Chapter 2: Under Radar
Mary and Will rushed down the dark street, ducking for cover whenever they saw a light and running with all their speed. They hoped they could escape the city; it was their only hope. If they could make it to the county, perhaps they could plan their next move. But, both of them were very uncertain about what might happen next.
The air was cool in the night, and the whole world felt empty. Perhaps it was news that they were on the run that kept the streets clean. Or maybe there was some sort of curfew around here. Neither Will nor Mary new exactly what time it was now after the whole ordeal, but they did know it was late.
And so, they ran down the empty streets, always aware of just how exposed they were. But they couldn't run forever, and soon the sound of sirens began to approach them. They knew that they had to hide now, or else they'd be discovered within minutes by the fast approaching car.
Will and Mary dived into another narrow alley, and hoped they could hide among the crates again. They hit the jackpot, the alley was right behind a large storage area, and they had a huge dumpster that Will and Mary noticed. So, throwing away their pride and any love for sanitation, Will and Mary quickly dived in it.
As the sirens started to die away, Mary and Will realized they should plan their next course of action. They were bound to be discovered this way, and they had to think of something or else they were in deep trouble. But, just as Mary was about to discuss this with Will, a loud voice screamed down the alley.
"I have to congratulate you," it started and footsteps began to walk down the alley after it began. "You escape quite a bit of police, but your escape ends here." Will and Mary heard the deep man's voice, and soon the light of a flashlight flooded the narrow alleyway.
Slowly, he moved forward towards the dumpster, but Will and Mary were ready for this.
As soon as he was in range, Will and Mary jumped out of the dumpster and tried their best to take down the man. Will tackled him on to the ground, and Mary tried to help Will hold the man down. He was a big guy in the shadows, and soon he rolled to his right, which shook off Will and Mary.
Seeing the man reach for his gun, Will charged forward at him. He punched him square in the face, and tackled him again. But, the man pulled out his gun, and slammed Will in the face with it in his hand. But, before the man could do further damage, Will pulled out the gun he had taken from the house before, and pointed it straight at his enemies face.
But, as Will was pulling out the gun, the man quickly reacted. He quickly used his own gun to fight back by pointed it at Mary and they were left in a stalemate.
"Put the gun down or I'll kill you," Will spat as the man turned his focus back to Will.
"I'll shoot your friend here if you try," the man quickly reminded Will.
"I'll shoot you first."
"The guns not even loaded."
"Liar!"
"Go ahead, shoot me if you dare."
Will was angry then, and fired at the man's hand that was holding the gun. But, all the gun was able to do was a soft clicking noise because the man was indeed right. The gun was not loaded, and they were caught.
"Now put the gun down or you're friend will get a bullet right between the eyebrows," the man ordered Will with annoying confidence. Will, who saw they were beat, dropped the gun to the ground reluctantly.
"You should be happy I caught you," the man continued on. "If the police found you, they'd shoot you on the spot. However, there is a bigger reward if you find a mark-less alive."
"What the heck is the mark," Mary shouted out at the man in frustration. Her comment clearly took her capture aback and it took a few seconds for him to regain his cool.
"Ah trying to play dumb are we," he said looking at them suspiciously.
"No," Will replied with the same bitterness as Mary. "We have no clue what is going on. We're not from here."
"Not from here," he asked with a bit more curiosity but still a lot of doubt. "The whole bloody world knows about the mark, how could you not?"
"We'll we're not from this world really," Will said with a cry of sadness.
"What are you trying to tell me your aliens or something," the man spat on the ground. "Or from a different dimension?"
"The second one is most right," Mary answered with the same tone of regret that Will had sported.
"And you expect me to believe this?" he asked like they had just told him he was dead. "Your probably lying, if I was mark-less I'd lie to escape this too. After all, I'd lie to save my life." He starred at them for a while, and his grip began to tighten on his gun. Then he turned around to face the street. Mary and Will were about to move seeing the opening, but the man pointed his gun behind him and fired a bullet that narrowly grazed Mary's face. "The next one won't miss," he replied coolly as he looked around a little more. He seemed to be looking to see if anyone was watching.
Then, slowly he turned around, gun still pointed at Mary, and then whispered something to himself. After that, he slowly put the gun back into his pocket. "Come with me," he said to Mary and Will, but this shocked them. "I know its tough for you to trust me, but I can help you out."
"Why do you believe us suddenly," Will asked him as the man signaled for them to follow. He shushed Will and Mary as they took off into the streets, hiding in every little shadow they could find.
---------------------
The man led them into a small office that was only a few blocks away. Its blinds were quickly pulled shut and they sat down in the few chairs he had lying around a table he led them to in the next room. It seemed the house doubled as an office and a house, one that seemed similar to something you'd find in Will's world.
Finally, he locked up and turned off the front rooms lights. He was trying to make it look normal, which was a good plan. Quietly, he led them to the next room, and they sat down at the table of what appeared to be a living room and kitchen area. The place wasn't big, but it was anything but shabby. The kitchen had modern appliances and the table was made of smooth and clean wood. There was one more room past this one, which seemed to be the man's bedroom.
The man gestured to Will and Mary to sit at the table, and he went to make some coffee. He brought over 3 mugs of it, and took a seat with them at the table. The light revealed that the man was wearing a deep brown trench coat and a matching hat. He appeared to be middle aged, and had a deep black mustache across his face. He was tall, about 6' 5", and had an imposing aura. He sat down and took off his trench coat, which revealed his athletic body dressed in casual clothing. Then he reached into the pocket of his pants, and flashed them with his id card.
"My name is Jack Mellows," he started. "Private investigator and a bit of a bounty hunter." He smiled at the last part of his sentence. "Now I don't know why I believed you, but I have some problems with the government so I guess I'll trust you. Now tell me everything, how you got here, and why you're here."
Will shifted uncomfortably, and Mary, seeing this, decided she'd tell the story. So, she went through their entire adventure from the beginning, including all of Lyra's part. She tried her best to stay brief on the parts that would remind Will of the pain, but in the end Will found himself excusing himself to lie on the couch while Mary finished the story. The whole account was brief, so it only took a couple of hours, and Jack seemed both doubtful and spell bound.
"Well now that is quite a story," Jack said eyes wide as Mary ended the tale. "I guess that makes sense why you have no clue what's going on here." He got up and went to make some more coffee and then added, "That is if you're telling the truth." He came over sipping a mug of strong black coffee and the whole room was still for a minute. Then Jack asked, "You said you can see daemons if you squint just right and all, could you try and see what mine is?"
"Yes," Mary answered. "In this world an in my world, our daemons remain invisible to you, but if we were in another one you'd be able to see it if we could. I'll try and see your daemon now though." Mary remembered the feeling she had to have to see her daemon, and went into deep concentration. And then, after a little while, she exclaimed," yes I can see yours. Its a fox daemon, fitting for your vocation I suppose."
"Sly like a fox eh," the man sat back thinking to himself. "I guess that's fitting. Now anyways, you got quite a problem haven't you. You broke the knife you said, so you'll have trouble getting home. But I guess you could get it repaired in my world, though I'd imagine it's a tough process and it might not work."
"And we can't just go up to someone and ask since we don't have the mark," Will added.
"Yeah about that mark," Mary started.
"Yeah I suppose I should tell you about my world then," Jack admitted reluctantly. "In my world we just have one country. It's called the League of Nations, though there aren't nations anymore. There are some advantages to it, such as free trade and little war, but there is a dark side also. Before, the league was just for trade, but slowly they gained power and were stronger then the leaders of our own countries. And then eventually they dissolved all the countries and made just one united world. It wasn't that bad, since the leaders were fair people and the world was doing well without war, but it got bad as years went by. Eventually, there became just one person in charge of the whole world, and we aren't even allowed to see his picture. I suppose it's to avoid assassination attempts. Also, there is a lot of terrorism. There are so many people who don't like the way things turned out, but they can't fight wars without a nation to be from. Also they don't have enough people or good enough leaders to wage war anyways. If all the terrorists joined together then maybe they'd stand a chance, but I doubt that will happen since most of the groups are bent on ruling for themselves. Allies would just get in the way you know?"
"So, they blow up buildings and civilians for the most part. Sometimes they attack the military, but they don't have the guts to do it normally. They just stick to those who can't fight back and hope it'll cripple the nation. But that just makes it worse! The government is too cold hearted to give in because of a couple hundred thousand people, but they fight terrorists whenever they find them and that makes them look like heroes and the terrorists look evil."
"And that is where the mark comes in I suppose. The government was thinking of marking all their enemies and worst criminals with a mark so that they couldn't sink through the world unnoticed. But, they realized they'd just rip off the skin that had it or cover it up. So, about 50 years ago the government decided to mark ever person in the world that they thought was decent enough to live. They figured that that way they could run inspections over anyone trying to get the mark, and they caught a lot of terrorists and criminals that way. Seeing what was happening, the currently known terrorists stayed back and were unable to get the mark. It was all going to their plan. You see, the mark isn't just paint sloshed on you in this pattern. It actually has a microchip embedded into it that shows up on scanners the police have. They use these scanners to see every person within a 5 meter radius, and if one of the people doesn't show up red on the screen thanks to the mark, that means either their mark is fake or they don't have the mark."
"But how come they didn't notice that we were hiding in those crates before," Will asked. "After all the scanner would have seen where we are and we would have been caught."
"That's actually something I was wondering about," Jack answered with a smile on his face. "There are a few things that it could be. First, they could have not used it because if they saw anybody out past the curfew we have in this world, then they could arrest them. However, I doubt they didn't use it because once they heard the mark-less were involved they were bound to use it. Also," Jack pulled out a round diskette that had dots on it. "You're not showing up on my scanner right here so we can forget about that theory. The second one is a bit more in depth. You see, my friend is a marker, someone who marks people at birth, and he was telling me about it one day. He said the mark amplifies a bit of innocence from a person. Probably its something you've seen in your travels. Any thoughts?"
"Well," Will started. "We've both seen dust, angels, gone through worlds, and a lot more."
"None of those seem right though," Jack responded. "Well maybe besides dust. I guess there could be some sort of innocence there."
"You've both seen daemons," Kirjava added in. "Maybe that's it."
"Hm..." Mary thought. "That could be it."
"What?" Jack asked. Mary and Will both realized that he couldn't hear Kirjava.
"Oh Will's daemon said something," Mary answered. "I can barely see him, but I can hear him Ok. He said that we've both seen daemons."
"I guess that'd make sense," Jack answered. "A daemon is part of yourself like you said so it would make more sense then anything else. Could you teach me to see daemons Mary?"
"Sure," responded Mary happy to help out. "But first we ought to plan out our next move."
"Well I think we ought to get some shut eye first," Jack added lightheartedly. "Here's what will do. Lets head to sleep, and in the morning I can help you get a fake mark. You might fool the radar, but you certainly won't fool people's eyes. After that I guess we'll need to find a way to repair the knife."
"One more question," Will said as he suddenly remembered something. "What is Zenureda?"
"Ah shoot Zenureda is involved!" Jack seemed very distressed. "Zenureda is the private guard of the law. They get involved when the worst is happening. They also write laws too since they have good writers on their staff. I guess this will be so much tougher. Maybe guess you guy's better sleep in my room. I keep some valuable stuff in there so," he clicked a switch that was on the table and suddenly a wall came and covered the door to his room. "Its safe in there."
"That sounds like a good idea," Will said. "I'm sure the angels won't mind if I use the knife one more time. We'll be home soon I hope." However, despite the optimism that floated through the room, there was dread among them. This wouldn't be easy to carry out; it could fail at any time. They had to be cautious, and most of all hope for the best. Because unless the best happened, they'd be stuck here for the rest of their lives.
Mary and Will rushed down the dark street, ducking for cover whenever they saw a light and running with all their speed. They hoped they could escape the city; it was their only hope. If they could make it to the county, perhaps they could plan their next move. But, both of them were very uncertain about what might happen next.
The air was cool in the night, and the whole world felt empty. Perhaps it was news that they were on the run that kept the streets clean. Or maybe there was some sort of curfew around here. Neither Will nor Mary new exactly what time it was now after the whole ordeal, but they did know it was late.
And so, they ran down the empty streets, always aware of just how exposed they were. But they couldn't run forever, and soon the sound of sirens began to approach them. They knew that they had to hide now, or else they'd be discovered within minutes by the fast approaching car.
Will and Mary dived into another narrow alley, and hoped they could hide among the crates again. They hit the jackpot, the alley was right behind a large storage area, and they had a huge dumpster that Will and Mary noticed. So, throwing away their pride and any love for sanitation, Will and Mary quickly dived in it.
As the sirens started to die away, Mary and Will realized they should plan their next course of action. They were bound to be discovered this way, and they had to think of something or else they were in deep trouble. But, just as Mary was about to discuss this with Will, a loud voice screamed down the alley.
"I have to congratulate you," it started and footsteps began to walk down the alley after it began. "You escape quite a bit of police, but your escape ends here." Will and Mary heard the deep man's voice, and soon the light of a flashlight flooded the narrow alleyway.
Slowly, he moved forward towards the dumpster, but Will and Mary were ready for this.
As soon as he was in range, Will and Mary jumped out of the dumpster and tried their best to take down the man. Will tackled him on to the ground, and Mary tried to help Will hold the man down. He was a big guy in the shadows, and soon he rolled to his right, which shook off Will and Mary.
Seeing the man reach for his gun, Will charged forward at him. He punched him square in the face, and tackled him again. But, the man pulled out his gun, and slammed Will in the face with it in his hand. But, before the man could do further damage, Will pulled out the gun he had taken from the house before, and pointed it straight at his enemies face.
But, as Will was pulling out the gun, the man quickly reacted. He quickly used his own gun to fight back by pointed it at Mary and they were left in a stalemate.
"Put the gun down or I'll kill you," Will spat as the man turned his focus back to Will.
"I'll shoot your friend here if you try," the man quickly reminded Will.
"I'll shoot you first."
"The guns not even loaded."
"Liar!"
"Go ahead, shoot me if you dare."
Will was angry then, and fired at the man's hand that was holding the gun. But, all the gun was able to do was a soft clicking noise because the man was indeed right. The gun was not loaded, and they were caught.
"Now put the gun down or you're friend will get a bullet right between the eyebrows," the man ordered Will with annoying confidence. Will, who saw they were beat, dropped the gun to the ground reluctantly.
"You should be happy I caught you," the man continued on. "If the police found you, they'd shoot you on the spot. However, there is a bigger reward if you find a mark-less alive."
"What the heck is the mark," Mary shouted out at the man in frustration. Her comment clearly took her capture aback and it took a few seconds for him to regain his cool.
"Ah trying to play dumb are we," he said looking at them suspiciously.
"No," Will replied with the same bitterness as Mary. "We have no clue what is going on. We're not from here."
"Not from here," he asked with a bit more curiosity but still a lot of doubt. "The whole bloody world knows about the mark, how could you not?"
"We'll we're not from this world really," Will said with a cry of sadness.
"What are you trying to tell me your aliens or something," the man spat on the ground. "Or from a different dimension?"
"The second one is most right," Mary answered with the same tone of regret that Will had sported.
"And you expect me to believe this?" he asked like they had just told him he was dead. "Your probably lying, if I was mark-less I'd lie to escape this too. After all, I'd lie to save my life." He starred at them for a while, and his grip began to tighten on his gun. Then he turned around to face the street. Mary and Will were about to move seeing the opening, but the man pointed his gun behind him and fired a bullet that narrowly grazed Mary's face. "The next one won't miss," he replied coolly as he looked around a little more. He seemed to be looking to see if anyone was watching.
Then, slowly he turned around, gun still pointed at Mary, and then whispered something to himself. After that, he slowly put the gun back into his pocket. "Come with me," he said to Mary and Will, but this shocked them. "I know its tough for you to trust me, but I can help you out."
"Why do you believe us suddenly," Will asked him as the man signaled for them to follow. He shushed Will and Mary as they took off into the streets, hiding in every little shadow they could find.
---------------------
The man led them into a small office that was only a few blocks away. Its blinds were quickly pulled shut and they sat down in the few chairs he had lying around a table he led them to in the next room. It seemed the house doubled as an office and a house, one that seemed similar to something you'd find in Will's world.
Finally, he locked up and turned off the front rooms lights. He was trying to make it look normal, which was a good plan. Quietly, he led them to the next room, and they sat down at the table of what appeared to be a living room and kitchen area. The place wasn't big, but it was anything but shabby. The kitchen had modern appliances and the table was made of smooth and clean wood. There was one more room past this one, which seemed to be the man's bedroom.
The man gestured to Will and Mary to sit at the table, and he went to make some coffee. He brought over 3 mugs of it, and took a seat with them at the table. The light revealed that the man was wearing a deep brown trench coat and a matching hat. He appeared to be middle aged, and had a deep black mustache across his face. He was tall, about 6' 5", and had an imposing aura. He sat down and took off his trench coat, which revealed his athletic body dressed in casual clothing. Then he reached into the pocket of his pants, and flashed them with his id card.
"My name is Jack Mellows," he started. "Private investigator and a bit of a bounty hunter." He smiled at the last part of his sentence. "Now I don't know why I believed you, but I have some problems with the government so I guess I'll trust you. Now tell me everything, how you got here, and why you're here."
Will shifted uncomfortably, and Mary, seeing this, decided she'd tell the story. So, she went through their entire adventure from the beginning, including all of Lyra's part. She tried her best to stay brief on the parts that would remind Will of the pain, but in the end Will found himself excusing himself to lie on the couch while Mary finished the story. The whole account was brief, so it only took a couple of hours, and Jack seemed both doubtful and spell bound.
"Well now that is quite a story," Jack said eyes wide as Mary ended the tale. "I guess that makes sense why you have no clue what's going on here." He got up and went to make some more coffee and then added, "That is if you're telling the truth." He came over sipping a mug of strong black coffee and the whole room was still for a minute. Then Jack asked, "You said you can see daemons if you squint just right and all, could you try and see what mine is?"
"Yes," Mary answered. "In this world an in my world, our daemons remain invisible to you, but if we were in another one you'd be able to see it if we could. I'll try and see your daemon now though." Mary remembered the feeling she had to have to see her daemon, and went into deep concentration. And then, after a little while, she exclaimed," yes I can see yours. Its a fox daemon, fitting for your vocation I suppose."
"Sly like a fox eh," the man sat back thinking to himself. "I guess that's fitting. Now anyways, you got quite a problem haven't you. You broke the knife you said, so you'll have trouble getting home. But I guess you could get it repaired in my world, though I'd imagine it's a tough process and it might not work."
"And we can't just go up to someone and ask since we don't have the mark," Will added.
"Yeah about that mark," Mary started.
"Yeah I suppose I should tell you about my world then," Jack admitted reluctantly. "In my world we just have one country. It's called the League of Nations, though there aren't nations anymore. There are some advantages to it, such as free trade and little war, but there is a dark side also. Before, the league was just for trade, but slowly they gained power and were stronger then the leaders of our own countries. And then eventually they dissolved all the countries and made just one united world. It wasn't that bad, since the leaders were fair people and the world was doing well without war, but it got bad as years went by. Eventually, there became just one person in charge of the whole world, and we aren't even allowed to see his picture. I suppose it's to avoid assassination attempts. Also, there is a lot of terrorism. There are so many people who don't like the way things turned out, but they can't fight wars without a nation to be from. Also they don't have enough people or good enough leaders to wage war anyways. If all the terrorists joined together then maybe they'd stand a chance, but I doubt that will happen since most of the groups are bent on ruling for themselves. Allies would just get in the way you know?"
"So, they blow up buildings and civilians for the most part. Sometimes they attack the military, but they don't have the guts to do it normally. They just stick to those who can't fight back and hope it'll cripple the nation. But that just makes it worse! The government is too cold hearted to give in because of a couple hundred thousand people, but they fight terrorists whenever they find them and that makes them look like heroes and the terrorists look evil."
"And that is where the mark comes in I suppose. The government was thinking of marking all their enemies and worst criminals with a mark so that they couldn't sink through the world unnoticed. But, they realized they'd just rip off the skin that had it or cover it up. So, about 50 years ago the government decided to mark ever person in the world that they thought was decent enough to live. They figured that that way they could run inspections over anyone trying to get the mark, and they caught a lot of terrorists and criminals that way. Seeing what was happening, the currently known terrorists stayed back and were unable to get the mark. It was all going to their plan. You see, the mark isn't just paint sloshed on you in this pattern. It actually has a microchip embedded into it that shows up on scanners the police have. They use these scanners to see every person within a 5 meter radius, and if one of the people doesn't show up red on the screen thanks to the mark, that means either their mark is fake or they don't have the mark."
"But how come they didn't notice that we were hiding in those crates before," Will asked. "After all the scanner would have seen where we are and we would have been caught."
"That's actually something I was wondering about," Jack answered with a smile on his face. "There are a few things that it could be. First, they could have not used it because if they saw anybody out past the curfew we have in this world, then they could arrest them. However, I doubt they didn't use it because once they heard the mark-less were involved they were bound to use it. Also," Jack pulled out a round diskette that had dots on it. "You're not showing up on my scanner right here so we can forget about that theory. The second one is a bit more in depth. You see, my friend is a marker, someone who marks people at birth, and he was telling me about it one day. He said the mark amplifies a bit of innocence from a person. Probably its something you've seen in your travels. Any thoughts?"
"Well," Will started. "We've both seen dust, angels, gone through worlds, and a lot more."
"None of those seem right though," Jack responded. "Well maybe besides dust. I guess there could be some sort of innocence there."
"You've both seen daemons," Kirjava added in. "Maybe that's it."
"Hm..." Mary thought. "That could be it."
"What?" Jack asked. Mary and Will both realized that he couldn't hear Kirjava.
"Oh Will's daemon said something," Mary answered. "I can barely see him, but I can hear him Ok. He said that we've both seen daemons."
"I guess that'd make sense," Jack answered. "A daemon is part of yourself like you said so it would make more sense then anything else. Could you teach me to see daemons Mary?"
"Sure," responded Mary happy to help out. "But first we ought to plan out our next move."
"Well I think we ought to get some shut eye first," Jack added lightheartedly. "Here's what will do. Lets head to sleep, and in the morning I can help you get a fake mark. You might fool the radar, but you certainly won't fool people's eyes. After that I guess we'll need to find a way to repair the knife."
"One more question," Will said as he suddenly remembered something. "What is Zenureda?"
"Ah shoot Zenureda is involved!" Jack seemed very distressed. "Zenureda is the private guard of the law. They get involved when the worst is happening. They also write laws too since they have good writers on their staff. I guess this will be so much tougher. Maybe guess you guy's better sleep in my room. I keep some valuable stuff in there so," he clicked a switch that was on the table and suddenly a wall came and covered the door to his room. "Its safe in there."
"That sounds like a good idea," Will said. "I'm sure the angels won't mind if I use the knife one more time. We'll be home soon I hope." However, despite the optimism that floated through the room, there was dread among them. This wouldn't be easy to carry out; it could fail at any time. They had to be cautious, and most of all hope for the best. Because unless the best happened, they'd be stuck here for the rest of their lives.