Dedicated to the AAFWSS.
2020 – Fugitive, chapter one
Electricity? Kate suppressed a bitter laugh. Those were the days. She squinted at the scraps of paper they were using for kindling. On the closest piece, she could just make out her name. She struggled to make the paper light, as the match burned; any second it would reach her fingers, and she would have to drop it. Just then, the small flame caught, and she watched as the words 'passed with distinction' disappeared in a rush of yellow-red heat.
There was a footfall behind her, and she stiffened. But you can't spend six years on the run with someone and not learn a little about their moods or needs. Mike stepped forward, dropped a pile of blankets he had scavenged from upstairs onto the floor, and didn't say a thing.
The house was empty except for the two humans and their small fire. Kate carefully fed it a few sticks, and then pushed it onto the wood. An electric light clung to the ceiling above their heads like a hanged prisoner – silent, still, and cold.
"What do you think happened here?" Kate asked. They had searched the house when they had arrived, and she had been ecstatic to find a bottle of cooking oil. It would help start the fire, and save her the laborious task of slowly adding bigger and bigger chunks of wood. The wood they had obtained by smashing one of the carved dining room chairs. Kate guessed they would need to destroy another before the night was over.
"Someone got them," Mike replied, trying not to look at the blood stain near the door. The fire was situated in the middle of what had once been the living room, sitting on top of several trays they had pulled from the kitchen to stop it from spreading around the room. Mike's eyes wandered the new location, for a moment resting on a baby's crib. There was blood on the blanket.
"Alphae," he added, looking away in disgust.
"The Allies aren't anywhere near here," Kate pointed out, then changed the subject. "How long do you think we can stay? There's enough food for a week or two."
"We'll take some of it. We should probably leave tomorrow," he decided. She sighed, and he rubbed her back, as they pulled themselves closer to the fire. They would need the blankets during the night, when the temperature dropped to only two or three degrees above freezing.
"The Allies will beat them back, eventually," he reassured her. "We just need to survive a little longer..."
"It's been six years!" she exclaimed in reply, ducking her head in embarrassment when she realised her voice had broken the whisper-rule. They were squatters in someone else's house. Not that those people would be returning... but the ones who had taken them, the Alphae, might always swing through the district again. Especially if the neighbours reported voices in the empty building.
"They haven't caught us yet," Mike pointed out. "And they're not going to. We stay on our guard, and keep moving..."
"Until the war is over," she finished. It was a conversation they had had many times. "Maybe we should have tried to get out of the country. Get somewhere better, somewhere safer, like Indonesia or Papua. I don't think we'd get to America."
"They're patrolling the borders. Couldn't buy a boat, couldn't get on a plane..."
"I know. I know..."
"They're patrolling the seas with our boat," he muttered. She shuffled sideways, and leaned her head against his chest.
"Would you rather be there with them?" she asked, hesitant.
"No!" he hissed, whisper laced with venom. "I'd sink her myself to see them drown..."
"Could be a plan..." she replied softly, and he couldn't tell whether she was joking.
"Not on our own. We're too small."
She nodded. They couldn't affect the war effort unless they joined the Alphae, which they had both sworn never to do – for a start, the Alphae were the enemy, so it wouldn't really help their cause. The Allies wouldn't take them, because there was no way of knowing whose side the pair was really on.
Of course, there were rumours of the Resistance Fighters. But whether such a group actually existed or whether they were just an Alphae-created trap remained to be seen. Mike knew that if they were real, he and Kate would certainly want to join them – but without firm evidence, they wasn't going anywhere that could put them in the hands of either Alphae or Allie.
"Walking south is too slow," Kate said, holding her hands out to the fire. Already it was getting colder, even though the sun had only gone down an hour ago.
"What do you want to do?"
"I don't know. The only safe place is the desert."
"Be warmer, at least," he murmured, mimicking her position and trying to keep the cold away from his hands.
"Maybe. But how do we get there? Walking through the desert... not smart."
"Unless we took the Thieves' tunnel," he suggested slowly.
"Could we afford it?" she asked. "Maybe..."
Originally, the underground train tunnels had been taken over by the Alphae, to help restrict movement around the country. Then, a band of heavily armed hostiles had attacked a small tunnel, killing the Alphae inside and using it as their hiding place. Similar groups took over the other tunnels, until the Alphae couldn't access the underground at all. Anyone who ventured down was attacked and robbed. Later, however, the tithe system was introduced, allowing people to travel through the tunnel safely in exchange for food goods and other valuable necessities. It was a high price, however, and not entirely safe.
Preferring to avoid other people, Mike and Kate were yet to attempt passage through it. There was no way of telling whether someone was an Ally, an Alphae, a civilian or a fugitive.
"We'll talk about it in the morning," Mike decided. Kate's hooded eyes stared into the dancing flames, and he watched her sadly. After a minute, he realised that the glitter effect on her face wasn't a reflection of the fire, but the steady trickle of tears down her cheeks. Beneath the thick wood was the remains of the paper kindling. His jaw tightened, and he pulled her to his side, holding her close as she suppressed a sob.
"It doesn't matter anymore," she whispered, her voice breaking. "I keep trying to tell myself, it was just a piece of paper..."
"We could have found something else..." he said uncertainly.
"Because that's all it was. A piece of paper," she said forcefully, pushing him away, straightening her back. "Dead weight."
"Your ADFA graduation certificate," he pointed out. She shrugged.
"Like it's helping me now. In fact, it was probably dangerous to have with us. Could tell anyone who we are, if they..."
"They won't find us," he promised. "You'll feel better in the morning."
It was an empty promise, but Kate nodded, and they quickly organised the blankets he had gathered into layers without another word, and lay down together. It was colder now, so cold they could both see their breath misting in the air, and their extremities were growing numb.
"We'll check out upstairs some more. Need some new clothes," Kate pointed out. Mike grunted in agreement.
Before long, they had fallen into a light sleep, ready to wake and take action, or run, at the slightest disturbance.