“There are three of them” He shouted over to the guards.
They braced themselves for the sight of a car hurtling towards them but saw nothing. All of a sudden, the air rippled and exploded into a shower of Nano-bots that sprinkled into view. Where the air had rippled was now the sight of the soldier's vehicle, too close to the guards for them to stop it. With a crunching thud it ploughed straight into them, flinging them all into the air like rag-dolls. Christian was the first to hit the floor, his back snapping in two. He screamed in agony as he tried to lift his arm to reach his gun that had fallen a foot away from him, when a swarm of Nano-bots wrapped around his arm, tearing at it with delicate saws protruding from underneath them. The next to fall to the floor was Lukas, who landed almost on his feet, dazed, but with enough awareness to fire towards the vehicle as it swung round and screeched to a halt.
Evrim landed head first, his forehead pouring with blood, but was also just about aware enough to hold his gun toward the vehicle, taking a couple of shots. The Nano-bots swooped up into the air, pulling Christian with them, before dropping him from a great height. He crashed to the ground, shattering every bone in his body, leaving him whimpering and barely conscious; his life ebbing away. Joaquin had been knocked five metres away, but landed with a roll, making it look like he had practised the same manoeuvre many times before. His roll spun him back to his feet athletically and he aimed his weapon at the vehicle. Before he had chance to fire, the Nano-bots flung themselves at him, sweeping him off his feet and flinging him back another ten metres and slamming him in to the side of his van. They then pinned him to the exterior as a series of tiny incisions punctured his body, his screams loud enough to hear for miles. Evrim's shots at the vehicle made no impact, they just bounced off. The soldiers leapt out of the vehicle, each one bearing a frightening looking weapon, instantly turning towards the group, who had scattered in the chaos. One of the soldiers let out a shot just as Lukas finally got around to firing too, but he missed completely, instead his bullet flying off towards a nearby tree.
Mateo was hidden behind Monique and Olivia's getaway car, back in his frenzied typing mode, trying in his own way to fight back.
Samir, normally the most reserved in combat situations had managed to jump in to the getaway car and drag the weapon they had retrieved back out with him.
Brandon was running, like a runaway locomotive, at a ridiculously fast speed straight towards the side of the soldiers.
Mariam had found a rock and thrown it with all her might at the swarm of Nano-bots that were dissecting Joaquin.
Olivia had started running, but the terror she felt had caused the purge to return, so was on her hands and knees.
Monique, still silent and terrified, had run as fast she could to find some shelter, her legs pounding her away from the violent epicentre.
James was directly behind her, but tripping over in his haste to escape, and tumbling towards Monique and a tree in front of them.
Gina, small and dainty but remarkably quick to react, was stood behind the tree, completely hidden, the same tree Lukas had taken aim at.
Danny didn't have time to scramble anywhere; he was sitting down when all hell broke loose. He had been sipping water, looked away for one moment and then whole of his world had tumbled into a chaotic scuffle of bangs and shrieks.
In the distance the sound of Sheryl's helicopter soaring towards the rendezvous point broke up the screams as Niel's car thrust itself forward along the road to them, ready to enter the scene of pandemonium.
PANDEMONIUM
Sometimes, when you think things aren't going your way, everything clicks back into place. Out of complete chaos, order restores itself. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it makes you just sit back and appreciate the complexity of the universe and all the choices made that allow it to continue on with its divine play.
To cause less confusion, let's name the three Elite soldiers. We'll call them Simon, Peter and Paul. Nice and simple. At least that part is. What followed was a series of moments that separately are all very random, but together join in to display fate in all its twisted, and rather peculiar glory. For parts of this, you can remove the 'L' from that last word.
Mariam's rock, thrown with an Olympic effort and perfectly aimed, smashed into the Nano-bots. They let go of Joaquin, who fell to the floor, looking like he was a piece of meat in a butcher's shop. Mariam froze for a split second as the Nano-bots spun in her direction, she was now their new target. It was at this moment she had to ask herself why she had just done that.
Elite Simon held his ferocious weapon still, its aim on Evrim and Lukas. In less than a split second the trigger was pulled and a puff of sonic air raced away from the cannon, a sonic blast of body-thumping intensity. He pulled the trigger again almost instantly as Lukas let out his own shot, a complete waste of time as it soared off in another direction towards a nearby tree. Simon's sonic blast smashed into both Evrim and Lukas, the
