The challenge: A piece of any genre, 200-350 words or thereabouts, in incomplete sentences. Also questions under six words.
Without further ado:
Fragments
Darkness. Heat, sweat and speed. Echoes behind me, darkness ahead. Where are they? Where am I? Splashing below — water (I hope) and maybe something else. Coolant, perhaps. Footsteps behind.
Damn! Why couldn’t I have headed for the skyways?
Brick, copper, steel and concrete. Walls and pipes. Where am I?
Run.
Fragments in my hand, painful, cutting. Did I get them all? Can’t stop. Can’t check. Just run!
Crossroads and doors. Pounding in my chest, pounding through the alleys, through the underside. Which way? Where?
A choice — with any luck a good one. Running, running upward… or down. Water rushing. Can that be good?
STOP!
A roaring, foaming, churning drop. Where to? Footsteps behind. Footsteps and voices. Echoes. Always echoes.
“Freeze!”
Turn. Three of them, guns gleaming in the light.
The middle one: “The crystal! Now!”
Me: “Shattered! In a dozen pieces!”
The middle again: “No!” (echoed twice)
On the left: “Such a waste…”
On the right: “Can they restore it?”
Middle: “Maybe.” To me: “Do you have them all?”
Me: “Yes! No! Maybe!”
Middle: “Which one? Decide!”
Me: “Probably. Maybe not. But not for you!”
Middle: “Now!” Exploding plaster at my feet. Rushing water behind. Guns and thugs ahead.
Me: “Never!”
A step, or a leap. A proverbial leap of faith, into the churning pool behind me. Gunshots around, of course. Bad shots, though, or just a moving target. Gripping hard on the shards, trailing blood.
My last sight: Three dark shapes atop a wall, guns firing, the roar of the water and the echoes of their screams.
Always, the echoes.
(Next challenge on its way.)