Jondy the Abandoner 4: Streaming Freedom Video

Chapter four: Through the Fence

1:55 p.m.

"Crap, crap, crap," Sam said to herself under her breath, as she rooted through her "husband's" briefcase. She couldn't find the files that she was looking for, meaning he must've left them at work, meaning she'd have to sneak into the building tomorrow. Sighing, she silently fumed at the task ahead of her, when her enhanced hearing picked up the smothered buzzing of her Manticore issue pager coming from beneath a pile of clothes.

"Crap!" Sam whispered again, and looked at the sleeping form in the bed across the room. He did not stir, and Sam breathed in relief. Why was her pager going off? she wondered. That was the pager Manticore used to contact her, but she was deep cover, and the pager was only to be reserved for the most extreme of emergencies. Emergencies like if she screwed up and the information she had relayed never got there. Sam could be in big trouble and a knot formed in her stomach.

Okay, okay… I just have to call them back. If I'm prompt, I shouldn't be in too big of trouble, she thought. I hope…

"X5-453," the phone barked once she was connected. "One of the escapees, X5-210, has been located near you. You are to locate and apprehend immediately."

"But…" Sam began to protest. "Yes sir." The other end rattled off coordinates that were about a mile from where Sam was, and then hung up. Sheesh, how was that for spur of the moment, thought Sam.

"Honey," she shook her husband awake. "I'm going out for a run, be back soon, 'kay?"

"Okay," the still mostly asleep man mumbled, and his pretender of a wife snuck out of the house.


"Okay, got everything you want and/or need?" asked Jondy.

Aldrea nodded in response. "Okay, I've got my stuff, plus pictures, all of your old homework stuff with your name on it… Is there anything else that could tip off our names?"

Aldrea pondered for a moment. "The answering machine tape!" she exclaimed, delighted with her own cleverness and helpfulness in averting disaster.

"Right," Jondy said, and plucked the tape from it's home near the window. Moonbeams panned across her haggard face. Sunlight was still a few hours away yet, but they had to get going. They also had no vehicle to speak of.


Sam arrived at the coordinates at 2:09 according to her watch. She was in a parking lot for an apartment complex. So, X5-210's last known location was this apartment building, meaning she lived here, was discovered her, and then was still here? Quite frankly Sam didn't think it made any sense, but began picking the lock into the building.

Once inside she was struck by the impossible nature of her assignment. There were at least 15 apartments on the ground floor, then the same amount on all other floors. The only way to be sure to catch the X5 would be to wait by the door, except there were three doors into the building. Thus the only way to find her without back up would be to search for her apartment. The odds of finding her before she got away were slim, and if this mission were failed, Sam would be disciplined severely. Basically, her situation sucked. Might as well start looking for the rogue X5 from the ground floor up, she sighed, and began picking the lock to apartment 102.


Aldrea and Jondy, a backpack and a duffle bag of stuff each exited through the back door as silently as they could. Butterflies fluttered and fought with bees in Aldrea's stomach. They were out in the open, on the run, and as far as Aldrea was concerned, Zack's bad guys could be anyone. She didn't know anything more about them other than that they were very bad and would find her because she had a barcode. Aldrea had no idea how they were going to get away.

They were about a block away, when a helicopter droned overhead, and went to hover over the apartment building.


Sam was halfway through checking the second floor when backup arrived. "What's the status?" the unit leader asked.

"Ground floor has been cleared, no evidence of the rogue X5-210, as has half of the second floor. Third and fourth floors are still uncleared and need to be checked."

"How do you know what you're looking for."

"Well I assume that she would look vaguely like X5-211 before she was excuted. I learned from 798 that they were twinned."

"Affirmative," said the unit leader before sending three of his men to block the exits. The rest continued to check the building.


"Mom, they're here!" whispered Aldrea.

"I know, just keep moving. Just keep moving. They apparently think we're still at the apartment. Idiots."

The pair of them were obnoxiously obvious as they made their way down the block. Jondy, black hair aside, looked like Jondy, and Aldrea looked like she could easily be a young Jondy or Max, minus the buzz cut.

"Okay Aldrea," Jondy began, "next comes the tricky part, luckily I have you with me." Aldrea stared at her confused. Jondy continued with the plan: "Now you have to promise me Aldrea, if you ever meet up with anyone in law enforcement, that you'll never tell him or her about what we're gonna do. Do you promise?"

"Okay, but I don't even know what we're goin' to do!"

"We're gonna steal a car, okay Kiddo?" Aldrea stared at her wide eyed. "It's the only way that we'll get out of here fast enough. Now, we'll find a car. You get to get in the backseat with all our stuff and start kicking the hell out of the seat in front of you. Act like it's your car and you've been in it a million times and that it always has trouble starting. I'm going to hotwire it, which shouldn't take too long, but it has to look like I'm just fixing the car. Sound like a plan?"

"Okay," Aldrea said quietly. She was all for them getting away safely, but she didn't really like the idea of breaking the law. She knew her mom broke the law sometimes, like to get her medicine, but stealing a car was a big thing. She felt that with something that big, someone was sure to notice. Jondy on the other hand, wasn't concerned at all. Aldrea had no idea how many cars that Jondy had stolen in her lifetime.

Twenty minutes later Aldrea and Jondy were several blocks from home, and Jondy was eyeing a bright red car, that looked to be in fairly good condition. "Okay," she whispered from the corner of her mouth. "Run ahead of me and try to open the back door."

"Is it open?"

"I dunno, just try it!"

Aldrea obeyed and ran over to the vehicle. Fortunately, the back door was unlocked. Aldrea leapt inside and checked to see that the front was opened, and finding it wasn't, she unlocked it. Another helicopter flew by overhead. "Get in, get in Mom!" Aldrea urged under her breath. Jondy did and waited for the helicopter to pass.

She breathed in relief. That was two helicopters now… One to check the apartment, and one to check the surrounding area. They had to get out of here… NOW! Frantically, Jondy looked for keys left in the car, hoping to be lucky. A sick feeling was forming in her stomach as she was finding nothing. In the current state, it would be risky to leave the car; on the other hand, if she was going to hotwire the car, she needed to do it right away.

"Okay, I'll be back in a second kiddo," Jondy told Aldrea.

"But hurry!" Aldrea looked stricken. Zack was right about the bad guys. They were scary.

Finally the pair were on their way out of San Francisco. Just to get through the sector checkpoint out of the city, before the car they were in was reported stolen, and they were gold. Jondy approached the checkpoint and picked up speed.

"Hey! Hey slow down!" The sector cops waved at her. No cars were waiting to get through at this time of night. Excellent, Jondy picked up even more speed.

"Mom we're gonna crash!" Aldrea yelled.

"You got that right," Jondy shouted as they smashed through the barrier. "Waaaaaaaaahhooooooooooo!" She and Aldrea laughed as they sped away into the night.


North, north, north and even more north. Jondy had no idea where the other transgenics had been located, so she didn't know which places were safe.

"Where're we going Mom?" Aldrea inquired.

"Don't know yet," Jondy said stoicly. It was nearly noon now. Brian would be returning home soon to find them not there. He wouldn't know for several more hours yet that they were never coming back. Jondy sighed, again wishing that she could've left a note, or that she could contact him somehow.

At least she hadn't left him in a freezing pond…

The wet cold of the snow, bit numbly at Jondy's feet as she ran away from the jagged hole in the center of the ice. Cold air hit her lungs in pangs. Cold air… Not cold water.

Then again, she had left Brian to never feel her body heat ever again. She might as well have left him out in the cold. A vibration at Jondy's hip brought her out of her thoughts.

It was Zack.

A few miles up the road they came to a gas station where Jondy stopped to use the pay phone.

"Hey Zack."

"Where the hell are you!"

"Chill Zack. We're just coming into Portland."

"Shit Jondy, I thought you guys were captured. Why didn't you call me?"

"I didn't know I was supposed to Zack. And I was a little preoccupied you know, with that whole, running for my life thing."

"Don't talk like that in Portland. That's where Tinga was. You're in dangerous territory, so you'll have to keep moving."

"Okay, I guess I keep heading north then," said Jondy.

"Oh you don't have to head north," Zack stated authoritatively. The moment the words came out of his mouth in that tone, he cursed himself, knowing it was a mistake.

Jondy grinned. "Why shouldn't I head north Zack?"

"Never mind Jondy," Zack gritted his teeth.

"No really, why shouldn't I head north? If you don't give me a good reason, I'm going to go north…"

"To Canada?" Zack said brightly.

"No way! Not since you suggested it."

"You know, this whole sibling rivalry thing is really grating on my last nerve. Do you think you could just do what I'm asking you to do just once?"

"I hardly think that you can call me your sister anymore Zack. We're not genetically related, and big brothers don't ordinarily sleep with their sisters."

"Jondy! I really don't think you should say the word 'genetic' while you're in Portland. Get Aldrea a sandwich or something, and then you two get the fuck out of there."

Jondy giggled.

"What?"

"Now I've got you thinking about sex."

Zack ground his teeth and growled over the phone. "Just call me when you know of your final destination, okay?"

"Seattle."

"What!"

"I've just now, arbitrarily decided that Seattle is my final destination. So I won't have to be calling you again dear brother," Jondy smirked at her own wit.

Zack fumed. Why, of all the places she could pick, did she have to pick Seattle? Oh she was infuriating. "Okay, fine. You can go to Seattle. Be my guest. That'd be my number one choice for a city you and Aldrea should inhabit."

"Great! Good to hear," Jondy said, knowing full well that Zack did not want her going to Seattle, for whatever reason. "Aldrea misses you Zack, so next time you're in Seattle, stop by and visit! Bye!" Jondy hung up the phone before Zack could say anything further, and chuckled to herself.

TBC…