Earth Warriors (Undergoing Revision)

Chapter 55 - ...To the Outside

The hallway is vast, and the grey floor is stained with yellowed and crimson spots. The walls are painted mildew-grey, and industrial doors are set into the walls. Stubborn traces of tape line some of the frames, remnants of pro-Zlocan propaganda posters pasted over. The air reeks of mold, of something unnameable, and of a lingering smell of bleach, as if it was recently cleaned.

No sound is heard, save for the muffled sounds of a group approaching nearby. It's Rita and the two Zlocan Knights dragging her with her arms held up by the two. The light is dim, but enough for her to see the way in front of her. Her footfalls are muted on the tile, as she keeps her distance from the captors. A small window is set high on the door at their end, a few inches above her head. In the distance, lights flicker on and off in time with the footsteps of the Zlocan group. She stops, her legs quivering a bit from the strain of the long trek and her privates aching from the rough treatment. She can't help but bite her lip and wince at the small pain that flares up in her backside in response to her earlier beating. 

She looks up to the window briefly before looking at the guards. "I'm telling you, you'll be dead men once they arrive," she says as she watches them push the button on the elevator on the right side. The one on her left only chuckles at this.

"You're in for a surprise, Rita." They both look at her, and even though they have their helmets on, she could tell of their raised brows and expectant smirks on their faces as the elevator arrives. She can hear the faint chime echoing throughout the building. One guard holds out his hand towards the buttons in front of her.

"You'll be a useless stench anyway if they do so," He says slowly as he waits. Just it's about to open, pins on the ground are heard as it gets nearby. They turn around, and see nothing else out of the ordinary, except when she looks down and lets out a gasp. This prompts the Knights to look down to find out why she did it. And the answer is there; a ball with a metallic structure, with a red dot in the upper left.

"Stun grenade! Get to-" The grenade lets out a flash of light, bright enough to get the Knights to drop Rita and cover their eyes from the brightness of it. Before they regain their sight as the light fades away, blaster fires are heard, one impacting the Knight on the cranium, while the other near the heart.  The force is enough to drop them to the floor, while Rita crawls back to a wall, blinking rapidly as she tries to make sense of the situation. 

"It's alright, we're here to help you!" a female voice says with a raspy tone. Rita slowly opens her eyes, she sees three individuals. One is a fair-skinned woman with thin eyes like her with black hair and a ponytail, the other is a light-skinned man with no facial features nor hair, his only distinctive trait being that of a scarred left eye with cataracts in them. The one in front of Rita, however, has a rather familiar shape to him, tan skin and near tall enough to tower both of his teammates.

"You?" she asks with a halting tone and eyes wide open. He wasn't the one she expected to see for a long time, especially in a place and time like this.

"So, Rita Su, it's been a while," the tanned man says as he pulls her up, Rita tries to give a response, but she breathes heavily from it, but she catches one while turning her head side to side.

"How did you do this, Ramon? How the hell are you even alive?"

"Improvised preparation for two weeks, turns out the Zlocans are a careless bunch who leave their toys unattended and unsupervised. It's almost surprising, to say the least. Almost," he replies as he turns towards his group. "These are Joseph and Mildred, two new buddies that I've met in this place. They were the ones who helped me get this far to carry out the plan."

"Wait, what about the cameras or any radar?" Rita asks. Ramon then points at a triangular-shaped gun that Joseph holds in his hand. "That baby right there can disrupt even the most high-tech cameras you could see, with enough time to sneak away without a hitch."