Timeless

1

The shelling increases almost unbearably. Ariele has a hard time just keeping her feet under her. She sits down in front of the controls and waits. At this pace it won't be long now. She still doesn't think it's right what the queen ordered her to do but the queen promised her that if she did the rapes would stop, and Ariele can't handle another rape.

The shields go down. Ariele takes a deep breath and sets off the timer for the bomb. The shields are down but the shelling hasn't stopped. It makes running almost impossible. She stumbles and strikes her head on the stone wall.

She gets up but now everything is double vision. She sees the stone corridor of the queens castle and an outside view with her looking away from the nearest building. Ariele shakes it off and starts running. Even as the girl outside starts running both of them filled with fear.

Ariele stumbles again and once more hits her head on the stone. This time when she looks she can only make out the outdoor scene and then someone pulls her up and starts running with her.

She's too dazed to think and just lets the person lead her to safety. He shoves her down causing her to hit her head on a rock this time. She thinks she sees the man shield off a fire ball. What? Too many hits on the head make it so she can't think or even see straight anymore. Although she is fairly sure that she is still on the ground she sees herself running for the vault room and her freedom.

She takes out the paper that has the combination on it. The queen promised her that it had the correct code for the vault room. In her haste and weird vision she has a hard time seeing the numbers and putting them in correctly. When the door refuses to open she slides down the wall and holds her head in despair. The queen ended the rapes alright. She never should have trusted that witch.

The queen can't lie so the numbers are correct just not necessarily in the right order. And Ariele doesn't have the time to figure it out. She gets a stubborn and angry look on her face. So the witch doesn't want her precious Underhill tainted with a half breed like her? Well then she'll stop the death the queen had planned.

She should still have time if she hurries. She can save the world but not herself. She manages to get herself into a half run.

Ariele wakes up in the arms of a strange man. She can tell that they are running and he's yelling out something but in her disorientation she can't figure out what is going on. But one thing she's learned is when a man has her to not do anything to bring his attention to her. It only makes things worse.

The man stops running and sets her on her feet. He holds her up and says something to her. Ariele can't help it she just stares at him. She's never seen this man before. He's taller than her and most definitely stronger. But it's his clothes that have her truly amazed. He's wearing a breastplate and a helmet with a sword. Very like the roman warriors she saw pictures of.

He talks to her again and this time she can understand him. He's obviously getting annoyed, "Can you walk now or do I need to keep carrying you?"

Ariele with eyes wide open manages to nod and then notices that he's holding open a door and that others have already passed through. She goes through the door and keeps as much distance as she can from the stranger, but as soon as they are both through he grabs her arm as he starts running.

Ariele has to work hard just to keep up. Her head starts to swim and she's having a hard time seeing where they are going. She feels herself falling.  And finds herself almost to the control room.

She forces herself to the console and deactivates the missile launch. Only then does she realize that the shelling has stopped and in the silence she can't help but start laughing. Either way she's dead. At least she stopped the missile from launching. But just then she notices a red light flashing through her skin.

"That bitch." She says.  A dead man's switch. And the poison is already in her system. There is still a chance, she has to disable the launch information from inside the console itself. The queen didn't know that she knows how to do this. She breaks open the console and gets to work.