Sally, Part 33

 Stacey, Part 32

Stacey and Mattias turned to see a large man barrel through the bar door to meet two of his fellow searchers.  "There they are."  His massive index finger pointed squarely Mattias.

Mattias quickly followed Syrin's lead, "Yep, like halflings during conscription."  He pulled Stacey to his feet and the three of them headed toward the side door.  Stacey heard a loud blast, shortly followed by a bullet whizzing by his ear as he ducked through the door after Syrin.  He then heard Mattias throw a chair to the ground, another gun shot, and the three of them were tripping on crates and barrels as they tried to make their way to the adjoining alleyway as quickly as they could, their chasers following closely behind.

To put it kindly, running wasn't Stacey's strong suit.  It seemed that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't keep up with Mattias and Syrin, and only Mattias was kind enough to slow down occasionally and help him forward.  At any rate, he wasn't outrunning the shooters.  Syrin seemed to be picking through the alleyways as if he'd ran down them countless times before, Stacey panting behind and Mattias occasionally knocking things over to slow down their assailants.  Bullets ricocheted off the buildings just as Stacey and Mattias rounded another corner.  Several times Stacey could hear a loud crash and cursing, followed by scrambling.  Once he happened to catch a glimpse of Mattias smile spread at one of these times.  As much as Stacey hated that Mattias was a slaver, times like this made it hard not to love his undaunted spirit.

Suddenly, it seemed as though Syrin disappeared into a wall to the right.  Shocked as Stacey was he kept running, and when they got to that point Mattias shoved him at the wall and followed into what looked to be an invisible slot.  If someone were to be walking, and stop at just the right time it could be seen clearly, but to three burly men brandishing pistols it was easily ran past without a second look as two men watched and one man tried to catch his breath.