02:05
Episode 2: When You See Daylight
Part 5
Violet charged down the hallway after the fleeing Laurel, chased by four guards armed with H&K MP5s. She leaped over one of the dozen wounded guards at the end of the hallway, landed in a pool of blood and slid across the white terrazzo until she slammed into the soot-stained wall at the end.
“Jeez, that was disgusting,” she said.
The guards, at least those who fresh on the scene, fired on Violet. She made a diving somersault down around the corner and disappeared out of sight of the the guards. Laurel was twenty yards ahead and running fast. Violet rolled to her feet and ran after her.
“Will you slow the fuck down! I can’t run that fast.”
Laurel stopped and looked back.
“Hurry up. We need to get out of here.”
Violet jogged along. “Where do you think we’re gonna go? And I thought you knew fifteen different tactics.”
“Seventeen. This is a tactical retreat. It’s a well respected maneuver.”
Violet finally caught up to the robot and stood panting next to her. Laurel wasn’t even breathing.
“I don’t know why you’re running so fast,” said Violet between breaths. “We’re still trapped.”
“You mean the doors?” Laurel asked.
She walked to a pair of doors at the end of the hall, grabbed the knobs and turned. There was a loud snap and the doors swung open.
“I don’t think they built this place with me in mind,” she said.
Violet darted through and Laurel followed.
“What’s the plan?” the robot asked. “How are we getting out?”
“I was going to sneak back out after I found you,” Violet said.
Laurel caught up to the short-haired blond – easily keeping pace.
“Yeah. Sorry about that. What’s our backup plan?”
Violet stayed silent. They came to another set of doors and Laurel again snapped the locks.
“Violet, You gotta tell me what your plan is,” whined Laurel.
They ran on until they stopped at a third set of doors. Laurel didn’t move.
“Open the doors,” Violet told her.
“Not until you tell me what your plan is.”
“Open the damned doors, okay?”
Laurel folded her arms over her slight chest and pouted.
“Aw jeez! This is not the time, all right? Just open the doors.”
“Tell me!”
Violet glared at the stubborn girl, then growled in anger and finally threw up her hands.
“I don’t have a plan, okay? There is no backup plan.”
Laurel’s expression melted from defiance to disbelief.
“There’s no plan?” she asked. “How are we getting out?”
“We run – until we find a door out – and then we leave.”
“But what if the guards find us? What if we get trapped? What happens then?”
Violet patted her Colt rifle.
“Then we blow shit up.”
Laurel looked at Violet as if the older woman were insane.
“You came in her to get me and you didn’t have a plan to get me out?”
“Jeez, Laurel. I’m getting you out right now,” shouted Violet. “Have a little faith, God damn it.”
Laurel turned and opened the next set of doors. She didn’t turn back to Violet but remained staring at the floor.
Violet looked back down the hallway they had just traversed and then to Laurel. She reached up tentatively and placed one hand on the young robot’s shoulder.
“Look, sweetie, it will be okay. Really. You’re an indestructible robot with all this tactical training and shit and I’m – well I’m really good at blowing stuff up. What could go wrong?”
Laurel looked back at Violet. It was plain to the older woman the Laurel was frightened. Violet forced a reassuring smile to her face and squeezed Laurel’s shoulder, and act that only served to make Violet’s hand hurt. She let go and started jogging down the hallway just as three guards appeared through the doors behind them.
Laurel didn’t turn around. She unslung her MP5, pointed it under her arm towards the guards and fired a short volley. She hit two in the shoulders and the rest dove back behind the still-open doors.
“Quit screwing around and come on,” Violet shouted to her.
Laurel frowned at the floor, reslung the MP5 and jogged along dejectedly after Violet. The two ran along for a while stopping only for Laurel to open the doors. Neither said a word. Occasionally Laurel would open one of the locked side doors and disappear inside leaving Violet waiting nervously in the hallway. There were sometimes screams from the rooms and once there was gunfire. Normally Laurel emerged with some sort of weapon different from the one she had.
Finally Laurel stopped near a pair of doors set in opposite walls of the hallway about twenty yards from the end. Violet stopped a little further on.
“What is it now?” she asked.
“It’s a trap,” answered Laurel. She stepped to one of the doors and snapped the lock, opening it out into the hall.
“Thanks Akbar. And what makes you think this is a trap?”
Laurel stepped to the other door and opened it up.
“First, we’ve only seen anyone behind us, so we’re being herded.”
She crouched down behind the open door. Violet crossed her arms and stood in the center of the hallway.
“And second?” she asked.
Fifteen guards appeared at the end of the hallway and began firing. Violet fell to the floor and crawled to the unoccupied door.
“Second, I can hear them coming,” Laurel shouted.
Violet fired her Colt rifle at the guards. These guards, unlike the others, neatly stepped out of the way, avoiding Violet’s aim. Not they had to move. The bullets seemed to curve away from their bodies.
“Oh come on!” she shouted. “Powers? Really?”
“What did you expect them to do?” asked Laurel.
“You just shut up, miss ‘I can hear them coming’?”
“Jesus Christ!. I’m sorry!”
Violet fired again until the Colt ran out of ammo and then tossed it away. Bullets riddled the steel door in front of her, punching jagged holes just above her head. She clutched a black 45 caliber pistol in each hand and ducked out from behind the door to fire a shot at one of the guards down the hall.
“You try to do something nice for someone…” she said out loud.
