The Air Out Of [Wattys2018 shortlist]

20

JESS' QUICK INSTINCTS MADE HER DUCK AND ROLL BEHIND A MASSIVE ROCK JUST IN TIME to watch a bright laser shot whip by. Too close, too close indeed. Noise filled the barren background like a tidal wave. Way too quick for anyone to recognize until it became too obvious, and even then, no one would still notice it. Within the short timeframe, Jess could almost be sure that the result of this 'hasn't even started' classified war had caused more damage than Covia had in almost a century.

Avine had put up a decent fight. More than decent, in fact. Or was this the facade he had sacrificed his best front to create.

"Come on!" She hit her broken rifle against the dark rock, she could've sworn that she saw at least four springs fall to the ground. The wind caught her disheveled hair whilst the battle continued onwards. She was safe, for now. The plan did not go as planned, and now, Scar was cornered. "Aspyn!" She hissed into her microphone.

"What?" A voice returned, the sounds from the battle could be heard on her side.

"It's Scar. Their closing in on him and he has the anklet. I'm at Section 3-C, where should I go?" Jess yelled frantically. "I'm behind the massive rock, my rifle is broken."

Jett's voice intercepted with a universal message. "Aspyn, move to 3-F with Brea. Louis, I need you to cover Scar for a moment at Sector 4-A and at least distract that hundred guards. Ellie, I need you to be able to create a plunge. Once it is created, Aspyn, Brea, and Scar should go to the underground hideout A, while Ellie takes on a few more warriors. Leo is at medical. Jess, you're going to go to underground hideout B which is hidden with a button on that same rock, but not before hitting off that warrior behind Ellie."

"Got it," Jess called, using her telepathy to literally move the warrior. She uses him as sort of a barrel to hit a couple more Avinians before having to hit a warrior off herself. "Aargh, get off me!" Swearing to herself a bit more, she places her hands on the rock in an attempt to search for the hideout button while fending off a few warriors.

"Okay. Louis, you need to pull Scar out and get him to 3-F from 4-A before Ellie makes the plunge, otherwise, no one can escape." Jett's voice rings into her ear as he takes a short breath. "Good job, boys. Ellie, now!"

Jess finds the button. Jett shouts through the speakers, and by now, she's sure that Scar's already made a run for it with Louis guarding his back. Ellie's creating a massive diversion or an atomic bomb to just stop the overflow of warriors. A hole opens up beneath her, and she falls through, literally. All she can seem to hear is herself screaming into the air.

"Shit!" She yells once she's fully received the impact of landing onto a mattress far below the hole. If she didn't know Covia wasn't on Earth, she would've thought that they were literally standing on the inner core of the Earth because of the height she had just fallen from.

The technician who showed her and Scar the suits from two, or three days ago stood before her in nothing but a suit of her own. "Jess." She nods, picking up the rifle from Jess' loosened grip.

"I'm Abelyn." She introduces while poking a screwdriver inside the rifle and twisting and turning it in jerking movements. It was expertly maneuvered, but even Jess could tell that the rifle was hanging by the thread of its life. "Why don't you join Leo in the other room. He's recovering."

She nodded, moving off the mattress that had taken her impact when she was dropped off the height of a building. The door was nowhere near quiet to open, simply because it was antique, so she was slightly thankful Leo was already previously awake and is sitting quietly on one of the mattresses. His eyes meet hers as she enters. "So, what brings you here?" He asks.

Jess laughs. "My rifle."

"Oh dear, Jess. Don't tell me you escaped the battle for a sick rifle?" He jokes, "If I didn't know better, I would've said that the battle scared you."