[center][h3][color=slategray]⚙[/color][color=steelblue][u]Annelle Caldera         [/u]                            
                             [u]       The Slums District    [/u][/color][color=slategray]⚙[/color][/h3][/center]

[color=papayawhip]Anne's eyes shot open to the sound of static crackling in her ear. She groaned, trying to worm her stiff body from between the front seats of the vehicle. Another crackle of static burst in her ear, it made her wince and her head throb harder. She ripped the ear piece off and put it in her pocket. She waited for the haze of unconsciousness to lift off of her as she sat back in the drivers seat, feeling her joints creak with stiffness. She let her eyes close with a sigh, trying to ignore the pounding throb coming from the knot on her head. A creature flashed before her eyelids, blue, grotesque, hungry.

She sat forward in a panic, her heart fluttering as she remembered why exactly she was here. She peered out the driver's window just now noticing the downpour of rain. She must have been really out of it. From what she could see through the storm the street was rather empty, heavily damaged, but empty. There weren't even any corpses to speak of, which Anne thought was weird, unless whatever the creatures were had been beaten pack. Would the beasts have the sentience to do that? Or would they even care?

Anne opened the driver door gingerly, only to have a howling wind rip it from her hands and throw it fully opened. Anne stepped out into the icy chill of the rainfall, carefully observing her surroundings. There were claw marks covering the van, and blood smears that the rain was still working on washing away. She walked around the back of the van, noting the rends in asphalt roads, the flickering streetlamps, and flames flickering from the interiors of other buildings. A war must have been raging on this street.

[color=lightsalmon]"Oh.. gross.."[/color] Anne breathed, ignoring her disgust at the hand gripping the rear hatch release. Just, the hand. She wiped the rain off the windows and looked in the back of the van, but didn't see anything of use. Just some seats and empty bags, it was likely that whatever war had raged on this street most of the useful supplies were long gone. Anne sighed, wishing for some heavier firepower. She stepped up onto the sidewalk, getting some cover from the angle of the rain. A moment later a flat, metal case was in her hand—her cigarettes.

A thin trail of sweet smoke followed Anne as she huffed her way down the street, trying to keep herself focused and prevent the panic from returning. Still, her hand shook slightly as she brought it to her lips once more, taking a heavy drag on the small narcotic.  Her boots crunched over shattered glass and she had to move around jagged edges of blown out buildings. She visually pictured the core, locating her person after her wild escape through the maintenance tunnels. She figured she was roughly a hundred miles from either the Station, and Neon. She continued straight at the next intersection instead of turning, heading for the Station District.

She crouched low next to the combined destruction of a bench, and a trashcan, twisted and partially melted together. Up ahead one of the glowing creatures was walking around. It would go a few steps, lift it's.. face to the rain, and then repeat the pattern. [i]'The rain must be inhibiting them somehow'[/i] Anne reasoned, they seemed to have no trouble trying to swarm her in the darkness. Still, she wondered how she would get past it, a fight was out of the question. After seeing what those creatures could do, and the trail of evidence, Anne was in no mood to test those facts. She was deciding how best to go around when an interceptor flew overheard, its engines whining shrilly. It was about four stories up and a searchlight was scanning the streets. Was it looking for survivors? Anne wasn't about to chance a rescue for that creature tore her limb from limb. 

"STAY INDOORS," a speaker mounted on the nose of the vehicle commanded, "THE SITUATION IS UNDER CONTROL," Anne let out the tiniest of huffs. Anytime that line was ever used, the situation was definitely not under control. Speaking of things she couldn't control, her friend up in the road had disappeared. She took that as a good time to move forward. Dropping the butt of her ciggie she moved in a fast crouch, trying to watch everything at once. The spotlight swept over her, moved past a few feet, and then swept back on her.

"STAY INDOORS," the speaker commanded. Anne cursed, hoping her legs had been warmed up enough as she took off down the road. The interceptor turned to follow her with the light, barking commands over the loud speaker. Two things suddenly just clicked for Anne, as she threw a glance over her shoulder. Using a loud speaker was a terrible idea, and this aircraft must have drawn every creature in the area for at least a mile. She stopped, for just a moment, blaming it on human nature to watch the disastrous as one of the creatures leapt from a fifth story window. It torpedo'd directly into the cockpit of the interceptor. Anne watched, stunned, as the aircraft spun and dipped in altitude, whirling in a haphazard spin down the street. The following explosion jarred her senses, now that, was loud. Once more, she ran for her life.

The echoing calls of the creatures only spurred her faster as they were drawn towards the noise. Her heart pounded in her chest as she booked it straight up the center of the road, dodging around abandoned APD vehicels and piles of debris. She could see the large sign ahead notifying her of the entrance to the magrails, hopefully whatever these things were, they weren't also magnetic, that would be absurd. Up ahead a small swarm of glowing bodies were moving towards the crash site, no doubt they could also hear the screams of the the pilots, and anybody else who had been on board. She turned hard, ignoring the warning buzz that told her she was not connected to the uplink to get on the rails as she hopped up the platforms. The beasts had caught wind of her, and turned up to pursue, easily leaping across the moving plates.

Anne sprinted down the acceleration stretch, doing her best to ignore the snarling, hungering growls behind her. Whatever situation this was, it definitely was not contained. She ran across the foot lanes, hopped the barrier in the the vehicles lanes, and finally flipped on her mag splints. The acceleration was gruelingly slow, anne tucked low, grabbing her knees as the magnetizing system brought her up to speed. It took a handful of nail biting moments for her to begin to out distance her pursuers, though she had refused to look back they were barely audible now. She let out a heavy sigh, dodging around abandoned vehicles. The creatures had gotten up here too, and it looked devastating. She wondered what the death tolls were, as she banked upwards to merge onto the industrial sized mag rails. Here too, there was only the wreckage of an attack humankind had lost.

She sped past abandoned cars, ripped right through stagnant puddles of blood. She worked her legs, as if she were wearing roller blades, feeling the cold rain bite her face as she picked up more speed. At this rate, she would be out of the sector within the hour. The cars became denser, and Anne made the decision to move back over to the personnel roadway, a small, smooth metal lane that was free of congestion. Once back up to speed, she let herself relax some, looking out over the cityscape. There were more interceptors in the air than she'd ever seen in her life, and some harrier transports as well. She let out a bitter laugh, whatever the situation was, it was out of control.

Anne reached back into her pocket, putting on her ear piece once more. Immediately she was greeted with an automated voice. She had eleven missed calls, and a handful of unread messages. She looked around her, noting the lack of certain demise, and decided now was a good time to review the messages. The network was moving slow, she noticed, as she tried to load up her messages.

[color=lightsalmon]"Buffering? Buffering messages? The Fuck?"[/color] The groaned in irritation. The government must be trying to do something, perhaps contain the panic by isolating The Core. Actually, she mused, that's exactly what they would do. Once the citizens caught wind of this, they would be heading towards the sectors in droves. They'd never let the happen, if she knew the government, especially President Rox, he'd try to contain this situation. Nothing was greater than his power. Anne let out another bitter laugh.

No doubt the gates would be sealed before word of this even spread through the masses, containing the panicked hysteria that would sweep through the sector. If whatever this was had the sky full, perhaps it wasn't safe. The tunnels must have been infested. Anne bit her lip, trying to think of her options. Knowing APD tactics, they would form a perimeter, giving ground only when it was soaked in blood. She doubted she'd make it past the defensive line, they were probably shooting anything that moved, if not constantly attacked by whatever those creatures were.

Anne swept a hand through her hair, trying to piece everything together. She could head home, lay low, hope she would be passed over. She didn't have a lot of food though. She cursed, looking at her wrist pad. The network down here must have finally stabilized long enough for her to finish loading her messages. Nearly everything was from her father, which she promptly ignored, and Elliot, who she tried to call back—But the line went flat.

[color=lightsalmon]"It would be just like you Mr.President, blocking communication,"[/color] She complained, gritting her teeth as she brought up the most recent voice message.

[color=limegreen]"Anne,"[/color] The voice of Elliot began, through waves of static,[color=limegreen]"Communication is going haywire..- ..department is mobilizing..- ..I'm getting out of here..- our friends..-"[/color] The rest of the message was incomprehensible through the growing interference. Anne sighed, yet another puzzle. Elliot mentioned their mutual friends, which meant he must have called the Liberata to come pick him up. That was good, but she new Marx wouldn't try to get past the defensive line. Over the horizon, Anne could see the colors for both Syndustries and Digicorp in the sky, meaning that everyone was being called to contain this thing. How had so many of these creatures bred so quickly? Come to think of it, the slums were pretty empty when she first arrived.. usually there were thousands of dirty bodies milling about. Were these two events related?

She thought back to the last time she'd been deeper into the slums, though she lived there she lived on the very edge, practically the border to the other two districts. It had probably been a few months ago, it had seemed normal back then. She frowned, putting the puzzle off as she stood up. The disengaged her splints once her speed had slowed enough, falling into a tumbling roll. 

[color=lightsalmon]"Shit, not going this way,"[/color] She noted, staring at the flaming wreckage of a bullet train splayed across the road. One of the train cars had detached and embedded itself into a nearby building, groaning in the wind. She turned around, jogging back the way she had come towards the closest exit ramp. No, it seemed she was on her own in here. If the Slums had been ignored before, it was truly abandoned now.[/color]