"Thank you!"
"Hang on!"
Asia screamed and ducked down, as we slammed our way through several vehicles blocking our way. The truck stood up well to the task, as the steel I-beam forged the way through the stalled vehicles in our path, but it was hard to see through the cracked windshield now. I had to sit off towards the middle of the truck in order to see better through the windshield and surprised I glanced down at the presence of Asia's touch.
Her hand rested on my thigh and I glanced up to meet her eyes, which were focused on me intently, "Thank you for coming for me!" She said.
I glanced back to the road, "You're welcome."
We smashed our way through several more tight places and the truck no longer sounded too good. It was missing and I didn't want to let off on the throttle too much for fear of it conking off, but it was still moving and getting us away from the city. We were running out of time though. Ten more minutes and I'd be far enough away, at least I hoped so.
Fifteen minutes later with the truck going over 100 miles an hour and overheating I saw the missile trails coming off from the east from out over the sea. I felt relief at the sight of more than just one missile trail. Now we had a chance.
"Oh God!" Asia screamed pointing at the missiles.
I nodded grimly.
"How did you know?" She asked turning to me.
"I watched all the Code people leave the city together and figured out what could be coming next. I figured we had a 30 minute window to get out. Someone gave us an five extra minutes, which is good because we needed them!"
The truck's temperature gage was in the red, but I kept the throttle pressed down. Asia was looking behind and shrieked again, as the missiles hit the city behind us.
"There's no mushroom cloud!" Asia exclaimed in morbid relief.
"Probably either biological or nerve gas. There's still too much valuable infrastructure to completely obliterate such a city in the quest to nab one loan Code Breaker." I commented bitterly.
"All those people!" Asia said beginning to weep brokenly.
I grabbed her by the front of her shirt and hauled her over towards me, "Listen!" I said brutally. "It's not your fault! So get it out of your head right now that you had anything to do with someone pressing a button and killing so many people! Their decision! Not yours, understand!"
She nodded, but she was still crying. I unsnapped her seatbelt and pulled her over against me and held her. Sometimes the truth of something didn't really matter much. She had such a good heart in her. Here she was bawling her eyes out over a bunch of people, who'd only been too willing to deliver her head on a silver platter to the Code people. A person like her was worth protecting, even sacrificing oneself for. She was an example of something still worth saving about humanity.