Chapter 355: Surviving the Fall
Laz fell with those bastards in hot pursuit. Not only them though, but the drones had no fear of heights either and drove straight after Laz, attempting to find his position.
And while Laz was falling, he couldn’t help but think, for the first time,
"How am I going to survive this?"
He didn’t have a plan. Nor did he have a way through this. He just knew that staying where he was would be akin to giving up. Also, while the drones could see him, they wouldn’t be able to catch up since they couldn’t fall as fast as he could.
As for the super solders, Laz didn’t know if they would live or die, but considering some of the injuries quite a few of them had so far, even if they lived, they wouldn’t be able to fight anymore.
Laz spread out his arms and legs in an attempt to slow his speed. While at the same time tilting his body forward. His goal was to get some forward motion going so that he wasn’t just dropping straight down. As such, he was able to get some distance away from the seemingly frozen bodies behind himself.
As soon as he got into the range of trees layering the cannon floor, Laz curled up into a ball to protect himself and went flying into them, smashing his way down like a cannon ball on the lowering arch of it’s flight. Had he not jump out as much as he jumped up, his trajectory wouldn’t have been enough to cause method to be possible.
Trees exploded, one after another, as Laz flew into them and away from them, his body like a massive ball of iron. When he finally hit the ground, his forward momentum carried him far into the underbrush and down hill. While his body was firm, he no longer knocked down anything as he rolled, but the force of the impact ended up knocking him out. As such, when his body rolled into the small river that wound it’s way through canyon, he did so completely unaware of his actions.
...
Back at the top of the cliff, the command vehicle, the support troops and all of the chosen who had been assembled for this mission were standing around, waiting. Inside, a debate was going on as for the next steps in pursuit. The drones had completely lost their target and needed to return for recharging anyway. At the same time, signal had been lost on seven out of the eight solders from the squad. It was clear that they didn’t survive the fall.
As for the one that did survive, the damage done to the body made it incapable of movements and therefore it was considered lost. As opposed to spending the time to retrieve the damaged unit, the kill code was sent which would cause a small explosive device in the head of the unit to explode and render the unit useless. The same would happen for the energy gun it had on it’s body.
No usable traces could be left to be discovered and all units would be detonated. a secondary measure was included with the device that caused a liquid to seep out that would eat away at the body, speeding up decomposition. By the time the body was found, it would simply be a collection of bones.
As for who they were before this? Not a single person involved cared.
"He should be dead after this."
"He should have been dead many times now but yet he’s still alive and kicking."
"We should send out a full search party as soon as possible to confirm the body and bring it back."
"Agreed. But those dispatched are not properly equipped. As such, we will send the drones out once they are recharged and have a new team take over. While we can’t rule out the possibility of death, considering the state of the solders, even if he is alive, he won’t be in any shape to run. Tommy, I expect results on this. You will stay on site until the body is found. Understood?" Jesse said, taking control of the situation in a way that would appease all involved.
Tommy was grinding his teeth but still answered with a simple yes and a head shake. He wasn’t ordered to do this because Jesse trusted him. Instead, it was to keep him busy and out of trouble. If the body was found, then Jesse’s plan had word flawlessly. If the body wasn’t found, then he, as the ground lead for the chosen, would be blamed.
He knew this and it pissed him off to no end, but he couldn’t just quit. Right now, he was a chosen just like Jesse and as far as the government was concerned, Jesse was their lead guy on just about everything relating to the chosen and the infected. He was top dog when Jesse wasn’t around but that was only going to keep happening as long as he keep wagging his tail like a good boy.
’One day I’m going to break his fucking neck and fuck that hot secretary of his right in front of his face... or maybe his mom. Or both. Yes... Both....’ Tommy could only reassure himself and keep his cool as long as he kept his mind focused on his eventual revenge.
As the vision of this victory flashed in his head, Jesse and the rest of the observers logged off, leaving Tommy alone with the his staff, solders and Agent Wallace.
"Well, you heard him. Get things moving," Tommy said, as soon as he could speak without shaking from his rage.
Agent Wallace stood looking down at where Laz had jumped without a moment of hesitation. He then turned to look back at the brooding Tommy and couldn’t help but shake his head.
’How can two people of the same age be such complete opposites of each other? I have to wonder if things are really as they appear to be?’
Agent Wallace knew things that others did not. Many, many things. And everything that he had heard made him question just how sane these chosen were. The incidents of them going off the rails had been covered up so many times that agent Wallace’s hands were becoming cramped just due to the paper work involved. And those were just the ones that involved survivors.
’I seriously hope that kids survives. As long as guys like him are walking around, these bastards will have something to focus on. If they ever end up disappearing... Well... history tells of what happens when bored tyrants have too much time on their hands.’
Agent Wallace turned away from the cliff’s edge and started walking back to the command vehicle.
...
Laz awoke in a clean bed, covered in the softest material that he had ever felt. It cool texture and smooth touch reminded him of silk yet the look of it wasn’t shiny or reflective like Laz had remembered silk to be. The bed itself had four wooden posts that formed a canopy, draping the bed in even more of this soft, white fabric. Laying there, Laz briefly wondered if he was dead but then quickly discarded that idea. Guys like him wouldn’t end up in heaven once he died and it was far too cool here for it to be the other place.
’Then again, I always figured death would be falling asleep and never waking up, much less this heaven and hell bullshit. What a peaceful sleep that would be too. Ah well.’
Getting his mind in order, Laz quickly noticed was still in the blood stained, mud caked clothing from fighting that Raccoon god after slaughtering all those demon beasts and then running across state lines only to swan dive into the first canyon he came across.
"Guess this means I’m not dead," Laz said out loud as he moved the fabric out of the way and got up off the bed.
"Maybe I’d be better off dead?" Were the next words out of Laz’s mouth as he stared at the scene before him.
At a white, antique table sat a woman to whom goddess of beauty would bow down to while the gods fought over the favor of just gazing upon her face. Her green hair swayed gently in the wind as she took a small sip from the cup that was gently held in her left hand while her right hand held seemed to be sketching out designs on the table top, ones in which only she recognized. Her eyes were closed as those there wasn’t a care in the world to take away from her enjoyment of the drink in front of her blood red lips.
The scene would have caused even the most chaste monk to be enticed upon the wrong path as they stared at her beauty with desire.
That was if one could somehow ignore the waves of killing intent that seemed to radiate from her like beams of light from the sun.
Laz couldn’t help but swallow back whatever words he had just completely forgotten about as he steeled his resolve and walked forward. Stopping for just a moment, he briefly focused his mind as the clothes he was wearing shimmered and dimmed before becoming steady once more. Gone was the mess, gore and scraps of what was with only a nice suit remaining. While it might not have made any difference to the being sitting in front of him, Laz felt that he should probably be on his best behavior until he figured out why she was pissed off.
Despite her anger, A’ruya couldn’t help but notice his ability to change his own clothing. Perhaps it wasn’t much in her own eyes or to her people, but it definitely spoke about his growth in that he understood that he could do it and actually did it.
’Interesting.’
"Well... Um. Might I ask what my lady has summoned me for here today?" Laz asked, his voice sounding so polite that it actually came out fake. At least, to his ears it did. He had trained his customer service voice over the past year at the club to the point that only he could tell when he was faking it.
But she wasn’t a normal human and could tell right away that he was faking it.
"Did you have fun?"
Laz didn’t respond but his eyebrow shot up as though he was questioning what she meant with his face.
A’ruya didn’t say anything else. She just went back to drinking her drink and acted like Laz didn’t exist.
"I mean. I guess it was a nice jog. Of course the company left a lot to be desired but hey? What can you do?"
Sometimes a joke can help lighten the mood.
This wasn’t one of those times.
"How?" A’ruya asked, knowing that she wasn’t going to get any answers if he didn’t know what she wanted to know.
"How what?" Laz was still confused.
"How did you disappear for over a year? No matter what I did, I couldn’t find you. I searched. I sent out servants to search, but we found nothing. So I want to know how one day we were connected and then the next moment... nothing. Not even that you died but that you completely disappeared. Even if you had died, I would have been able to locate you from the trace remnants of the energy in your body after having cut off your connection to me to save my own life if the energy drain got too unbearable. But somehow, you were able to avoid even that. If someone where to have asked me in the past if that was possible, I would have said no. Well, not unless you could make someone disappear into a cloud of blood and blow them away like the wind. But obviously, that didn’t happen to you. So tell me... WHAT HAPPENED?"
Laz, understanding her question but not her mood, decided to just stick with the information he knew and explained it all to her.
After the story was over, not a word was said between them. Laz figured it was best to let her take whatever time she needed and just respond when she was ready.
Instead of saying a word though, A’ruya just stood up, walked over to where Laz was standing and gently set a hand on his left shoulder. Before Laz could even mutter a question, A’ruya leaned her forehead against his with her beautiful eyes still closed, taking Laz’s breath away.
Then she spoke.
"I’m just glad you’re ok."
