In which we see the world.

And with this final thought, Marie entered the room. Thinking only of getting into the laundry cart, she took two acrobatic leaps and dove headfirst into the cart, only to hit the bottom of it. The teen on her back gave a dangerously loud yelp. Marie exhaled for the first time in a while.

“Hey!” exclaimed a deep and staticky voice. “You there! Stay where you are!” Marie realized that her top half, nicely concealed by black garments, was also the only half concealed by the black garments. She felt ready to barf, or to scream, or to die, when suddenly a series of explosions rang out outside. The soldiers quickly changed directions and piled out of the hall. After a muttered prayer of thanks Marie pulled herself out of the cart. Her doppelganger whined as she raced down the hall, ready to use the weapon she barely knew anything about. She zoomed around the corner and saw Hunter shooting in all directions with a barbaric battle cry. “TOOK YA LONG ENOUGH! KILL ‘EM!” And with that, Marie closed her eyes and pulled the trigger of the heavy lunk of metal she held.

Nothing happened.

The only sound she heard was an empty metallic clunk. Hunter cursed and threw down his similarly empty guns. “Run, dang it!” he screamed. Bullets whizzed around Marie’s ears as she raced down the hall, stopping only to chunk her weapon at a soldier that had gotten too close. Hunter whipped the teenager (now quietly crying) out of the cart and lugged her on his back without a change of speed. Marie banged open the metal double doors and dove out into the world. Guards could be heard storming across the room not far behind.

“Get up, lady!” She heard Hunter cry. “They’re on our tail. We gotta keep on running!” Marie painfully got up, dazed by the impact of her rough landing, and looked at her surroundings with bleary eyes. What she saw made them fill with tears. It was dark, but it wasn’t night. The sun was obscured by a black-red haze, only barely visible. The buildings around her were mostly demolished, save a few ghettos without people in them. Fire could be seen everywhere, smoldering in rubble. Muck and refuse filled the torn-up streets, and dark, slimy things reveled in it. She had a half-moment to take all of the horrid views in, but it hurt her as if she had been there for a lifetime. “Come on!” Hunter bellowed, and with that, she ran after him into the ruins of a city lost to the hands of evil.