Writers Wednesday || Part 17 - The Revelation

This picture was a lot of fun to take. I was literally laughing out loud as I applied the fake blood.
Hope you guys enjoy this next part!

- Part 17 -

The Revelation

Her heart had stopped beating.

It seemed as if she was trapped for an eternity between complete disbelief and complete confusion, yet on the very brink of everything in her broken life clicking into place.

Clarity forced herself to forget every question hurtling through her brain like a thousand trains about to crash into each other, and focus on Stallings to see if he was telling the truth. She watched his eyes and his features, tensing for any little sign of a lie.

She swallowed hard, "…Where? Where are they?"

Stallings held up his hands protectively, his gaze slipping between her and the barrel of her weapon. "Put the gun down and we'll talk."

"No."

"Clarity--"

"Where are they, Professor?" Her voice shook. Jerking her head towards the door to the crypt, she demanded, "In there, with the rest of your corpses?"

"No, they aren't in there."

"Then where, Stallings?" she practically screamed. "Are they dead?" Somewhere in the corner of her heart, Clarity had always had the prowling fear that she would never see them alive, never know how exactly they died. A fear that had been strengthened by her aunt everyday for years after  the night they disappeared. She would yank any trace of hope of her neice's heart with the firm words, "They aren't coming back, Clarity dear. I'm sorry, but they're dead. They aren't coming back."

Clarity felt tears rising in her eyes. She quickly blinked and repeated her question, "Are they dead?"

Stallings gulped. A thousand years seemed to pass as he paused, hesitating with his answer.

"No. They are alive."

Staggering back a step, a wave of heat and dizziness swept over Clarity. She wanted to believe it with every fiber of her being, but doubt won out as she reminded herself Stallings couldn't be trusted. It could all still be a lie.

The sound of approaching boots on tile flooded Clarity with awareness again. Stallings was backing away slowly.

"I'm afraid it's over, Clarity. You can't escape this place."

Clarity's hand holding her gun had fallen back to her side. She raised it to point at his chest again.

"You can't shoot me, Clarity. Think of your parents. I'm the only one who knows."

The pounding footsteps were getting closer and closer. They would be in the hallway any moment. Clarity's hands shook as she held the gun. 
She took a deep breath and shot.

Stallings gave a cry and flinched, pathetically waving his hands as if somehow that would save him. But the bullet wasn't meant for him. At the last second, Clarity had pointed the weapon upwards and shot the florescent lights. A shower of sparks rained down. Using it as her smokescreen, she fled to the opposite end of the hallway, to the secondary stairwell, and threw herself down the stairs.   

Outside, the night was electric and dark.

Clarity found the door to the outside ajar. She breathed a prayer of thanks as she stepped into the open air at last. The wind caressed her gently, playing with her highlighted blue hair as she crouched in the shadow of the building's walls to get her bearings.

One guard by each tower, two others patrolling the wall tops between.

As she scanned the concrete yard, a shadow got caught in the corner of her eye. She twisted her head to get a better angle.

It was Sean. Crouching behind some sort of armored van. His oversized brown leather jacket gleamed slightly beneath the light of the dim moon.

Clattering footsteps on the stairs inside warned Clarity it was time to make a move.

She had never been much for thinking things through. It was usually just a waste of valuable time.

Aiming the gun at the clouds, Clarity pulled the trigger. The shot shattered the silence of the compound. The six guards stationed at the towers immediately began yelling to each other. The two on the ground started running towards the building, directly for her.

Clarity didn't move. She watched as Sean left behind his hiding place and sprinted for the East tower. The wall top guards spotted him. At their comrades' cries, the guards heading for Clarity turned about and went straight for Sean.

Unclipping one of the grenades from her chest holster, Clarity followed them. She wasn't sure whether or not she should be frightened. It was her first time using a grenade.

The guards were closing in on Sean now and she was closing in on them. Catching sight of her, Sean's mouth dropped open. They'd only been apart for maybe twenty minutes, but seeing his stupid face again brought a rush of happiness back to Clarity.

She pulled the pin out of the bomb and flung it with all her might at the two guards.

As it exploded with an eruption of fire and noise, a sheet of heat nearly pushed Clarity to the ground. It seared and scrubbed her skin raw like sandpaper. Shaking away the high-pitched ringing in her ears, she passed the two smoldering men, their clothes smoking, and fell down beside Sean, who had collapsed with the detonation.

"Sean! We've got to get out of here! Sean--can you hear me? We've--"

"Dyterra," he hissed, suddenly awake and grabbing his head. "Thanks and no thanks for saving me."

She opened her mouth to ask if he was alright, but he beat her to it. "You okay?"

"Never better," she grunted, helping him to his feet. "You?"

"You're really asking a guy that after you threw a bomb at him?"

"You're welcome for saving your life," said Clarity. "Now it's time for us to leave."

Sean nodded, "The tower."

Supporting each other, they started for the entrance, when one of the guards on the wall top shouted, "STOP WHERE YOU ARE! DON'T MOVE."

They looked up to find four rifles trained on their heads. Sean whispered so only Clarity could hear, "They can't kill us. They've had plenty of opportunities before now. Stallings needs us."

They started for the tower again, ignoring the guards' demands for surrender. Sean gripped the keypad next to the door and typed in two numbers. The lock clicked, the light on the pad blinking green.

The tower inside was musty and damp. There was only one room, ten-by-ten, a third of it taken up by a iron stairwell going upwards.

"What do we do now?" groaned Clarity.

"Up."

Clarity halted him with a hand on his shoulder and a sharp, "Sean!"

Heavy boots were pounding and rattling, coming down the iron stairs. A pair of legs appeared at the top of the stairs, the rest of the body following. Just before the guard's head became visible, Sean spotted a closet in the corner, next to a coat rack and bench, and opened the door.

Three other men came after the first guard. They jumped down the stairs, about to raise their weapons and call for surrender, when Clarity detached one of her smaller grenades, unplugged the pin, and sent it sailing. Sean grabbed her, flung them into the closet, and slammed the door.

The explosion rocked the building, cracking the walls and sending out a ripple of intense heat. Sean held his jacket over his and Clarity's head, their only protection in case the roof came down. But only a small cloud of dust and mortar hit them.

Hearts beating wildly, the two clutched each other, panting, breathing in the detritus. With a moan and a creak, the metal closet door slowly tipped forward and fell to the floor with a clang. The fire had completely blown away its hinges.

"Come on," muttered Sean, and together they stumbled into the wreckage. "More soldiers will be here any second."

Clarity stared at the bodies on the floor, some of their clothes still on fire. What was left of the men's skin was black. Sean took her hand in his, bringing her attention away from the corpses.

"Don't. Don't look."

"I killed them," she said, her voice strangely loud and harsh in the swirling silence of the tower.

"Yes, you did." Sean squeezed her fingers, "To save us... Come on. We need to go."

She let him lead her to the stairs, the first three of which had been scraped off the wall by the explosion. They hopped onto the wobbly steps. They went up around and around, until at last they emerged into the very top of the tower.  One door led to the North wall top, another to the East.

Clarity pointed out the North door window, "Sean, look! There are guards running this way!"

Sean's gaze was out the East door view, "They're coming from over there too."

"What do we do?"

"The tower is already unstable as it is. We set off another bomb we'll probably disrupt the entire structure and kill ourselves."

"Stop thinking about what we can't do and figure out what we can do!"

Sean went to the North door, "How much do you weigh?"

"Excuse me?"

"Never mind, it's only about fifteen feet. You should be able to make it, if we aim for one of the lower branches."

"Shut up and tell me what you're talking about!"

"I'm going to ignore the fact that that sentence was completely contradictory and tell you that I have a plan."

"What is--"

Sean cut her off by going out onto the North wall top. She was quick on his heels. He was leaning over the edge of the stone railing. Clarity followed his gaze the tree directly across from them. It was an enormous, sprawling cedar tree.

"Sean--wait--"

"We have to jump, Clarity."

"Sean--"

"There's no time! We'll be fine."

The guards were closing in from both sides. The ones on this North walkway were barely twenty feet away. Sean snatched up her hand again and climbed onto the thick stone railing, dragging her up behind him.

"It's simple physics," he said. "There's nothing to worry about. On the count of two we jump."

"Sean!"

"One--"

Clarity aimed at the closest cedar branch.

"Two--"

She bit her lip.

"JUMP!"

They leapt away from the wall, falling more than jumping. Clarity's hand slipped from Sean's. The cedar tree was inches away--and then they were crashing into it. Clarity grappled for something to break her plummet, but the world was spinning around her, green and black. Her stomach flipped.

Then she slammed chest-first into something thick and round and hung on with all her might.

"Sean?" she called in the darkness. The echoing cries of the guards on the compound wall top drifted down. Everything hurt.

"Sean?" she whispered again.

"Here, Clarity," he replied from somewhere below her.

"Are--are you alright?"

"No."

"Me neither."

"We're not far from the ground. Can you move?"

"I don't think so."

"We're going to have to. They're going to send more men after us. We have to get as far away as possible."

*laughs maniacally*
~The Scribbler in the Attic