6.1
10/01/2009
Jelani and Echo woke up at the creek's edge, completely exposed to the world but, thankfully, unfound and unharmed. It was time to shift their focus to Portland.
Jelani had given up on questioning why Echo wanted to find his old squad and what she was going to do with them. She seemed very stubborn on the matter, so he put it out of his mind and simply focused on the mission ahead.
"How big is Portland?" he asked as soon as they'd started their journey.
"Pretty big," Echo replied. "If you count the suburbs, it's probably fifteen miles across."
"So we have to deal with the rogues for like ten miles?" Jelani asked, wondering if they were going with the 'rely on our own strengths' plan again.
"If we walked in we would," she answered. "But that would be suicide. If we didn't die on the way, we'd be about to die by the time we got to the center."
"How are we gonna find them?" Jelani asked, voicing a concern he'd had ever since the beginning, although he wasn't exactly concerned about it. "I kinda like the no plan thing, but I feel like we should at least have a chance of success."
"Don't worry," she assured him, "they're definitely going straight to the center. And it's small enough that if we show up at the same time, we'll find each other."
"How?" he asked, unconvinced.
"We'll feel their aura, y'know?" she said, as if that was the obvious answer.
They'll feel ours, too, Jelani thought, and they'll avoid it.
"By the way," he said, "why do you think Blake wants to go to Portland?"
"No clue," she replied. "Based on what you've told me, that group has one person with the authority of death–although, I still can't really believe that–one who's a good sniper, one who has the seventh sense but can't actually fight, and one who can't do anything except tell other people what to do. Right?"
She looked at Jelani, who nodded.
"In other words," she continued, "they have a zero percent chance at survival. Let's assume this Blake guy has a trick up his sleeve, though, and is somehow gonna get them in there alive."
She clenched her jaw as she finished her sentence.
"I'm assuming he wants to go to the center 'cause it'd be no problem to visit the outer suburbs. He wouldn't have had to wait. And the only reason I can think of for going is the elements, but it's way too risky for that to make any sense. He'd have to be certain that he'll get what he wants for it to be worth it, but it's a long shot to think he'll even get in there."
"He's not an idiot, though," Jelani pointed out. "I'm sure he's thought everything through. He's the 'perfect plan' kind of person."
"That's why it's scary," she replied. "Or maybe he just lied to you about going to Portland."
"I don't think so," Jelani said. "Nikki's somehow able to tell exactly what people are feeling and thinking. Blake wouldn't try to blatantly lie in front of her."
"Who's Nikki?"
"Oh. The seventh sense one."
"I hope you're right," Echo replied grimly, "because if you aren't, I might as well feed you to the rogues."
"That reminds me," Jelani continued, unbothered by her hostility. "You were talking about how impossible it'll be to get into Portland. Are we really just gonna send it?"
"Actually, I have a genius plan," she declared. "We're gonna float in."
Jelani looked at her in surprise. "On the river?"
"Yeah. As long as I have the energy, we'll be immune to any bullets, so we can just float right in."
Jelani brow tensed as he imagined getting fired at on the water, unable to do anything but pray that the bullets wouldn't land.
"You sure?"
Echo looked straight ahead, simply moving her mouth as she walked. "Well, we have to get a boat, and we'll have to paddle it upstream a little at the end, and we'll probably get attacked by a sea monster or something, but it's way better than walking in."
"Alright," Jelani agreed, nodding his head and ignoring the sea monster comment. "Sounds good."
2 days later - 10/03/2009
After a full day traveling west, and then a full day traveling north, Jelani and Echo finally reached the massive river. According to her, the "Columbia River" was what it used to be called.
There was a wide road–Jelani assumed that it was the same one he'd come to when he was still a part of the squad that he was currently hunting–and they began following it to the west.
Soon, they came to a bridge that headed straight into what must have been the outskirts of Portland. The sun had just begun to set, so they decided to move a little away from the highway with the hope of spending the night in peace.
In fact, they slept so long and so peacefully that they never even had a chance of noticing when four people crossed the bridge less than 200 feet away.
When Jelani and Echo finally did wake up, they realized that not only had they failed to get up at sunrise–they'd also forgotten to find a boat.
Leaping to their feet, they didn't bother to fix their tangled and dirty hair as they ran across the river and were immediately met with a group of five rogues, although none of which were particularly threatening. Echo kindly pointed this out before saying that she would leave them to Jelani, who didn't mind the underhanded comment as it came with an opportunity to test his new weapon.
After defeating the first wave of rogues, they hurried down the highway and took the first exit they came to. Rogues had been pouring onto the pavement behind them, so they had quite an entourage as they dashed towards an incredibly large building with a flat, white roof.
"The hell is this place?" Echo huffed indignantly.
"I think we're at the back right now," Jelani replied. "It looks like there's a parking lot down there," he said, pointing to the right.
There was still a slight time gap between them and the drooling animals on the road, so they circled around the building, finding themselves in a massive open space.
They'd both seen a few cars in their lifetimes, but never such an endless variety in both shape and color, not to mention the sheer number of vehicles in the lot.
"Must've been a popular spot," Echo observed as they sprinted towards the store's entrance.
When the shattered glass doors came into view, Jelani spotted a massive word written on the building's blue and gray exterior.
"The sign says 'almart'."
"Weird," Echo replied, stepping into the deserted store's mouth.
Apart from the rays of light that shone through the holes in the ceiling, creating a few fully illuminated splotches on the floor, the store was dark.
"It's even bigger than it looked," she commented, taking in the endless supply of objects both on shelves and littered about on the ground.
"All the stuff looks pretty small, though," Jelani observed. "Do you think they'll have any boats?"
A gunshot reminded them of their situation, and they leapt back into a run down one of the long aisles.
Echo pointed out a hanging sign. "Yo, that says 'Sports Equipment'."
The soles of their boots skidded on the floor as they rounded the corner into the sports aisle. Immediately, they were face to face with a multi-colored row of tiny boats.
"Perfect," Echo said with satisfaction.
"Are these boats?" Jelani wondered out loud, unconvinced as he examined the tall pieces of plastic.
"I think so. They're called 'fishing kayaks'," she said, reading off the sign. "And there are paddles right here."
She pulled one of the boats, a red one, out of its stand and set it on the floor. "See? It looks like a boat now."
Jelani put his hand on the side of the kayak and rocked it back and forth. "It's pretty unstable, though," he said hesitantly. "And the plastic looks thin. Seems like we'll be vulnerable in here."
"We'll take what we can get." Echo hoisted the kayak over her shoulder and turned to leave. "You can grab the paddles."
Jelani snatched a pair and sprinted ahead of Echo, using the long paddles to whack snarling rogues aside as they dashed head first through their enemies and out of the superstore.
"I'll carry the kayak," he offered, knowing that being outside again put them at risk of bullets. "You need to focus on defense, right?"
"How thoughtful," Echo replied, shoving the kayak at him.
Hands taken up by the paddles, Jelani held the kayak overhead between his forearms.
When Echo resumed her run, he called after her, "I thought you were gonna carry the paddles!"
"I need to focus on defense."
They proceeded north with the river's bank as their target.