Chapter 40

  A small gray panel van moved slowly through the streets of Metropolis, it swerved back and forth between lanes to avoid all the debris in the road, it pulled into a destroyed bus depot and 2 men climbed from the cab, the driver was a large man named Ben, he pulled a camera bag out behind him and began setting up a small camera on a tripod, the other man was named Jett, he stepped over to the side door on the van a slid it open, he pulled out a large, sleek, white rifle, with a long tube running its length, the neon pink liquid inside sloshing with every movement.

  “This’ll be perfect, nobody’ll ever be able to tell the difference between the shit we do and what got blown to shit in this hellhole” Jett announced with a laugh,

  “I still don’t know about this, what if that thing blows up in our faces?” Ben said, Jett smirked,

  “That’s why they’re payin us the big bucks to test this crap”He said, bringing the rifle's sight to his eye, “You got that thing running?” He asked, Ben checked the camera and nodded,

  “All set” He answered, Jett took aim at a bus across the lot, he took a sharp breath and fired.

  Carla Perez was drifting in and out of unconsciousness, the pain in her abdomen constant, whether from the explosions or the adrenaline her ears were ringing, and she didn’t hear the sounds of boots crunching on displaced gravel until they were a few yards away,

  “Hello” She called, her voice quiet and raspy,

  “Over here, we’ve got someone” A man shouted from somewhere within the clouds of dust and piles of wood and metal, a second later 4 men in tactical gear walked cautiously into the collapsed pavilion,

  “Are you okay?” 1 of them asked placing his rifle to the side as he kneeled beside her, Carla nodded completely instinctively, the pain in her head became overwhelming again and her eyelids felt heavy,

  “Hey I need you to stay with me” The man beside her tapped her cheek, each tap causing a mini explosion of pain in her head, she forced her eyes open, the sun was shielded by clouds casting everything in a hazy shadow, “Hey what’s your name?” The soldier asked,

  “Carla” She answered, another of the men had pulled a machine that looked like a car jack off his back and was wedging it between the metal support beam and the cement floor, the soldier beside her tore a medical bag from his vest, he pulled a small pen light from the bag and shone it in her eyes,

  “Hey Carla, can I get you to look over here?” He asked, Carla did and immediately regretted it as the light stung her eyes, she heard a loud pumping hiss from the jack as the soldier pumped a lever, she felt the pressure on her stomach release, slowly at first as the jack expanded, but then all at once,

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  “Check her” 1 of the other soldiers ordered, the man beside her placed a hand on her stomach and she gasped in pain at the light touch,

  “ Definitely some broken bones, but I don’t see any external bleeding, we’ll have to move her” The soldier pulled an inch thick rubber stick from his bag, he held it up lengthwise toward Carla’s mouth, “This is gonna hurt, bite down on this, we’ll give you something for the pain once we’re clear” He said, Carla bit down on the stick.

  2 of the soldiers looped their arms under her armpits and slowly dragged her from under the metal beam, pain shot through Carla’s whole body, it felt like someone was trying to tear her shoulders from her body, it must have taken only a few seconds to get her clear but it felt like forever.

  “Ok, let’s get you patched up” The soldier with the medical bag said, taking up his place beside her as the other 2 carefully laid her down, he pulled 2 syringes from his bag, “ This is gonna help with the pain, and this is gonna help you stay awake” He said, showing her the 2 needles, he was about to uncap the first needle when a loud metal screeching sound drew their attention, they all looked up to see a large panel of painted sheet metal roofing hurdling itself towards them.

  Robin saw the massive orange flame rip a hole in the side of 1 of the airships, Birch looked to him in confusion,

  “Your team?” She asked, Robin shook his head,

  “None of them were carrying explosives when they left the tower” He said, Birch’s shoulder radio crackled to life,

  “Nice shot” Bartholomew’s voice came through clear, Birch reached up and pressed the button,

  “Not us sir, no-go on the Titans either, maybe another squad” She suggested, Bartholomew was silent for half a minute before his voice returned,

  “Not them, I’ll advise there’s an unknown at play, you guys just get that stinger off the ground” He ordered,

  “Yes sir” Birch had been preparing the surface to air missile launcher before and quickly finished, she stepped to the edge of the roof and got down on 1 knee to brace herself.

  There was a loud cracking sound beneath them and the building began to shake,

  “You 2 need to get down from there now, the whole buildings coming down” Balisong called over the radio urgently, the roof began to slant as a corner of the building crumbled beneath it, Robin grabbed Birch and yanked her to her feet, she gripped the missile launcher tightly to her body as they ran towards the edge of the roof, Robin pulled his grappling gun from his belt and fired it to a fire escape on the next building over, he threaded the line through his belt and then snapped the clip on the handle to the back of Birch’s belt as he shoved her in front of him, as they reached the edge of the roof he grabbed the pack of Birch’s combat vest and jumped off the crumbling roof, they swung from the cord and slammed hard against the brick side of the building.

  Robin’s head spun as pain rocked through his body, he hung from the fire escape dazed for a long moment, he counted 5 long breaths and his head began to clear, he felt like he had just woken up suddenly aware of his surroundings again, he looked down, Birch hung almost limp at the end of the rope except for her arms still clutching the missile launcher, Robin slowly worked his way down the cord and switched the grapple gun on, the motor inside whirred to life, it struggled for a moment under their combined weight before pulling them up, once Robin was able to reach the fire escape he climbed over the railing before heaving Birch over and propping her against it on the inside,she dropped the missile launcher with a loud thud,

  “Robin” She groaned, “We still gotta fire it” Robin glanced at the missile launcher and nodded,

  “I’m on it” He said, stooping down painfully to grab it up.