The next thing I knew, I was being carried. Everything in my body hurt so much that it had gone numb. It was just a numb pain and I was grateful for it. Otherwise, I didn't know how I would be able to handle all the pain. My head swooped and whirled with each step of the person carrying my body. I was quite familiar with the sensation of a brain injury.
Flying. Falling. My body was tossed and I saw the cliff rushing by on one side and the ocean on the other. I heard the familiar sound of the sea waves crashing on jagged rocks and sighed. I smelled the familiar smell. In the end, I was going to have the death I had thought of seeking so many times over the years.
*"Creator Father,"* I called on His name, remembering what He had said. I couldn't say any more and didn't need to. He had said He would preserve my life and so I entrusted it to Him, closing my eyes.
I heard and felt Shigure crying in horror when he felt me wake up only to find myself falling from the cliff. I felt him weep at his helplessness. He was powerless to help me. I felt shackles on his wrists and ankles. They prevented him from going anywhere. There was a buzzing in his mind that prevented him from using his mental powers but didn't block our deeply buried link.
*"UKI-CHAN!"*
Who? Who had betrayed him?
Strong arms caught and carried me and I felt Shigure sob with relief through the link. I recognised the touch of my guardian and nodded my thanks to him through my spirit. He nodded in return.
I was placed inside a cave out of reach of the waves to wait for someone to come and rescue me. I felt a blanket cover me and gave a faint smile in thanks to my guardian spirit.
Then I tried to ignore my body's condition, striding through my link to Shigure's side to see what was happening with him.
He didn't seem to notice me in his weeping relief.
"What happened?" Mr Holt asked from where he was shackled in the back of a vehicle with Shigure and many other City Agents.
"Uki-chan," Shigure wiped his eyes with his sleeves. "The tribes almost killed her. She's dying. They threw her off the cliff. If we can't get to her in time, she'll die."
*"I'm here,"* I comforted Shigure, noting the blood on his head and bruises on his face that had caused his face to swell. His left eye was deflated, closed and encrusted with blood. I assumed they had taken his eye out again. The bastards. *"I'm here."*
For some reason, he couldn't seem to feel or hear me.
Maybe it was the shackles.
I examined everyone's shackles. They were all chained to a strange metal strip in the ground. When I looked under the slightly raised edge of the metal strip, I saw wires and glowing stones, amongst other things.
"I can't believe it," blurted out a City Agent whose name I knew to be Amos. He was a team leader in our building. "The Director's husband is the Chief of Police? But then, how could he sell all of us out? And the Director. She must be devastated."
"Is she still alive?" Mr Holt asked.
"Yes," replied Ena's voice. "Still unconscious."
"I hope Big Brother is able to stay out of sight," somebody sighed. "He may be our only hope."
I drifted over to where Ena's voice had come from and found the Director. She'd been shot multiple times and even stabbed. She was covered with electrical burn marks and her heart was beating arrhythmically. Her ventricles and atria were beating out of sync with each other.
With a touch and a nudge, I reset her pacemaker node, causing her heart to pause for a short second and then start beating normally. I cleaned up wounds, removed bullets and encouraged healing. I prompted bone healing in her wrist that I had discovered was broken. Then I left her to rest and wake up.
I went through the whole holding cell in the back of this vehicle healing everyone, including Shigure, although I couldn't regenerate his eye right now. Shigure felt it and recognised my touch, although he couldn't see or hear me. At least he could vaguely feel me at the moment.
"Uki-chan," he whispered in a voice nobody else could hear and I felt his faint smile. "Uki-chan, I'm glad you're here. There's something wrong with these shackles. Can you find a way to free us all?"
"Ugh," I heard the grunt of the Director's voice while I looked at the shackles and the weird metal strip on the floor with details.
"There's a key needed," Shigure said. "A keyhole at the end of the strip."
Looking at the weird lock, I couldn't understand it. I had a feeling it could be booby trapped and so I unravelled its mystery bit by bit, figuring out what tumblers had wires attached to them and which ones didn't. It was a bit like a combination lock. It would take too long to figure out.
The door of the vehicle clattered and then it opened. Standing there was Homeward and the team. Homeward had a key.
Everyone in the vehicle stirred but didn't make a sound when Homeward put a finger to his lips. Shigure pointed at the keyhole and Homeward put the key in and turned.
At this moment, my attention was brought back to my body.
The big lizard had found me and was walking around me with worry. Wrapping me in the blanket, it picked me up in its mouth and climbed up the cliff. At the top of the cliff, it was met with people from the tribe who had likely come to check that I was dead. Upon seeing them, the big lizard renewed its grip on my body and raced off in the direction of the city. The tribesmen didn't bother following very far.
Behind us, there was the sound of aircraft and then distant booming of bombs being dropped.
At the city border, the lizard shocked some soldiers who immediately opened fire. The lizard shrugged off the pain and kept running, its thick skin protected it from serious injury. It stopped only every now and then to taste the air and smell for something.
My body flopped in its mouth and I felt myself feeling more and more sick. Just when I thought I couldn't take anymore of the neverending journey there was a bright flash of light. The ground shook. A few seconds later, there was a strong, hot wind.
A bomb. An explosion. Where had it gone off? Where was Shigure? Was he safe?
The big lizard staggered.
People screamed when they ran out of the shaking houses to see him and me in its mouth. They ran away still screaming, amusing the big lizard somewhat.
The lizard continued to run through the streets. Whenever City Agents or soldiers saw it, they opened fire, irritating the big guy a lot. Annoyed, he flicked his tail at them and detached it, leaving his tail to thrash about on the street and distract them long enough to run away with me.
We came upon enemy agents all kit up in their weird gear, fighting a group of poorly armed City Agents who were taking cover behind a big truck with a weird metal strip and shackles through the centre of it. The City Agents were attempting to retreat.
The big lizard tossed me at the City Agents and leaped at the enemy agents, clawing and biting until they had run away or died.
Someone caught my body and kneeled down, hugging me tight.
*"Shigure,"* I huffed at the man. *"I'm not dead yet. Don't get distracted now. We have work to get done."*
Shigure and I were dragged behind the big truck and Mr Holt looked at a pale Director who was sitting up, leaning against a truck tyre.
"What now, Director?"
The Director turned her head to look at Homeward and Shigure.
"Kim!" she exclaimed.
I could only make my eyelids flicker.
Homeward took a few deep breaths.
"We take the truck. It's reinforced and protected. We take everyone we can and escape in the truck. We leave the city behind."
There were murmurs at that.
"This is the only chance you all have," Homeward insisted. "If you don't come with me, you'll likely… all… die…"
He stared at Shigure who was staring at me and trying to kick his sluggish ability centre into gear so that he could heal my worst wounds and bring me back from the brink of death. Because of his efforts, I was able to squeeze his hand that was holding mine.
I guess this was the time to make his decision. It was his choice. What would he choose?