Not Without Her
(Not here either...where could he be?)
I was soaked in blood and sweat running through the actively blazing residential area of the junkyard. It had been multiple blocks of the same result, every house empty with no trace of Resa.
Everywhere buildings began caving in burning to ashes with only a few remaining at the end of every path remaining unharmed. I turned around a new corner with no new sight traversing the fiery hell as I rushed into every house with no luck lying in either one.
Emerging from the last house on the current block I'm immediately tackled to the floor, mouth covered, and dragged to the side of the home facing opposite of any angle that could be seen from the path.
I'm harshly thrown against the wall, my eyes opening to meet with Jai's finding her gazing at me angrily covered in blood and disheveled from head to toe, her gun aimed at my head as she leaned against the wall sitting beside me.
"The heck are you doing causing a ruckus! The agreement was you win and I get your group out with commotion. Not this display of retribution, give me one good reason why I shouldn't blow your damn head off!"
"Cause technically speaking, I'm not breaking the deal. It's as you said we win you'd help us get out, nut I never said I wouldn't take back what Takata took from me. Even with a little mishap like this, the details remain unchanged."
"Details, Takata is pissed beyond belief! He thinks we planned this entire sneak attack from the beginning a third of my crew has died saving you and your sorry friends!"
"I can revive the losses easily, my powers will let me."
"You don't know that for sure. For all it's worth I currently don't trust you at all. Now talk!"
Jai pushed her gun burying it further against my temple as she sat on my legs using her free hand to hold my arms above my head. I sighed deeply bobbing side to side weighing my options as Jai clenched her teeth in anger charging her gun.
"Talk. Now!"
"...Even if you shoot nothing for me will change. Eventually, you'll run out of magic wasting all that energy on someone you can't kill leaving you too exhausted to escape the inferno or for someone else to find and finish you off. I'm a person true to his word, I'll help you as promised but only after all of us escape from Takata."
"The slimy creep has my younger sister and I'm not leaving here without her."
"...That's not my problem if he has her. ...I only take what I pay for nothing more, nothing less. Besides, I only take those who prove useful...it may be all too late for her anyway."
"You don't know what you're talking about!"
"No. You don't. I have yet to see another kid here and I doubt you have either..."Jai looked away lowering her gun beginning to hold her head as she sat silently looking almost contemplative.
"You have a clue where she is, don't you?"
"...So what if I do. I still refuse to sensibly leave my crew against Tak to go sister hunting with you."
"Then tell them to go airborne, they don't have to stay here. Make a rendezvous point and meet with them there.
"That plan's even more ridiculous. Regardless of if we escape Takata, we'll no doubt run into Asteli guards or other officials coming to stop the fire."
"I never said to rendezvous in a city. The junkyard is nearly one hundred and twenty-five miles from the barrier encasing the country, if we run west from our current location we can skydive onto your ship without being spotted. If you have your fallen comrades I'll revive them once we're on board as thanks for helping me...if you have Resa and Leifa too."
"That's assuming Takata doesn't send his motley bunch around to that area, he's not an idiot the fool has memorized and mapped out this entire turf. ...But I suppose there's going to be cracks in whatever plan we come up with."
"For the record, I have your friends and I can't deny how useful your skills would be for what's to come. ...I'll assist you with everything I've got. Consider a new part of our contract, I help rescue your sister, in return, you revive my friends. Sounds fair. Be ready to move in less than a minute."
Removing herself off my legs Jai hopped up dusting the dirt from herself, holding out her hand to help me up after pocketing her pistol. Drawing magic circle sigils in the air Jai whispers a quick message sending the recording with a flick of her hand, traces of the magic flowing through the clouds toward its destination.
"That was echo magic wasn't it, or one of its uses? Being able to record and send messages through the wind that only a specific person of your choosing can hear."
"Yes. I sent it to the acting captain, but enough about that. Let's move."
Jai quickly grabs my hand taking me from the residential area instead, towards the front where the fire hadn't reached. We weaved through the stands Takata and his group were partying behind earlier going up a steep hill stopping at the top to stare down at the crater that lay beneath.
A single lone three-story house sat by itself safe from the warm touch of the sun under the cool shade the hill provided. The place was run down with pieces of the roof and patio being burnt, cracked, or even coming undone. The soil it sat on was dirtier and more wilted away than any area of the junkyard, various animal bones sticking up from the earth in an unpleasant unwelcoming manner.
The pair of me and Jai walked down the hill quietly keeping a steady watch for any sudden movements. Jai's breathing steadily increased as her hand shook still clasping mine firmly each step she took more reluctant than the last until we stopped standing centimeters from the porch.
Above us, the wind grew wild as Jai's ship flew over the house slowly disappearing into the distance until the hum of the thrusters. could no longer be heard. The single windchime on the roof rattled like crazy blending in with the violent howling of the unkempt breeze. Together we took a step our feet setting on the house just as the chime came to a nerve-chilling stop.