Editing City Series:Volume6d Chapter5 (section)

===Part 1===

Hazel ran through the night as the sirens blared.

She ran westward, using a path behind the row of storehouses on the base. It was a narrow path and the sky glimpsed between the tall storehouses was colored the red of warning lights. The main road ran along the other side of the storehouses on her left and she heard vehicles roaring up and down it.

…''The search has begun in earnest.

She had thrown off her slippers, so she only wore her surgical gown, coat, and choker.

Her hair was a mess as she pumped her arms and moved her legs to run.

“I never think anything through, do I!?”

…''But they said a Heavy Barrel is flying here.

She needed to get somewhere she would be easily noticed and thus easily rescued.

Her plan was to head east near the main gate where a small runway bordered the forest. She would be visible from the sky there and she could always turn into a cat and escape into the forest if necessary.

…''That’s the one exit from this walled base!

She remembered the terrain from her time up on the terrace. After running between three storehouses, she would arrive at a waterway. If she moved from there to the main road, crossed the bridge, and continued another half a mile, she would reach the main gate.

She ran and hurried. She wiped the sweat from her brow with her coat’s sleeve and faced forward.

The path was narrow. She was done for if they had an ambush set up, but this was far safer than using the main road.

The storehouses on either side of her contained maintenance equipment. Even at night, the ground was stained noticeably dark with oil and large tires were stacked up on either side of the path. The tire piles grew and the available width of the path shrank.

Her pounding footsteps rang in her ears and her nose only detected the scent of rubber and machine oil.

All sorts of vehicle parts and metal materials were bundled together and placed between the tires or leaned against the storehouse walls.

She checked to see if there were any Devices among them as she ran, but as expected found nothing.

She breathed a disappointed sigh and kept running with the sirens ringing in her bones. Her breathing was heavy but she wasn’t out of breath.

…''My training has paid off.

She smiled bitterly at that. Then she faced forward again.

The tires stacked up on either side reached nearly as high as the storeroom roofs now. The piles of black rubber ended about 100 yards ahead, the length of another three storehouses. The backroad ended there.

She could see the waterway’s railing past the valley of tires.

…''I need to turn right toward the main road and cross the bridge.

She would need to cross two small intersections between storehouses before that.

The first intersection was about 20 yards ahead.

She picked up her pace to pass through it in a hurry, but then she felt something like her right foot stepping on a stone.

“––––––!?”

''Oops,'' she thought, but it was too late.

She had stepped on something sharp.

She felt no pain, but her second step felt like her right foot had stepped in mud.

The realization that she was bleeding nearly sapped her of her strength, but she shook her head and powered through it.

Then someone emerged onto the intersection up ahead. It was a Geheimnis Agency soldier.

He aimed his flashlight her way and slowly turned his body her way.

He hesitated once the flashlight shined directly on her, but…

“I-I found her!” he shouted.

Hazel held out her hand as if to split the flashlight beam and stopped, her right leg stumbling.

And from behind her…

“She’s over here!” shouted another voice.

She was surrounded. Her reflexes decided which way she needed to escape: up.

She would climb the tires to her right – the south. Climbing the ones to the north would only have taken her further from the road. If she could hurry up them and cross the roof to reach the bridge…

…''The soldiers on the ground will have a harder time tracking my movements.

As soon as the thought occurred to her, she sank low, bent her body, and used her limbs like springs to climb up the tires.