ARE WE RUNNING OUT OF TIME

ARE WE RUNNING OUT OF TIME is the sixteenth and final episode of Paradox's second season. It aired on December 31st, 2019 on Purry Productions. It was written and directed by User:Pastelhaxe.

## Previously On...

“I heard you weren’t apart of the team anymore.”

“No, I’m not.” Jayme replies, looking down at Chey.

“I don’t think I am either,” Purry hesitantly tells him, sadness filling her body.

“Good. There’s no point. We all die eventually.”

Purry pulls away and steps backwards, using her sleeve to dry her eyes and wipe her nose. “Steven didn’t commit suicide and Scarlette didn’t have him killed,” She starts, barely controlling her tone as emotions take hold. “I did it. I killed him."

Miguel sits, sinking to his knees as Maria glides over the hole in the hospital to stand next to him. “Trust me. Your friends all love you more than you’ll ever know. You’re not warriors, you’re family.”

Miguel. Noah. Purry. Arianna. Austin. Minina. Little Buddy. Sara. Stand around the wooden table. Their futures dependant on this very meeting and the days lying ahead.

The ground shakes.

The Burning Man is coming.

## Story

Gracia is sent into hysterics once again. As though one bad thing keeps coming after another. Purry peers out of the window, looking up at The Burning Man as he makes his way towards the empire. She gets an idea and the travellers get into action, rushing for the armoury and to warn the others.

Purry runs down the pathway, in the opposite direction the whole empire seems to be running. Sara stops, yelling for her as she passes the hospital.

“What are you doing?!” Sara calls.

“I have to get something, I have an idea! I need to find Isabelle! Go with the others!” She exclaimed before wasting no time and turning and sprinting faster. Sara, against her better wishes, follows the others.

~~

Jayme looks out the window, The Burning Man in the distance. He frowns, watching him advance on the tiny houses below him and crushing them at his feet.

Jayme turns back to Chey, shaking her shoulder lightly. “Please Chey, wake up! Chey!” He starts shaking harder, “Chey!! We have to get out of here!”

~~

Noah and Little Buddy climb a guard tower, both wielding swords and look out along the empire. Little Buddy shakes Noah’s arm, pointing down at the ground where Purry rushes towards the Inn, where The Burning Man head straight for.

“ShE’s GoInG To GEt cRusHED!” Little Buddy exclaims.

“No no no no no…” Noah turns to rush down, but is stopped by Austin, who followed them up along with Arianna.

“Where are you going?! Don’t go anywhere!” Austin says.

“Purry is down there! Purry is going to get crushed!” He madly yells, shoving Austin out of his way and making his way back down. Little Buddy stays watch for him.

~~

Miguel follows Minina as she tries to escort people to safety. “Listen, take this,” He tells her, handing a dagger. “If you have to, throw it at the pearls on his back.”

Minina nods nervously, clutching the dagger before Miguel runs off in the direction of The Burning Man.

~~

Purry reaches the Inn, finding the bunker she hid in during the Bloodhound attack just nearby. She pulls at the doors, but they’re locked. She curses under her breath and uses her knife to attempt to pick the lock. She can feel the heat of The Burning Man slowly coming towards her.

~~

Noah runs, but gets lost in a crowd of people. They try and stop him from running towards The Burning Man before they realise who he is. He fights his way through, stumbling and falling as he pushes out of the crowd.

He looks up, The Burning Man smashes the Inn to pieces.

“Purry!!!”

~~

Little Buddy watches in fear for Purry with Arianna and Austin.

“She’s insane! Did she make it?!” Arianna asks worriedly.

“Down.” Little Buddy tells her, pointing to the in and then looking up at her and pointing down. “Down.”

~~

Miguel stares at The Burning Man, standing at the hospital door before turning and entering. Rushing towards the stairwell and beginning his climb to the top.

~~

Purry lies at the bottom of the bunker’s stairs, coughing as dust fills the air. The bunker feels increasingly hot, like an oven, and won’t hold for much longer. She scurries upwards, looking around.

“Isabelle? Are you… Are you here?!” She asks, knowing the answer is most likely no. She rushes to the back, rummaging through the items in the bunker. Clothes, sewing materials, receipts and papers until she pulls out what she was looking for.

A slingshot.

And then another rumble, and a brick falls from the roof and knocked her out cold.

~~

Jayme panics, The Burning Man making his way further into the empire. He grabs at Chey, holding her tight as he yanked her from the bed, pulling away any wires that come with her.

“Please wake up, Chey.” He begs again, he leaves the room and makes his way down the hallway, stumbling over dropped equipment and his own two feet. As he turns a corner, he watches as Miguel rushes up the uneasy stairs towards the second floor.

Purry’s eyes flicker open. She lurches backwards as spots of lava begin to seep through the bunker’s walls. She scurries towards the slingshot and takes it in her hands, rushing towards the bunker’s doors but she can’t push herself out. She begins screaming for help, choking on the ash and dust.

~~

“Miguel, stop!” Jayme yells. Miguel turns towards him.

“You need to get yourself and Chey out of here! What are you doing?!”

“I’m stopping you from doing something stupid!”

“You don’t have to stop me from doing anything.”

Jayme approaches Miguel, but he pushes him back. Jayme barely clings to the railing of the stairs. “Get out!!” Miguel demands before disappearing up the stairs.

~~

The Burning Man approaches the hospital. Noah avoids him to make his way to the inn, stepping carefully over the pools of lava beginning to form from his body. The grass beginning to singe and catch alight. He finds the bunker door and begins to pull apart the rubble that has collected in front of it.

~~

“Here,” Arianna shoves a bow and arrow at Austin and, hesitantly, Little Buddy. “We need to do this now. He’s within range.”

“Away from Purry!” Little Buddy exclaims, pulling an arrow from Arianna’s sheath and loading it. Austin looks towards Little Buddy worriedly.

“Woah, does he even know how to--”

Little Buddy wastes no time, firing an arrow through the air. It whizzes through the sky and strikes The Burning Man in the hand.

He lets out a roar, turning towards the tower before looking at his hand. The arrow barely noticeable, but hurt all the same. He makes his way towards the tower.

“There’s no way. We need another option.”

“What else are we going to do!?” Arianna snaps.

~~

Jayme reaches outside the hospital with Chey, running around the building away from The Burning Man. He spots Noah digging at the bunker and finally reaching the bunker door, yanking it open but burning his hand on the hot metal lock in the process. Purry tumbles out, the slingshot landing on the path beside her.

“Are you okay?!”

“I’m fine. I’m fine, we have to--”

“Hey!!” Jayme runs over, dropping Chey on the pathway. “Please, watch her.”

“No, I have to--” Purry begins coughing wildly, clutching her stomach.

“You can’t, you’ve inhaled too much.”

Jayme looks to the slingshot. “What’s it for?!”

“His neck…” Purry manages, pointing to the back of her neck. “To end it.”

Jayme stares at The Burning Man, biting his lip. “You have to think of something,” He picks up the slingshot and hands it to Noah. And then an idea overtakes his mind.

~~

Miguel reaches the rooftop. Pulling out his bow and arrow and firing at The Burning Man. His arrows hit his head, breaking off chunks of burned skin that were barely holding on. The Burning Man swats at his head briefly, turning to scowl at Miguel and approaches him. Miguel steps away, ducking just in time as The Burning Man swipes at him with his large hands, breaking off the doorway downstairs and almost making the stairway inaccessible.

“One--!” The Burning Man exclaims, reaching out to grab Miguel as he pulls out his dagger and slices a finger from his hand, letting lava gush onto the rooftop. And the more arrows came from the tower, knocking The Burning Man forwards. He reaches out to stop himself falling, knocking the top floors of the hospital apart. Miguel exclaims, panicking as the roof begins collapsing into the space below. The walls tumbling.

Miguel feels himself sliding down, tumbling into a hole below and disappearing below the rubble. The Burning Man lets out a chuckle.

~~

“What just happened?!” Sara exclaims, watching with Minina from a distance with the evacuated citizens. “I have to go back--”

“Sara, no!” Minina protests, “Please, you have to stay with me! I’m not like you, I can’t control these people on my own!”

“I have to find out if my girlfriend is alright!”

“Your girlfriend?!”

Sara grabs a two-headed horse, that most definitely didn’t belong to her. Minina watches her as she leaped upon it’s back.

“Yeah, my girlfriend.” She told her, galloping away as she spoke the rest of her sentence to herself. “Whether she likes it or not.”

~~

“Two, three, four…” The Burning Man continues cryptically, laughing to himself as she stares down at the rubble hospital, no sign of Miguel’s body under the heap.

“What the hell are we going to do now?!” Arianna questions anxiously, clutching at her bow. “We have to get down from here.”

“In a minute, come on. Keep fighting!”

The Burning Man turned. But as he did, noticed something at the corner of his eye.

Miguel pulled himself from the rubble. Clutching his bow and a one, frail arrow.

He drops the bow.

“This ends now!” He yells, rushing forwards, using the heaped piles of rubble as his leverage as he prepared to jump at The Burning Man.

And then he tumbled.

He was pushed. Miguel fell down the rubble and almost plummeted to his death, yelling out a “no!”. The last thing he saw was Jayme before his world went dark.

Jayme pushed himself hard from the rubble, throwing himself into the air. Slingshot in hand, pulling back with his teeth. Dagger in the other.

He fell towards The Burning Man’s back almost in slow motion, pulling back his hand, dagger aimed straight for the glowing red on the back of The Burning Man’s neck.

Purry, Jayme and Luke are sitting in a semi circle when Austin walks through the door, he seems to realize what is going on.

Arianna falls asleep against Jayme, snoring into his shoulder.

Arianna peeks from behind a wall and drags Jayme down, taking him by surprise, with her so they can listen in.

Jayme asks if Maria wants him to beat Austin up, but she insists that they drop it and pretend it never happened.

Chey opens the door. She screams out as Jayme is the same height as her now and she is quite startled. Jayme cries because he doesn't know what's happening or what to do.

Chey. tells Jayme that she wants to team up with him to try and find out what happened to Luke.Chey. and Jayme walk around the park. Chey. continues looking down the hole, trying to look even closer. Jayme tells her to be careful as she could fall. Chey. hugs Jayme suddenly, sighing into his chest. Chey’s. eyes glimmer in the moonlight that shines through the open door as she leans over and kisses Jayme. Jayme wakes up with Chey lying over his lap in bed. Chey down the path Jayme smiles, waving at her. Jayme and Chey interlock hands.

And then darkness.

Light. A roar. Arianna screamed out as Jayme’s body collided with The Burning Man’s, erupting into a blinding ball of light. He was screaming, The Burning Man was collapsing in on himself. The cracking and breaking audible all around the empire. Sara stopped her horse, listening to the noise anxiously.

Noah grabbed Purry’s hand, pulling her up and then grabbing Chey, carrying her to safety as the remains of The Burning Man, boulders of coal and burnt out skin began tumbling to the ground below.

Leaving nothing but piles of black rock.

Purry sat at the side of the sidewalk. Legs tucked into her chest. The streets were slowly becoming populated again, but nobody took notice of Purry.

Except Sara, who galloped along the street on her horse and stopping by her feet.

“I should probably return this horse soon. I feel bad.”

Silence.

Sara hopped off of the horse and sat besides Purry.

“Are you okay?”

“I don’t want to do this anymore.” Purry leaned her head on her shoulder.

“You don’t have to. It’s over.”

Purry nodded, looking up at Sara. “I’m sorry that I was so distant.”

“You don’t have to be sorry. I’m sorry.” Purry told her.

“You know I still love you.”

Purry nodded, Sara continued. “And I still want to be with you.”

~~

“I can’t believe it.” Arianna exhales. It was done. But it didn’t feel over. Something was missing. Jayme. She wiped a stray tear from her face.

“It’s okay to cry.” Miguel tells her. She jumps as though she’s seen a ghost.

“You’re okay!”

She rushes over and hugs him,

“Of course I’m okay.” He tells her.

“It was Jayme, he jumped for you— you were going to do it, weren’t you?”

“Yeah. He knew. I don’t know how but he knew.”

“You would’ve died…”

“And what if I did? He’d still be alive…”

“You’re heroes.”

Miguel nodded, hugging her again. “And you. We couldn’t have done it without you.”

Arianna squeezed him tightly.

~~

Purry and Sara kissed.

“I don’t know if I want to do this.” Purry confessed. Almost more to herself than Sara.

~~

Chey’s eyes flickered open. She lay in a makeshift bed on the side of the road. She was calm, but then she realised where she was and flinched. Arianna sat on the sidewalk beside her, getting a fright as she sat up.

“Ari--” Chey looked around, confused at the somber mood of Gracia. “Where’s Jayme? What happened?”

“Chey, I’m so sorry.”

“What?! What happened!”

“The Burning Man came to Gracia.”

“Is everyone okay?!”

“Jayme stopped him. He killed him.”

“Huh--”

“And In the process he killed himself.”

“What--”

“Jayme is dead.” Arianna told her and stood, turning away from her to stop herself crying. Chey pulled her knees to her chest, holding herself. Nobody else would. She began to cry.

“This can’t be, he was right here-- He was--”

“It’s not your fault, Chey. He did it for us. For you.”

~~

The gates, barely intact but still holding themselves up. Showing others that Gracia will continue on for years to come.

They stood.

Noah. Purry. Arianna. Chey. Miguel. Little Buddy. Minina. Austin. Sara.

The group getting smaller all the time.

Miguel threw his weaponry on the floor in a sign of protest. Protest, or ending.. The ending of his story. Purry followed, followed by everyone else until Chey stood alone with nothing to throw. Noah took her hand in solidarity, and then he took Purry’s hand. Purry took Miguel’s hand, Miguel took Sara’s, Sara took Arianna’s. Arianna took Austin’s. Until they all interlocked together. A family.

“What do we do now?” Purry asks them, shaking remaining ash out of her hair.

Austin took himself out of the chain of hands. “We live.” He told her, taking Minina’s hand and they made their way out of Gracia.

“Where are you going?!” Sara asks.

“To live. Finally. I suggest you do the same.”

“Hey, wait a minute!” Purry slipped out of the chain and followed them.

“Maybe we should stay?” Minina asks him.

“What?! In this place?! It’s ruined. The Burning Man is dead, we aren’t needed anymore.”

“He’s right.” Chey agreed, pulling herself out of the chain and walking in the opposite direction.

“This can’t be it. What are you going to do now?!” Miguel asks, generally to everyone still listening.

“I’m going to make sure Chey doesn’t do anything she’ll regret,” Purry turns to Noah and Little Buddy. “What about you guys?”

“We’ll be there for you.” Noah tells her.

“Plus, this place needs all the help they can get.” Purry adds, before leaving with Noah and Little Buddy.

“Well, that’s it.” Austin shrugs, turning to Minina. “If you want to stay that’s fine, but I wanted to help you… Find your family. Mine too.”

“Okay.” Minina nods, taking his hand. Arianna looks on. With jealousy? Maybe.

The Burning Man was dead, and this is where the warriors. The travellers. The family, disbanded.

*Back to zero, here we go again…*
Racing down into oblivion

Back to zero

Here we go

I can feel it coming to the end

The end…

What will happen now the universe is saved? Is Kedeadia still standing? Will Gracia rebuild? And what will happen to our travellers, and will they ever come back together again?

Find out…

IN SEASON THREE OF PARADOX

AIRING 2020

~~

## Cast

* Purry
* Noah
* Miguel
* Arianna
* Austin
* Jayme
* Chey
* Steven
* Sara
* Scarlette
* Little Buddy
* Minina
* Jamie
* Jiihn
* Brutus
* Nathaniel
* Isabelle

## Trivia

1. ↑ The Devils You Know
2. ↑ Bone Chilling Delivery
3. ↑ Introduction to Competition
4. ↑ Introduction to Competition
5. ↑ [[One Enchanted Evening
6. ↑ Stranger Things
7. ↑ Worst Case Scenario
8. ↑ No Pain, No Gain
9. ↑ Promises
10. ↑ Promises
11. ↑ Revelations
12. ↑ Love Of Friendship
13. ↑ Laughs over Coffee