Cloud Fire - The Sentinel Project

Bird of Freedom

Meanwhile in the City of Iron.

"GET HER!!!" A shrieking cry sounded. Through the decrepit concrete hallways, the girl ran for her life.   Teers became one with drops of sweat as they trickled down her bruised and beaten face. Above eyes of emerald green, layers of short, spikes of dirty blonde hair, sprayed about like quils of a porcupine.  
"PRETTEEEYYY!!!" He wailed insanely after her.

Like an animal, her eyes darted desperately from one place to the next.   Her whole life had been secluded to that dreadful room. This hundred meters down the hall, was the furthest she had travelled in all of her seventeen years.   And she would not for anything return. They would have to kill her, and even the thought of that was heaven compared to going back. There was nothing she feared. Only returning.  Behind her she could hear the kerfuffle of Creeps and Guards beginning to give chase.

Each and every man in this god forsaken building was far taller and far larger than the average she. Strong and tough.  Men that others would fear. But not her. Not anywhere near as much as the room they would send her too, should they detain her.  

For with that room away, so too was her fear. She would never go back. And she would never be afraid again.  This much, she swore.

The rain fell heavily, in blinding thickets. Rancid smells wafted through the poluted streets and alleyways which crept between old and decrepit buildings. Overhead and across the ground, countless brass pipes wrapped themselves like vines, spewing gasses and seeping oil all across the red bricked streets. Streets layden with infidelity and criminal scum.   And onto these wide and busy streets, a young girl came crashing.  In a moment of craze, she smashed open the door, toppling down the steps and onto the busy road.

Horses reered back and olden day cars honked as their drivers yelled obscenities.
"WATCH YOURSELF, BITCH!!!"

In an instant, she was up to her feet. Her eyes glarred around the city, up at the looming buildings coated in brass pipes and clock work. Street venders pursued by large rats, soot covered men, women and children, shuffling and yelling through the wide and branching streets.  Gears and automations fixed to the walls of corner stores. The storm high above and the rain, pelting down on her porcupine hair, down on her face, washing the blood.    In a moment of awe, her head spun around, eyes flicking from one scene to the next as the heavy rain pelted down on her head, washing the blood. This was everything. A world she had never before seen. A wave of disorientation crashed over her and she felt herself stumble backwards, sending a horse drawn cart skidding to avoid her. It's large, wooden wheels bashed against a car on the other side of the road, creating a small crash. Horses reared in terror as the girls world began to spin in over stimulation. It was too much. She had to run. She had to  get out!

Suddenly, from behind her, there was a large crash once again. A small group of people screamed and fell to the ground as the larger men, The Creeps, smashed through the door and into the street.
"There she is!!!" One of them yelled, pointing at her intensely.   
Again, they broke into a run after her, and without hesitation, she turned to flee once more.

Through the traffic she bolted, latching onto her torn gown. A crunch beneath her, a bottle smashing, lacerating her bare feet as it was stepped on, a deep wound seemingly unnoticed by her as she continued onward.

Flying like the wind, her run was clumsy and muddled. It was almost as if she had never even ran before. Her arms failed and her heels skimmed the stone pavement. Up ahead, the road looked to be gone. It dropped off some sort of edge, like the entire city was built on a range of cliffs.  As she drew closer she saw the drop. It had to have been several stories down, straight down, onto the continuing streets of the lower district.   The buildings poked up above the cliff and power lines ran overhead connecting the upper city to the lower, but at street level, there was no way to cross.    Well,  exept one.

As the Creeps yelled and shouted behind the terrified girl, her thoughts of giving up vanished. She would not go back.   She couldn't.   She was going to jump.

With her beaten heart and body set on freedom, the thought of dying for it seemed almost just as good. Her eyes set themselves fiercely on a large, brass pipe, which ran along the side of a building across from the cliff.  It was large enough to hold her should she leap for it, but the gap was far. Still, she felt no fear.  Not when she had come from so much worse.

"PRETTEEY!!!" The cries of the men at her back faded into whispers as did the world around her. In her head there was silence. Nothing but silence.   And the leap of faith ahead.    Across the puddled street, her bare feet splattered quickly. 
*Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap!*  Until her foot hit at the very edge of the cliff.   A shred of her toes hung over it, sending tiny bits if rock falling off as she launched herself as hard as she could into the air.

Her face twisted itself red and she exhaled strongly, forcing through every ounce of effort that she could possibly call upon.   Her arms shot forward towards the brass pipe, and her foot left the ground, flying over the streets far below. Everything slowed down. It seemed limitless, the place below. There were no lights in this district, and it's darkness seemed to encase every corner below the sky line, making it appear like a shadowy abyss beneath her.   Over it, her body floated, her face still twisted in the sheer enormity of her focus and power. The wind rippled slowly at her robe as her feet kicked and sprawled as if it would make a difference to how far She would go. She was an animal, evading certain death, escaping the horrors of the Iron City,  flying over the abyss far below, away from those who followed. A bird of freedom.

With a loud and sudden bang, her body slammed into the rusting pipe. She had made it!  However, just as soon as she hit it, her body began to slide backwards, slipping off, being pulled back towards the abyss!  

Desperately, she clawed at the nails and joiners on the pipe, scraping her fingernails across the rust, digging them into anything she could find. If indeed there was anything that could save her.    As her chest slid over the bend of the pipe, a final moment of horror sunk into her heart.
"No, no, no, NO, NO!!!!" She felt herself scream as her eyes widened in disbelief. "NOT LIKE THIS!!!! NOT NOW!!!" She couldn't bare it, so close!  And then, at the final moment, suddenly, her hand caught a grip.

There was a dent in the pipe. Only a tiny one, but it was enough. Her body stopped abruptly as her fingers clenched with an iron grip onto the crease in the brass.  Slowly, she swayed there, breathing a little for this victory of hers. Slowly, she could feel her adrenaline beginning to fade. In the filth that had now come across her face, mixed with blood and sweat, she smiled.  Her head pushed gently into the pipe, feeling it's cool against her forehead and nose.   It was nice. Relaxing, even if only slightly.    Without warning, there was a sharp and brittle crack. Suddenly, the grip hold in the brass pipe chipped off and the girls body was ripped backwards once more. In a moment so quick, she came away from the pipe, watching hopelessly as it flew away from her reach. Fast and faster she fell, as her eyes, still set on the pipe, watched it climb further and further upwards.  The sudden pull of the gravity upon her seemed to have stolen the wind from her lungs and she choked as her body fell through the darkness, descending through tearing wind until it hit the floor.    And as It did, everything went black.