ShadowChancer
Chapter 20
by MistThing, published on April 18, 2001
-"Ahh! Damn!" - cursed Gabriel, gathering himself off the soggy concrete. They fell to the ground from a two meters height, landing roughly.
-"Guess Zoe isn't too good at landings" - he brushed his jacket - "Thank God she didn't try to fly us down from the third floor. Are ya okay, Gracie?"
Grace examined her bruised knee showing through the torn jeans and straightened up. "I assume she couldn't afford the fine-tuning, Gabriel" - she answered flatly.
Gabriel glanced at the iron bars and scrap metal piled in the factory's back yard. "Jeez, I can just smell that fresh rust up to here" - he groaned, locating an opening in the dull gray wall - "C'mon, Grace, let's move!"
She slid her hand inside Gabriel's, alarmed by his sudden stiffening. "Gabriel? You okay?"
He snapped out of it, tightening his hold around her slim fingers. "I ... have the strangest feeling ..." - he said hoarsely - "Let's ... let's make a run for it, Grace ..."
He took broad strides towards the factory's back entrance, gradually going into a light run. Grace ran beside him, breathless, caught within his grasp.
They passed through the entrance into a giant hall where enormous containers of molten steel poured down their sizzling, smoking lava. Workers in dirty jeans and sweaty t-shirts, protected by helmets, tended the hissing giants. One of them turned around. "Hey, you're not allowed in here! How the f*ck did you get in?"
They ignored him, fleeing deeper inside, passing by a row of smaller containers. A helmeted worker in full silvery suit and a facemask was poking his boiling pot with a long rod and tilting it down, streaming the white-hot liquid steel into its molds.
-"Stop, you two!" - the voices came from behind them.
Grace's face was flushed from the heat and the effort. "Steel workers? P.S.I.O.N? Who do you think is chasing us now?" - she yelled to Gabriel over the noise.
-"I don't intend to find out, Gracie!" - he aimed at a naked iron staircase, leaping up the stairs and lunging at the metal door. It opened effortlessly to the outside hallway. They shut the door behind them, pausing momentarily to inhale the cool, air-conditioned atmosphere.
-"Out of production space ..." - sighed Grace, wiping her sweaty face with her sleeve.
-"But not out of the woods ..." - Gabriel replied warily. "Told ya, Grace ... This funny feelin' ... gettin' more intense."
-"Right ..." - Grace stumbled along the corridor - "Find the front gate, is what we need to do ..."
-"No biggy" - muttered Gabriel, gesturing ahead - "This suit over there seems very anxious to throw our asses outta here ..."
-" ... And thankya kindly again!" - Gabriel shouted towards the closing iron gate, and sniggered. "They were damn quick in showin' us out, huh, Gracie?"
-"Hmmm ... yeah." Grace looked again at the steel casting factory's front entrance. "Now what? Any ideas, Gabriel?"
-"I wanna get us out of Seattle, Grace." He gave her that look she couldn't read through. "And then, you owe me some explanations ..."
-"Well, no time for that now!" - she tugged at his jacket sleeve, her eyes widening - "Over there ..."
-"Sh*t! Don't they ever take a break?" - Gabriel pushed back his sodden messed up hair. He hugged Grace's narrow waist and swept her forward.
They rushed through the gritty SODO streets, the wind buzzing in their ears and the rain lashing at their faces.
-"Lets head back downtown!" - screamed Grace - "Lots of crowds! Only chance!"
Gabriel pushed Grace into a narrow side street. "Meanwhile, their f*cking cars won't fit in here!"
-"But those tracking us by foot will!" - yelled Grace.
-"Not to mention a couple of flyin' bastards tryin' to track us down from the air ..." - he muttered - "Here, Grace, over that wall! Climb on my hands!"
Gabriel helped Grace over the brick wall, and then stepped backwards, taking a giant leap and managing to hang over the edge. He pulled himself up and over the wall, rolling down.
-"I'll be damned ..." - a tired smile lit up his face - "We stumbled upon a damn parking lot ..."
-"Yeah, trucks!" - moaned Grace.
-"Y'know, I wish I had my Harley, but it is an industrial district!" - Gabriel was already climbing one of the trucks - "Now that calls for my ... other special skills ..."
-"I don't want to know when, or how, you learned how to do that!" - Grace told him, sitting beside him inside the truck, the engine running noisily.
-"What? Breaking into trucks or starting 'em up?" - he grinned and drove to the exit, waving to the unsuspecting guard - "It doesn't mean I can drive the thing, though ..."
They stormed out to the main street, barely avoiding bashing into a Pinto.
-"That road's headin' downtown, I think!" - he manoeuvred the large, leather-covered wheel - "Maybe we'll even make it to Seattle's port, huh, Gracie?"
-"Don't count on that ..." - Grace touched his arm - "There's a police barrier over there ..."
-"F*ck ... the World Trade Organization demonstrations ..." - Gabriel slowed the truck down to a halt - "Police's now pullin' over everybody goin' downtown. Well, ridin' the thing was fun while it lasted ..."
They jumped down from the truck, hurrying to intermingle within the crowds flooding the streets.
-"Lookin' worse then earlier ..." - Grace huddled against Gabriel.
-"Leigh warned us 'bout this" - he replied softly, putting his arm around her - "She also said, large crowd is like a smoke screen for them telepaths ..."
They pushed their way through, trying to ignore the dull, intensifying ache in their thighs and calves, and the way their breaths burned in their throats.
-"How long can we do this?" - Grace's hair stuck to her forehead.
Gabriel said nothing. A hooded guy was spray-painting "Capitalism sucks" on a building wall. Policemen, only half of them in full riot gear, were approaching him and his group.
-"Damn ... hope we don't get tear-gassed!" - Gabriel observed the scene, hurrying Grace forward. They stumbled into a dark alley, losing sense of time and direction.
-"Hmmm .... smelled you at last ..." - the impassive familiar tone sent involuntary shudders through their spines.
They turned to face Wade Parker.
-"Roving through the streets, like a hound dog ..." - he gazed up, sniffing the air, and lowered his stare again - "How considerate of you to wander into this quiet, isolated alley ..."
-"Not again ..." - Grace pushed against Gabriel.
-"Where are your friends, Mind Draft?" - asked Gabriel, venom permeating his voice.
-"Uh ... snooping around the streets ... for you" - Parker's stolid face was partly shadowed - "I'll notify the rest of them ... soon ..." - his lips curved into a narrow smile as he beckoned China to join him. "First, there's this ... sensitive business needing taking care of ... privately."
China's figure materialized in the shadows, and she took her place beside him. Wade paced slowly towards Gabriel and Grace, circling them like a bird of prey.
-"There's this small matter of ... the divine blood" - he uttered quietly - "The immortal one gave it to you, Nakimura, and you're going to share with me its ... exact location."
-"No ..." - Grace groaned, frozen in her place.
-"Hmmm ... catty girl, are you?" - Wade stood in front of her now, still smiling - "Like to ... fight? Let's make it more fun this time ..."
He pulled out a gun from under his jacket, aiming it to Gabriel's head. "How would you react, Grace, to this more ... tangible threat?"
-"No, Gracie, say nothin'!" - Gabriel hissed through clenched teeth, staring into the gun's barrel.
Wade cocked his gun with a soft click. China laughed. -"Internal conflict ..." - Wade's arm was steady - "What will it be, Grace? The blood ... or your lover's life?" He chuckled.
-"F*ck you ..." - whispered Grace.
-"No, thanks" - Wade's smile disappeared, and he tilted his head - "I can make it an easier conflict, Grace ... If I blow his head off and you're still keeping quiet, I'll drill this information out of your f*cken little head using my ... favorite way. Of course, I might blow his head off anyway ..."
Grace closed her eyes. "I'm going to tell him, Gabriel" - she whispered painfully.
-"You down the alley, hold it right there!"
A light beacon illuminated the scene, coming from the main street.
-"F*cken hooligans" - another voice cursed from behind the light beam.
-"Cops!" - Grace muttered - "lotsa them, thank God for the riots!"
-"Yeah" - said Gabriel darkly - "I guess you and your friends would love to start a riot with Seattle police forces ... how many of them can you ward off?"
Wade lowered his hand, leveling his gun at Gabriel's chest.
-"One of the f*ckers got a gun!" - the policemen were shouting, getting closer - "You there, drop your gun now! "
China swiftly melted into the shadows again. Wade laughed and pulled the trigger.
-" NO! " - screamed Grace, lunging at Gabriel and thrusting him forcefully down.
The single shot echoed in the deserted alley.
-"F*ck! Everybody down!" - the shouts came from the police forces direction.
-"See you sometime ..." - Wade hissed and slid into the shadows.
-" Grace! " - Gabriel sprang up from the ground, kneeling by her side.
-"Gabriel ..." - Grace moved weakly in his arms.
-"Gracie ..." - he squeezed her hand desperately, pressing down with his other hand against the dark blood gushing from her chest. "It'll be okay ... I got you ..." - the words singed his lips. "I'm gonna get you some help ..."
-"Don't ... bullsh*t me ..." - her breaths were shallow and rapid.
-"Don't you dare quit on me, Gracie ..." - he whispered, holding his hand to her face - "C'mon, sweetheart ..."
-"No ... hear me ... out ..." - her black gaze burned in her chalk-white face. "There's something ... you must ..." - she closed her eyes, forcing the words out - "There's a child, Gabriel ..."
-"A ... child?" - Gabriel's clothes were now soaked with her blood - "Try not to talk now, Gracie ... you tell me later ..."
He gathered her in his arms again, attempting to get up.
-" No! " - she shouted, grabbing his shirt with sudden strength - "Not later ... You have ... We have a two years old daughter, Gabriel ... talk to ... Chadrel Gyasto ..."
Grace's hold loosened and her hand slid down from Gabriel's blood-stained shirt.
-"Grace!" - he shouted - "Don't do this, Gracie!"
His fingers fumbled for the pulse in her neck. She wasn't breathing.
-"F*ck!" - he pressed his mouth against hers, pumping air in - "Breath, damn you!"
Hot tears scorched his face, intermingling with her sweat-and-rain soaked hair.
-"Don't you die on me, Gracie ..." - Gabriel whispered, embracing her to his chest, feeling the terrible looseness of her body against his - "Don't you f*cken die on me ..."
Time flew by, meaningless, as he cradled her in her arms, crouched on the ground in the shadowed alley.
Last update: October 25, 2007
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