VOXISTALE: Novel Edition

Chapter 129

The ringing wouldn't stop. That flash of light, the smell of burning metal, the thunderous booms . . . Sadie could feel her chest elate as her mind grew numb, her back pressed up against a wall of concrete. Her eyes darted about, as though searching for something, but she had no idea what that something could be. The playground was left in smolders, a few bodies laid about in prone positions.

"Hey!"

The person at her side was yelling at her and grabbing her shoulder, but she sounded muffled, looked blurry. Sadie looked back, brow furrowing as she tried to comprehend this, doing what she could to keep herself from going into full-panic mode.

"Sadie!"

It was Magnum, a large gash present on her cheek as she shook Sadie's shoulder, eyes wide with as much fear as Sadie felt. Sure, horror movies and their scenarios could be scary, but this? The bullets whizzing by, seeing lifeless eyes, the reminder of her mom, the reminder of mortality.

It was horrifying.

"H-here," Sadie gasped out as a bullet struck through the concrete above her head, showering both of them in a spray of concrete dust to which Magnum shielded her eyes.

"You're not hit, right!?" Magnum yelled over the gunfire.

Sadie shook her head. "I . . . I don't think so . . ." she managed out, exhaling a shaky breath as her eyes returned to the bodies on the playground and she tried to re-orient herself. All Messiah members, fortunately. When they'd come here to Dreamhope Elementary, Frisk had told them not to kill anyone. It wasn't until after that explosion that things became blurry. Judging from the scorch marks all around . . . Fuku wasn't keen on holding back, it seemed. It made sense. Not only did the fire girl want to be rid of the Messiah, but she was under the impression they'd killed her dad, or at least imprisoned him somewhere. Sadie was pissed enough herself for what happened to her mom, but didn't have the kind of power to back that kind of rage.

Magnum's arm was bleeding, a hole in her bicep from a bullet. Gerson and Mettaton were nowhere to be found in Sadie's line of sight, so she could only hope everyone was okay.

"W-where's . . ." Sadie gasped out, still fighting off the panic attack.

"We got separated by those two creepy twins," Magnum replied, gritting her teeth. "Now we're pinned by three of these asshats . . . can you walk?"

"Y-Yeah . . . I'm not hurt," Sadie mustered her reply. Physically, she wasn't wounded, but it was obvious that she just wasn't ready for this kind of conflict. Her heart was pounding out of her chest, she couldn't stop herself from taking ragged, shaky breaths, and her legs felt like they were independent from her body. It took a lot of willpower just to get them back underneath her as the bleeding Magnum helped her up.

"We need to get out of the line of fire," Magnum informed the girl. Sadie didn't feel great about a wounded person having to help her even though she hadn't sustained any real damage, but it felt like she wasn't even in her own body. Everything felt uncomfortable, her basic motor skills were slow, her breathing felt off . . . Everything was wrong.

The two of them managed to make it around the corner of the wall Sadie had been up against, away from the barrage of bullets for the time being. The hail was beating down against them, accompanied by frigid wind that neither of them were quite dressed for, making it all the more difficult to think rationally in a situation so dire. Retreat wasn't possible at the moment, and going out there to fight back was risky too. They needed a plan.

". . . You're hurt," Sadie commented. Stating the obvious, of course, as blood continued to trickle from the pink-haired woman's bicep and cheek.

"It's alright," Magnum assured her with a small smile, looking a bit confused and wincing as Sadie poked her finger against the wound.