Jondy the Abandoner 4: Streaming Freedom Video
Chapter two: That Was a Commercial
February 25, 2020
Jondy smiled to herself as she sat hugging her knees at the top of the Golden Gate bridge. She was getting married! It sounded insane, and exciting, and amazing. It was also the exact opposite of what life could've been if she hadn't escaped from Manticore.
She remembered being a little girl at Manticore. Normal little girls had hopes and dreams of getting married and having children. Jondy had wanted to be a sniper, and to be as good as Max at escape and evade. Aldrea had dreams of being a teacher like Brian, while Jondy had hoped to become an assassin. But Jondy didn't really want all of that. She'd found that out after a couple of days in the real world.
And now she was about to have everything a normal little girl could hope for. Brian still didn't know about Manticore though. Jondy struggled with the idea of telling him. It would put him in danger. But marriage was supposed to be about trust, right?
The memories from Manticore still haunted her. Aldrea's birthday was approaching, and with it the anniversary of the escape. And the anniversary of Maxie's death.
Jondy heard the cold crack of ice, and turned to see Max slip under, arms raised in surprise. "Max!" Jondy screamed, but Max didn't surface. Jondy turned around and ran. Ran and ran and ran…
The thought made Jondy feel queasy inside. She'd tried to make excuses for it, when she felt she couldn't take the guilt any longer, but everything she came up with was lame. There could never be any excuse for letting Maxie die. Her closest sister, her best friend.
She'd learned her lesson. She'd never abandon anyone again. Not ever again.
Jondy glanced at her watch and sighed. She had to be at work in 15 minutes. She worked about a block away from her apartment, at a little bar called The Golden Gate. Her shift tonight was until two AM. Jondy had no problem staying up that late, but poor Beth might, Jondy thought with a smile, as she began her climb down. Beth was babysitting Aldrea again, as Brian was visiting his mother this week to talk about arrangements for the wedding. He didn't have to work because it was mid-winter break at school.
"You're late," said another bartender named Dameon, as Eloise walked in at five minutes after nine. "We're swamped you know." The bar was almost empty. It was slow, even for a Tuesday night.
"Yeah, it's really crazy in here," Eloise smirked, and went to the backroom to check in. She signed her name and wrote the time in on a tattered piece of paper tacked to the wall. Before heading out to work, she pulled out some lip gloss, and smiled inwardly and the delicious cherry flavor as she applied it. Shoving the tube back into the pocket of her blue jeans, Eloise sighed tiredly, anticipating an uneventful night at work.
12:40 AM
Beth yawned, and stretched out on the couch. Aldrea was sitting on the floor watching Full House reruns, and playing with her toy animals. "Don't you think you should be getting to bed soon?" asked Beth, and yawned again.
"I'm not sleepy. I already told you, I slept in 'til ten o'clock this morning!"
"Well, I could read you a story or something. Will that make you sleepy?"
"I could OD on my seizure medicine. That'd make me sleepy," said Aldrea sarcastically.
Beth grumbled something under her breath, and yawned again. She rubbed her eyes, trying to urge them to stay open.
"Besides," said Aldrea, "Don't you wanna know what happens on the show?"
"They go to the mall to protest their toys, and in the end Rigby the Rhino comes to their house and gives them ugly orange stuffed animals. I've seen this a million times," said Beth lazily.
"I know. Don't you wanna see it again?" Aldrea grinned, knowing that she was being annoying.
Beth rolled her eyes. The television went to a commercial break advertising air freshener.
Boredly, Aldrea began to throw her toy animals across the room. "What are you doing?" yelled Beth.
"Teaching plastic to fly."
"You're making a mess!"
"I've made bigger," said Aldrea. A commercial for a toy that she wanted came on the TV. Aldrea turned and stared at it excitedly. She would definitely be getting one of those for her birthday.
Aldrea began to hum along to the theme music, but suddenly there was no more theme music to hum to.
"Do not attempt to adjust your set. This is a streaming freedom video bulletin."
"What the heck is this?" wondered Beth.
Aldrea shrugged, and went back to throwing her toys.
"This cable hack is being beamed to you right across America. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped. This is a message for those known as X5," Aldrea's ears perked up at those words, and began to listen intently again. "You have been compromised. You are in danger. You know what to do. I repeat, your locations have been compromised. You know what to do. This message will repeat every hour, on the hour, until each of you has checked in."
The message ended, and the television went back to Joey Gladstone yelling about the injustices of toy companies or whatever. Aldrea looked over at Beth, who was resting her eyes. The voice from the message kept repeating itself in Aldrea's mind, "You have been compromised. You are in danger." This was the danger Zack always talked about. The bad guys were coming, and Zack sent out a warning! That had to be what this was!
Aldrea ran over to the phone. She had to call her mom. They had to get out of San Francisco! "Aldrea, leave the phone alone," Beth mumbled from the couch.
"I'm just going to call my mom's beeper," Aldrea explained.
"You're mom'll be home in a little over an hour."
"But it's important! I have to talk to her NOW!"
"Fine! Page her, but if she's mad, I had nothing to do with this."
Aldrea quickly dialed her mom's number, and listened to the message, wishing it would go faster. "Hey this is Eloise. Actually, it's my beeper. So dial in your number, unless you're a super paranoid brother, and I'll call you back when I feel like it."
Finally it finished, and Aldrea dialed in her home phone number.
1:05 AM
Lydecker was looking at pictures of X5s, when agent Sandoval approached him. "We got a lead on the girl in Portland," Sandoval informed him.
"Good," said Lydecker. "Have him send us a chopper ASAP. I'm going to take care of this one myself."
Sandoval nodded and began to walk away.
"Oh," Lydecker added, "And send a team to San Francisco to check out the last known location of X5-210. According to this new intel, she may not have moved on as we had assumed."
"Yes sir," said agent Sandoval.
Eloise felt her hip buzzing as she handed a beer to an angsty drunk. Hoping it was Brian, s she could complain to him about work, she looked at the number. Home.
Eloise sighed. "I'm going back to use the phone," she alerted Dameon. He nodded and gave her a thumbs up.
Finally the phone range on Aldrea's end. "Hello?" Aldrea said into the phone.
"There had better be blood," came Jondy's voice from the other end.
"Mom! The bad guys are coming!"
"Give me the phone Aldrea," Eloise heard Beth yelling in the background. Aldrea tightened her grip on the object and twirled around so that the phone was on the opposite side from Beth.
"What!" asked Jondy.
"I saw it on TV, Mom. The bad guys are coming!"
"Aldrea!" a very aggravated Jondy shouted. "Go. To. Bed!"
"But Moooooomm!"
"BED!"
"That was a commercial Aldrea," Beth explained.
"Oh yeah, then what was it advertising?" came Aldrea's retort. "It'll be on again at two Mom! Turn on the TV before you leave work, and you'll see!"
"I'm hanging up the phone now Aldrea, and you'd better be asleep when I get home!" Eloise yelled so loudly that even Beth heard.
Aldrea slammed the phone back down on the receiver so hard that the casing cracked a little.
"Well, you heard her," said Beth with a smug grin. "To bed with you."
Aldrea glared at Beth, and walked passed her on the way to her room without saying anything.
"Good night," said Beth, just as Aldrea was about to close the door.
"Well at least one way or another, there's no way you'll ever be able to have control over my bedtime ever again," Aldrea shouted, and slammed the door loudly. A baby woke up down the hall, and began to cry. Aldrea flopped down on her bed and listened to its wails. Six year olds just should have to deal with the threat of mortal danger while their mothers were at work, she decided. There was no way she was going to get to sleep tonight.
TBC…
