บท 9: Chapter 9: A Way Out
"Are we going now?" the red-eyed girl asked, after making sure to fasten the cloth she had on, tighter than before.
Rye wanted to shake her head and respond that they would wait for the older woman and the unconscious young lady to go first but one looked in their direction and it was clear that the other side had the same idea.
Not wanting to waste any more time than they already did, Rye got on her feet with a scared and worried expression on her face as she darted forward, in the opposite direction of the entrance.
"What's your name?" Rye asked as she moved as quickly as she could, listening to the heavy sound of breathing of the woman behind her.
"Emily!" Emily gasped her gaze wandering between Rye who continued to move further away from the entrance and the entrance itself.
"Aren't we going to wait close to the entrance?"
"No. We're going to find somewhere good to hide. The moment the intruders retreat, we'll follow them!" Rye replied, with a deep frown on her face.
She wasn't exactly sure of the plan she came up with at the last moment but somehow she felt that it was the only other viable option they had.
"But-but I thought we all agreed to move closer to the entrance," Emily continued to speak as she followed closely behind Rye, who instantly scoffed without looking back.
"Do you think the other team is following the plan? They would only follow the plan of we willing to allow themselves to be bait. Look around! Any human in plain sight is being picked up!" Rye responded moving down the stairs and farther away from the main entrance.
Emily looked back and was surprised to see that it was indeed true and the other team had no intention of leaving their hiding spot.
"What now?" Emily asked with a heavy tone of fear in her voice the moment they got downstairs where there were more Reds, and the fight was more intense.
"Figure it out!" Rye snapped getting annoyed at the multiple questions she had been bombarded with without rest.
"Think a little, will you? Am I supposed to think for the both of us?" Rye hissed in the lowest whisper she could after realizing that her voice might have been a little loud.
With the sharp hearing of a Red, it was already a miracle that none cared enough to move closer to them.
Emily didn't say a word after that, but she nodded, realizing that the more they talked the more attention they could draw to themselves.
"For now, we wait. We'll wait for the right time. If it never comes then I guess we'll just have to leave it up to fate," Rye whispered in the lowest tone she could muster at that moment with her back towards Emily.
In her eyes was a fierce determination that transcended her need for safety.
At that moment, Rye already decided that just in case the situation was unfavorable, she would rather be killed than have a master named Magnimus.
Seconds ticked by pretty quickly as Rye stood watching and waiting, the frown on her face grew deeper than before as she watched things slowly get worse.
The intruders weren't outrightly losing but at the same time, they didn't have an edge over the Reds who were hard to injure and easily recovered from the smallest wounds.
'Why did they come here if they couldn't win? To rescue the slaves? Maybe they're some sort of rebel organization,' Rye thought feeling her heart race in her chest at the thought that she needed to act.
The intruders were being pushed out, and it soon became obvious that the Reds were winning.
Her eyes slowly followed them, especially the leader whom she found difficult to take her eyes off.
Not once had she seen a Red hurt him. Even Magnimus was toyed with in his hands.
'Is he human?' she wondered, her mouth dropping open slightly in shock as she watched him effortlessly kill another red without flinching.
"I'll clear the way! Get down and get as many people as you can!" He ordered in a loud voice and Rye watched his men do exactly as he said.
They ran forward and entered the underground staircase without a moment's hesitation as a group, leaving their leader in the hands of all the Reds in the building.
"Can he fight off that many people on his own? Is he risking his life just to save slaves?" Emily asked from behind Rye where she bent with her knees almost touching the floor.
"I don't know!" Rye responded with a deep look of concern on her face.
The thought that someone would do such a righteous thing for an opportunity to save more people made her in a different light.
The fighting was intense as the loud ringing of swords clashing against swords rang in her ears. She couldn't follow their movements but the afterimage they left behind left her in awe, as she watched her throw every one of them back with minimal effort.
'He's good!' Rye thought to herself, her attention completely lost in a fight only to feel a hard jerk on her arm from behind.
"A--A Red!" Emily half screamed half whispered in her ears, jumping up and running as fast as she could in the opposite direction, a few steps away from Rye.
Rye jerked back and felt nothing but Horror as she watched a clearly wounded red with half his arm sliced and dangling off, shift his gaze from Emily and fix it firmly on her.
Rye didn't think. She didn't presume to have been mistaken. The very next moment she turned around and bolted forward straight into the center of the battle.
At that moment she didn't care about Emily, and somewhere in the deepest part of her heart, she desperately wished that he caught Emily and not her.
At that point, she realized how selfish she was, as she ran as hard as she could without looking back.
Looking around, no one could save her and unless she was willing to physically shove someone to the Red to protect herself, she had no choice but to run towards the entrance.
Just to confirm how bad her luck was, she had just gotten to the midst of the battle, at the edge of it trying to run past when she saw a Red turn to fix his red stormy eyes on her.
It was Magnimus and he didn't hesitate to dash in front of her to catch her.
Rye shut her eyes tightly closed and prepared to feel his hands on her only to feel her feet continue to dash forward. She had just popped her eyes open, glancing back when she saw the leader of the intruders standing in front of Magnimus stopping him from reaching her.
A faint smile instantly appeared on Rye's face eternally grateful to the masked leader of the intruders whom she couldn't see.
Knowing better than to stand and continue to stare at someone who had already continued fighting, Rye turned around and ran straight towards the entrance.
She didn't stop until she was completely out of the building, shocked to look around at the completely deserted environment around her.
"Wa-wait for me!" Emily gasped from behind, causing Rye to instantly swerve around to stare at the woman she had assumed became Red Food.
"Yeah, I'm surprised I'm alive too! The Red suddenly stopped chasing me and headed for another slave that was closer to him," Emily explained as she worked hard to catch her breath.
"Where are we going? We can continue running north for the lights we see in the distance," Emily said walking closer until she stood right beside Rye.
"From what I've seen we're not on Earth anymore. There's no police that'll help us. What if we come across another Red!"
"Yeah, we'll just become slaves again or worse...'
"I'm going to wait for the intruders to come out. They ruined the auction and attacked the Reds. Their leader also seems to be a human," Rye pointed out stating her intention to wait until they were done.
She had no intention of dragging Emily along because if what happened, happened again she couldn't promise that she would be of any help.
'I want to get back to my family and I'm sure she wants the same thing. What's stopping her from doing the same thing to me' Rye thought recalling how Emily had been the first to spot the Red and had instantly dashed behind her.
"Then I'll wait with you," Emily instantly responded. There was no way she was running into a strange city by herself.
Moreover, what neither of them mentioned was that by staying together, the probability of their survival increased by 50%.
Surprisingly they didn't have to wait outside for long before they heard the leader's voice echo from inside the building.
"Move out! There's nothing here!"
Rye didn't care what he meant all she cared about was meeting him. Inch by inch she moved closer to the entrance of the building she had escaped from.
Shocked to see all the Reds tied up, with huge burns on some of their faces. It was so bad that for a second, Rye imagined that she had stepped into the wrong place.
"Burns? Was there a fire?" Emily's high-pitched voice from behind her was enough to snap Rye from the slight daze she found herself in, as she watched the intruders, treat their wounds and count their dead.
There was a deep sort of tension in the air as she felt the anger wafting off some of them as they glared at the Reds their leader had chosen to tie up instead of kill.
Rye was also confused about why the Reds were still alive but chose to focus on speaking to the leader instead, whom she slowly approached.
He wasn't wounded but in his hands was a small transparent bottle, with a substance which he applied on the face of one of his men.
The pieces of clothes on their face masked their appearance but the closer she stood to him, the more convinced Rye was that the leader was an extremely attractive man.
"You're human aren't you?" Rye asked even before she introduced herself. She couldn't see any horns on his forehead and with how strong he was, she found it hard to believe that he was a Santor, with clipped wings.
"Your eyes--"
"What do you want human?" she heard him snap at her in a deep tone, one that both amazed her and scared her by how cold it sounded.
One that dripped with condescension, unlike the image of the righteous savior and leader she had painted in her mind.
"Ehm--, you saved us right?" Rye asked feeling her self-esteem take a bigger blow as she heard instant laughter echo from around her the second she was done speaking.
It was from the men around her who were still wrapping their wounds and carrying the bodies of their dead teammates.
Rye frowned, pissed at the response she got about to say more when Magnimus who was among the one that had been tied up, open his mouth to speak directly to her.
"You are my possession! You'll be a fool to follow--" but the words had barely escaped his mouth with Rye's attention on his, when she felt a slight wind blow past her.
The next thing she heard was a loud crack as the leader appeared in front of Magnimus. He raised the pommel of his smashed it directly into his face.
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