Being a red
I pushed my legs harder, watching the concrete flying below my feet. I looked back in front of me through the foggy air on the roof and saw a glimpse of yellow in front of me behind a crate: the runner's bag. My red shoes slid to a stop and I reached down for the bag while avoiding the camera I spotted above my head. While the blues were something every runner had to deal with, it was always nice to try and lower one's chances for an encounter.
With the bag in hand and my eyes on the camera, I quickly ran in the door lined with red next to me. I turned around to face the hallway I entered the building and turned around, relieved to see not a single camera down the hall. I began sprinting down to the right where I knew the stairs to be; a route I had run many times before. The life of a runner happened to be quite repetitive, unless you were someone like Faith Connors. Of course, as well-known as Faith Connors was, not a single one of us reds wanted to be her. Having a face posted all over the city, having a blue as a sister, well, it made being a runner much more difficult (and it was hard enough already.)
I launched up the stairwell in front of me, running up four flights of stairs before I reached the next rooftop. I burst into the sunlight, feeling the wonderful warmth of the radiant rays of the sun. I paused for a moment, just breathing in the wonderful springtime warmth.
When I was nice and warm, I began running again, seeing the next rooftop and leaping for it, my legs stretched forward to land smoothly on the rooftop. I did a light roll to soften the landing and stood up running again, pleased with myself. I pushed up and began running again, a smooth transition between roll and running.
Behind me somewhere on street-level, I heard the approaching sound of police cars and knew that despite my dodging of the video cameras, like most of the time, the blues had found me. Of course, this was something us reds dealt with all the time, so honestly, it was no big deal to me. The only thing it changed was that I decided to stay higher up.
I jumped again, this time off a rooftop down to one quite a distance below me. I stretched my legs out to prepare for the shock of landing. As soon as I felt the ground at my toes, I immediately shifted my weight forward and rolled, softening the harsh landing significantly. However, that jump, one that I had tried only once before, was a bit much for me. With soreness in my ankles, I continued forward and kicked in a door at the end of the rooftop. Once inside, I learned of the blue's presence in the building.
When the first shot rang out, I began flying in the opposite direction. "Was that a gunshot? They're not supposed to be there yet!" The voice of my partner rang in my ear through the comms unit. "Calm down Ven, I'm fine. I need a new way out though." I replied to my loyal friend calmly.
"Can do. Looks like there's some ducts above you to the right, if you can get to them. Should be an access duct farther ahead." I continued running while listening to his instructions. Ahead of me, I saw one access point, however, it was too high even for me. I ran farther along, praying there'd be a way up to the next one.
This time, I was lucky. There were some boxes stacked on the right, a balcony on the left, and a straight shot from the balcony. I quickly vaulted up the boxes and then used the wall to launch at the balcony. Behind me, the blues had caught up. They shot at me as I backed up. Then I ran forward and launched over the railing of the balcony and caught the edge of the air duct opening.
I had my elbows and chest inside the duct, but my back end was hanging out; one of the most dangerous moments for runners. I heard a new round of shots and as I scrambled into the duct, I felt one clip the side of my right foot. Holding back a cry, I began quickly crawling through the duct, eager to get out and bring this bag to the checkpoint.
"You're in a small safe spot, if you need a rest." Ven called to me through our comms. I sat down quietly, thankful for this space. It was something hard to find for us runners; small spots in ducting that were above a small closet or thick wall. I twisted my leg around to examine it. Luckily, the bullet seemed to have grazed the skin, but hadn't hit anything other than that. To stop the bleeding, I ripped off the bottom of my red sleeveless shirt and wrapped it tightly around the wound.
Once I caught my breath, I continues crawling, making sure to keep quite because the blues were certainly trying to figure out where I was. I slowly but surely reached the end of the ducting where I burst out onto the roof. I looked around and pinpointed my position- only a block more to go.
With that happy note, I grabbed onto the pole at the edge of the building and slid down to ground level. I turned down the alley and began running again, launching myself over a chain-link fence and some trashcans before I reached the street. On the street, I pulled my pants leg down so that it covered my wound and casually walked to the right where I was supposed to be meeting the next runner. I walked down to the next alley and casually leaned against the wall. From above me, I heard a whistle. I glanced up to see Caleigh, the runner I was waiting on. With a nod from her, I tossed the yellow bag up to her on the second floor roof of the building and she turned and ran.
I sighed. "Another successful job." I said to myself and began making my way back towards Ven's hang-out.