The Runner

**Mobyias** · 12/12/2007 20:25:23

The Runner
By: Mobyias

    "That's it, you're in." said the Operator, as he finished punching in the final Co-ordinates for The Runner, "..that's as close as I can get you." The Runner made a quick glance at the endless row of doors behind him, and gave a small chuckle. "They're not making this easy on us, are they?" he joked. "It's a pretty tough encryption, one of the hardest I've ever seen. But considering what we're after, it's probably not going to be getting any easier," commented The Operator, with a sigh of anxiety, "Remember, don't let your guard down.", "I know, I know. These guys aren't anything to mess with. You don't need tell me twice." The Runnner retorted, as he patched in his final defenses. "Oh right, and one last thing. these arn't the normal Sentry gaurds. they've been upgraded... a lot. Far more than we expected." The Operator informed. The Runner was upset with the lack of confidence his Operator was showing him but not surprised, the danger was very real.

    The Runner bent down, taking his stance, and closed his eyes to analyze the precise distance in his head. It was far. The distance was discouraging, and adrenaline began to fill his body. He knew the danger, but he also knew what success would mean for his cause. It was a heavy task, and it meant a lot to him that he was chosen for it. The thought of failure passed through his mind as he began to control his breathing pattern. Failure was not an option. He opened his eyes, and touched his ear piece one last time to signal that he was ready. The skin tight body suit he wore supplied a nuerological sedative to keep his muscles from locking during his flight, and it suddenly felt even tighter than it had before. he prepared him self one last time. He concentrated on his goal, focused on his obstacles, and freed his mind of his worries and with one last breath, he opened his eyes, and took off down the Hallway.

    He was moving fast. it felt good, he set himself to an easy and quick pace as he began to sprint down his Route. He began to feel confident again. He felt as if he could take on the world right here and now. He felt like he was untouchable, invincible even. The Runner began his approach on his first turn. he analyzed it closely and calculated the approxamate distance that he had traveled, and how far he had left to go. He was moving faster than he had expected but this was a good sign. The Runner came quickly to the turn, leapt to the wall facing him and after four or five steps on the wall, he glided through the air, and for a brief moment, he felt weightless, before impactnig the ground at a steady sprint.

    Each freshly painted door passed by in a blur, until all he could see were streaks of teal and white. The next turn came up on him even faster this time, and he was now much further ahead than he had planned. The Runner's anxiety began to fade, and he questioned the ease of his assignment, thus far. his thoughts began to wonder, and as he leapt into the crouching position, and bolted again around a turn, he near lost his balance as he landed.

    The Runner caught himself without too much of a loss in his pace, and stumbled to regain his footing. his attention had completely been consumed by his error, and he took his eyes off of the path that lay before him. "That was close." He thought to himself as he turned his attention back to the path ahead of him he was met with a gun in his face. He jerked in a start, swatting at the barrle and clumisly side stepping the obstacle. He tumbled into the floor, sliding for quite a distance, gunshots ringing in his ears, and bullets flying by him.

    "You are not authorized to be in this area!" the sentry shouted, as it continued to unload its gun into the direction of its target. The Runner stumbled to his feet as fast as he could, panicking, barely dodging the bullets with every uncooridinated jerk of movement trying so desprately to out run his attacker. "Escape is impossible!" it shouted again, still firing at the agile target.

    The Runner was panicking. all of his training wasn't going to mean a thing if he didn't calm down. he began to sprint as hard as he could away from the Sentry, unsure of where he was, exactly, and where he was going in this maze of flourescent Doorways. This was a bad situation. A very bad situation. He franticaly bolted down a random hallway to escape his attacker, only to be met with the stock of a rifle in his chest.

    He fell backwards, the pain was excrutiating. He winced and coughed as the owner of the rifle took it's aim. He screamed, and in a wild thrust, he kicked the Senties legs out form under it, gunfire spraying the walls and cieling. The Runner was terrified, and scrambled to the edge of the wall where he grabbed at his chest, his heart was racing.

    Now disarmed, the Sentry reached out and grabbed The Runners ankle, dragging him closer. The Runner, still sick with terror, began kicking wildly at his attacker, in hopes that it might let go. this was to no avail. The sentry stood up, still grasping the flailing intruder, and swung him around, smashing him into the wall. The Runner tried to screamed in agony as he was dropped to the ground, breathless.

    The Sentry walked slowly over to him, and bent down holding the victems throat, and began to brutally beat him. The Runner feeling dazed, dizy, and weak made an attempt to stop his attacker, and grabbed it's punching arm as it came down for another blow. however the Sentry simply pinned his other arm down, and met forhead to chest in what was possibly the most painful thing The Runner had ever experience. with almost no energy left, he began grabbing on to anything he could in a desprate attempt to break free, grabbing all around his attackers combat jacket.

As the Sentry prepared for one last killing blow, The Runner saw a knife stored just under it's arm. hastily he ripped it off the Sentry's vest, and thrust into the center of it's chest. it's neck made a slight twitch, but it made no expression, and so he pulled it out and swung the blade acrost it's throat. still giving no sign of notice, the sentury collapsed to the ground, as it's red met the white.

    The first sentry that he had encountered finally made it's way around the corner and again shouted it's warning before continuing to fire. Bullets flew past his face so close he could smell the particles of burning gunpowder as they wizzed by. he wasn't as prepared for this as he thought he was. Just then two shots grazed him on his shoulder and his side. he was horribly tired, and weak, and he began to tremble violently, as he pulled him self upwards. It was a terrible pain. Finally, the Runner regained his stance and darted down the hallway in a mad dash. He was rushing, but the adrenaline was beginning to help him. He turned down another corner to meet an abrupt dead end, nearly smashing into the wall before him.

    He was cornered. he didn't know what to do and he could hear what he thought to be more sentries as they approached, preparing their weaponry. His mind was racing. He froze for a moment, and tried to think of something, anything, he could do but he just couldn't. Questions of how he lived his life, regrets, and if he would die in such a confusing horrible place raced through his mind.

    He shut his eyes, clenching them closed trying think of a way out. Then he remembered where he was. The sentries were drawing nearer. He was afraid for his life. And swiftly he opened his eyes and started grabbing at the doors around him. All were locked except one. He thrust it open with a wide swing almost knocking himself over, and stumbled through it. He slammed the door behind him as hard as he could, the sound of gunfire pounding against it from the other side.

    His eyes were closed, but upon opening them, he found he was still in the hallways, but atleast he was safe. For now. He took this time to catch his breath, and he slumped over, leanind hard against the wall, and slid down to the floor, trying to calm himself down, and figure out where he was exactly. Since the begining of the Truce, Zion was supplied with a rather vague mapping network of the Backdoors. The Runner checked it, only to find that his accidental detour, and near death experience, had actually brought him 736 meters closer to his target. he was almost there, but he had taken quite a beating.

    He peeked around the corner, the awkward positioning paining him all over. There were four more sentries waiting. he felt his heart sink. He thought for a moment on how he could bypass them with little to no confrontation. He peeked around the corner again to measure the distance between him and the gaurds. roughly 42 meters. just barely enough for what he had in mind. The Runner crouched down again trying to calm his body, and his mind. trying to find his focus, and remember what he was here for. he closed his eyes and began to concentrate on his task. he would do it this time. no misshaps.

    He opened his eyes, and with a grunt, lept unto the wall, and around the corner into a dash. he was moving at a speed faster than any he had traveled before. the world seemed to slow down to him, and he felt more intune with everything. he quickly, and skillfuly, dodged the sentries with ease, hurdling through the air, and off of walls as he evaded his attackers. They meant nothing to him, now.

    He quickly put distance between them and himself, continuing down his path. He turned once, then again, and soon found himself facing a line of heavey defense of sentries and agents. He could see it. he could see his goal. it was so close. the final door.

    Gunfire began to drown out the sound of everything else. nothing else mattered except for the target. Bullets struck his entire body, some grazing him, others penetrating him. Blood leaked into his left eye. But he barely even noticed that or the pain that emanated from him.

    He was unstoppable, dashing along walls, hurdling through the air, and sliding past foes he made his way closer and closer to his goal as more gunshots began to strike him. He was numb, and determined. He jumped, kicking one of the agents in the chest, and using it as a platform to extend his jump. He dove with the feeling of success filling him, gunfire tearing his suit apart, and striking him violently.

He was there. Flying through the air, he smashed through the final door, and rolled into a run, gunfire still chasing him. with out-stretched arms he dove through the air and grabbed it. It was his; he had succeeded. He fell to the ground sliding, his goal clenched tightly in his hands, held close to him as his final conscious moments passed by. He stared at it as if it were the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He did it. He completed his goal.

    Three of the five agents surrounded him as he lie there.

"This one is quite impressive,"

"His determination is remarkable,"

"He had made it further than the others,"

"But he is still,"

"Only Human...."

The End.