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Episode
005 |
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“If you run, you’ll only die
tired.” Sniper Motto The darkness descended through the
window. Wavering like a smoky breeze, it dropped to the
floor. Sarah backed away defensively as
Til moved towards it. He held out his
submachine gun, releasing a sudden barrage of bullets. The muzzle flash sent shadows scattering
across the empty apartment building, as well as the shade. It rushed to the corner and swept
back around, charging at Emma. She
threw up her hands, a light appearing over her body. The shade reached for her but was zapped
back as if electrified. It was sent
into the far wall, scrambling up the side to disappear through a crack in the
structure. Sarah and Eliot both rushed to the
site of its disappearance. “Isaiah,”
Sarah barked over towards him. “Get to
the helicopter and take it to ground level.
We can’t let this thing escape.”
She pointed to Til. “You, downstairs with Eliot. Fan out around the base of the building and
make sure it doesn’t get away.” She turned from them and darted
passed Emma, grabbing her by the shoulder and pulled her along. “Where are you going?” Til shouted after
them. “To give it a moving target,”
Sarah said, hitting the button on the elevator with the butt of the gun. The doors slid open only halfway and Sarah
pushed Emma inside. The doors shut and
Sarah hit the button for the top floor. “What are we doing?” Emma asked,
shaken. “Magical entities, when summoned,
go after the summoner,” Sarah concluded.
She looked to Emma. “I’m using
you as bait.” Emma swallowed and nodded. She reached into her jacket and pulled out
a pistol. As she did, Sarah glanced at
the slowly counting floor markers, predicting the eternity to the top. She dropped to the ground, throwing open
her trench coat to expose the various pieces of armaments on her combat
harness. She began to take off the
pieces, laying them out in a hurried pattern.
Working with a controlled, but rapid pace, she began to snap them
together on her pistol. Emma looked up
at the numbers, watching as they neared the top. “Sarah,” she said in a worried tone. “Almost ready,” she insisted,
still working. The tone for the floor chimed. Sarah kept snapping pieces
together. The doors began to open. Sarah stood, her pistol modified into
a small rifle. Leveling it at her hip,
she fired instantly. Across the
building, a gaping hole in the far wall was blown open, exposing the
night. But as the debris fell, Sarah
watched the shadow in the air move to the side. She stepped out of the elevator, only to
catch out of the corner of her eye the shade slithering into the crack
between the floor and the elevator.
“Move!” she yelled, grabbing Emma and yanking her. As she did, the elevator suddenly began to
fall. Sarah threw Emma to the ground as
the elevator went crashing down the shaft.
She backed away from the opening, her gun leveled. She reached up to her earpiece, hitting the
tiny device to activate the tiny, but potent spotlight that flooded the space
before her. She hit a second
button. “Command, this is Sarah.” “Go ahead, Sarah,” came Jin’s
voice. “I read you.” “Emma and I are isolated by the
shade on the 11th floor of the building,” she said, still backing
away, Emma with her. “Keep your backs together,” came
Jason’s voice. “It’ll avoid attacking
you straight on, especially with oxygen rounds.” Emma turned and put her back
against Sarah’s, holding her pistol up by her face. She glanced about as Sarah kept a powerful,
vigilant watch. In the middle of the empty
floor, surrounded by the ruins that had once been a corporate building, they
stayed still, watching every tiny form and shadow as the night sky played
tricks on them. After a long moment, Emma glanced
over her shoulder at Sarah. “I think I
should try some magic,” she offered.
“Maybe I can contain it.” “I’m not interested in containing
it,” Sarah insisted. “We’re here to
kill it.” “But I could…” Emma began. But as she did, Sarah whirled around and
shoved the smaller woman behind her.
At the same time, she fired a shot that tore through the wall just
like the previous one. But this time,
the shot was accompanied by a loud shriek of incorporeal agony. The shade fluttered in the air for
a brief second, its form becoming more detectable as it writhed in pain. Sarah took aim with her rifle, firing
another shot right through its body.
Again, a harsh roar echoed from it as it turned from her. It went
sprinting away, frantically scurrying to get away from her. “Come on!” she yelled, rushing ahead of
Emma towards the shade. The dark thing raced for the edge
of the building, its almost-human form mimicking the action of running. It reached the edge, ready to cast itself
out into the hot wind from the city and into the world beyond. A sudden gale wind came swooping
down over the shade, blocking its escape.
Sarah and Emma skidded to a halt as a military helicopter lowered
down, its side door open to reveal Isaiah with a large rifle in his
hands. Before the shade could move, he
aimed and squeezed the trigger once. There was a quiet zip through the
turbulent air and the shade suddenly went still. Its body slowly converted into a solid
form, a perfect hole all the way through where its chest would have
been. The black body teetered for a
second and fell backwards from the wind, collapsing to the ground, shattering
into a million pieces of black clay. |
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