“I can… I can get you outta here! I’ll get you to the hospital!”
“Shh. It’s okay. Look at me,” she said with a shaky voice.
“This building won’t hold for much longer and neither will I. Look, over there. You can still leave. Go,” she said.
“No! Not without you!” Caiden replied.
“This isn’t your fault. You came back for me. That’s what counts,” she said, struggling to stay conscious.
“Please, please just let me…” Caiden pleaded.
“No, Caide. The time that I spent with you was the best time I have ever had. Please, don’t forget me. I love you” she said as she lost strength and slowly faded. Her eyes closed.
“I love you too! Yvora! Yvora?”
Before he could take a minute to process what had happened, the building structure began to rip and tumble once more, causing giant pieces of debris to fall from the upper floor. Caiden was in shock. He lost the will to fight. He held her close and gave her one last kiss on her forehead. His soul was shattered. He wanted to die with her. He looked over at where she directed him to. It was a stairway, leading into a sewer or some sort of underground passage. He turned his attention back to her, as her body lay listless in his arms. The structure around them began crumbling. Caiden snapped back into reality.
Remembering Yvora’s wishes, he chose to fight to live so that her words would not be in vain. As he looked around he spotted the strange device that Stein had dropped. As Caiden inspected it, the NOVO Lenses showed the same strange readings he saw when he attacked Stein. He picked it up and put it in his pocket. Caiden, knowing that if he attempted to take Yvora’s body with him it would only slow him down, made the heartbreaking decision to leave her body behind just as she had requested.
Out of love, he laid her down and tucked her further under the massive protective metal beam she was under. He gathered some more beams using his nanocell-enhanced strength and set them up as a protective shelter for her from the rest of the falling debris. He backed away from the makeshift tomb, both hands gripping his hair in disbelief. He turned around and ran off just in time before the entire building imploded.
He sprinted down the stairway and toward the path without looking back. He was determined to make it out alive. The walls around him began to crack. Pipes burst from the pressure and dangerous steam started spewing from them. Caiden saw a light streaming through a gate at the end of the pathway. He used his NOVO Lenses to see if there was a lock on the gate. There wasn’t. He bolted toward it as fast as he could while the ceiling in the pathway crumbled above him. Caiden barreled through the gate. The ceiling of the tunnel caved in.
He had made it, but he was still underground. The new passage was strange. It was vast and looked like an old underground factory. It was dim, with only a few operating light fixtures above him. Caiden found himself on a long metal platform that stretched about one hundred yards long. At the far end of the platform was a door. Hopefully, it’s a way out. Beneath the platform was water. It looked like it flooded the area long before he got here. The ceilings were at least forty feet high and the chamber smelled of mold and sludge. Caiden summoned his gunblade, reloaded the clip, and walked to the door. It was way too quiet.
Caiden heard the screech of a series of old rusted doors opening behind him. He turned around to find people dressed in civilian clothing emerge from them. Confused, he called out to them, asking what was going on.
“Hello? You guys, you shouldn’t be here. It isn’t safe,” he yelled to them. His voice echoed.
He scanned the growing number of people emerging from these secret doors. There were almost sixty of them. The NOVO Lenses showed readings of them holding something. Shock batons? How did they get those? How did they even find their way in here? he wondered as he slowly backed up and pointed his gunblade at them.
“Must apprehend suspect at all costs,” he heard a voice mumble.
Suspect? Apprehend? Caiden was so confused. The strange group of people suddenly hurtled themselves at him. They all wore datashades. The holographic lighting emitting from the shades was crimson red. What the fuck is going on!? Caiden asked himself as he back up and ran for the exit, not wanting to shoot innocent civilians.
The group was closing on him fast. The metal walkway was old, rusty and narrow, forcing them to chase after him in single file. The injuries and fatigue slowed Caiden down and the possessed group of people began to close in on him. Not wanting to kill any of them Caiden grabbed hold of the railings, swung his legs back, and thrusted them forward in one powerful motion, connecting with the chest of one of the possessed people. The impact of Caiden’s kick sent a good number of them tumbling back like human dominos. It bought him just enough time to sprint ahead.
The combined weight of the mob was weakening the metal structure; the group began to stumble about. Caiden finally made it to the other side as the mob recovered and started running toward him again. He braced himself for combat when he heard the loud sound of metal creaking. The platform gave out from the weight and the mob fell into the sludgy water below. Caiden changed his weapon to blade mode and cut through the rusty lock. He had escaped.
***
Caiden made his escape up a ladder that led to the surface. Upon emerging from the chamber he encountered torrential downpour in a back alley somewhere in Nova Central. Exhausted, heartbroken, traumatized,
