deep inhales and long exhales, he gets up and starts glancing at everything else.

He’s in a kitchen, having a sink, an oven, a refrigerator and a lot of small cabinets. A table with four chairs is placed on the middle-left and a shelf with some boxes on the wall closest to the stairs. There are no windows on this floor, the metallic door is the only entrance and exit in sight.

Muffled steps can be heard from the man on the floor above as Vincent goes to one of the chairs, sitting on it as he double-checks the lock on the door with his eyes, besides its keylock, it’s also barricaded by a rustic metal drop bar, no one would be entering this house, not without a lot of noise, besides I doubt Patrick would be able to go through any window in the higher floors, so he’s safe here.

Suddenly, a thud comes from behind and Vincent turns in fright, seeing the man from before carrying an old box.

“There are some bandages in here,” He opens the box, grabbing one and giving it to Vincent. “Sorry, but I’m not good with blood, but if you need to-”

“It’s alright, I can do it by myself.” Vincent unwraps it and then bends his body to look at his wound. “Seriously man, thanks for saving me. Oh, I’m Vincent, what’s your name?”

Vincent keeps looking at his leg, taking the rags from before that were soaked with red, the dry gooey blood makes it a bad sight, but besides its looks, it isn’t that bad.

“Sorry kid.”

“What?”

But before he could look at his savior, something brutally bashes on his head. Vincent falls and the world fades away as if he had entered into the darkness of the ground.

As if he was drawing in a storm, his mind weakly came back to the surface before going down again. Warped images of the man’s shoes appear walking in his point of view, then the distorted sounds of the front door being open.

After it, only the noise of his heart and the wind of the dark streets from outside, until the man comes back in, but now using a different shoe, a heavy pair of black boots.

>

Patrick crouches, showing his devilish grin.

>

-Besides the void, there was only the distant flaps of wings going away, and with its last roar, the beast says goodbye, leaving him with the silence of his own empty conscience-