Chapter 10

My eyes shot open and I blinked in the darkness, confused as to where I was, but I quickly remembered I was in my cell. There was little light shining through the window up above, the moon showing that it was a little past new. They turned out all the lights when it was time for bed, anyway.

I sat up, my cuffs jingling slightly and I sighed. The freedom that I had had when my cuffs were off and I was beating up Zane was incredible. It was truly exhilarating. Then, my thoughts snapped back to the present as I remembered that I was breaking out.

There was always a guard posted outside every other door, but the doors were sort of far away from each other, so I guess it was a good guarding system, but not good enough, I could guess. I snapped my handcuffs off my hands, catching them before they could clank on the hard stone ground below. I yanked off my ankle cuffs as well, grabbing them before they could make a loud noise. Unlucky for me, there was a guard outside my door.

I smiled and set the cuffs gently onto my bed. I had a plan, and it was going to work. I wasn't just going to bust out of here. I needed to have a little fun in the process.

I began to cough loudly, trying to make it sound like I had started choking on something, making the guard notice me. "H-help!" I choked out, making it sound as if I were out of breath, so to speak.

"Shut up," the guard mumbled uncertainly, and I heard the rustle of his clothing as he moved a little, uncomfortably, it would seem. His gun rattled as well as he grabbed hold of it firmly.

It must be one of the new ones, I thought, smiling. I coughed louder, inhaling deep, making it sound as if I were gasping for air. I was going to make it seem like I was dying in that cell, scare the living crap out of the new guard.

It seemed to work. Just before the cell door opened—and again, since there was no light, the guard wouldn't notice my cuffs were off—I hid the cuffs below me, just so he wouldn't see them on the bed. He ran in and started pounding on my back. In the process, he set his gun down on the bed. Bad mistake, kid.

I smiled, stopped coughing, and lunged for the gun. The guard's eyes widened in surprise and he jumped back in self-defense. I pointed the gun at him, my eyes gleaming with triumph. "Make one wrong call or move, and I'll put a bullet in you." I didn't really wanna harm anybody, but I did what I had to do to get out of juvie.

His arms trembled as he put them up in the air. "D-don't shoot me, please!" he whispered, his eyes wide with panic. "I-I just got this job! I don't wanna die the first night!"

I pointed the gun downward in hesitation, and as I did, the new guard put his trembling arms down by his side. "Thank you so much!" he whispered, but I could see one of his arms reaching into his pocket, probably for his tazer. "Thank you—"

He cut himself off, ripping the tazer from his pocket and shooting the charge straight at me. I jumped out of the way, cocked the gun and pointed it at his head. The guard's arms immediately went back up in the air, dropping his tazer in the process. I glanced down at his pants and realized in his fear, he had soiled himself. Typical humans, I suppose.

I ran up to the guard and hit him on the back of the head, knocking him unconscious for the time being. I hurried towards my door, looking out both ways, making sure I hadn't caused a commotion, before bolting in the direction of Cora's cell.

I passed a few more guards on my way there. Luckily for me, Cora's cell was somewhat close to the front door. I'm surprised the alarm just hadn't gone off yet. Surely the guard was watching the security tapes? I shook my head to clear it, charging forward and knocking the guard in front of Cora's door unconscious.

I heard a rustling and jingling noise from inside as Cora awoke. I yanked the door open, with no use for a key. Cora thought I had used the key, and so she didn't care. She ran up to me and jumped in my arms, and my eyes widened. I smiled and hugged her back. She pulled away from me and looked into my eyes.

"Now would you be so kind as to remove my cuffs?" she asked, her eyes glowing.

I smiled at her, but then my smile faded as I realized that I didn't have the key. I don't want her to know about me…not yet, I thought to myself as I stared down at her cuffs. But…

I growled at myself and stomped on her ankle cuffs, breaking them off, and ripped off her handcuffs. They both clinked to the floor as I ripped them off. She stared at me with confusion, but I grabbed her arm and yanked her out the door. By the time we "snuck" past the guards "guarding" the exit, the alarms began to ring and the searchlights came on outside. I grabbed her other arm, throwing the gun down. I looked into her eyes and she looked into mine. "Cora, don't scream, don't be scared, and don't—whatever you do—don't you dare let go of me, okay?"

She opened her mouth to question me, but I interrupted her by jumping into the air just as the guards came pouring out into the courtyard, and I flew off. I looked back at the guards on the ground, their shocked and puzzled faces amusing me.

Then, I looked at Cora. Her eyes were wide with fright, but as I looked at her, she suddenly remembered what I asked her to do, and she sort of relaxed as we flew off into the night.

…

I landed on the front steps to the SLA, Cora breathing heavily. She looked over at me and smiled, laughing in the process. "Astro, that…" She cut off and laughed some more. "That was amazing! How'd you do that?"

I smiled and looked away. I still don't want her to know, so… "I-it was nothing," I said, scratching the back of my head. "I just had rocket-propelled boots is all." I smiled, hoping she would believe me.

She seemed hesitant for a minute, but then she smiled again and hugged me. "I'm so glad we got out," she breathed in my ear. "We didn't belong there."

I blinked, surprised. She used the term "we" an awful lot. I pulled away, and she looked at me in confusion.

"What's wrong?" she asked, her eyes bright. "You did want to break out, didn't you?"

I sighed and looked over at her. "Yes, but… I-I just didn't want to be a fugitive, you know?" I clenched my fists by my side, closing my eyes as I remembered the day Toby's mom had died. It wasn't my fault. She just couldn't take the fact that Toby had died… But now I guess she's with her son… I opened my eyes, releasing my fists, and looked back at Cora. I grabbed her arm. "Come on. Let's go."

We ran inside the SLA. Lucky for us, they always left their doors unlocked, just because they knew I always snuck out— No, not me… It was Toby who always snuck out and came here at night… I sighed inwardly, rounding the corner towards Ed's science lab. I pushed open the doors, Cora following behind.

I stopped as a huge robot looked down at me, but then I remembered that it was just Zog, Ed's newest robot. I wasn't sure if it was "alive" yet, but… I looked at Cora, her eyes trained on the huge construction robot.

I laughed. "Don't be afraid." She looked at me, and I continued. "That's just Zog. He's not even turned on yet. He can't hurt you."

She nodded. "Okay," she said, continuing to look up at the huge robot.

I couldn't help but wonder if what I said was wrong, but I shook myself inwardly. It can't hurt us. It's going to be like me, like a good person…right?

We whipped our heads up as we heard a whirring noise, and realized that Zog's eyes were glowing. He was being turned on, but how?

Ed stepped out from behind Zog. I looked away from the huge construction robot for a second. He had a huge smile on his face. "Well, what a lovely surprise, Astro!" he said. He glanced in Cora's direction, her eyes still trained on the robot. "Who's this?"

I smiled. "This is Cora. We…" I looked at her, and she looked back. "We kind of…were thrown in juvie for no reason, and we broke out…" I laughed half-heartedly, watching Ed's reaction on his face go from happiness to pure madness.

"Astro!" he screamed. "Why'd you do that? For all you know, Cora here could've actually done something wrong! And you broke her out! I know you would've never done anything to actually get put in juvie, because you have the blue core inside you, and that makes you pure—"

I waved my hands in the air, looking nervously from Cora to Ed. "No, no, no, Ed. No. I don't have anything in me."

Cora looked confused. "What's he talking about?"

I laughed nervously. "N-nothing, Cora. Just forget it."

She placed her hands on her hips. "Tell me. What's he talking about?"

I scratched the back of my head. "Um…well—"

"Oh, so he hasn't told you yet?" Ed said, smiling a greedy smile.

I waved my hands in front of me. "No, Ed. Please, no. I want to tell her myself."

"Okay, what's all this about? You know I deserve to know things too."

Ed chuckled softly. "What is she, your girlfriend? You know robots don't have emotions."

I looked embarrassed at first, but then I realized that Ed just told Cora I was a robot. I slapped my face into the palm of my hand. "Ed!" I screamed.

Cora took a step back. "You're…you're a robot…? And you never told me…?" She looked at the ground for a moment, and then looked back at me. "Is that why you beat Zane? Did you actually kill someone?"

I shook my head and opened my mouth to speak, but Ed beat me to it. "No, Astro is not capable of such things. His core's too pure. He cannot kill or harm anybody."

"That explains why he can fly, I guess…" Cora murmured.

"I—" I started, but I was cut off as an ominous whirring noise sounded from Zog. All three of us looked up at the robot at the same time, and I was surprised when I saw Zog's eyes glowing red.

I looked at Ed quickly. "You put the red core in it, right?"

He nodded. "Yes."

I looked at it and realized it was locking onto something to fire something from its cement churning hand. "You didn't load it with weapons, did you?" I shouted above the noise.

"I—" Ed was cut off as a high-pitched beeping sounded from Zog. He was aiming straight at me. He raised his arm as it began rolling and glowing inside. It was glowing red. It was going to shoot me.

I screamed. Grabbing Ed and Cora in my hands, I flew out of the room as fast as I could. All I could hear was Cora screaming, Ed shouting, and Zog's weapon firing at where I once was. I flew out the main entrance and watched as Zog broke through the wall and headed straight for town. It was dawn, and nobody would be up yet.

Everyone was in trouble.