Finally... Another Post

People, people, people...

When you read my blog, you're supposed to leave comments. Yeah. You see that little button at the bottom of my post? With a pencil next to it?

Yeah. That's the button.

For the love of all that is good and (not) holy.... PRESS IT!

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No matter what my opinion on the government is, there is one thing about any government that I can’t deny, and that is their remarkable ability to tie up loose ends.

And it was that remarkable ability that saw the three of us sprinting through the forests, desperately running away from lights, guns and helicopters.

I could hear Sam and Aurora’s strained panting beside me, the rasping sound of each other’s breathing being the only thing keeping any of us conscious. We ran for our freedom, our rights, our lives, ran as fast as we could, ignoring the painful and near-impassable terrain racing by underfoot.

The gashes on our legs and feet, tokens of the razor-sharp stones littering the ground didn’t matter to us.
We couldn’t have cared less about the splinters imbedded in our arms, leftovers from the debris-filled explosions of the forest’s trees.

The rain pelting us every second might as well have been a misting for all the attention we paid to it, despite our shivering and drenched bodies.

None of it mattered. At the moment, only one idea, one single ephemeral thought was important.

Escape.

A minute burst of light off in the distance.

A figure tackling me to the ground.

A bullet erupting through the stone that I had just been in front of the moment before.

And I realized that had it not been for Sam and her reflexes, my head would be nothing more than a spatter of red and grey gore on the landscape.

Phantom bullets. They were a new invention that had entered the scene not five years ago, revolutionizing the field of warfare. Nobody understood how they worked, not even the manufacturers. Only their creator—The Musician—understood the mechanics behind what made the projectiles act the way they did.

But as for what properties they had… that was plainly evident.

Phantom bullets phased through inorganic matter and dead matter, and only caused any physical damage to living creatures. One minute you’re sitting in a steel-walled room, sipping tea, safe and secure. The next? You’re dead in a pool of your own blood, a quarter-sized hole punched through your heart.

If those were being sent at us, the game had been taken to a whole new level. Despite that, we kept running.
We had no other choice.

The dense woodland that had sheltered us from aerial assault was thinning fast. I looked over to Sam and Aurora on my right, only to see the latter with a hand over her left eye and mumbling to herself.

She was the only reason we hadn’t been captured or killed yet.

We erupted from the woods and were greeted by the sight of a suspension bridge spanning a hundred yard long canyon that would be the death of any who fell in. We had only just begun crossing when I heard a bullet skim past my left ear and graze Sam’s shoulder.

They’d caught us.

I turned around to face our pursuers, my arms spread wide in a feeble attempt to protect the girls. An entire firing squad erupted from the trees, guns trained on me and laser sights tracing my thin frame. In vain, I focused on my right eye, only to be dismayed when nothing happened. The drugs may have worn off on Sam and Aurora, but they had probably given me a double dose.

“Kai Boudreau,” a voice boomed from the sky. The droning sound of helicopter blades heralded the metal behemoth’s descent from the sky. The glare of spotlights blinded me, forcing me to shield my eyes with my arm. “Surrender yourself and your companions now and no harm shall come to you.”

I glared defiantly into the light; I hadn’t lost the will to resist yet.

“No.”

“So be it. On my mark!”

A final laser sight appeared on my chest. But they wouldn’t see me cower. I would never give them the satisfaction.

“Fire!”

I shifted slightly to the left.

A bright flare erupted from the side of the helicopter.

And the bullet ripped through my torso, a spray of blood following its trail from my body.

I coughed once, my lifeblood oozing from my throat. And as I felt a tugging on my arms, the world went dark once more.