After the planes have passed, silence ruled over Claire, Gabriel and Garrett.
"Are they gone?" Claire asked.
"Looks like it..." Garrett responded.
Just as silence settled between them three, a bright, white flash of lighting followed by a loud crackle of thunder disrupted the muteness.
And not too long passed before the rain came along too. Drop by drop, the rainfall intensified upon the town of Agluf, with half of it engulfed in flames.
Claire swallowed whatever was in her mouth before she spoke up again. "Do you think they'll be back?".
Just as she finished her sentence, another bright flash illuminated the sky with the blusterous sound of thunder following it only seconds later.
With that, the sound of silence ruled the room. The sound of the rain from the outside was heard as it continuously grew in intensity. It acted as if it was some sort of white noise.
And then, abruptly, the silence was shattered into pieces. There was a nearby explosion.
It caught the attention of Claire, Gabriel and Garrett. And most likely the attention of others too.
Only moments later, shots were heard as the shouts "shoot! shoot!" were audible.
"Shit... shit, shit, shit!" Garrett muttered under his breath. His words were still audible through the sound of both the storm and the bullets that were shot.
Then, the door opened with a fellow soldier or two entering the room that contained Claire, Garrett and Gabriel. They held a flashlight each. "We are under an ambush, we have to get going!".
And immediately, upon hearing his words, Garrett and Gabriel rose up onto their feet. Coincidentally, they both looked at Claire at the same time. They both helped her stand up, although she didn't need much assistance.
With that, they all rushed out of the room.
Outside, the storm and the gunshots only continued, both seeming like they had no intention of stopping any time soon.
Through the old hallway of the wrecked building, that still - somehow - managed to stay standing, ran Claire's brother, her Captain and herself. They followed the soldiers that escorted them.
As they rushed, again, another flash from the bolts outside lit up the darkened, late evening. The sound of crackling followed the flash.
The shouting outside mixed in with the sound of shots grew louder. Then, another compilation of explosions was audible. In total, for a short time of a few seconds, 6 explosions had occurred.
The shocks from the explosions were noticed by the way the building in which Claire, Gabriel and Garrett were in began to shake ever so slightly.
Upon the feeling of the shock waves, all three of them stopped in their tracks before they looked at each other. The soldiers in from of them stopped too when they noticed that the three of them were no longer behind them.
They were about to speak up when they heard crumbling as speckles from the ceiling began to fall down to the floor.
"We have to hurry out of here. The building is close to collapsing," Garrett spoke out, glancing over at Gabriel, but more so Claire. "We have to get you to safety.". His eyes still remained on Claire.
And for a brief moment, Claire felt a strike of pain in her chest. After the pain eased off, sadness came to fill it. 'As protective as always...' she thought to herself, trying her hardest not to allow tears to build up in her eyes.
To her words, Garrett responded with a nod. A small, saddened smile grew on his lips. "Now, come on. We must get moving.". The atmosphere he managed to bring was totally different to that outside. Outside, an atmosphere filled with tension, hate and gunshots.
And then, as if they didn't have enough worries, challenges, the sound of planes came back.
"They're back..." Garrett commented.
"We need to hurry up. They'll most likely bomb this place. Flatten out the whole town," Gabriel replied as he sped up his walk, leading the group behind the soldiers who lead him.
The first of the whistles were heard with explosions rocking the ground only seconds later.
It didn't do any benefit to the old building as more small debris fell down from the cracking cement ceiling and walls.
"We're almost at the exit! Hurry, hurry!" A soldier by the front shouted to the back.
Following his words, another few, close-by explosions sounded off.
A flight of stairs awaited them, they descended them before they were met with a door. Opening the door, a hallway awaited them. Flashlights were pointed up as the soldiers who lead the group took a left.
On their way down the hallway, they were met with a few soldiers, heading the opposite way, up the hallway.
The light from its source managed to get reflected off of a wooden door. And as they approached the movable barrier, the matt, luminous light only grew stronger.
A few planes did a very low pass just as they reached and opened the wooden door. From there, Claire and Gabriel found themselves where they got stopped only hours ago. Where they got stopped.
Out the front, by the open doors and the broken windows, they saw soldiers running across the streets. Some faced back with weapons in their possession as they aimed at the group of soldiers who had their weapons aimed at them. The allies and the enemies.
The sound of planes kicked Claire out of her trance before Garrett's whispers caught her attention. "Claire... Claire, you hide behind this counter. Gabriel and I have got this.".
She did as she was told. And in doing so, she kept her ear out.
She heard the sound of men shouting, with a feminine voice chopping in between the men's voices here and there. Then, at times, the sounds of the gunshots filled the air before an odd plane or two flew over the building with explosions following only moments later. Bombs were being dropped. Then suddenly, the sound of a vehicle caught her off guard. She heard the engine running before the screeched of its tyers screamed through the dense, dust-filled air.
Hearing such a sound, Claire peered above the counter and there, immediately, she saw the vehicle. Her eyes were caught by the few people that exited the vehicle and before she could have acknowledged what was happening, the car began racing towards Claire.
"Move! Move!!" She heard Gabriel's shouts. "Claire!!" was all he managed to shout out because the shattering of the collision between the car and the old building was heard.
Claire managed to move back before the tyre of the car abruptly climbed the counter and landed itself in the same place Claire was only seconds ago.
But the danger was not yet over.
Beeps were heard going off.
On the other side of the boundary the crashed car made, it took Gabriel seconds to realise where the sound came from. "A bomb..." he muttered under his breath. "A bomb!! Run!!" He roared on the top of his lungs, hoping that out of all the people, Claire would be the one who would hear his the clearest. And she did.
Upon hearing his words, in the moments that followed - with all the power she had - she rose up to her legs before she ran towards the first door she saw illuminated by the fire from the outside with light seeping under the door.
The beeps only got faster and faster. And within moments after being heard and just as Claire reached, closed the door behind her and ran off...
An explosion took place.
The explosion caught Claire as she tried to run through the illuminated hallway to find a safe place. The door broke off from the pressure of the explosion before it chased behind Claire a metre or two before hitting itself off the wall and falling to the ground. The shockwaves caused the walls and ceiling to crack more as the building was on the brink of collapsing...
Claire was forced to stop as the lights began to flicker vigorously the ground beneath her began to shake.
And then... she heard crumbling.
'First, the attack, then the car. Next, a bomb and now this old shit-hole is gonna collapse...' Claire thought to herself as she turned around.
The lights continued flickering before they turned off. It caused her to turn around and look back towards the luminous yellow by the door. She knew she had to decide where she was to go, and it had to be decided quickly.
Smaller tremors hit the building as the building continued to fall apart, bit by bit. Not only that, smoke from the fires outside filled the hallway. Claire had to get out. So she ran back towards where she came from.
Cautiously, she walked back into the room and to her right, engulfed in flames, she saw the burning vehicle.
Sudden crackling caught her attention again as she saw the formation of fissures form right before her eyes. The debris contained falling from the ceiling in minimal amounts. And then a thought went through her mind.
'Where are Garrett and Gabriel?'.
The shots outside continued raging as planes flew low.
She was about to call out his name when a hand went over her lips. Someone was behind her. By the grip, she knew it was a guy. By the coarseness of his grip, she knew it was an enemy soldier. So she tried her hardest to fight him off.
And just when she thought she had him let go of her. The man behind her smacked her with the butt of his gun across her head, instantly causing her to lose consciousness and fall to the ground.
With that, he swiftly turned his gun before aiming it at Claire, right at her head. Cocking it back, he placed his finger in the trigger.
And then...
Shot.
Before his finger could have pressed down that bit harder on the trigger, Garrett's gun managed to beat him to it. Instantly launching a bullet his way.
When the man got hit, the first thing that occurred was that he released the gun out of his hand before coming into contact with the ground.
Garrett's eyes widened as he saw Claire on the floor, unconscious. "C-Claire?... Shit!" he began before rushing over to her. "Claire!?".
---
Minutes passed before Claire began to regain her consciousness.
At first, her vision was blurry, but when her vision began to become that bit clearer, she realised that she was being carried. Looking up, her blurred vision was met by the dark sky as the chill of the night got to her. From there, she allowed relief to fill her. It came in a form of a small smile on her lips.
Muffled gunshots echoed through her head as a blurred image of a guy caught her eye. Instantly, by his figure, she knew it was her brother, Garrett. "She's awake!" he shouted
'But who is carrying me?' was the final thought before she let her eyes close again.
---
"We lost her again..." Garrett commented as he looked behind them. A row of allies covered them as Gabriel carried Claire.
"We have to get her to the vans.". And upon saying those words, he looked at Garrett as Garrett looked back at him.
"The plan?" Garrett asked.
And all Gabriel replied with was a nod. Seconds later, his eyes descended, glancing at Claire. With that, he looked back up into the distance, his eyes landing on one of the two vans awaiting them.
---
"I have a plan...".
"A plan?" Gabriel asked Garrett, raising a brow.
"I know that if I was to tell Claire the plan, she'd not like it at all," Garrett spoke out, keeping his eyes on Gabriel. "So that's why I wanted to discuss it with you while she was asleep.".
"Okay, go on," Gabriel muttered out.
"Agluf will most likely go under an ambush. It's inevitable to think about the bad guys attacking and flattening the rest of Agluf. Hell, it can happen at any moment now," Garrett began his explanation. "I had a talk with the General, and thanks to him, we'll have two trucks awaiting us. I'll be on one of them, and both you and Claire will be on the other truck. I've quickly briefed Lieutenant Doyle about the pathway that'll be taken.". He paused. "Now, I would like to reiterate, Captain, that this plan is regardless of whether we get attacked or not. I'd more so prefer if we didn't get attacked, it'd make things run much smoother.".
"Is that the whole plan then?" Gabriel inquired.
"Almost... There's a ravine that would act as a shortcut. And about halfway through the ravine, there's a bridge, Lieutenant Doyle knows what I'm talking on about," Garrett continues.
"A shortcut to where?" Gabriel asked.
"Back to your camp. He'll know where to go from there, we've been to your area many times," Garrett replied.
"So we have an escape route from here then, yeah?" Gabriel asked, a slight smile growing on his lips from Garrett's words.
On the other hand, on Garrett's lips evolved a slight frown.
"Here's the thing, Captain. That bridge that I'm talking about. It might support the weight of your truck only, but there's a very low chance that we'll make it to the other side if we tried to drive over the bridge as well," Garrett said.
"Isn't there another way?" Inquired Gabriel.
"There was, but from the intensity of the war, the newer bridge was bombed and destroyed. Now all that is left is a gap that falls hundreds of meters down the ravine," Garrett replied. "There's a turning that I'll be taking right before the ravine and from there," he added, hoping that his words will act as some sort of a remedy.
But Garrett's words left a bad aftertaste in his mouth. It caused the frown on his face to only grow that bit more.
And with that, silence descended amongst the two men. Each had their gaze on something other than on one another.
"Can you promise me something, Captain?" Asked Garrett.
Promptly to his words, Gabriel rose his gaze back to Garrett. "What is it?".
"Please, no matter what, keep my sister safe.".
Gabriel widened his eyes ever so slightly to his words. But then his gaze sharpened, "Yes, I'll do anything in my power to keep her safe.".
'I've done so thus far and I have no intention of stopping until the war ends.'.
---
By the trucks stood Garrett and Lieutenant Doyle while Gabriel was inside one of the vehicles with Claire in his arms. Placing her down, he turned around before he jumped down onto his feet.
From there, he approached Garrett and Lieutenant Doyle and when he reached close enough to them, did he catch their attention.
"Are we ready?" Gabriel asked. "I'd like to begin our way out of here as soon as possible.".
"Yes, Captain! We are ready whenever you are," Lieutenant Doyle replied.
"Alright. Let's get the hell out of here then..." Gabriel said as he looked back at the town that was lit up by flames.