Adam Carter's lifeless body lay on the ground, the smell of his burnt flesh rising with the smoke from the library fire starting to consume him. Raven stood over Adam's body, his blood drying on her shoes, with Alara standing beside her, eyes watching to the flames consuming the library around them.
"Raven," Alara asked, her voice worried slightly by the rising heat, "How are we getting down from here?"
Raven didn't answer immediately. She smiled with amusement as she looked toward the charred remains of wall inside the head librarian's office. A gaping hole was blown open during the earlier grenade explosion creating the perfect exit for them. Raven looked at Alara and asked. "Alara have you ever seen those movies where people escape from planes using an inflatable slide?"
Alara's brow furrowed. Her eyes widened. "Wait. You don't mean—"
"Exactly," Raven said, pulling a black cube from the system space. She pulled the cord at its top and tossed it towards the hole. As soon as it touched the edge of the floor, two metal bolts exploded from both sides of the box, anchoring deep into the building's concrete below the floor. The cube hissed as it sucked in the surrounding air using a built in micro air compressor, and then the slide began to rapidly expand.
An inflatable evacuation slide shot out as it began to decend twoards the ground. The slide stretched three stories down and stoped at the perfect length to meet the concrete steps below, the end of the slide came to a stop in front of the Hellraiser. The zombies wandering around the tank remained disoriented from the earlier fog Raven unleashed on them.
Raven didn't wait for Alara to go first. She stepped back and then jumped onto the slide. She landed at the base of the slide with a slight bounce in her step.
Above, Alara came down after her. "Wheee!" Alara shouted in wild joy as she pulled her pink bat from the system space mid slide. She hit the bottom, rolled into a crouch, and immediately swung her bat at the nearest zombies head, crushing its skull. Another zombie came close to her, as Alara turned and hit another zombie in the head. Like one of her favorite games, whack a gopher.
Raven turned her focus elsewhere while Alara had her fun. From the smoke-filled rubble of the library's main floor, a small group of survivors emerged. With her spider drone and Mighty Mouse leading the way for a small group of women. They looked dazed and confused, their limbs stiff from captivity in cages, but they looked alive and well fed. One woman looked like their leader. She was a tall woman with black hair and a young face.
Raven approached her asking. "What's your name?"
The woman answered Raven. "Chun Dow."
"Chun Dow my robots pulled you out of that hellhole." Raven glanced back at the inferno behind them, as flames lit up the sky she remarked. "So much for the sanctity of knowledge."
Chun Dow didn't look behind her as she said. "Knowledge means nothing when compared to what they did to us in there."
Raven nodded slightly. "That's fair. But let's be clear about one thing I'm not here to coddle anyone. If you want to survive, head to the NYS Civil Defense Communications Center Bunker. Ask for Momma Jean. Tell her Raven Salvatore sent you. My name will get you through the door. After that, whether she lets you stay depends on whether you and the others can make yourselves useful."
She looked over the rest of the survivors, each one waiting for Chun Dow's word.
"I don't allow lazy people in my ranks. Earn your place or die trying. that's how my world works"
Chun Dow gave nod in understanding "Got it. I know that place. It's just outside the city. We'll find our way there."
Chun Dow turned to the other survivors saying. "Ladies, we have a destination now. Let's move out. We can find a car to get there along the way."
Without a word, the group walked off into the distance, vanishing down a ruined side street. Raven silently recalled her spider drone and Mighty Mouse into the system space.
Raven let out a sigh as she looked at the sky, now tinged orange from both the library fire and the sun setting. "I guess I need to rebuild my two flying drones," she said. Raven's tone shifted with a hint of satisfaction. "which means new upgrades aka. Flamethrowers. Lot's of flamethrowers."
Raven moved her arm, inspecting the burns and deep wounds left from shrapnel during the earlier battle. The wounds were already closing, leaving only faint lines of from pink scars across her skin.
"Looks like my healing is going well," Raven said more to herself than Alara. "The Lianas vines stored enough vitality to mend the bone-deep wounds in my arm."
Raven's expression turned pensive. "But I can't rely on them too much. If I drain them dry, I'll be stuck with my normal healing speed or worse. I will need to pull vitality from the plant life nearby, but that would expose my plant manipulation abilities. That's the kind of attention I dont need right now."
Alara finished smashing the last zombie near her and turned to Raven, asking. "Raven are you done monologuing yet?"
Raven raised a brow, lips tightening. "For now."
She turned toward the Hellraiser saying "Let's get out of here."
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