Cruel Country: Escape

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Mark and Sofia encounter some trouble...

Red light wrapped around Mark in a cocoon of energy, ricocheting bullets off him as he and Sofia ran down the narrow and dimly lit corridor. They'd drawn the fire towards them and away from Doug and Angie, but that had the unfortunate consequence of keeping them from running for their lives the hell away from Uganda. "Are we gonna find and exit or do we have to blast our way through?" he asked Sofia, already panting for the exertion.

"It's just not a mission unless we blow something up," Sofia answered as they rounded a corner. She turned, her boots squeaking in protest against the sudden halt, and her open palm, fingers outstretched, sneaked back around, to send an icy gust of wind against their chasers. They tumbled back, landing with hard thumps on the concrete, and she actually smiled a little at Mark when she caught up with him. "If anyone asks, this portion of the building mysteriously had no doors."

"Leave it to me." Mark rubbed his hands together and quickly changed the track from classical to Mötley Crüe. The force field shimmered and vanished almost instantly, the energy redirected into crackling balls of plasma in his hands. " Vámonos," he said and prepared to blow a lifesized hole in the wall.

The plasma sizzled and extinguished a second later, leaving a very confused and increasingly panicking Mark.

"Apparently Vámonos is not very happy with you at the moment," she said, both flicking a curl of quick air against their attackers and shoving Mark to the side. A bullet imbedded into the wall at the back of her neck; right under his ear a moment ago. "Try again."

Mark fell to the ground with a muffled "oof!", and he immediately rolled to the side so he could reach into his pocket to pull out his iPod. The screen was blank. A stream of obscenities flowed from his mouth as he pressed play and the screen briefly lit with a message reminding him to recharge the device. "Uh, Sofia? I'm out of juice."

There was a beat and Sofia sighed. "This is going to end badly, isn't it?"

"Yep."


...Remy and Sarah try to draw some of the enemy soldiers to the north...

Sarah and Remy moved north through the city, taking a circuitutious route through the streets and over the roofs. The needed to get clear of the city, pulling the bulk of the pursuers with them. There was little communication between them, both knowing that it was possible that they'd be paying for time for the others to get clear with their lives.

Remy motioned to the right, and they cut over a low wall and up against a motor pool. Five dusty military jeeps stood idle, close to the small local garrison. The military was providing assistance to the lab security, obviously an agreement between the government and the lab ownership.

"Oh fuck."

Sarah only had a moment to glance back at Remy before the doors of the Jeeps flew open, and the heavily armed passengers stepped out. "Any brilliant plans before we go with 'hit everything that moves?'"

"Keep quiet." Remy said, drifting up against the wall. There was a scuffle as the soldiers sorted themselves out into groups and moved out. Obviously there was an effort to cover the city. Remy held up two fingers, keeping them both frozen as they started to move away from the jeeps.

"We take de jeep on de end. If we quick, we can grab it before dey know we here."

Sarah nodded, following carefully behind him. She was used to skulking around, but normally there was some sort of shadow to take advantage of. Out here, she just had to pretend to be part of the wall. The wall
she didn't look very much like a part of. She just hoped their peripheral vision wasn't all that great.

Remy crept off to the one side, and motioned her. Sarah would be best to get the driver, as he fiented around the other side, drawing a stack of cards and preparing to disable the other jeeps if they were noticed.

Sarah already had a bone in hand, this one sharp and jagged. She ducked down out of sight of the rear mirror, coming up just under the open window. Lashing out, she slit the driver's neck quickly, a thick angry gash.

Remy clicked open his side, sneaking a look into the jeep. It was outfited for country patrol, which meant there would be supplies. He was starting to ease up, when he caught the yell. Looking out past the other jeeps, he saw the unit commander yelling at them, while a white man in a black suit pointed directly at them.

"Merde, dey got us tagged." Remy leaned out, and threw three card, the charged objects slamming into the extra petrol cans at the back of the jeeps, and setting off a chain of explosions. "Go!"

Sarah slammed her foot on the gas, and the jeep lurched forward into motion. She didn't figure this was the best time to remind him that she didn't actually know how to drive. When you're about to be dead, anybody makes a good getaway driver. "What the fuck do we do now? If they've got us tagged, they'll just follow us around until we run out of gas."

"Dat's de plan. Turn left!" Remy grabbed on to the roll bar, as the jeep lurched to the side. "We going to pull dem north, outside of de city. I want dem following us as far north as we get. We'll take 'nother out in de countryside." Assuming that her driving didn't get them both killed.


...While Wanda and Amanda escape, only to have to split up.

In the distance sirens wailed, drawing closer, and two figures pressed themselves flat against the wall of the building, trying to lose themselves in the shadow. Fortunately, the noise continued on, the security vehicles zooming past in a cloud of dust and swirling papers. The shorter of the two figures peered out cautiously around the corner.

"Gone for now," Amanda said, her tone indicating this was to be only a temporary respite. "And there's the phone over there. You said you had someone you could call?"

"Yes, I think they may have someone we can go to for help," Wanda responded, looking out over Amanda's head before striding out into the street. "We cannot seem to shake the bastards yet but I doubt they'll have hotwired every ratty looking pay phone in the city." When they reached it, she let out the breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding. Things had gone badly before but never quite like this. She fished out enough money in change to be able to place the call, leaving Amanda to watch the street for signs of life.

Biting her lip, Amanda kept to the shadows and scanned the street in both directions. They'd used every trick both of them knew, and some they'd made up on the spot, and still their pursuers kept tracking them down. It was almost like they were wearing neon signs saying "Here we are" or something. They were hot, tired, thirsty and the growing daylight meant they were going to stick out even more amongst the general population - Amanda had already tied her hair back and covered it with a scrap of cloth she'd 'liberated' along the way, wearing it like a bandana in a futile attempt to make herself a little less noticeable. She was practically the polar opposite of your typical Ugandan. "Come on, come on..." she muttered, her foot tapping out a nervous tattoo.

While the call was taking an incredibly long time to patch through, Wanda reached over and briefly squeezed Amanda's shoulder reassuringly before turning back to the phone. Finally, she breathed a sigh of relief and then winced. "Yes, yes, I know what time it is," she hissed into the phone and then winced again, the voice on the other end of the phone shouting now. "No, no...just shut it and listen." There was silence. "I need a favor, just listen now...and yes, I know I will owe you a very large favor..." Leaving out the hows, whys and nearly everything else, she finally got across what she needed.

"Doesn't sound like the mate's too cooperative..." Amanda said, sotto voce. She had faith in Wanda's powers of conviction, however, and tried to focus on them not being ambushed. There was a rumble of an engine at the other end of the street, and she tensed, only relaxing slightly as an overloaded truck crawled past along the cross street.

There was a small snort in response and another few more tense minutes of haggling before Wanda hung up the phone. "I only had to promise her my soul," she said with a tired grin, "but we have..." The words died off as she squinted, staring down the street they had come from. "I thought I heard something." Both of them tensed as the sound of running started to echo off the walls of the buildings, heavy footsteps that were coming towards them. "Of course I heard something."

Wanda reached out and grabbed Amanda by the shoulders. "We're splitting up," she said. "Let us make it a little harder for them to catch us, yes? I need you to make your way to an airfield run by a man named Colonel Cecil Walkerton-Smythe, about half an hour east from here. And, Amanda, listen to me carefully. If I am not there when you get arrive, tell him Agatha Harkness sent you and that he is to get you to Egypt posthaste. From there, you will be able to get home."

"But..." Amanda began to protest, but she knew that look. "Fine. But we'll wait until sunset tonight for you. I'm not taking off without you, boss lady." There was a shout, and a group of soldiers appeared around the corner, and the witch reached out and patted Wanda's forearm briefly. "Be careful out there, yeah?" she said, before turning and sprinting for the other end of the street.

"You as well," Wanda murmured, shooting her retreating form a worried look. But until they met up again, they were on their own. Worry was all well and good when she was safe and sound but until then, she had to concentrate on avoiding what had so far turned out to be unavoidable enemies. Amanda could take care of herself just as Wanda could take care of her own self. The older woman ducked down a dark alley way as the footsteps got louder.

Worry, later. For now, run.