I doont think ive ever ventured in this part of the forum before :O.
Anyways ill probably go look around at other peoples contributions in here in the morning, but for now ill just deposit this one.
Enjoy, and feel free to be harsh, I'm still starting out
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"It's incredible" exclaimed Eumes as he bit down on the stolen citrus causing tangy strings of juice to drip down from his chin. He cast a glance over at the girl leaning up against the wall on the other side of the dark alley, she just smiled and took a bite of her own fruit.
The girl was tall for her age, she looked like she was about fourteen, with long unkempt hair hanging down to her shoulders. her eyes were big and full of life, contrasting the rag-tag collection of clothes she wore; it consisted of a simple summer dress underneath of a large coat and long scarf held together with ramshackle stitched on patches and trinkets; One could easily mistake the entire cloak for being made of scraps. She flicked her head up to get the hair out of her eyes. Her name was Annika, and she had been by his side for over a year now; and he still wasn't sure why she stayed with him.
He looked down at his own make-shift outfit, made up of a mix of found clothing layered on-top of each other in an attempt to keep out the haggard cold.
Thunder rumbled far off in the distance, echoing out over the bustle of the markets down the end of the alley. Annika called out in a cheery mood "It's going to rain soon, we should probably get going".
"Kay" Eumes replied standing up, dusting himself off and stretching clumsily. The pair walked to the end of the street together, shielding their eyes as they came out into the light "keep an eye out for that fruit guy will ya, i don't really feel like getting caught today" exclaimed Eumes.
"what and you feel like getting caught any other day?"
"I don't usually want to, but i try a little bit harder not to every day."
Annika grinned and they ran off into the mass of people, keeping close to each other as to not get lost, they expertly squeezed themselves through the sea of moving bodies only to come out on the other side. Annika pushed up next to Eumes and whispered into his ear "I saw that guy over to the right there, he doesn't look happy". The man was at least 40 and was wearing a heavily stained apron, he was packing fruit but out of the corner of his eye he spotted the pair running past, "HEY! I see you you little thief!, get back and pay me what you owe!"
"Crap!..... Lets split up." Yelled Eumes towards Annika. She touched her hand to his shoulder in agreement and they split off into different directions. The large man took off after Eumes not caring about the thief's female accomplice.
Eumes turned up exhausted at the place they always met, she was sitting on a set of steps looking like she had been there for hours, presumably just doing it to mock him. She stuck her tongue out as he approached her, Eumes rolled his eyes in response, Sarcastically he chided "Come on! you didn't have a large ogre chasing you, he took a lot of effort to loose. He must not have sold anything today!"
"Yeah right, you're just slow! he looked like he would've had a heart attack on the spot"
He pulled his coat closer around himself brushing off her verbal abuse. "its getting cold, and i think its starting to rain now we really have to go".
She held her hand out for a second feeling the rain falling onto her palm "Yeah... OK lets go then, I'm getting hungry again anyway" They started walking fast in the direction home, the sound of the markets was just a dull buzz in the background. The city was now a lot quieter now that no-one could afford to put petrol into the cars scattered around the streets.
Eumes looked over at Annika taking in her pale skin and freckles. She looked depressed, but she was always like that in this sort of weather, he was never quite sure the reason why though, as she always seemed to be happy at at all other times.
Lightning was reaching out and licking the cliff far off into the distance above the city. It seemed to signal the start of the heavy rains for the first time in months as Eumes felt the cold rain start to sprinkle onto his head, but rapidly the sprinkling evolved into a massive downpour. Eumes felt a Annikas hand wrap around his and she yanked him yanked off into a jog to try and get to shelter. "there is an abandoned building I know of, it'll take like five min to get there, it's faster than going home" said Annika, as she glanced out over her shoulder back at him through the rain.
After at least ten minutes of running Eumes saw the building looming over-head that she was pulling him towards. It was old, at least half a century old; The doors were gaping open, probably broken down by looters looking for anything of value withing the first few months of the fall. Running up the steps Eumes almost slipped. Inside everything was dark, but it was dry... and musty. he stood there for a few seconds trying to regain his composure while waiting for his eyes to adjust. He looked around the room for Annika, who had vanished into the darkness. Squinting he saw her over in the corner, she had obviously been here before as she seemed right at home, But he wasn't sure when that could have been as they had been.
From the other side a beam of light shot out illuminating a wall. "Whoa! where did you find that torch!" he exclaimed, and he hurried over to where she was standing. She motioned for him to follow, and she walked over to the staircase in the corner of the room and started up it.
Climbing the steps after her, he watched her reach into her pocket and a tinkling of metal chimed out, followed by a harsh click. The large mahogany door swung open flooding the stairwell with cool light. She clicked off the torch and turned round and leaned against the doorway to let him past. "welcome to my hideout" she said excitedly.
Eumes Made his way past, completely confused, he though the building was just a random abandoned place, he never expected it to be Annikas hideout.
The room was large, and most things were in varying stages from decay, slightly covered up so as to be usable; there was a couch with all sorts of rags thrown over the top, and the fireplace on the other side of the room still looked functional and the wood looked fresh, but the most curious things were all the exotic devices and trinkets sitting around the room, they all looked super high tech, but with varying wear and tear on all of them. "I think they were tools, but I'm not sure what they were used for" said Annika as she walked up behind him as he was examining a long thin device sitting on a bench. Eumes turned around and asked "Where did this all come from?".
"It was here when i found it, I liked the place and it felt safe when i was alone, so i stayed but i haven't been game to mess around with much of the gear, but most of it doesn't really work anyway... I'm not sure who was here before me but they must have been up to something pretty special".
"but this find is amazing! we could sell this stuff for a lot of money, and finally get out of this terrible place!" Annika's exited expression morphed to one of worry, and she replied "We don't even know what it does...".
And with that Eumes picked up the long pole like device, and pushed the button on the side. Nothing happened. He clicked and clicked again... "EUMES! what the hell are you doing?"
Unsatisfied he walked over to another table and grabbed another device, despite Annikas cries not to. This time when Eumes started messing around with it the device started whirring very loudly.... "holy shit!"..... Annika started moving back against the wall..... "Just stop!". Eumes kept going, ignoring her.
CRASH!!! And a lance of intense wind launched out of the end of the small device, knocking Eumes on his back and taking out half of the wall, sending debris into all of the street, to the peril of anyone below.
The pair went silent, just as the yelling started up in the rain outside. People were panicking, they must have thought the accident was a terrorist bombing. The room was now bathed in cool light streaming in from the hole which was now letting in the wind and rain.
In the distance they could here sirens. Eumes was now leaning up against a wall, staring at his hands, still dazed from what he just did. "Come on Eumes, we have to go... we can't stay here any longer. Eumes just sat there and nodded. Rising to his feet.
Annika ran down the stairs, expecting Eumes to follow. But instead he went over to the wind maker, foolishly he picked it up and aattachedit to his pack, and rushed off after her. By the time he caught up she wasn't even at the bottom of the stairs, but she was still against the wall. She put her finger to her lips to silence him, and Eumes instantly knew something was wrong. He leant up against the wall next to her, and a look of horror was painted across her face. "were trapped' she whispered to him. Eumes gripped the wind machine in fear, which Annika didn't know he still had.
All was quiet for what felt like an eternity, but they were too scared to move. The sound of muffled foot steps became audible over the rain, and a shadow flickered past the stairwells entrance. Eumes brought the wind machine up to his chest and pointed it towards the entrance, scared for his life. They waited, then all of a sudden a shadowy figure burst out gun in hand ready to blast them, but the figure hesitated. In a blind panic Eumes pushed the trigger on the device causing the wind to lance out knocking the man back into the wall crushing his chest.
Two more men rounded the same corner quickly, this time Eumes didn't hesitate , he charged towards the first shoving the device into the man's chest and pulling the trigger, he blasted through the soldiers torso and splattered the wall behind with blood. The other man started firing but all his shots weren't aimed, Eumes ducked and swung the device at the man crushing his chest in a single decisive blow, and a blood curdling cry was let out. Eumes didn't stop, he raising the device once more to the mans neck, he paused, His finger trembling against the trigger. But he didn't fire.
Annika was standing at the top of the stairs, horrified at what she just bore witness to. The blood stained teen standing over the top of 3 slumped bodies, he looked at her and motioned for her to follow, he then darted out into the to the room and out into the street.
Not sure what else to do she ran after him and they escaped into the stormy night, as mysterious eyes peeked out from the buildings around at the strange pair.
They were running as fast as they could, but heavy footsteps were were close behind, they didn't manage to get away. As they ran Eumes looked over at Annika, she was as scared as he was. He was more scared of what he had done more than what might happen to them, but more than anything he had to protect Annika, it was his stupidity that got them into this mess. Then he made a decision.... He skidded to a halt, and cried out to Annika, "don't stop running!". She hesitated, but kept going in the same direction.
He turned around, completely stopped now and made sure they could see him. They were getting closer, it was two more of the same men. The lead of the pair raised his weapon to his hip readying himself.
Eumes thinking quickly aimed the wind sword at the ground and pressed the trigger at half strength at the puddle below, and covered the whole street with white mist Using the diversion he darted down a back alley narrowly avoiding the volley of gun fire that erupted from the soldier weapons and sprinted as hard as he could. Within a few seconds he realized that he hadn't lost them, their foot steps close behind. "FUCK!" all of a sudden he was face to face with a wall. He was done for. He turned around and raised the wind blade once more. He swallowed his fear. Closed his eyes and listened to the footsteps as they came closer. He was ready.
Annika still running heard the gunshots echo out through this cursed city, silent tears ran down her cheeks and she disappeared into the night.
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