Hi everyone, do you like how the story is so far? Also, little spoiler: Nine will have the baby within 20 chapters so please stick around. And, um...I will be answering some of your comments and reviews at the end of each chapter so please send some my way...

Kai

I cursed and looked over the wall again, the gun was pointing right at us. I couldn't see a driver due to the blackout windows, but I knew there had to be one.

"Theron, we need some grenades and bombs." I told him, everyone who could hear me turned to me. I continued to inspect the car tank thing even though I knew everyone was looking at me questioningly. Though I was looking at the car my thoughts were elsewhere. Nine. She was probably going ballistic right now. She was always by my side in any circumstance but because she's pregnant she can't do much anymore. I know it drives her crazy but there's not much we can do.

"A-are you sure?" Theron asked me, I turned to face him and saw everyone watching me. Their eyes held the same question. We could try to bomb them but we might not even reach them, they were quite a distance away. Or we could in fact reach them and they could drive away before any major damage happened.

"Well, do you have a better plan?" I asked him, then louder, "Do any of you have a better plan?" People exchanged glances then their eyes dropped to their feet.

"Okay, well, do you have any grenades or bombs?" Theron had caught me, I actually didn't have any.

"No, but surely Freedom had some kind of arsenal. I mean where did the Seekers get all of their things?" Theron nodded. He pursed his lips and I've grown used to the quirk when he's thinking. Nine draws her eyebrows together, Pua tap's her teeth together, and I, well...I'm not sure.

"Hmm, I'd guess the core building but I'm sure Eri has tons of passwords and locks. Though I'm sure we could get the information from a Seeker." Was it just me, or did everything seem to be in the core building?

"Okay, let's go." I turned to the rebel next to me, "Don't shoot at them, do you have a spare walky-talky?" He grabbed one off his belt and handed it to me, "Great, if anything happens just tell me." He nodded and I followed Theron down the ladder. When we hit the ground we were off to a speed walk. The rain was sprinkling when me, Nine and Pua went to the core building and now it had stopped. There was still a mist in the air that crawled up my arms.

The core building wasn't very far from where we were. It'd take up around five minutes to get there at the pace we were going. I could see the tall building looming in front of us, it's pristine white walls were glistening with the rain stuck to it. My feet slapped on the wet pavement as we got closer to the building. Finally we got to the doors and I took in a needed deep breath. I opened the door and headed in with Theron trailing me. I went behind the counter as Nine had done not ten minutes ago. The folder was still open and I read through the list of buildings.

Ground-Bathrooms, food

Sub-level 1- Conference rooms

Sub-level 2- Surrogates/Birthing rooms

There were loads of rooms and I expected the weapons to be either really far down, or really far up. My eyes skimmed down the list , towards the end I found the floor. It was as I expected; far down.

Sub-level 8- Sick bay

Sub-level 9- Defense

Bingo, "Let's go Theron. Sub-level 9." We headed towards the elevators that had been turned back on since the bola grenades. I pressed the button that would take us down nine floors. It was a strange, unfamiliar sensation as we went down. I'd only been in a few elevators since I've been in Freedom and I still haven't gotten used to it.

"This place has a whole lot more floors than I thought," Theron said, "And to think I lived above this for 17 years." I let out a sigh.

"Theron, I'm sure there are many secrets about Freedom that Eridian has hid from all of you that were right under your feet," He nodded, "And if we ever reform the city we might be able to find all of them." Even the thought of making the city right seemed impossible yet wondrous. It would take a lot of hard work, and not much could even change in my life time.

"I'm hoping we can make things right." Theron said softly. The doors opened in front of us and we stepped out, but stopped after a few steps. There was a wall in front of us that wasn't made of the same white stone, but instead a sheer silver. It looked like steel. There was a hallway that went left and right, "Which way?" Theron asked, he looked up and down the hallway. There were only a few doors visible and who knew what security measures were placed on them. The walls were already reinforced and Eridian had already succeeded in such vile things. She seemed to be the queen of torture. There could be anything from a poisonous gas to bombs.

"Well, you go one way, I go the other." I told him even though I knew it was a stupid idea. I scratched my head, still fantasizing all of the glorious traps there could be.

"Heck no, what if one of us gets into trouble?" He asks skeptically.

"Well, you know how to scream, right?" I asked as I raised an eyebrow. Theron let out a chuckle, a smile crept up my face too.

"No, I think I need to refresh my memory. Do you think you could give me a lesson really fast?" I rolled my eyes and turned right so I could look down this hallway.

"Hardy-har, get going." He turned left, down his hallway and neither of us looked back as we walked down the long, continuous hallway. It seemed like forever till I reached the first door even though I knew it'd only taken a few minutes. I heard Theron open a door a ways behind me. I reached for the doorknob after I had my gun in hand. I knew Theron had one with him but I knew he wasn't a very good shot. He'd shot a gun in the past and I'd given him a few lessons but his hands weren't built for shooting, they were built for desk work; typing, writing. Though he wasn't good at handling a gun, he could definitely beat you in a fist fight. I'd learned that the hard way.

The door swung in and the room was dark. I kept my gun pointed In front of me as I searched for a light switch on the wall. When my hand caught on something I pulled it up and the room lit up. I held my breath, some kind of defense system could be activated my switching the light on. Finally, after a few seconds and I was sure it was okay, I let my eyes look around. My breath caught as I surveyed the room before me. There were shelves lining the walls and on those shelves were ammo boxes. Row after row of boxes. The room was filled floor to ceiling with ammo that could easily end all of Freedom. What was Eridian planning with all this? There clearly weren't any guns in this room.

I backed out of the room and closed the door. I could see another one to my left so I continued on to that one. Once again I opened the door slowly, keeping my gun straight ahead. Before I could search for a light switch though I heard a crash inside the room and I immediately slammed the door shut in front of me. I jumped out of the way just as something solid and heavy -by the sound of it- hit the door. I went to the next door that was a pew paces away, this one had a door that -instead of the hard wood from the two previous- was made of a silver steel like the walls. This door couldn't just be opened as there was a keypad next to it. There could be any possible combination, how could I find the exact one?

I was now so far down the hall that I couldn't see or hear Theron. My attention was on the keypad, what could it be? My mind flipped through ideas and landed on one. Nine. I wouldn't be surprised if Eri had used that one single number, but it's not very creative. I reached for the key pad and pressed that one single letter. I held my breath awaiting the answer. There was a light above the keypad that I hadn't seen, it flashed red and a buzz came from it. I sighed and began pressing other numbers in all sorts of combinations. After five or six attempts a buzz came again, but louder. The red light still flashed and I knew what the loud repeating buzz meant. If I tried again it could set off a trap or something.

Suddenly I heard a faint call, Theron. I turned and jogged down the hall; he could be in trouble or could have found the grenades. I came up to a large, wooden door. It was wide open and Theron stood inside. "Hey, I found them..." His voice trailed off as he turned back to survey the large room filled with boxes. The room was easily bigger than my house on Mahawai, and it was filled with deadly weapons.

"Great, lets grab some and go." I told him. we both walked to a box and I tried to lift it, "Did they put rocks in here?" Theron laughed and opened the box. Inside were small, but destructive grenades. He grabbed some and put them in his pocket. I too grabbed five and loaded my jackets pockets.

"How'd you get in here anyways?" I asked him. We turned to leave.

"Well, there was a keypad and I just guessed, my guess so happened to be right. It was my batch number, well, I'm sure Eri chose it 'cause it was Nines batch number."

"Hmm," I was going to ask if all the keypads could be the same but I cut myself short when I realized how preposterous it was. Though I did want to get into that room because the keypad and steel door lead me to believe that something special is inside. I knew I'd be coming down here again in hopes to get into the room and to explore others.

"What was that?" Theron asked me. We walked down the hallway and the stairs appeared to our right. We turned onto them and began our climb.

"Nothing."

The rain had started again, only this time it wasn't the little shower, but a full on storm. Thunder roared outside as me and Theron were facing the glass doors. The rain bounced off the road like tiny crickets. We got rain on Mahawai but nothing like this. This was something new, the temperature had dropped outside due to the little sun being warded off by the tick gray clouds. You couldn't see very far in front of you, giving Freedom a spooky look and feel. We waited by the doors and I felt sorry for everyone on the fall who could -no doubt- not see the tank they were supposed keep an eye on. And because they were most likely drenched.

"So, we wait here then?" Theron asked, it was a stupid question seeing as if we did go out we'd get drenched, then if we were on the wall we wouldn't even be able to see anything. I huffed and turned away from him, I walked over to a wall and leaned against it. I shut my eyes briefly, this morning had been completely normal and now I was stuck in the middle of a bombing, that we could do nothing about. Nine was at home with Pua -thankfully- but was no doubt insanely mad that she couldn't be helping with this. I felt a small buzz at my waist and reached down. My fingers brushed the walky-talky and my senses immediately heightened. I pulled it up to my face and heard a scratching sound coming from it. They dulled and I could hear faint words being drowned out by the rain.

"Can't..." Scratch, "S- them..." I knew what they were meaning to say and I pressed the button that would allow me to talk to them. I just hoped they'd be able to hear me over the downpour.

"Stay there," I told them, "If you can't see them then they can't see you. We're on our way." I slipped it back into my pocket and headed for the door. Theron looked at me like I was crazy, when I held the door for him. Mist sprayed into the room and thunder cracked outside. I rolled my eyes when Theron wouldn't just step out into the rain. I took a step forward and was drenched in moments. The rain beat down on my head and Theron appeared beside me. We took off at a full sprint so we'd get there faster. The buildings whizzed bye as we ran. There wasn't a single person in sight and I wished I could be in a nice, dry building like they were.

We came up to the wall and I always dreaded climbing the metal ladder but now it would be even worse as it was wet. I took hold of the first rung and stepped up. My books easily held with the treads they had on them. But my hands were another story. They slipped and slid no matter what I did. Eventually I made it to the top and wasn't greeted with anything but more cold and people looking to me and Theron with a way to solve our problem. Though the rain wasn't on our side, we couldn't see if the tank had moved, we couldn't just throw a grenade in a random direction and hope for the best. Well, the grenade might not even do much damage in the rain!

I handed the people next to me a grenade each so we'd have a better chance at hitting them. Theron stood next to me in the pouring rain with everyone looking to us, "We'll have better luck hitting them when the rain has calmed down." I said loudly over the roar of the rain. For now we'd just have to wait it out. I leaned down and sat against the wall.

"So we'll just wait it out." Theron said, I nodded and people around us looked up at the pouring rain, it showed no signs of stopping. Theron walked farther along the wall to tell people what we were planning. Wisps of water caught on my eyelashes and I dipped down so the rain fell on my hair instead. I heard people taking amongst themselves around me but I wasn't concerned with what they were saying. Theron came back and sent someone the other way down the wall to recall the plan again. He'd stepped into the role Catcher had given him nicely. I understood that we both mostly worked as a team but it was him who everyone depended on. I wasn't jealous, it was giving him a chance to really find himself among the rebels.

The rain had started clearing up after an hour or so. We were all up and ready to go, the worst was yet to come. The sun hadn't yet peaked through the clouds and most up had goose bumps along our arms left by the relentless, frigid rain. I had a grenade in one hand and a gun in the other. People around me had one or the other in their grasp as well. There was still a fog in the way of our view of the tank/car, but it was just beyond that. We were all getting ready to blow them up. The people who were shot off the wall were taken away while me and Theron were at the Core Building. I didn't know who they were or where they'd been taken but it still hung over me.

We all looked out over the glistening water and my stomach churned as numerous memories flooded my mind. They were mostly ones of Nine and me but it was still hard not to resist just jumping off the bridge and going for a swim. But I didn't because if I did Nine would surely follow and I couldn't have that. Another reason why I couldn't was because people were looking at me as a leader and I don't thing going for a joy swim would make me seem responsible when there was so much more to do.

There was a red/orange cliff that the water gushed against and the rock had a path carved in. The tank was just coming into view and I didn't move my gaze from it. The gun hadn't moved and was still pointing at us. I motioned for Theron, he came to my side. "We need everyone ready to shoot and throw the grenades at the same time. It's now or they'll have a better shot at us."

"Sounds like a plan." He said, he turned and told everyone then motioned for silence. The quiet was unsettling but broken by the distant waves. Everyone was definitely in view of the tank now and all that was needed was to get rid of it. Theron took in a breath and I knew what was coming, "Ready, now!" I pulled the lever so it would explode. I threw it forwards and watched at a burst of orange and red erupted from it. Others erupted in mid-air and other people fired their guns, giving a huge eruption of sound all at once. Someone who had a really good aim, threw theirs and it landed in front of the bullet-proof car. It didn't have enough time to back up and it was thrown backwards. It flipped over onto it's back and you could barely see the glass shatter from the front window.

I pulled my gun forwards and fired at best I could. There wasn't much to shoot at but as long as no one survived. We didn't want anyone to go running back to give Eri an update wherever she was. I looked over at Theron and he had a pained look on his face...I knew how he left. No one wanted to turn into a killer, but there wasn't much choice. Another way to prove how Freedom wasn't free from anything.

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