The first part of the nightmare was that there was no turning back. Firstly, because I had no way of grabbing the railing, since I was facing away from it. Secondly,, even if I could turn back, it would result in almost certain death in the hands of the aggressive guard.
The second part of the nightmare was the fall itself. I was never a fan of falling, especially because it seemed to drag on forever, giving you plenty of time to be afraid and worried. The sensation of falling wasn't the nicest either, but since we've spent the last few months floating in microgravity, it wasn't that bad. Still, I wanted the fall to end.
This leads to the third part of the nightmare. The only way to break the fall in a way that doesn't involve breaking bones too was using the jetpack, which I was obviously inept with. I had a pretty good chance of rocketing into the ceiling - or worse, into the guard's shooting range.
My mind then switched back to reality. Despite the fall being seemingly stretched out from my perspective, I was careening through the air and was seconds away from landing on the greenery, which due to its thick roots probably wouldn't soften my fall.
So I pressed the jetpack's thrust buttons, panicking. The boosters roared to life and managed to slow me down enough to hover above the plants. But then I blasted upwards.
This shouldn't be a surprise, given how much thrust I've just generated. Still, it caught me off guard. I darted into the air, passing by Sebastian, who was horrified by being on a collision course with me. He moved out of the way while I tried to, dashing to the right.
- Let go! - Sebastian exclaimed.
It took me a moment to process what he said. Then I realized that he meant the buttons on the jet pack. My hands were pressed down on them as if they were glued to the jetpack. I quickly let go and narrowly avoided flying into the metal wall.
I turned around, this time slowly. Ahead of me was a bush which I had to fly over. To my confusion, the bush turned around when I did. For a brief moment, I thought that someone (maybe Chang?) bioengineered moving bushes, but that was disproven when a human face was revealed, jutting out of the branches.
It was Shi Giuying.
As it turned out, he managed to conceal himself in the dense overgrowth by pretending to be the dense overgrowth. His hands and legs soon punctured the realistic costume, with Shi getting up. He put his right hand back into the fake bush, pulling out a sedation gun.
I didn't need to see or know anything else. In an instant, I pressed the thrust buttons and pulled the joysticks in my way, bolting away from Shi. He fired a few times, but missed. The only non-plant target he managed to hit was a conspiracy theorist.
I picked up some speed, flying further away from the fake bush. I had to dodge another dart, but to my horror, someone was behind me.
That person was Dawn. And she got hit.
First, she turned around right before the sedation dart struck, seeing my dark hair and the sedation dart heading for her. She tried to dodge the projectile, but it pierced right into her arm. Then her eyes went wide with terror, later closing as the sedative kicked in. Afterwards, she started freefalling.72Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz9AQjhKVMe
I knew what I had to do. Risking my own life, I descended with her, grabbing her unconscious body by the arm which the dart stabbed into. However, her weight started pulling me down, right into the line of fire.
I set the boosters of my jetpack to maximum throttle, but with the added weight of an extra person, that didn't help much. Behind me, Shi seemed delighted to have such an easy target. So, he loaded his gun and fired.72Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG4xoq4JaRA
And missed.
This was pretty strange, given how I was barely moving and not too far away, but I didn't mind, since that was better for me. There was another strange detail, though. Shi seemingly didn't care about missing. I assumed this is because he was preparing to fire again.
I still couldn't move much. I could if I let go, but that's not what I intended to do. Luckily, I wasn't completely on my own. Sebastian, having realized what's happening, came over to aid me.
The combined force of our jetpacks was enough to lift Dawn, although it was pretty slow. We were gaining speed and Shi missing again gave us an advantage.
That's when we realized we didn't know where we were going.
- Where do we take her? - Sebastian asked me.
- It's quite obvious, we just... wait... Where are the others? - I asked him.
- Up here! - Arika exclaimed from above.
We now knew where to head and successfully brought Dawn back onto solid ground. Einstein was rightfully concerned about her well-being.
- Who hit her with this? - he asked, pulling the dart out of her arm.
- Shi Giuying. He's down there - I informed.
- He's evil? - Amber asked.
- Yes - Sebastian confirmed.
- I can deal with him while you bring Dawn to safety - Amber prepared to take off with her jetpack, but Nebula stopped her.
- Hold on, young lady - she stopped her - We're going to the Point of No Return. I found us a good vessel.
Amber looked like she wanted to argue, but opted to stay quiet instead. Sebastain, Claudius and I carried Dawn's body (she was still unconscious) while Agent Nebula led us to the vessel.
It turned out to be a quadcopter, which looked like an enlarged drone with a cockpit attatched to it. It was white, with wide windows giving us a good view of our surroundings. Arika looked excited upon seeing this vehicle.
- Can I pilot it? - she asked nicely.
- Yes, but under my supervision. I don't want anything bad to happen to you - Einstein agreed.
Arika grinned as we entered the quadcopter. I soon got to know why.
The quadcopter was controlled by a large screen with several buttons and options on it. Arika sat down in front of it opened a settings menu. Somehow, she managed to hack into the system, gaining access to some hidden functions.
- Now that I have greater control over this vessel, we can reach the Point of No Return faster - she smiled.72Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡap0ZdC7jxv
- Good, let's go then. We don't have a minute to waste - Einstein responded.
He was right. It was clear that Vlad and Bruise were plotting something serious, since they got a camouflaged Chinese associate to hunt us down. From the looks of it, they wanted us gone before we could interrupt their scheme.
Arika and Einstein fired up the rotors, which started spinning, eventually reaching a speed that lifted us off the ground. As we headed for the exit, a conspiracy theorist gazed upon our quadcopter, running over in an ill-fated attempt to stop it.
We were fast enough to evade him, but he wasn't much of a threat compared to where we were headed. One wrong move would send us plummeting to an inevitable hellish death.
It was time to test if the Point of No Return lives up to its name.
ns216.73.216.86da2
and then Add to home screen.