The Utopia Project: Dawn of the Phantoms

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===[Chapter 37: Tripping And Falling]===

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When he awoke his vision was hazy. Sunlight trickled in through thick smoke, which he found strange. His brain was addled with confusion and it took a lot of blinking and a lot of strain to refocus.

When his vision cleared, he could see that he had been nearly buried by a massive chunk of the collapsed building. The ceiling had caved in above them, leaving half of the building exposed to the outside world. The upper floors stood precariously while parts of the face hung loose from the structure left unscathed. On Eli’s floor, everything had been covered by rubble, debris, smoke and fire. Mannequins were melting, the clothes on them burning. The alarm had gone silent.

Sunlight cast exposure on the field of devastation in front of him. He felt something warm trickle across his face, a part in the back of his mind knew that it was his own blood. It stung his eyes, burned his wounds. He tried to blink it away but it only made the pain worse. He could see tears mixed with his blood fall onto the wood floor. He felt sick.

He may have only just survived, but what of the others?

Through the searing pain and bleeding, he forced himself to move over the hard, sharp, concrete and brick rubble that surrounded him. He crawled on all fours like a injured animal. He couldn’t find them with his eyes scanning the destroyed exterior. Just flames, rubble, and despair. That was until he saw movement. Weak. Slow.

He could see the slumped over body of a Regular, their Overwatch issued uniform covered in blood, mangled…

But through the rubble, Eli saw an arm buried underneath. His eyes widened as he crawled nearer to it. His knees on the verge of giving out. Hands scrambling to get Eli closer.

Tears pooled in his eyes as he saw who the arm belonged to.

Omar’s small frame was trapped beneath a crypt of rubble. And yet, he moved. Slowly. Eli could see his chest rise and fall, though just barely. His mind took him back to the attack on the Nexus. Their first brush with the alien empire on this planet. Their machines of devastation. He could picture Omar, paralyzed with fear, unable to move without help.

Omar’s face was bruised. Blood stained his skin and his prisoner’s uniform. The cyan blue delta on his shoulder had been tainted with red blood.

He couldn’t let him die here.

“O-Omar,” Eli whispered to him, though even his breath was failing him. He was shaking uncontrollably, “Omar.”

The kid squirmed, and then opened his eyes. Slowly, Omar took in his situation, until he landed on Eli.

He smiled, knowing that at least Omar was still alive. But the status of the rest of Misfit was still unknown. He was about to scramble out of his rubble prison to reach out to Omar, when he heard it again.

The sentry let out a foghorn call from not too far. It walked closer. Every step shook the ground and carved a new fear into Eli’s heart. He looked over to Omar, who had turned ghastly pale. His eyes shifted around; he looked as if he might scream…

“Omar!” Eli whispered again, to try and get his attention. When their eyes locked, he held a single finger up to his lips. He mouthed the words “Stay Down”. Hoping that Omar understood.

Suddenly, the entire room was filled with red light. The whir of the Sentry was just outside now. It was searching for any survivors. The militia’s footsteps were audible and they talked to each other through their search. He caught a glimpse of one soldier, looking through the rubble. Pointing out bits of the destroyed building to his squadmates.

Eli looked back over to Omar. He was heaving, eyes shut tight. It looked like he was in horrible pain. Though, for what it was worth the kid was doing his best to not give away their position. Eli himself took a sharp breath of air in, and held himself steady, slowly retreating further into the shadows that the rubble offered.

The red light grew brighter as the sentry closed in, its eyes infiltrated even the deepest of shadows. He remembered the warning Otaes gave him, stay out of the red light.

Like an advancing inferno, the light drew nearer and its hellish intensity brightened.

He heard a soldier call to another, only a few steps away. His heart froze. Had he just been spotted? Was it someone else? Who?

A familiar voice spoke out, shaky and terrified. It was Bannon’s, “No… No, please I-“

Bannon was drowned out by the voices of the Militamen who swarmed around him. Yelling soon broke out until it was drowned out by a single gunshot. Eli’s heart sank to the pits of his stomach. He dared not breath for fear of being detected that way.

The soldiers turned on flashlights as they continued to investigate the area. Two soldiers walked near towards Eli and Omar. He dreaded every footstep they took, the sound of their jackboots crunching over the rubble sent shivers up his spine every time. Their lights grew closer, chasing away the dark refuge that protected him.

One last time, Eli looked to Omar. He saw his eyes staring at him, looking for help. Begging for a way out. Omar’s eyes were red and shiny, pooling with tears. Eli’s hands shook as he once again placed a finger over his lips. One final gesture to let Omar know that he was not alone. The worst thing you could be out here in a situation like this, was alone.

He closed his eyes when the jackboot of a soldier landed in front of the rubble enclosure. Hiding as deep within the dark cave of collapsed wall and ceiling as possible. He took a breath of air in, not even daring to do so much as exhale. His eyes squeezed shut, he prayed to whomever that the soldiers wouldn’t look… that they wouldn’t find them… that they’d pass them for dead.

Their footsteps thundered loudly in his ear. One. By one. Until it stopped just in front of his cave. He didn’t dare open his eyes to see if they had been discovered.

And then another footstep. And another. Passing by.

He deflated when he heard the last soldier go back out front. They hadn’t found them, and luckily, were content with leaving them for dead. When the last soldier left the building, Eli’s eyes shot back open. Omar was there still, but the fear had abandoned his eyes. Instead, there was a smile.

The sentry stepped away, thudding along – as did the armored vehicles that carried the soldiers there to begin with. When they were fully gone, Eli crawled out of his tomb of brick and stone. Noticing the trail of blood he left behind when he did so. Omar reached out his hand, and with it, Eli dragged him out of his own cave. He was covered in a mix of blood and dust, deep cuts and bruises lined his face. There were even punctures in his oversized prisoners uniform. Eli figured he looked about the same, bringing Omar’s arms over his shoulders to carry him out.

“Close call, hm?” Eli choked out.

“Too close,” Omar confirmed.

Eli looked out at the rest of the room. Of course everything was overturned, destroyed, charred black with the explosion. The fires had burned themselves out. Yet, there was no sign of Misfit. Going back out into the street was a death sentence and there was no way that they had escaped that way in the chaos. There were only two options, Misfit escaped through the breach in the ceiling and walls to get to the other floors, all during the chaos of the attack. That or they had been killed. Though the latter was more likely, Eli didn’t believe it. Afterall, he had survived – and so had Omar. He looked up.

The ceiling had caved in revealing floors of the building above them. Hallways, rooms, all exposed to the outside world. A slope of rubble created a perfect pathway for someone to climb without too much of an issue. Though Eli found it unlikely that Misfit would’ve been able to get through so quickly, he remembered that he was briefly unconscious. Maybe while Eli was busy getting buried alive, the others had taken it as an opportune time to get to higher ground. If he wanted to regroup with Misfit, he and Omar would have the best chance looking up there. Hopefully, the militia had given up trying to pursue them…

Slowly, he and Omar began to move over towards the collapsed slope. Made of rubble and broken materials, it was hardly a sturdy structure. Especially since Eli had to balance his weight and Omar’s. But they made it through, even if it was at a snails pace. When they arrived, they were greeted to the interior of long hallway corridor with colorful walls and rainbows. He looked at a painting of a sun with a big smiley face on it. People were hand painted on the green grass of a valley in a crude – childlike way. Except the figures painted weren’t just people. Most of the painted figures had brightly colored skin and pointed ears.

They were in a school. A school for elves.

Passing through the halls, the duo approached a fork. They noticed a door slightly ajar to their left, with the rest being locked shut. Knowing it was the only way to advance, Eli figured they could rest there and try to work out a plan from inside. Even get in contact with the rest of Misfit. So he led Omar in, struggling as both himself and Omar limped through the dark corridor. The door had light coming from outside, an open window to the outside world must be on the other side.

When he approached the door, he looked over to Omar, “You ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Omar nodded.

And with that, he pushed the door wide open.

He was greeted by bright sunlight which flooded through broken windows on the far side of the room, scattering shards of glass over a row of flipped over desks and capsized books. Yet he barely had enough time to take the view of the classroom in, before he felt hands grab him from behind a ambush spot behind the door, and a the bad end of a gun shoved into his face.

“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE YOU-“ When the dust cleared, and everyone regained their bearings, he saw that it was none other than Badger – pinning him against the wall. When she realized who it was, her grip loosened and the gun was tucked away, “Damnit Eli, I almost shot you in the face… again.”

Both Eli and Omar heaved a sigh of relief when they found that it was just one of their own, “Don’t remind me,” Eli said.

“I’m sorry about the scare boys, but the Avonians are everywhere,” Badger caught her breath leaning against the wall, she looked nervously out of the window, “We stirred the hornets nest.”

“Do you know where the rest of Misfit is?”

She shook her head, “After everything went pear-shaped I came straight here-“

Another door opened off to the side. The three of them snapped their focus onto it, only to be relieved when the familiar faces of Dutch, Rafael and Matteo greeted them.

“Right on cue,” Eli remarked.

“I guess that’s all of us accounted for. Right?” Badger asked him.

Eli did a headcount, and sighed in satisfaction, “All of us.”

“What about the regulars?” Dutch asked him.

“Bannon’s dead, so is another one. I don’t know about the other two, but they’ve either bit the dust or they somehow got out.”

“Heh… that’s one pain in our ass gone then,” Dutch half-heartedly smiled, but the smile vanished a moment after. It hardly was good news. The regulars were assholes, sure, but they were also Misfit’s escorts and their only real connection to Overwatch. With the signals still down, and with the Riverlanders probably on high alert for any intruders, they were completely lost and hopelessly outgunned.

“Jesus…” Matteo sighed, leaning against a wall for support, “Are we in good hands or what?”

“Yo, Eli. You look like shit.”

“We all do, Dutch,” He replied, remarking the fact that Dutch had been covered in what looked like ash and dirt, plenty of scars too, “We all do.”

Dutch smiled, “Yeah, but we’ll survive. Right?”

“Right.”

Eli allowed himself to indulge in the conversation for a moment, inhaling to gather his breath and his thoughts. The rest of the squad looked the same, on the verge of exhaustion. But at least they had this quiet moment of respite, in a half-destroyed classroom in the middle of a city under siege. There was a brief period of quietness, where it was just them and the war was on the peripheral rather than the focus. No Coalition to watch them, no guards to work them, no Avonians to try and kill them, it was just peace.

And then Eli looked out the window, watching as the skies grew ever hazier. The once bright blue sky turned into a cloudy brown from the fires burning. The barrage of guns drummed far away, yet not far enough. He heard the distant wailing of the Avonian sentries. All of it was background noise, but the peace had been ruined. He frowned as he looked out into the city, knowing that he couldn’t enjoy his peace with Misfit forever. There was only more work ahead, and knowing their luck, it’d get far worse before the situation would ever get better.

“We have to get out of here. Find that rebel HQ.” Eli said, grimacing.

“How?” Rafael asked, “With the Avonians patrolling the streets, going down there will be a death wish! We don’t even know where it is! Bannon knew that and he’s dead!”

“Hell if I know, but we have to do it somehow. We’ll figure something out.”

“We better figure it out quick, the Avonians are probably still on our tails,” Badger said, “We have to get moving. Somewhere. Anywhere, just not here.”

“Right. We’ll try and stay off the streets. Short sprints across, and that’s it. If we don’t have to, we’ll stay indoors or we’ll – “

He was interrupted by an echoing rumble. It shook the building’s core. The shards of glass vibrated on the floors. Steps. They knew what it was as soon as they heard it. Misfit fell silent, their eyes caught in a ceaseless gaze towards the ceiling as if they could see it climb up the side of their building and walk along the roof.

“Sentry…” Matteo whispered.

“Does it know that we’re here?” asked Omar.

“Not exactly, it’s looking for us.”

They listened as each step sent a shockwave through the walls of the building. They could hear the whir of mechanical parts, the almost organic groaning of the machine’s engine. It was a purr, nearly a voice. It scaled the building, searching. Stopping here and there, listening…

They all backed away from the windows. Slowly. Carefully. Not daring to speak in a whisper. Their eyes focused on the window outside.

There was a crash, the sound of something shattering. It came from inside the room. Eli darted over to the source, and he found Omar standing. His face deathly pale. A porcelain jar had fallen from a bookshelf, knocked off by a bump from Omar’s retreat back into the room. The shatter of the porcelain was like a gun firing next to Eli’s ear. In that moment, the loudest thing he’d ever heard.

The machine stirred. Eli held his breath.

More thudding. And then, a singular metal tendril descended from above. Just seeing it was enough to floor Eli, literally. In a sudden bout of fear, he tripped and landed on his ass. Kicking until his back was literally to the wall. The rest of Misfit was far to the back of the room with him. He saw that Dutch was reaching for the door.

The tendril grasped onto the building’s wall, iron talons reached through the broken window – using the wall as a support for the rest of the body. Another leg descended and grasped onto the wall. And the machine stopped to survey the floor above.

Eli turned to the rest of Misfit, mouthing the words “Go! Go!” He waved at them to pick up the ante. They crept towards the exit while the machine was distracted searching the floor above. Eli and Omar were the last ones in the room, keeping his eye on the window outside. His hands pawed at his gun, shaking as he dragged it along with him on his flight out of the room.

Just as Omar was about to step out – the machine stirred once again. The body of the machine came down, and Eli got a glimpse of two massive red eyes descending on them.

“DAMN IT! GO! RUN!”

Omar dashed out, and Eli followed close behind, right as he could hear the primary gun of the Sentry charge – and an angry mechanical growl from the beast’s interior.

He broke into a full sprint, turning the corner into the hallway. And then, the gun fired. The explosion was enough to knock Eli onto his stomach. He could feel the heat of the blast, and some of the debris on his back. But what was most terrifying was that the previously dark hall was illuminated by a deep red, an opening formed from the destruction of the blast. Eli only got a brief glimpse to see that the room had been totally destroyed, and in its place was the massive spider-like contraption that was the Sentry.

A hand grabbed hold of Eli, bringing him up to his feet, and snapping his attention forward. He barely even registered that it was Badger lifting him up to his feet, and he staggered back into running. Leaving the smoking mess of the room behind.

The Sentry let out a roar, and he could hear its mass thud just above them. It was trying to follow them from outside.

Eli was full on charging down the hall with everyone else. The Sentry opened fire from behind the brick and concrete walls. Bullet holes were punched through, and the dark hallway was flooded by red ekron blasts that zipped by threatening to hit the fleeing prisoners. He felt his heart race in his chest, as Misfit rounded another sharp turn towards a staircase.

They sprinted down, Eli was practically jumping down each flight. A split second later and they were on the ground floor, but they froze. Eli only saw soldiers down below, waiting for them. And it wasn’t the militia from before. These soldiers were Avonian. It was a trap.

“Ah Caralho!!” Rafael who was at the front of the group immediately turned around, and suddenly Eli was at the head of the pack, sprinting back up the staircase.

The soldiers shouted something, but without the elves’ translation magic, they couldn’t understand. No matter what, Eli got the gist. He heard their guns open fire behind them, and soon they gave chase.

Misfit clambered up the stairs growing ever exhausted, Eli looked for a way out but the only path he saw was to keep moving up. One step at a time. Dutch swiftly turned around, raising his gun to open fire on an Avonian soldier, another synth-soldier, like a shock trooper but with far less armor. Dressed in a darker uniform, it had to be the leader. Just as Dutch pulled the trigger, the leader-soldier raised his arm and formed a red ekron shield and the bullets bounced off. Though it forced the soldiers to stop advancing, allowing Misfit to get farther away.

“Fuck you, cheating bastard!” Dutch screamed at him, before turning another flight, and continuing to flee.

They arrived at the top floor of the building an exhausted mess, Eli just barely mustered enough strength to knock the door open. Eli remained behind, pressuring the rest of Misfit to run on while he slammed the door shut and locked it behind them. It wouldn’t keep the Avonian soldiers out by any means, but it would give Misfit some breathing room. His heart thudded inside of its cage, his breathing frenzied. Sweat trickled from his pores – everywhere. But he had to keep running. Once more he was the last behind Misfit in flight from their pursuers.

But even here they were hardly safe. Glass windows to their right, walls leading into locked rooms to their left. He could hear the Avonians blasting the door open, and their heavy boots chasing them down with each step. They ran into an open room, yet another classroom judging by the desks and alien words plastered all around it. The boots of the Avonians behind were getting closer with every step

Before Badger’s hands could grasp the doors handle, it swung open. Kicked down. They froze. There were soldiers, their guns primed in their hands. One of the soldiers raised his pistol and took aim at Eli’s temple. His eyes widened in abject horror, peering down into the barrel of the gun. His racing heart was halted.

The door behind Misfit swung open. The Militia stormed inside, trapping them. Time stood still. The words of the gun’s holder broke the still barrier.

"Get Down!”

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