Shilo At Last

Their eyes feast upon the walls of Shilo; they stretched over 100 meters into the sky, shielding it from whatever enemy might try to come and destroy it. The wall was a mixture of various materials such as bricks, wood and metal sheeting. Having just one material would leave the walls exposed to specific attacks; after all, it was mostly made of bricks at the end.

The train starts approaching closer and closer; K4, looking out the window, looks up at the Great Wall starting to close in on them. She was never this close in any rewind compared to now; this was first steps also for her.

Jumper and Hino look out the side windows, their expressions filled with hope of a family reunion and despair of what will come to this place in just two weeks; the invasion will definitely be a brutal downfall for the mighty people in their walls.

bang

A gunshot rang into their ears as it hit the metal plating of the operating carriage; the metal caused sparks and gave off a clanging sound before ricocheting into the distance.

"You two, take cover!" K4 shouts at both of them to get to cover; she opens the doors to the back carriage and sprints over to the side of the train, hanging off the doors. She looks up and starts to swing herself, increasing in speed slightly over time.

Hino on the ground looks over to K4, "What are you doing? Get down already." He had a bit of concern in his mind despite knowing K4's body won't break from just a warning shot.

K4 swings herself hard enough to soar into the air, slowly tumbling a bit back on the roof of the back carriage; her legs move into a defensive stance, giving her footing to stand on top of the moving train.

She looks up at the wall, noticing the guards looking down at her, who shot the bullet. She frantically waves her hands as a gesture that they aren't armed. The guard on top looks down upon K4, noticing something off about her hand.

"It's a robot attack!" his voice shouted to the others.

In a mere couple of seconds, the guards assembled on top of the roof and started to fire multiple gunshots towards K4, who thought they were going to be fine.

'Did they see my railgun? We have to do something else then.' A slight smirk appears on her face; she gets out her right hand and points it ahead. That white feeble glow wasn't possible to be seen from on top of the guards shooting down on her, but they would soon find out.

With the railgun charged after a couple seconds, she aims it at the front of the tracks, the cutoff point being visible by the construction of a gate to prevent any outsiders from entering unexpectedly.

'We will have to use the confusion to hide among the city. I'm going to time this well.' She shoots the railgun, a flash of light emitting from her arm can be spotted from above, and with the silence being flung in the air, it evaporated the next moment with the sound of a huge impact.

K4 looks ahead of her. 'The gate is gone!' Without delaying, she goes back to the same carriage door and jumps back into the back carriage.

She looks at both Jumper and Hino. "You both, prepare to jump out; this is our only chance." She starts to run over to the train's operating room, making sure the train's engine stopped propelling the train anymore. The train started to slow down dramatically like planned.

The two-carriage train penetrates the remnants of the great Shilo wall into its confines. Running back into the back carriage, K4 looks around, seeing Jumper and Hino are ready to jump.

"Jump!" With the slower speed and well-flat area of metal tracks outside of the train currently, they both manage to jump out smoothly, leaving only K4 on the train.

Her lens were scanning the area ahead looking for any sort of escape. After 'There it is...' she then jumped out of the back carriage, her legs leaving the metal floor once more for her final time. She landed upon the rubble rocks and hit a metal track due to her late jump.

'That better not have broken my circuitry already,' she sighs out and looks back ahead, seeing Hino and Jumper run towards her. Without wasting time, she gets up from the ground, pointing at a big unused drainage pipe.

There were shouts of people approaching from all directions, their games being caught wind of; K4 runs back towards the same drainage pipe she saw, letting Hino and Jumper run into it first. She then looks back at the now confiscated train; the metal drainage pipe was their only safety now.

Hino getting his flashlight out leads the way deep into the underground drainage system; this metal pipe was stretching for what seems like at least a kilometre; the city was pretty huge after all. Jumper slowly followed from behind, with K4 catching up to them instantly.

"We're going to have to find an exit somewhere around," K4 suggests.

Hino looks back at her. "Maybe we should spend the night here; these pipes are inactive; they are too clean." K4 frowned.

"I'm not trying to become a rat here or anything... At least have some decency for yourself, Hino."

Hino, now at the brink of defeat, decides to just follow K4's plan; Jumper in between had nothing to say, knowing all that he owes them to this point; he would just go with them until he can securely escape and find his family.

They start to hear the voices in the background fade, replaced with a sense of silence in the drainage system; there were no signs of activity around anymore, just the three of them and the unknown darkness that looms within the tunnels.

With the three of them running through various tunnels, they start to find signage pointing towards bigger tunnels that could fit even vehicles. They run towards these huge tunnels hoping for an exit; what they find was something better.

They had reached the edge of the tunnel with only a wooden staircase leading down to the floor; its elevated position and the staircase suggested it was a delivery drop zone for someone. What caught their eyes more was the city in this sewage system.

The city looked like a mix of abandonment and dieselpunk; it was a weird mix, but it somehow fit its location's dire situation. The metal houses were small, and there wasn't any sort of advanced technology down there; it seemed. They could see children and people moving around doing their daily lives as if they could live comfortably in these conditions.

The jumper looking out gets flashbacks from before he joined the cult; this was his hometown, the place he was raised, and due to all the events at the cultist spot, his memory was just ruined from his last environment.

He taps both Hinos and K4's shoulders, getting their attention. "This is my hometown; I will help you all through it." He smiles excitedly like a child at finally having a chance at his family being seen once more.

They all walked down the wooden staircase; it shook from time to time but seemed to be firm enough to uphold their combined weight; mostly K4 was the heaviest part due to her metal nature.

'This place sure is rather behind...' K4 really wasn't a fan of these outdated places like these, especially with all of these rather dirty fumes constantly coming towards them.

Then they reach the bottom; they see a huge lake between the town and them. The lake reeked of grotesque smells, with the colour being that of a dark greyish mixture due to all the waste coming down here from both the residents and the people above them.

In the town's distance, there was a small canoe approaching them, able to fit around six people; looking out, it seemed to be a decently old man controlling its steer. He quietly creeps past the greyish lake towards the wooden platform before stopping just a bit out of stepping range from it.

"Who are you all?" His weak voice and tired expression highlighted his age well.

jumper steps up "I'm a person who left with those lunatics from before to save my family; these people saved me from their capture." His explanation made sense.

The old man hums his melody in peace, seemingly not paying mind to the story other than a single part: "Lunatics?"

"Those who came a month ago," he tries to make the man remember.

The old man's expression sours; he stops humming the melody and looks towards Jumper; his eyes never leave him. The old man proceeds to go into his backpack.

K4, watching the scene, realises, 'It's a gun!' The old man already has the gun pointed at Jumper, his aim trained onto him perfectly.