Into the Purge

Chapter Eighteen: Carry On

Chapter Eighteen: Carry On

The first ting Sheema felt was pressure, immense pressure,  slowly she opened her eyes, only to find that she was hanging across the back of the co-pilots chair, it had apparently broken loose form it's ,mounting and crashed into the dashboard. 

Groaning Sheema tried to sit up, she realized that the ship had basically nose dived straight into the ground,  rendering the ship almost straight up in the air...

What was left of the ship anyway.

At the moment Sheema had greater things to worry about, she could feel drops of liquid coming from several different sources, and she worried about fire, or an explosion.  She tried to slide off the seat, only to cry out at the pain anytime she moved. Finally she managed to get off the seat, she couldn't see properly because of the blood on her eyes, she must have got fragments of transparasteel embedded in her face when it hit the ground. 

Looking around she realized the only way she would get out here would be to climb up, towards the ramp. After a few tries she realized she didn't have enough strength left to even get halfway up. Her left arm seemed to be useless, and there was no way she could support her whole body on her one hand.

Finally she thought of a way, pulling her lightsaber out she merely cut a hole in the side of the ship, giving her an escape route.

She crawled out,  and looked around, she seemed to be surrounded by debris, not only from her ship, but also from the crumpled remains of the Imperial cruiser.

Then she remember, Cai!

What had happened to her young friend?

Using all her remaining strength she tried to focus and find him... But after several minutes she had to admit that she couldn't sense him anywhere. Did that mean he was dead? Had he died in terror and agony being unable to see what was going on?

The thought sickened Sheema, she tried to push the image out of her mind, she was already dizzy, and she still needed to find a way out of here...

She didn't make it very far, between her injuries, and her grief for the only thing she had in the form of family, she collapsed. She was still among the debris, and at that particular moment she hated herself, hated that she had been so stupid as to not realize the consequences of teaching Cai. Hated that she was weak now, that she couldn't even get up to find his body...

Gradually her body, and mind worked to shut down these destructive thoughts, allowing herself to shut down and begin to heal, and for a second time in the day Sheema slowly took her.

"Come on Dad! There's bound to be someone left, I just know it!" A small boy called, bouncing from one piece of wreckage to the next.

"Laeta, hold on son!" A man called behind him, the boy let out a frustrated breath, but nonetheless stood still until his father came into view.

The man moved slower than most, but it wasn't because of age, mentally Kenta Baegon cursed himself for his slowness, and his cybernetic leg for causing that slowed pace. 

Once his father was next to him Laeta took off again, this time going a little slower so his father could almost keep up. 

"Are you sure someone survived son? It looks pretty bad to me." Kenta commented, surveying the smoking wreckage. Laeta shook his head determinedly and continued his search.

"I know someone's still out there Dad, I can feel it!" He insisted, inwardly Kenta sighed, why did he have to be so much like his mother?

Together the two continued silently, it was so quiet Kenta started when Laeta suddenly sang out.