As The Curtain Rises... }{ [Contest Plot]

[Alexis Jennings]

Alexis sat in the chair beside a girl with short blonde hair. Her own hair was still wet and dripped water onto her tan nondescript outfit. She sighed as she looked down at her bland pants and shirt combo. She looked up again as the head keeper started to announce something.

The least they could do would be to give them their own clothes for goodness sake, she thought as he finished, positively annoying. She was beyond annoyance really, she was anxious. It showed in the way she bounced her left knee. The girl beside her must have noticed because she spoke up. Killer, she thought, and gave a small smile that twitched at one edge of her mouth. She was the furthest thing from a killer, except perhaps maybe doctors. “No idea,” Alexis replied but before she could continue a face, or rather a silhouette came over the screen.

Alexis rifled through her pack. She found a map among her things which consisted of a sleeping bag, water and food of which looked like very little. All the while the man had been talking Alexis had been surveying the map, only half listening to what the silhouette had been telling her. It helped her to keep her nerves in check. Her fingers traced over the lines and dots as if methodically memorizing it. Really, the motion of her hand helped her to relax. She couldn’t fall down into the feeble position, crying quite yet. Everything else after that seemed to speed up like it had before. The keeper returned and spoke to them. A man tried to escape and was shot. Bullets began flying everywhere. Panic ensued. Alexis rose from her chair with a purpose in mind. After scouring the map for however long they had been forced to sit there she had a vague notion of where they were and if she were right, beyond that gate, she knew exactly where she needed to go. She would collect supplies, as many as needed, the bare minimum, and try to find a stream. By the looks of things, if she was in fact reading the map right, there were a few rivers, one larger one in particular. She gathered that there would be food she could either pick or catch near the water and at the very least she would have water to drink.

With this in mind she stood up but was quickly pushed down again. Forced backwards by someone’s flailing hand that hit her squarely in the chest, and for a moment the breath was knocked out of her. She didn’t even have time to glare at the man. She dodged this way and that as people nearly trampled over her before she managed to pick herself up again. As soon as she got to her feet Alexis began to run. She held her pack tightly against her back, her fingers gripped around the straps.

Alexis had never been a fighter, but she could run, fast. Once they had broken free of the gate she had raced ahead. The crowd had thinned and she could see that beyond the gates there lay a field, and just beyond that was what appeared to be a dense forest. Without looking back Alexis raced for it.

The forest was manageably dense. One had to watch out for odd protruding root here or there, a fallen branch and large foliage but other than that the forest was quite lush. If Alexis had a moment to notice she might have found her surroundings beautiful if not for the complete isolation from everything and everyone, save for those that had been forced into this game, as it was called. A squirrel dashed up a tree as she sprinted passed. She tore through another group of large unwieldy leaves before coming upon a clearing. In the middle was a rather large pile of supplies. Already she could hear the pounding of footsteps all around her. On the left side of the clearing she could see two men fighting over something, and then another quickly joined them.

Alexis quietly skirted around the edge as more and more people descended upon the clearing lunging for anything they could get their hands on, more fighting broke out amongst the people. Closest to her she saw a small yellow pack of food which had been tossed over in the scuffle the food was beginning to spill out of the bag. A bow and quiver of arrows leaned against it with a number of others. She grabbed for them as fast as she could, slinging the quiver over her shoulder. She was scooping the food back into the bag when she felt eyes on her. She glanced up only in time to see a man running towards her with a knife clutched in his hand. He looked anything but friendly. Dropping an orange as she tied the pack shut she sprang up from her squatting position and turned on her heel. Everything was a blur of color as she ran as fast as she could. Finally she couldn’t hear any footsteps behind her. For a moment she stopped to catch her breath, placing her hands on her thighs. There was quite a good amount of supplies, he probably hadn’t even bothered to follow her, she thought to herself.

He hadn’t but that didn’t mean she was free from assailants. Another man snatched up the yellow pack she had so unceremoniously dumped onto the ground beside her and took off with it. ”Hey, that’s mine!” she yelled after him, and with everything else already piled onto her back raced off after him. It was foolish really. After a moment she realized it was futile. What would she do if she caught up to him? She halted in her tracks, sliding a little on the uneven ground. She laughed at the absurdity of it. The sliver of joy was knocked out of her as a person tackled her from behind. He wrestled her to the ground. Her belongings scattered everywhere. She squirmed and tried to punch and kick and fight her way out but he was much stronger than she was and with his full weight on top of her she was powerless. “I think I’ll be taking these,” he told her with a toothy grin, some of which were missing. Alexis knew fighting was pointless but she struggled against him nonetheless. Finally she managed to punch him square in the face. With him holding his nose she crawled towards her things, but he quickly grasped her leg and dragged her back towards him. She screamed and tried to kick at him, “Let me go! Get off me,” she cursed using words that were not becoming of a Companion. “Please take anything you want. Let me go!” tears ran down her face as she screamed at the click of a switchblade. He played with it for a moment, letting the light glint off the blade. “Please, don’t,” her voice was barely a strangled whisper.

((ooc: Sorry this has taken me forever. Happy Holidays everyone! Let me know if anything needs changing about the layout and such. If anyone wants to help her out that would be lovely.))

[Drevin Bendis]

As the gunshot sounded, Drevin immediately tried to work out where it had came from, but the mass of people made it hard for him to pinpoint the shooter. Then another shot and everyone was moving towards the gates, some screaming, some crying. The merc just kept walking, holding his pack in one hand and shoving people out of the way with the other. As he broke from the crowd and tried to take in his surroundings, he felt someone run into his back. Drevin turned and smirked as he saw that Rooke had arrived. "Tyn." He turned back to see that most of the other "contestants" were making their way out of the initial area and into the woods beyond.

"Follow me." The merc then set off, trying to find some supplies and get away from the main crowd and hoping that Tyn was still with him. Eventually, he found himself in a small clearing where it appeared that here had been some supplies, but most of them seemed to have been taken already. After looking around a bit more, Drevin saw a hedge that seemed to have been crushed underneath the weight of a person.

Thinking that there might be some food or maybe a weapon that someone was fighting over. He then heard a scream, causing him to pick up his pace as he walked. As he stepped over the bush, the merc saw a woman being attacked by and incredibly thuggish looking man. Without hesitation, Drevin picked up the largest, heaviest branch that he could still hold that he could find and said, "Hey, crap for brains." As the man looked around at the merc, Drevin swung the branch at the man with all of his might and hit him in the head. There was a sickening crack and the potential robber fell to the floor with his head at a weird angle and a large gash above his eye.

Drevin turned his attention away from the dead man and asked the woman he had been attacking gruffly, "You okay?"

[Sidney Bainbridge]

Sidney like the others woke up in a hospital gown unaware of where he was or what was going on when his eyes finally opened it seemed as though it wasn't quite real but he couldn't remember exactly where he was last before that. He remember being taken to St. Lucy's hospital from the Sickness but he remember waking up from that and his traveling to Sihnon and Persephone. There were a few other things he had remembered as well but at this point he wondered it it was all a dream.

Maybe he was still at St. Lucy's and was only now waking up. That of course was proven to be not true when he heard the voice talking to him telling him what to do. Though he didn't trust the situation he could tell right now was not the time to start questioning things. He slowly lifted himself from the bunk and looked at his number. 217 an odd choice and one that suggested to him they may have known a bit about him being that he was part of the 217th back in the war but then again it could all be just a coincidence. He moved to the foot locker shaky on his feet still and did what he was told and move on from there. It seemed as though others were confused with the situation as well and doing the same thing as him.

Sidney made no attempts to talk with anyone else instead keeping himself as low profile as he could as the group assembled in the next area a man walked out infront of them and offered up a little bit more direction. As the view screen popped on he watched as things were explained to them. 'How kind of you to join us' Hardly a willful thing 'how kind of you to kidnap us.' Sidney thought. He listend on as the insainity began. They were actually serious about this. No escape it seemed was about all the rules they had. Unfortunatly for them that is exactly what Sidney would be doing. He would be getting himself out of this mess.

When they were finally told to stand Sidney did so and walked with them. As the gate opened and everyone began to rush off. Sidney on the other hand began to observe the surroundings and look for a weak point in the place. That was until they fired upon the people below and Sidney decided it was time to keep playing along, for now. He rushed out behind the crowd of people and just ahead of the last stragglers. He wasn't going to be the next victim. Once he was safely away he would look in the bag and see what supplies he was given to work with then he would ave to find a few others and figure out what they know.

[Onas Knox]

Onas made his way into the woods and found a quiet spot on the edge of a clearing to sit for a moment. His eye was still bleeding badly, that was his first priority. He took the extra pair of socks he had relieved his quarry of, and tied them into a first rate band, then he slipped it over his cut. It certianly wasn't great first aid, but it would have to do for now. In the clearing beyond, it was starting allready.

People were fighting each other over nothing. Scraps of food, and maybe a pint of water. It was insane to think people could be paniked this easily. Onas wouldn't be staying, regardless of how "Ill Dilablo" felt about it. He just wanted out of here.

Nearby him, a woman screamed, she cried out against an attacker, telling him to take whatever he wanted. It made Onas sick. Then there was a great snapping sound, and he didn't hear her again. He breathed deep, looking at the ground. His homeade bandage was allready thickly soaked with blood. A scream came from the field, some guy had just bought the farm, the victor was going through some kind of rucksack. As he was looking, he saw another in his peripheral. It was only a mear tweenty or so feet from him. Onas slipped to his feet and looked around, no one was near him. He took off out of the bushes and ran for the bag, a stick or arrow or something wissed by him, a zipping whistle sound burning off whatever it was. Must have been a hard throw. Onas caught up the bag in a smooth motion, and turned towards the closest trees he could find.

Whoever saw him was on his tail, now he needed to shake them. It wasn't the first time he'd had to run in his life, But he'd never been in a forrest before, maybe all those books he'd read about adventures, and shows he'd seen about survivers would finnaly pay off...

[Clairabella Corinth]

Clairabella Woke up from whatever had happened to her. She had been back on Persephone having spent some time working with Onas. She remember someone requesting her to come to a meeting about some sort of work. She of course went along and that was the last thing she remember.

Now she was in hospital scrubs but not in a hospital. There were voices telling her to do something. At first she didn't understand but as reality began to set in so did fear. She was scared and didn't know where she was. He first reaction was to run but there was no where to run to. It was then she realized she needed to listen to what she was being told for her safety.

She followed the orders she was given and changed in to the close stored in the foot locker and grabbed the bag from it and proceeded along the path. She found herself with a cluster of people and again a voice telling her what she needed to do. It seemed like some sort of game, but what kind of crazy game is this where they are killing people.

When they asked them all to stand she did as she was asked but tears began to steam down her face. When the starting pistol was fired she took off from the gate nearly at the front of the pack. She didn't know where she was really going or what to be doing except stay alive. Fights began to brake out between people and she kept running.

A man running near her smashed in to her sending her flying to the ground. She quickly sprung back to her feet. Her backpack having fallen off the one shoulder it was on. She didn't stop for it, the man who had smashed in to her had already move to grab it. Instead she just began to run till she got to the treeline. There she tucked herself in to the bushes and watched as people charged on past. She was surrounded by people yet very alone she could feel herself trembling from the fear. She would hide here while the crowds past then get her thoughts together and figure out what to do.

[Friedrich Hoffman]

Freidrich ran out of the gate and quickly ducked away from the man crush of people. It wouldn't do any good to sprint headlong into God knows what lay in wait out there. Friedrich was the type to be calm and collected so he'd proceed in that manner. He'd move with a plan, observe his surroundings, and use caution to survive. Luck and adrenaline could only get you so far, most likely a quick trip to a shallow grave.

As he took a moment to take in the surroundings, the machinist caught glimpse of someone in the crowd. So far everyone had been a stranger to him, and they appeared to be in a similar situation with each other, a completely random assortment of unaffiliated people from across the 'Verse. But here was a man that he recognized... or at least thought he did. "He!" Friedrich called out. "Mah-yor!"

The man didn't hear him in the chaos or at least he didn't recognize and process the German accent calling out to him. Thus, Friedrich rejoined the others in their flight and headed toward the man in the most non-threatening sprint he could manage. "Mahjor Bainbridge!" He again called out as he got close. Yes, indeed this looked like the man he'd served under in that POW camp a decade ago, probably one of the few people he could trust.

[He - Hey (Actually pronounced very much like "hey/hay")
Mah-yor - Major (actually spelled Major in the German but pronounced differently hence my phonetic spelling. Mahjor is his correcting his word but the accent still coming through)]

[Sidney Bainbridge]

SIdney looked through the rucksack for what supplies it helled he had a days worth of water at best, some food rations maybe a few days if he stretched it out and the cloths on his back. He would need to figure out water first it was the most vital to have.

He looked at his surroundings, there were people fighting amoungst each other for the little supplies they had people were dying for no real reason other then fear. There would come a time that survival may become a fight but that time was not now, not yet.

It was then that Sidney heard an odd voice one that caried an accent, a heavy German accent one that he had heard before. When the man came in to view he seemed familiar but Sidney didn't place it right away. It wasn't till he had closed the gap with Sidney thet he knew it was CPL Hoffman, or atleast that is what Sidney Rembered him as.

"Hoffman." Sidney replied to the man jumping up from his position and running to him and taking him by the collar of his shirt and pulling him back down to a low position. "Good to see you, what the hell is going on here?" He asked of him, he didn't expect him to know but there was the chance that he remembered more then Sidney did, that he had a better understanding of things, that is if Sidney could understand him. He always had a bit of trouble understanding the thick accent.

"Look Hoffman we need to find water first thing then we can deal with figuring out how to get out of this place." He told him quietly he had seen what they did with the last person who tried to escape and the last thing he wanted tow as to alert anyone to his intent at this point.

[Friedrich Hoffman]

Freidrich ducked low and followed Sidney as he led to cover. Luckily the man not only recognized him but remembered his name too. Then been through hell together, it only seemed right that the officer remembered one of his men, particularly one that stood out from the rest like German speaking Hoffman.

"Ich habe keine Ahnung. Mir fällt nichts ein." he hurriedly replied. "Ich war auf Boros, dann bin ich hier. Ich kenne niemand aber Sie. Das ist ein Schlamassel. Was ist los?" It took a moment for Friedrich to translate the blank look from Sidney into the realization that he'd been speaking completely in German, something he tended to do when the adrenaline was really pumping. He'd need to really slow down if he was to effectively communicate.

"I am as lost as you, sir." he finally managed to say after he'd taken a few deep breaths to calm himself. "And very pleased to see you as vell." With Sidney issuing orders about water, Friedrich indicated to his pack. "I have a second set of rations." he reported. It didn't really change their predicament but it was important for the other man to know that they had a little bit more than just one day's worth each... now they had one and a half each. Friedrich moved from his more relaxed and resting posture to one indicating he was ready to move out on the Major's orders.


[Ich habe keine Ahnung. - I have no idea.
Mir fällt nichts ein. - I have no idea (again) but more like I don't know what is occurring.
Ich war auf Boros, dann bin ich hier. - I was on Boros and then I'm here.
Ich kenne niemand aber Sie. - I don't know/recognize anyone but you (a formal "you" since he's his officer).
Das ist ein Schlamassel. - This is a mess/shitstorm/"-up"/literally just translates to "stew".
Was ist los? - What's up/what's happening/what's the trouble/what's wrong]

[Clairabella Corinth]

A few minutes passed and Clairabella wiped the tears from her eyes and got her wits about her, she had to do something before someone found her. She looked out from her hiding spot trying to figure out where the best place to go was. there was an area that many people were rushing to that would be the last place for her to go.

It was best to avoid the crowds and get her mind back in order and decide on how to proceed. It was then that she noticed someone go by just in front of her. It was someone she recognized or at least thought she had recognized. The figure looked like that of Onas. She knew she could trust him, ever sence the night at the bar she had learned he was a trust worthy person. Over the weeks following that they had grown to know each other as friends. Onas had even helped him out a time or two during that time. In fact he had her work with him on a few jobs along the way. He would be her best chance out here two people would surely be better then one alone.

Just as she ready to pop out from her hiding spot and go after him a group of people ran by chasing him. She recoiled back in to her spot and waited as they passed only to take off after them when she was in the clear. She circled around sprinting at a pace she felt like her lungs would explode from but she wasn't going to lose them or Onas.

She sprinted along as the trees got thicker and thicker almost to a point that one couldn't run through them but somehow she contiuned to run anyway. She swung out wide trying to avoid them and get passed to Onas, but by the time she got around they split off as well and a second group swung passed just in front of her. She took the chance to push closer to Onas and cought up just as a pair of the people had Onas surrounded.

They were moving in on him and began their attack quickly. Clair leeped out from the tree line planting a fist to the back of the first ones head. It had gotten his attention and drew him on to her. He swung back around to strike at her and she pushed the hit to glance past her arm.

[Onas Knox]

Onas ran into the wood line and crashed through several branches, each heavy branch seemed to contain a million thistely daggers. Onas came out the other side of the branches falling, he rolled back up to his feet, and cut left. He could hear them bellowing, "Get him!" and several crashes as the group continued after him. It was like a nightmare!

He turned again and darted around a large tree, stopping only for a second to dump what he had into the ruck, zip it shut, and fling the rucksack over his shoulders. He snapped the clip closed, and looked up to pick a direction, but he only got one foot down when a man tore around the tree at him. Onas dropped a heavy foot into the ground, and cut compleatly around one hundred eighty degrees, sprinting in the other direction. His lungs filled with burning ice cold air. He was no slouch, but this wasn't his kind of endurance, being a heavy smoker all his life might finnaly get him killed today. Not by lung cancer, but by a bunch of sheep, mauling each other to death over nothing!

He jumped over a low hanging branch, and grabbed another that was almost chest level, swinging off it keeping his momentum. He heard a pumeling sound behind him, it seemed one of his pursuers didn't have his reflexes. Onas cut around another tree, and through some buses, turning through them to push his way along. The shourt sleeves offered no protection against the bushes, and Onas would not have belived how much they could hurt, or how easily they could cut. He had bruises still from weeks past, but this wasn't the time to fret over them.

He pounded his feet as hard as he could, and reached a small depression, without thinking, he jumped over the edge, and slid down the hill on his left thigh. When he reached the end of the five meter rampage, he planted his right foot and thrusted up back into a sprint. The group behind him didn't follow him directly, He heard them shout to split up, and he thought spastically that he might escape them by hiding.

He ducked under a great fallen tree, and leaned against it, hoping they would pass. They did not, two of them came around the corner, and all three took a second to breath heavily, Onas was coughing. The first ordered him to drop the bag, but the second said to just kill him.

"Hold on, just take it. Here," Onas offered raggedly.

Just as he went to unclip the rucksack, the very last thing he expected happened. A woman burst forth from nowhere, and knocked the holy hell out of the one would said for them to just kill him. Onas didn't wait for an invitation. He lurched at the other man, and slammed his fist into the guy's throat. One good shot, and the guy was flailing. You would laugh if you knew the action Onas had seen, and how easily he took this man. Onas didn't relent, he crashed his kneecap into the mans stomach, and then flipped his leg around the guy's foot, pressing his chest, and forcing him off his feet. Once he had him on the ground, Onas tried to choke him, but the guy wasn't done, he grabbed Onas' eye socet, the bleeding one. Onas knocked his arm away, the man gripping and pulling the makeshift bandage away with it. Oj wrenched his head back with his left hand, and smashed the brutes throat again and again, untill he stopped moving.

Onas hadn't killed many men before. He was sick, and didn't have the stomach for such things. This wasn't the time. He suppresed the anxiaty, and turned to whatch the back of a woman who finished off her man with finese. She turned to him, and he stared in disbelief.

"Bella?"

Onas stared at her only a second more, the rest of the party had caught up with them. Onas jumped up to his feet, and ran past Bella grabbing her hand, "Come on!"

What in the Verse was going on here?

[Sidney Bainbridge]

Sidney looked on to Hoffman with a blank stare as he tried to explain things to him in German. Sidney came close to saying something a few times but didn't know exactly what to say. He was bad enough with words and when it was something he couldn't understand he was baffled.

Finally he awitched back to english and gave him what he knew which was basicly the same as Sidney knew, nothing. Sidney nodded to state he understood and was ready to move on from here. The added suppies that Hoof had would be of use but only carry them so far. They were now off to secure more water. It seemed the packs had an emty canteen in them each that could be filled and add to their reserves. That would mean an extra three days of water for them and that would hold them off for some time.

"Alright on my lead we move Hoffman." Sidney told him as he looked around to see where people were heading. Sidney then looked around the ground a little for anything that he could use to their advantage. There wasn't much to take in other then a few fallen branchs. Nothing that would be of help. Shortly though he would need to get some sort of weapon going. If nothing else a stick in the proper shape could be fashioned in to a spear of sorts but that would come later down the road.

Sidney stood up and spoke to Hoffman. "Move, now." He stated as he took off and began his sprint he moved towad where the others were heading but kept from following directly it would be better to travel along the fringe of where they all were and look for a chance to gain supplies along the way. They would need to listne for running water as well so they could fill those canteen.

[Clairabella Corinth]

Clair fought on with the man as Onas dealt with the other man. Onas had quickly taken care of his fight as Clair fought on. The man she was fighting sent a second punch flying her direction wildly. She quickly grabbed it out of the air evading the hit and wrapping his arm around behind him locking him up for only a second before she pushe him away sending a boot to the back of his head.

The hit made him stagger to his knee leaving Clair to his back and able to strike again. She wrapped her arm around the mans neck trying to chock off his airway. She could feel him weakening but not quickly enough. He was able to throw her over his shoulder and on to her back. As he gained the upper hand he climbed on top of her and pinned one of her arms and used the other forearm to try and chock her out.

She struggled to get herself free just as Onas finished the other man off for good. She could see black in the corners of her vision the man was winning and would soon have her passed out. Her left hand scrabled around the ground grabbing a rock and slamming it to the side of his head sending him tumbling to the ground, out cold.

She jumped back to her feet and gave the man one last kick for good measure then turned to Onas. "Onas!" She exclaimed as Onas approched her. It was then that the rest of them apperared and Onas grabbed her hand and pulled her along with him. They wouldn't be able to keep fighting forever and they had to get out of there before it was to late. She ran along side him as quickly as she could "Whats going on?" She asked as they ran again through more trees.

[Onas Knox]

Onas ran with Bella, zipping past trees, and jumping over branches. He hurdled down another small decline, and paused at the bottom to wait for Bella, she hit the ground running, and he jumped in beside her.

"What's going on?" She asked through quick breaths.

"I don't know..." He breathed heavily, "Some pyshco want's to kill everybody." Onas took chance to look back at their pursuit, they were still being chased, at least six people not very far back. Maybe a two hundred yards. It looked like they might have been falling behind though, Onas pushed harder and added with a choking couph, "He might not have to!"

As they ran, Onas began to hear the sounds of running water, his first reaction was joy, if they could dive into a fast moving river, they could swim with the current until they were safe.

"Can you swim?" He asked through ragged breaths. But Claira never had to answer him, as they pushed through the next set of branches, they saw what the river was. It was fast flowing all right, and white rapids slammed over rock after rock! There was no way to swim that, it would kill them. Onas looked up river, it was no good, all up hill and a nasty climb to boot. He looked down river, but there were to many trees to know what was ahead. The river was much louder further in that direction. He pointed downstream and said, "Come on, we'll take our chances."

He led her back into the brush just enough so that they couldn't be seen from the shoreline. They ran to the first big mess of tree limbs, and Onas turned his shoulder into them at full speed, crashing through the limbs, and out into the opening beyond. The limbs wern't full of briars like before, and for that small bit of luck, Onas was gratefull. He checked on Bella, and then heard the sounds of their pursuers. He grabbed her hands, and pulled her through the rest of the thicket, and when she got back to her feet, he sprinted to the next brances. They wernt like the others, it wasn't dozens of tightly packed brances, it was one large branch, with big leaves like a green umbrella. If he hadn't been in fear for his life, it might have been a nice place to walk.

Onas yanked the branch out of his way in full sprint, he only just looked back to Bella to scream "Come on," when what he saw beyond registered. He skidded to a halt on the balls of his feet, dust on the massive rock kicking up. As he stopped, he jumped at Bella and caught her in his arms, yanking her to a spinning halt next to him. Once she was stopped and looking, he turned back to the titanic scene before him.

It was a precipice, a cliff! They'd nearly ran off of it. Further down than he wanted to imagine. And the roaring sound was that of a the river diving over it in a massive wasterfall, thirty feet wide. A lake ran out from the bottom of the falls, and a huge sun hovered in the afternoon sky. A planet standing awesome in it's glory, with no concern for the people it did little to comfort. Onas slowly took in a wavering breath, speechless at their predicament. His chest was pounding like a freight train at his loss of breath.

Behind them, the shouts of their quarry, "They went this way." Onas burned with rage at this unbelievable day. He searched for another way, looking frantically in all directions, Bella looked as well, but it was hopeless. The rock they were standing on was a baren drop, no way to be scaled. He hated heights, but there was no other way. He looked at Clairabella, his eyes betraying his fear.

"We have to jump!"

[Clairabella Corinth]

Onas took off like a buck running from a hunter there wasn't anything big enough to stop him. Clairabella did everything she could to keep up but it was a hard task to do. Luckily for her he was clearing the way so she could follow close behind.

Their pursuers were not far behind them as they went along. She slide down a slope behind him barely catching her feet under herself. Onas quickly snagged her up and got her to her feet and they were off again. She could hear the sound of water not far off from them as they carried on through the wood pushing through branch after branch.

Finally they came to a river, Clairs mind had been in the same place as Onas' they could use the river to their advantage but when she saw it, it seemed that was less likely. She still had the tought of jumping in and trying to swim through it. It would have been brutal but maybe, just maybe they could have survived it but Onas had other plans taking off down stream and down hill from where they were. She chased after at full speed as they made their way through more trees.

As they moved in to a clearing Onas grabbed her and stopped her from going futher There was a cliff and with out him she would have run right off of it. Her first thought was to loop back around and see if they could get to the bottom but that was quickly cut off by the group of people now right up on them.

She looked to Onas, even before he said anything she could tell what he was thinknig she could see it in his eyes, they were going toh ave to jump. Then he confirmed her thoughts on it. Clair was plenty brave, or some might say stupid but she was willing to give it a try. There was plenty of fear in her eyes too. She took Onas hand and spoke to him


"Wait, Onas what if we die from it." She said to him trying to keep back her fears from showing.

"We die if we stay, we gotta jump." Onas replied to her as he looked back to the group behind them. Clair paused for a second looking at the groun then at the cliff, then finally at Onas. They both moved forward to jump, the group moved forward on them now not far at all. "Wait," Clair pulled herself in close to him and wrapped an arm around him. Standing on her toes she leaned in and kissed him, holding it for just a moment. If this was going to be her finaly moments she wanted it to be something to remember before it ended.

"Ok, I'm ready." She said with a smile then she pulled him forward with her and went sailing off the cliff. The fall was as if it was in slow motion. As they crested the top of the cliff she could feel the spray of water along her back Her eye were wide open though all she could think in her mind at that moment was'Close your eyes Clair close your eyes.'

Looking out as she went down she could see the lake below her, at least they weren't going to hit rocks or at least she hoped. The tree tops surrounding thw water fall were like a blanket of green stretching as far as the eyes could see.

She felt the cold water splashing against her as they now were nearly half way down the water fall and they seemed dangerously close to the rock face. Clair let out a scream now that she finally felt like she had filled her lungs with air on the way down. Her hand still wrapped aroudn his as they fell her knuckles now turning white from holding so tightly and the last thing she wanted to do was let go of him to be alone in all this fear.

Finally her feet broke the tension of the water and like a cannon the water splashed up around her and she was surrounded by bubbles and freezing cold water as they sunk futher and further in to the water. It was then that she relized she had lost her grip on his hand and she paniced as she begun to kick and paddle with her arms to get to the surface. She could feel herself churning in the water from the falls itself pushing her around like a leaf in the wind.

(Onas and Clairabella are moved to Out of the Frying Pan... at this point)

[Friedrich Hoffman]

Friedrich nodded at the preparatory command and closely followed when Sidney took off. They seemed of a like mind for Sidney moved deliberately and quickly. He kept out of sight as much as possible and although they were close to others, he was clearly avoiding direct contact.

The machinist really couldn't believe his good fortune in running into Sidney of all people. Friedrich's only experience that would ever really be applicable here was his war experience, particularly the more finesse assignment with the 217 over the previous brute strength approach of a regular line unit. All the muscle memory seemed to wash back of him as he fell in line and moved with a soldier's proficiency.

Speaking of which, after they'd been running for a while, Friedrich noticed the number on Sidney's chest. 217 "Lustig." He said to his companion in-between breaths as he continued to run. "Vhat are ze odds you get zat? ... our battalion." It wasn't really the best of times to chat but it was quite the coincidence.

[Lustig - Funny]