Time seemed to be dragging on. Even going 95 miles an hour, it didn't feel fast enough. I'd still be another two hours to London, even if I didn't get slowed down by craters or anything else. The engine already wasn't happy going a speed like this, I was surprised the old rust bucket even went 95.
I adjusted my grip on the slick, wet handlebars and set myself to ride. No distractions. Just like I had at graduation parties, except this time not plaster drunk. If I made it home that night, I could make it to this craft.
As I rode, the sun started to peak back over the horizon and the rain finally began to stop.

In the back of my head I could hear Lara singing to me, singing her song she made up for me to get my ass in gear.

'Shay get your ass together
Or I swear I'll freaking cut you.
Stop listening to the weather,
You've got shit to do.
Don't give me that look you have
You know it's true.
You have work in less than half.
Come on then, there's some place to get to.
Let's get our asses in gear
Hit the road, destination somewhere
Give out free heart attacks from fear
Of our reckless driving out there.'

It must have been the worst song I'd ever heard, but that was probably the point. The quicker I got it together, the less of the song she sang. But sometimes I would take as long as possible so that she'd just keep singing it over and over and I could hear her voice. Except that sometimes it would start to make her anxious, which I guess was the problem with marrying a half an hour early is late kind of woman when I was a five minutes early is on time sort.

I swallowed the lump that was starting to form in my throat and shook my head out. It had been weeks since I'd had the chance to drive, and I tried to think about that. About the hum of the shitty little engine in this bike, about the feeling of the wind slapping up against my face. About getting home after a month of being away to hotcakes on the table. About how this bike I was sitting on was my ticket to a steaming cup of coffee.
Five minutes early, Shay. You're always exactly five minutes early.
Stupidly enough, that thought brought me comfort.

When I reached London, I was petrified. Big Ben had crashed to the ground, there were craters in the streets. The only way across the Thames was by foot and the port was a war-zone. I wondered if all of the capital cities were this bad. I wouldn't have been surprised if they were, the crafts were hidden and if they could be reached that meant one less nation on Élan. And I guessed that sounded like a good enough plan.

I pulled the bike over on the edge of the city, it wasn't any use trying to bring it through, there was no way I'd get further than a few extra kilometres anyway. I got off and opted to continue on foot, I didn't exactly have time to wait for the city train to come through. I looked up to its hanging cable and groaned when I saw that it would never be coming since the entire thing had been disconnected not far from where I was standing.

I stepped off the edge of what was left of the wall surrounding the city's outskirts. A cigarette got popped into my mouth and I sauntered through the city hoping mostly to reach the city centre without getting shot. Without my uniform on, I hoped that the guards weren't in the mood to shoot civilians. I could think of several times when they had been since the war started, but there was always a chance that today would not be one of those days. I lit the cigarette and kept my head down, cutting around buildings, taking alleys, anything that would take me straight through the city without turns or any chances of getting lost.

I looked to me from this point that it would take five hours on foot to get through. Shit. I stopped to think for a second. I didn't have five hours. I couldn't very well take a bicycle or anything above ground. But the subways might work. It was a sketchy idea, only the street bums took the subways anymore, but the ground was almost entirely reinforced so there was a good chance they were still upright. If nothing else, it'd provide a short cut or a resource to be hijacked.

Even though I was reluctant, I veered off my path, into the open streets. A prime target for the rat-like snipers in their hiding places. I wasn't out in the open long before the assault rifles started to fire, there were sniper shells hitting the street behind me. I was sprinting, veering left and right in a sporratic way feeling like a plastered drunk the night before his wedding. In a matter of seconds I wasn't in the streets of London anymore. I was in the intensive aid overseas, there were tanks shelling the library and there was just Croft and I inside. We had no way of figuring out how to escape. We were shouting at each other but I couldn't hear the words.

There were books coming at my head from every direction, I was desperately wishing I had my microshield, but it'd been burnt to all hell when I'd used it to save some kid. I couldn't fathom the size of that damned library. Where was the end? The sight of natural sunlight caught the corner of my eye, I was running that way. I was vaguely aware that I called Croft over to the direction of the light.

Then I was in London again, and I was lost. I'd known where I was going, where the subway station was but whereever it'd been when I'd gotten stuck in the flashback, it wasn't there anymore. I looked around frantically, searching for a stairwell, there were entrances all over the city, surely to God there was one close by. My eyes fell on a stairway on the other side of the street, across a broken bridge. I could go around, getting down was easy. But climbing back out was a suicide mission.

"Dammit." I shook my head and clenched my jaw, trying to figure out the most practical way to get across. I knew how I'd do it if I had my equipment, but of course I didn't. If it wasn't destroyed when the bunker fell, then it'd been long since taken by hell knows what country.

At the edge of the bridge furthest from me, I could see that the massive gap that ran through the bridge narrowed a bit. I figured that if I ran fast enough I'd be able to make the gap reasonably well. I had my shock absorbing boots still, so if I fell at the least my ankles wouldn't break. I took another deep breath and made a break for the bridge. At first, there were no bullets, which left me more dazed than I would've been had the firing started again. I went up the bridge and almost halted when I saw the actual size of that gap. Instead of stopping, I clenched my eyes shut and made a dive for the edge. halfway through my jump my eyes opened, I wasn't going to make it. I clawed at the air, trying to grab onto one of the bars that stuck out of the crumbled bridge. I squeezed my eyes shut and braced for the worst.

If I didn't make this jump, the fall wouldn't kill me.
If I didn't make this jump, the snipers would kill me.
If I didn't make this jump, I wasn't going to leave this underpass.
If I didn't make this jump, I was just another nameless grave.
If I didn't make this jump, I was a dead man no matter what.

My hand gripped a cold steel bar. My eyes shot open, I'd managed to grab one of the bottom support beams of the crumbled bridge. A sigh of relief escaped my lungs, I gave a couple of grateful whispers in who knows whose direction and pulled myself up to the next support beam until I was right on the top of the bridge. There still weren't gunshots. I started to run again.

I veered around a corner down to the subway station.
Under the ground, the city looked just about the same except that it was almost completely empty. I watched as an open-barred subway car ran through. City Centre it read. I ran up and grabbed a hold of one of the last free handles. Facing me, was an older man. He smiled at me politely, leaning toward the car, holding on by his elbow rather than his hand.

"You must be in quite the hurry, sir." the man seemed like he was laughing a bit. "Have you got someone waiting for you?"

I found it odd. The way that he seemed to calm. He acted like today was just like any other day before the war. Like I was some young kid that was late for a date with the girl of his dreams, indicated by a suit and tie and roses in hand. But I was quite the opposite. In a heavily worn shirt and jeans ripped up so badly that had my mother seen me, she'd have wrung my neck. The thought of my mother brought a little smile to my face. It was nice to think about normalcy. I wondered if that was why the old man spoke the way that he did.

"Yes," I replied with a brisk nod. "A very lovely lady."

The old man smiled at me. "You might want to adjust your collar. It looks a little off."

"Thank you, sir." I looked at my shirt, which didn't have the kind of collar that I knew he meant. The only oddity about my t-shirt collar was a tear I'd earned somewhere, though I wasn't sure where exactly I'd gotten it from. To go along with his behavior, I reached up with my free hand and folded the tear in my collar closed.

"You have now reached, the city centre. Enjoy your stay in London." Chimed the automated voice of the subway. I jumped off or the car and so did a bunch of the other people who were on the train with me. I watched the old man. He just smiled at me and waved as the train started to pull away from it's stop yet again.

"Aren't you coming?" I yelled over the rush of the car's engine.

"I have nothing to come for!" he hollered back. I stood, staring in awe as the old man was whisked away from my sight, into the abyss of the tunnel yet again.

I have nothing to come for. His thoughts stayed with me as I continued to stare down the tunnel. The sound of a mortar shell shook me out of my little trance. I wondered if the war was what he was talking about. Did he think it would follow us to the new planet?

I turned around and followed everyone else up the stairs to ground level again. At least half of the people had been gunned down in the few seconds delay I'd had. I shook my head, swearing loudly with irritation. There was a direct path to the launch building, announcements were booming out of it but their words couldn't be deciphered.

I bit my lip and opted to cut through the ruined walls of the buildings the snipers were in. If they got shelled or shot at any more, they'd fall to the ground. That meant the Germans-I was only mostly sure that it was the Germans that were still occupying English territories-would therefore succumb to more casualties for one guy they wanted.

It sounded like a perfect plan, take the buildings, don't get shot at. Except there were bits of shrapnel, blockages, unclear paths and bad knees in my way. Still, it was better than nothing. I veered toward the buildings and began clambering through the buildings.

There were craters in the floors and caved in walls, abandoned possessions and blood all over. I tried not to think about them, about the people who were trapped in, or killing in these buildings. I'd always hated being in residential ruins, it didn't sit right with me at all. Telling myself that I wasn't in residences, I was in corporate offices didn't help as much as it used to.

"The craft will depart in t minus five minutes." the voice over the intercom called. My eyes bugged out of my head. That couldn't be right. I was hardly behind. "Anyone outside the parameters is advised to put a minimum of four hundred feet between themselves and the space craft."

"Piss off." I shook my head and picked up the pace. Haul ass, Ackerman. You've got a family.
I was inside the launch building in less than three minutes. For some reason I'd expected that building to be one straight square without any particular twists, turns or hallways. There was no one in the halls, everything was deserted.

"Ugh, God dammit!" I shouted, sprinting down the hall that looked the biggest. It only made sense to me that they would herd large amounts of people down big halls. "Is anyone still out here?" my voice echoed lifelessly off the walls.

The further down the hallway I got the louder I could hear the sound of an engine. I relief I'd never felt before washed over me. "The craft will launch in t minus two minutes." the announcement bellowed in my ears so loudly I nearly lost my balance due to shock. I regained the strength of my balance and found myself in the engine room. The biggest machine I'd ever seen was right in front of me.
I didn't hesitate, that was the craft. I could feel it. It had to be. Out of breath and desperate I used the last of my energy to get to the door of the spacecraft. I was halfway to it when the door began to close.

"Shay!" I could hear Lara scream my name, I knew it was real. That was really her voice calling for me. "Set the door back down, my husband is still out there!"

They wouldn't open the door again. A machine that size would have to be set to launch again if anything moved in any way that it wasn't supposed to. So I ran faster. Three feet until the end of the runway, I took in a sharp breath and jumped. The air was whisking past my face, my eyes got stuck shut from fear and anticipation.
I'm close. I know I'm going to make this jump for sure. My fingers grabbed onto the edge of the door. I'm holding on, I'm going to see my family again. Lara is going to scruff my hair and call me all sorts of stupid names and I'm going to laugh. I'm going to joke with Croft and watch on his boys and my daughters. I'm going to make a new life. I can feel it.

My feet hit something they shouldn't.

I missed.