Young Writers Society

Chapter 21:

“Hurry! Don’t let them escape! Capture them, dead or alive!”

“Tch, these guys just don’t know when to quit!”

“Well, Zell, maybe if you asked them nicely they’ll stop shooting at us.”

Tylor and Zell ran down multiple floors while being chased by arm soldiers. There were too many to fight at once, and on top of that they had guns. All they could do was run and hope the enemy didn’t get a lucky shot.

As they turned to run down a set of stairs one of the soldiers fired. The bullet passed just inches away from Zell’s head. “Jesus!” He stumbled and fell down the stairs.

Tylor grabbed his arm and pulled him up. “Come on, they’re gaining on use!”

As they ran Tylor tried to think of a way to stop the enemies’ gunfire. He remembered back to their mission to assassinate the sorceress. She deflected Irvine’s bullet with a Reflect spell.

Tylor stopped and turned to face the oncoming soldiers. “Are you crazy!? Why’d you stop?”

“I’ll hold them off. You go find Squall and the others!” Zell was about to protest but Tylor cut him off by asking, “When have I ever let you guys down?”

“Alright, man. Just be careful.” Zell ran off to find the others on the floors below, leaving Tylor alone to fight the platoon of soldiers.

As soon as they spotted him Tylor shouted, “Reflect!” A green wall barrier formed in front of his body. The soldiers fired away, but the bullets bounced off the protective spell like pebbles.

As they stopped to reload their weapons Tylor shouted, “Blind!” Black clouds formed around all their faces. They couldn’t see and, out of panic, began firing in random directions. A few of them shot each other.

Before going after Zell, Tylor looked over the edge of the floor and saw him running away from a group of soldiers on the level below him.

“Zell!” Tylor ran down the next set of stairs.

The enemy had caught up to him first. Zell had taken two of them out, but the third one had snuck behind him and knocked him down.

“You bastard…” the soldier cursed and pointed his gun at him. “DIE!!!”

As if out of nowhere, Squall jumped and landed behind the soldier, slashing his leg as he came down. “Didn’t think he’d go down that easy.”

“Squall!!!” Zell ran up and hugged Squall around the waist. “Thanks, man!!!”

“Let go. I said let go!” Squall tapped him on the head with the bottom of his gunblade before Zell finally released him.

Tylor arrived at that moment. “I’m glad to see you two are OK.”

“Squall! Zell!” Quistis and Selphie arrived from the level below. “I’m glad you’re all right.” Quistis said.

Selphie asked, “Squall, why did you go on your own? Is Zell that important to you?” Zell smiled and started rubbing the back of his head.

Gunfire erupted from the other side of the level. Everyone dropped to the floor and used the barricade for the crane’s hole as cover.

“There’s no way we can get outta here!” Zell screamed.

Another set of gunfire erupted from above. Soon after their enemies ceased firing from across the floor. They looked at where the other gunfire came from and saw Irvine walking down the stairs with one hand on his gun and the other on the tip of his hat.

Rinoa came down after him. “Come on!” She kicked him and he fell down the rest of the steps. “Stop trying to act so cool!” She put her hands on her hips and sighed. “Gee, if only you had agreed with me earlier, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Squall!!!”

“Rinoa, you’re all right!” Quistis exclaimed.

“Uh huh.” Irvine slowly got to his feet. He was careful not to break anything else that hadn’t broken from the fall. “Of course. Courtesy of my escort.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Zell asked.

“Ah…”

Rinoa cut him off. “My father pulled some strings with the military. He told them to get me, and only me, out.”

“Then-”

“So this guy here, he came and got me. Just me! Knowing you were all captured!”

“Ah, that’s-”

“Isn’t that horrible?”

“Alright, alright! I said I was sorry. That’s why I’m here to help!”

Rinoa faced Irvine. “After I scratched you to death.”

“Uh… Anyhow, now’s our chance.”

“The basement door is buried in sand.” Squall told them.

“Of course it is. This place is buried underground.”

“Buried?”

“That’s right. This prison is-”

“There they are! It’s the escapees!” More soldiers began firing from across the floor. Everyone dropped down to avoid being shot, except for Irvine who shot back, and Tylor who erected another Reflect spell to protect the others.

“Squall!” Irvine shouted. “You take two party members and head on up. I’ll hold ‘em here.”

“Up?”

“Don’t have time to explain now! The exit’s up there, trust me.”

“…OK.”

“I think I know the way!” Rinoa told him.

“I’ll cover you.” Tylor added.

Squall nodded. “Alright, let’s go.” Together they went up the stairs.

Tylor stopped and asked Irvine, “Are you guys going to be OK?”

“We’ll be fine, just go.”

After a few gruelling battles and almost a half-hour of running they made it to the top floor. They passed through the control room on their way outside. They arrived on the balcony outside in the scorching desert. There were two bridges, each of them leading to a different tower.

Tylor sighed, “Finally! I thought I’d never see the light of day again!”

Alarms began to blare again as two objects flew out of one of the far off towers.

“They’re coming!” Squall warned, as he retrieved his weapon. Tylor and Rinoa did the same and readied themselves for battle.

The objects were two robots with wings and a blue and purple colour scheme. They landed with a thud in front of the group. One of them let out a metal screech and charged at Tylor.

Tylor blocked his body with his sword Armageddon as the machine attempted to punch him in the stomach. The force of the attack sent him up into the rafters. He landed on one of the rafters and watched as the robot flew after him.

Tylor jumped to another rafter as the robot ripped through the one he was on. The metal was torn apart like tissue paper. As the robot turned for another run Tylor got an idea, probably one of the craziest ones he had yet. He placed his sword back in its holding strap and waited for the machine to get close. As soon as it was in jumping distance he leaped and grabbed onto the robot’s back.

The robot flailed about as it tried to shake off its new passenger. Tylor held onto its metal wings as tight as he could. At this speed he couldn’t stab it with one of his swords. He had a better idea.

Tylor placed his hand on what he assumed to be the robot’s core and yelled, “Thundara!” Electricity ran through Tylor’s hand and into the machine. The energy began to overload the robot’s circuitry. Tylor jumped off and landed on another rafter before it blew up and fell out of the sky.

Squall and Rinoa had just finished off the other robot when Tylor climbed back down. “You two OK?”

“We’re fine.” Rinoa told him. “What about you?”

Tylor smiled. “Just another day at work.”

A static voice came from the control room inside the tower. “Hey Squall, can you hear me?” It was Irvine. “Hey! Hey, you guy’s!” They went back into the complex.

Another voice came up on the radio. This time it was Quistis. “Is this what you were talking about? What if Squall and the others have already gone ahead?”

Tylor pressed a button on the consul and said, “We can hear you.”

“Tylor? Is that you? See! I told you we’d be alright. Tylor, go ahead and operate the arm.”

“Uhh…” Tylor looked at the thousands of buttons on the consul, wondering which ones controlled the arm. “Zell, are you there?”

“Right here, man.”

“I have no idea how to operate the arm. I need you to walk me through this.” Zell told him what to do. A few moments later they heard the crane moving from the bottom of the prison.

“Alrighty!” Irvine shouted. “We’ll be there in like a second. Wait right there.”

“Sure takes awhile, doesn’t it?” Quistis asked.

“So what? What’s the rush?”

Tylor smiled. “They’ll be fine. Let’s go outside.”

As they crossed the bridge leading to one of the other towers the looked at the desert below. The prison stood hundreds of feet above the desert.

Squall looked at Rinoa. “I thought Irvine said the prison was underground.”

“No way…! When I came in earlier, it wasn’t like this…”

“No time to worry about it now.” Tylor told them. “Let’s just head for that tower.”

Suddenly the entire complex shook, knocking Squall and Tylor off their feet. Rinoa managed to stay up and made it to the other side first. The railings folded under the bridge and the catwalk began to detach. As soon as Tylor and Squall were on their feet they ran the opposite way in an attempt to get to the other tower before the catwalk detached underneath them. They didn’t even make it half way to the other side before they fell.

Tylor managed to grab onto the bridge’s frame and caught Squall’s hand before he fell. Together they dangled hundreds of feet above the ground. Tylor heaved and pulled Squall up to the frame so he could hold on too. The bases of the towers began to rotate and dig into the ground like giant drills and started to create clouds of sand. If they didn’t get to the other side quick they would fall off. They moved across the bridge with their arms as fast as they could. Rinoa yelled, “You can make it! Don’t let go!”

Suddenly, one of Tylor’s hands slipped. “Ahh!” He got a glimpse of the rapidly approaching ground and started to get dizzy.

“Tylor!”

Tylor swung his body to try and grab back onto the bridge. He tried and tried, but after the third time his other hand slipped. He plummeted down and disappeared in the cloud of sand. As a last attempt of survival he cast a spell. “Protect!”