Part 40

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"AAuaaunnn" Chiana bucked under a searing shredding of her clarity and herself under the cutting malice of Larran, struggling in the same space of being and blending for it. Her soul struggled to speak itself and hold with grasps of self-awareness, trying to remain pure despite the infections of Larran swirling in her pool.

There would only be Larran or herself. With barely a sense of any sight or thought of actions, she flung her hand instinctively to grab the knife she had seen the hilt of in a holding pocket of Bursamen's overcoat. She slashed it to any side, making a path toward where she felt the exit would be. Toward Oshana.

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"Whoa wat- whoa hey!" John barely kept himself from being sliced. Seeing her intention was dead set on going back the direction of the destroyed wing, John urgently gestured everyone to move back. A man approached her instead, slow to react and unable to prevent himself from being stabbed by a wild swing of the knife. He screamed in panic, stabbed in his arm. John rushed to the injured man and tried tying a strip of cloth around his wound to bind it while the injured man trembled.

John looked around at the stunned crowd of onlookers, Fena and militia alike. "She's not herself!" John explained. "She's not like that! Sure she'll threaten your dinky bird if she's pissed, but that's just hissing. Like a cat. This ain't like her. Not her worst time of the month, burr up her butt, got a chip on the shoulder, bad hair day. Never. That's the always positive influence of our ever lovin' Minister. He barged in there through Oshana, the Stakira. They can-" John shook his head and sat down on the paving bricks. "Why am I explaining this to people who don't know a thing about Spookies. Hey somebody help this person!"

John got back up and helped the injured man half stand, ready to hand him to someone. But no one else had moved a muscle.

"Well Tom's my name, I'm the third thumb" John helped the man to a seat. He had to wonder if he could he really help Chiana, and if so, how could he best help her. She had to be rushing to Oshana, or at least that was the only thing he could think of. Likewise the only thing he could think to do was to follow her. "Someone help that man!?" John gestured to the injured man with his head. "If you all can't help that person, you aren't doing a good job of being anybody's brother or sister."

Finally, the Bannik woman who had been trying to wrestle Chiana from John cautiously approached and led the man away.

"Come on, Clam" he grabbed the wrist of the bewildered young lady in charge of the militia group and started hurrying toward the central accommodations. "You're a follower of Chiana, then let's follow Chiana."

"Huh?!" the young lady stumbled alongside. "We need to get you out-"

"Just keep alert for the Enforcers" John told Clan.

"Enforcers?" Clan yanked her hand free but kept hurrying alongside all the same. She signaled the group to keep a protected area around John. No one impeded their progress at the moment. "The Authorities are probably waiting until-"

"-Remember that little explosion? That's Larran all over the place" John had her know.

"Larran?! The Minister?" Clan's big eyes blinked in surprise. "But this is his estate! You think he'd destroy it himself?"

"Well, there are easier ways to get the wallpaper off."

"Bring them on!" one of the young men shouted, waving his pistol while they ran. "The Cause lives!"

"Hopefully to fight another day" John mumbled. For some concealment to minimize potential encounters with trouble, the group kept to the beds of shrubbery, which, although overgrown, they could run through.

Further along the downward sloping grounds towards the area of the explosion, John saw Chiana rise onto her toes and drop down onto the ground. "Yikes" he mumbled, running for her. He hesitated, the group stopping around him. "Bursamen and Spooky are right down there" he pointed them out. "Looks like our local Enforcers are holding 'em. You guys up to this?" he looked around the group.

Their eager if nervous expressions answered for him. "Bad idea. So here we go...." John muttered as Clan told each their parts in her plan. "Uhoh gang, bigger fish" he gestured them to move further into the shrubbery. "That's why our heroine spaced, Larran's back on his own ten little piggies. Do we still go for it?"

Clan shook her head affirmatively. The firm set of her jaw told John she wasn't going to be dissuaded. John made a tip of a hat he didn't have and started forward with the group.

Harvey popped out from a bush, holding onto his camouflage encrusted helmet with one hand and parting the shrubbery with his other. "We're not equipped for this operation, John Doe" Harvey urgently whispered.

"Not now Harv" John urgently whispered back, waving downward at the bushes and looking around to see if anyone noticed.

"It's a suicide run I tell you!" Harvey emerged from another bush nearly in front of John, his goggle-eyes and waxen face enhanced by a shadow of stubble on his face. "They could get us! They could get us from all sides!"

"Easy there Corporal, this isn't a good time for introspection" he kept whispering at Harvey, flashing an overwrought apologetic smile at Clan. Fortunately, she wasn't looking at John.

"They're just kids, John, when the heat gets on, they'll crack, crack crack!" Harvey madly told him, handing John a smoking grenade.

"It's just two Enforcers, they can handle it. If there's a crack, crack, crack it's the lobster on my head" John quickly put the pin back in the grenade. "And there's Larran, but my grandma could take care of him."

"No doubt, she certainly handled your grandfather!" Harvey yanked the grenade back and snarled at it. "But your grandma ain't here, John, you've got these kids. They're too gray."

"Green, Harv, too green. Clam will keep em in line, did you see her glare? It'd sober up Dennis Rodman."

"I've seen her and she's ninety pounds if those are steel toe boots, short work for that grandmother of yours" Harvey fell in alongside, looking around and nervously clutching his Springfield '03. "Let's pop them out of the Hanoi Hilton if we must, but lets us get out of here now, while we can still run and save our outfit!"

"Major Pip's right, Colonel. We're not getting out of here until we get what we need."

"Not even the desk ops know why we're here, John. This is a suicide raid and the chief isn't Doolittle!"

"Right then, back to the faithful fallbacks."

"What's that, John?"

"Love, Honor and Country."

"Ridiculous" Harvey seethed. "Country has nothing to do with this, John, I can't see where you could find honor, and you don't know where that love of yours is."

"No, but you wouldn't know about honor, grasshopper, and I'm gonna retrieve some of that fine country I love visiting, come on. Ow!" he bent down from Clan's swat at his head.

"Quiet!" she hissed at him.

"It's not what- yes, yes sorry" John waved at her and ducked down like everyone else.

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