True Flight

I don't know how long we've been running, but I managed to shake off the soldiers immediately. The rifle starts feeling heavy, and I regret my decision to pick up body armor. But I just keep running.

"Huff, huff...Alex, how much further?" Sophie asks, clearly tired. "I can't go on much further..."

"Hang on, we have to keep going!"

Sophie's not military personnel. I'm practically dragging her. I'm tired from the running despite my training, so I can only imagine how tired she is.

Out here, I can hear rifle fire. There's the familiar three round bursts of the army battle rifles like the one I'm carrying, and the rapid "shredding" sounds of our navy, air force, and specop carbines. And then there's the sound of something different. I might be a pilot, but I know my guns. It's not quite as sharp and heavy as the battle rifles, but not as soft and light as our assault rifles.

That's what Novemian assault rifles sound like.

There are several soldier at the front gate. One's in a Novemian uniform. The others are in Elodian uniforms, with bright yellow bands on their helmets.

Shit.

"Sophie." I say as we duck into the bushes. "Are there any alternative exits?" I point my rifle at the soldiers. I could take a couple down from this distance. I know they'll fire back the moment I do though, and I don't think I can survive that.

"Should be." Sophie says. "There's a rear entrance."

"Where's that?"

"Other side." 

"Awesome. Hopefully less soldiers there."

Our hopes are unfounded unfortunately, as obviously, there are soldiers at the rear entrance too.

"Great. Now what?" I look over at the fence. These aren't your standard shitty chain-link fences. They're tall and beautiful gothic structures made out of what I presume, is steel. "Ok. I think I got something in mind." I pull out my rifle and aim it at the fence. I'll have to do this quickly.

"What are you doing?"

"Shooting out the fence." It makes me sad to do this, because the gothic ornamentation of the fence is very beautiful. But it's nothing that we can't fix after the war. Besides, these fences were made like what, five years ago? Hardly historic artifacts.

The rounds smash into the fence at high velocity. I practically empty my entire magazine into the fence, as Sophie covers her ears. I've shot at three of the bars. I grab one and pull. It falls out like a loose tooth.

"Alright Sophie." I grab another bar and yank. It's tough. But I manage to get it out. "Come on, let's..." I struggle with the third bar as I hear boots marching up from behind us. I hear the flashlights reflecting off of the fences further down. "Shit!" I grab my rifle and smash it into the third fence bar. It's not as damaged as the others. And again. And again, and again, and again, until it's down.

"Hey!" The soldiers up ahead have seen us now.

"Sophie, go!" I quickly push her through the hole, and I myself follow, as we make our way away, into the streets, the silent streets where time appears to have stopped.

***

The city at night is quite intimidating.

The blackout effect has finally arrived to the city, and the city, unlike the other days, is dark and desolate. Only the flashlight under my rifle gives us any meaningful light. 

To the side, there's someone filming the action at the palace. Looks like an amateur reporter of some kind. He stands next to a motorcycle, but as he sees the light, he quickly raises his arms.

"Hey, hands up in the air!" I tell the man. I point my rifle at him. "Uh, royal business, give me your bike!" The man gets off of his motorcycle, and I gesture Sophie on. "You can uh, keep filming. Make sure this information gets out! And uh, sorry about threatening you, we're totally on the side of Elodia, trust!"
"Alex, you can't just steal-"
"Not the time, your highness." I toss her a military helmet. It's no motorcycle helmet, but it works in a pinch. And my pilot helmet should work fine. As Sophie mounts the bike, I get on in front of her.
"Your highness?" The man inquires to me, then looks at Sophie. "Wait, are you the-"
"Hey look, there's kind of a coup going on, and they're kind of trying to kill us, so I do sincerely apologize." I shout to him as I begin to move the bike away. "I promise we'll compensate you when the war is over! Just try to survive! You're a real patriot!"
"Alex!" Sophie says. She sounds terrified. "Do you even know how to ride a motorcycle?"
"Yeah, of course!" I lie. I rev up the motorcycle and...nothing. It doesn't turn on.

"Hey, you should turn the key!" The man says, looking back at the streets as the sound of tanks and sprinting boots begins to catch up to us. "Look, that's all I can say. Good luck!" He runs off into an alleyway.
"Hey, I didn't catch your na...whatever." I turn the key. Silly me, it works just like a car!

The motorcycle takes off down the road just as the soldiers come around the corner, shouting in their radios. 
"Alright Sophie, hang on tight!" I rev up the motorcycle as I steel myself. The metal steed roars to life as I rev up the engines a second time, and we are off.

"Alex!" Sophie hugs my back tightly as we zip through the streets. For some reason, it's oddly exhilarating. Despite the horrendous scenes we had seen just a little while earlier, a part of me also feels like a massive weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. Weird, I know. But it's how I feel. "Alex, there's a roadblock up ahead!"

There is indeed a roadblock up ahead, an oasis of illumination surrounded by a tide of dark. An Elodian tank, surrounded by our soldiers. They have yellow bands on their arms.

No. These are no longer our boys.

"Hey!" The soldiers now shout as they spot us. "Stop right there!" There's a truck with a slope on it placed just in front of the roadblock up ahead. Classic.

"Hang on Sophie!" I say as I quickly turn the motorcycle. The soldiers open fire on us. 

Maneuver right, up onto the ramp. Speed up.

Sophie screams as we go airborne. We land onto the hard pavement with a thud, but the motorcycle has good suspension. The gunfire stops.

"They stopped shooting!" Sophie says as I peer into the rear mirror. The leader is listening to his radio. Then it turns to us.

"Out of the frying pan and into the fire much?" I say as the tank begins to move itself towards us. Fortunately, our motorcycle is faster, but you'd be surprised at how quickly those things can move at you.

"Alex Benoic, surrender yourself immediately! You have one warning!" There's a voice from a loudspeaker coming from the tank. I quickly take a right turn. Hopefully that will fend them off.

"Alex, I'm scared..." Sophie says as she holds onto me tighter.

"It's alright Sophie. I'll keep you safe. With my life if I have to." 

I'm not letting her get dragged away from me. Not this time. Not again.

"Thank...thank you, Alex." There's an almost stunned tone in her speech. I can only guess what she's thinking right now. "Where do we go?"

"Out! Out of here. Anywhere but here!" Suddenly, the streetlights turn back on. Hundreds of lights go up all over the city. They're so desperate for her that they're turning the blackout stuff back on? Now I can see better, but so can they.

"Oh shit!" There's another roadblock up ahead, and they're ready. Worse still, there are military jeeps there. Those things can keep up with us. "Hang on again! We're-" I don't even finish my sentence as I quickly dive into an alleyway, cutting the cars off. But as much as I'd like to hide in the labyrinthine alleyway of this block, I know the soldiers know this place better than me. And I'm worried about hitting a dead end and getting surrounded anyways.

"Alex! Up ahead!" Several dazed looking soldiers stand in front of us with nets. Before they can snare us, I take another right turn into another alleyway. Shit. I know I'm close to getting back to the main road. And I have a feeling the tank won't dare shoot us. I take my chances with the MBT.

"Got it!" I throttle up. Or whatever you call speeding up on this thing.

Onto the road. The tank's way behind us, stopped at a corner. The commander points to us and yells. The tank doesn't move, but I know those cars will be.

"Alex, another roadblock!"

"We're just busting through!!" The roadblock is made out of makeshift plywood. I decide to take my chances. "Hang on tight, and don't stick anything out!" We duck as the soldiers trying to stop up leap aside at the last minute, and bust through the flimsy wooden structure. We're at the outskirts of the city. There's a major intersection here full of abandoned cars, which I decide, I'll use to my advantage. Slipping in between the cars, I manage to outrun the military jeeps that get caught up in the traffic.