"Hey sleepy" John heard, he looked around. He was in his old dorm, in his old bed. He spotted Orin sitting at his desk and Cecile leaning against the door way a couple feet back.
"What happened?" John asked, sitting up against the wall.
"You collapsed at the meeting." Orin said tilting the chair forward.
"Ya, in a pool of blood." Cecile added in, shifting her position.
"O ya I went to the hospital, there gona have a new set ready in a month." Orin added. Of course Orin was referring to a new set of kidneys, but until then John would become incredibly contagious.
"What did you guys think of the plan?" John asked looking in Cecile's direction.
"It was good they all just seemed to have 1 question, how are we gona get out of there, the gas would knock us out too." Cecile responded.
"O ya, had that planned out, we have to raid a ESC center for the supplies, gas masks."
"Well that is ambitions." Cecile said. ESC stood for emergency supply center, that's where the city kept emergency supplies. John could Order a mask but he couldn't order the amount needed by the group, Uglies could only order a limited amount of stuff but Pretties did not have that restriction.
John slowly started to get out of bed, he order to Cecile "tell your people to meet me at the bank, 2 am. And bring as much stealth gear as you can." Cecile nodded and walked off, leaving Orin and John alone.
"O ya I got some stuff to do see you at 2" John said as he staggered out to his waiting board at the window.
****10 minutes later****
"Hey room" John greeted the walls.
"Hello John" the room responded.
"I would like to place a requisition." John ordered to the room.
"Yes?" the room responded, ready for the order.
"Air filter, best you can find, and nano-paint, linkable to a larger AI." With this John would be able to add a filter onto his sneak suit, and it would still have the camouflage ability of the rest of the suit.
"Delivery and pick up?"
"2 hours, can be picked up at Bing requisition center now."
"Gona pick it up." John said to the room. He went out to the window and got on his board.
**** one hour later****
John carefully opened the box marked John Clark. He slowly took off his sneak suit, and set it on the table, one of the only pieces of furniture in his rarely used room. He slowly started to adjust the armor, carefully adding the filter onto the suit, then coating it in the paint. It worked perfectly; an added effect is that now the other members of the group could not get infected now.
**** 1:45 AM****
John slowly approached the spot where he had first met the Ugly Group.
Orin along with Cecile and the rest of the group came around 2 AM, all dressed in black, similar to when they had first met.
"Ready?" John asked from his seat at a base of a tree.
"Sure" Orin responded, gliding in on his hover board
John stood up and got onto his board and rose a couple of feet to be at eye level with the rest of the group, there were 8 of them about half as many when they first met.
They flew near the ESC and dismounted from their boards, hiding them in a forest outside of the building. They slowly approached the building, they slowly approached the door.
"I'll cut the lock out." John whispered to the Uglies. As he withdrew the same metal cutter they had used on the tower and began to cut through the door, sparks started flying through the air but it did not take long for the lock to fall out and the door to pop open.
John slowly entered and motioned for the other to follow him, he entered the room, pulling and sealing his hood, and he brought up a map overlay.
The building was just a massive warehouse, rows of shelves and shelves. He led the group down seemingly endless rows of supplies until they came across an aisle that read
Chemical and biological
The row was filled with crates, the various crates held NBC suits, Medical kit for treating chemical burns , and finally they came upon what they were looking for , a large crate of Gas Masks.
He motioned for two of the uglys to go and pick up the crate. They began to bring it back to the hover boards waiting outside.
Along the way John lead them to numerous crates which were hauled out until there was just John and Orin left. They slowly walked down more aisles, the empty dark aisles was like walking in a mansion alone. They finally came across the last crates.
"Grab those." John said pointing to a box of batteries; Orin slowly grabbed it and brought it out onto the floor. John grabbed a box of radios and stacked it on top of the other. They both grabbed the handles on the bottom crate and with a grunt they brought it out. They slowly walked to where the hover boards had been hidden so see the Uglies attaching the boxes to the boards. Orin and John roped the two boxes onto John's board.
They slowly, with the over weighed boards flew to bunker, standing outside of it they dismounted and detached the crates from the boards.
"Everyone take a gas mask and a radio; bring some for your friends to. Also tell them to meet us at 2, tomorrow night." The Uglies slowly disbanded after gathering their gear, they flew off into the night.
"Kind of surprised how well that worked." Orin said, as John opened the door to the bunker.
"Ya-"John got cut off by a spell of coughing but this one was not that bad.
Over the next hour they slowly brought the boxes inside to a storage room.
**** The Next Day****
Throughout the last half a hour people have showed up, one by one.
"So right now, we are going to place the holographic emitters, and rig the bungee jackets." The uglys slowly nodded.
"We are going to do the first Dorm together, East Wind, and then we will split up into teams."
They slowly got onto the boards and flew towards East wind; they landed on the rood with no difficulties.
"Does everyone know how to disable a bungee jacket?" John asked looking at the group of Uglies sitting around.
Most of the Uglies nodded but some looked confused. John walked up to a rack of bungee jackets and took one off.
"Step 1; remove the plating covering the battery." John slowly removed the plating to expose a battery. He then removed the leads connecting the battery to the jackets systems.
"Step 2 disconnect battery leads." John said as he finished disconnecting the leads.
"Step 3 reattaches the plating and put it back on the rack." John finished reattaching the plating and put the jacket back on the rack.
"Now let's finish." The group slowly proceeded to disable the jackets, the speed steadily increased as the group got more comfortable.
Orin the proceeded to divide up the group into teams of two and give them the dorms they were to disable.
It turned out that Cecile thought it would be funny if John was paired with some random ugly, not surprising at all.
"And almost forgot, seal the doors and windows with the nano-glue, 8 hour timer on it." John finished, the uglys slowly braking up and flying off to sabotage their selected areas. After about a minute there was only John and An ugly standing on the roof.
"Ready?" The ugly asked, looking at John as he called his board.
"Ya sure, what's your name anyway? John queried, stepping up onto his board.
"Tran, and yours, our fearless leader?" Tran responded, finally getting onto his board.
"John, we should get going to our target." They flew slowly; John had to slow down, since the ugly were not very skilled at boarding. At the slow pace it took them half a hour to get to the dorm, John broke off from the Ugly.
"I'll get the floor, start on the jackets." John said, his voice carried to the radio by his suit.
John slowly descended to the floor and began to put the glue on the doors and windows, he tuned into the general frequency to hear the uglys bantering, not surprising.
"Do you think it will work?" an ugly asked.
"Of coarse it'll work, we spent too much time on it for to not to work!" another ugly responded.
"Stop clogging the airways with your stupid chatting, there is nothing we can do to make it work or not work so just shut the fuck up for three seconds?" Cecile furiously yelled.
John switched frequencies to his team's frequencies. He slowly finished the last window and flew up to the roof to help Tran on the jackets.
"So what is it like to have the…" Tran asked, finishing a jacket and putting it back onto the rack.
"Well it sucks." John responded, he turned his face, a chrome black wall covered his face with a small metal filter sticking out near the bottom.
"If this filter stopped working." John said, pointing to the filter on the mask. "Stops working you and have the group will have my favorite condition."
"Is it really that easy to catch? Cause if it was half the city would have it by now." Tran responded.
"Mm ya, let me tell you a funny story. One day, I reached critical infectivity, which happens about every 2-3 years. So one day I showed up to class, and out of nowhere I started coughing up blood, like the other day at that meeting. Within 5 minutes the dorm was evacuated and wardens in sealed suits came to lock me in my dorm, for 2 weeks."
"So all of us could be infected?" Tran asked, with a shocked expression on his face, looking straight into John's eyes.
"Yup, anyway how'd I get out of there? I must weigh a 150+ with the suit and all." John asked.
"Orin and Cecile amazingly." Tran stated, figuring that John had a shocked expression under his hood.
The silently finished the work then proceeded to go to their next Dorm, flying at higher speeds this time. When they got their John started on the jackets and Tran went down and seal the doors.
They finished, relatively quickly taking 2 hours to finish, when they were done dawn began to break.
"Team three finished." John reported, after he switched to the general frequency.
"That just leaves team 2 and 6, come to the bank." He heard from Cecile.
"K, seya there." John responded as they flew towards the bank, as they flew the other teams finished and were waiting there.
"Ok so we got it all split up , John, you're going to have to hit 3 of these dorms tomorrow, we got people there but they will be in classes. You won't have to activate the alarm just release the gas and set the generators." Cecile through a list over to john with the names of the dorms he had to visit.
"And people although it would be hilarious for some of you to forget your mask and get knocked out remember to have it on you when the gas is released." John announced to the group.
They slowly split up from there, uglies wandering off to get some much needed rest or go to classes; the sun was beginning to rise setting the sky blood red. All that remained was Orin and john, they stood there, there energy both low due to the tedious work.
"You got classes?" John asked looking as Orin slowly walked up to him, John slowly slid down, resting his back on a tree.
"Not for a couple of hours, my first class is when we gona release it."
"Should go get some rest, you'll need it."
"You shouldn't be speaking; you haven't slept for like 8 times longer than I have." Orin responded, also sitting down.
John slowly set a alarm for 11:45, 15 minutes before the first gas would be released, he would have to go to three dorms and activate 3 projectors and release 3 canisters of the gas. John slowly fell asleep, setting his suit to blend into the background, sometime Orin left, probably to get some sleep in a bed or for class.
****11:45****
"11:45, 11:45" The suit buzzed, the electronic sound going into his brain and waking john up.
"I'm up" John responded, quieting the suit. He slowly stood up, still leaning on the tree. A shiver went through him as he remembered the day that he had woken up blood soaked on the bank.
He slowly got up onto his board and flew to his first target, never hurts to start early. As he approached the building he could see a crowd of uglies standing on the roof, all panicking. Some of them had bungee jackets on but they were dead, it had worked out perfectly. He slowly took out a remote and activated the 3 projectors, as three fires all at once springing up on 3 buildings, adding to the already blazing ugly town. He changed his sneak suit to a dorm plaid and jumped onto the roof, getting seen by a few uglies but they were already so panicked that they dint seem to mind, he pulled his hood over his head, double checking the seal he released the gas, pretty quickly a ugly yelled, trying to scratch the burning as the holographic fire reached his skin, plus the gas made the sensation of being on fire pretty realistic, after a couple of seconds the yelling increased and uglies began to drop, a dull thud ringing out. After a couple of seconds of walking through the unconscious bodies a small metallic glow stood out and John bent over.
After a second of inspection "moron" slipped from johns lips as he grabbed a gas mask from the hand of a ugly that had fallen to the floor. He called his board and put the mask into the cargo department and he quickly flew to the next target, over there the fire was already high in the air and several uglies were yelling, he saw the lights of a couple of gas masks. He quickly jumped off the board and activated the gas, several uglies were still standing after the gas was released, and he looked up at one of them, the masks black eyes sending shivers through him.
"So it worked?" John asked, calling his board.
"Ya, you should have seen it when the pretties started to cry." Slowly more masked figures approached him. "Well I'm off seeya guys later; you should probably make yourselves scares." John called his hover board and flew to the next dorm; the smoke was everywhere making it almost no visibility.
John stumbled through the smoke to release the gas, like usual figures began to drop but after a couple of seconds masked figures to began to drop, a small black creature was leaping through the air and taking them down.
The sound of a L.A.Z.E.R connecting with his suits systems sounded and a voice came into johns mind "if you want to live run, get on your board and head straight to the river."
"Who are you-"John began to ask but was quickly cut off by the voice again.
"Who I am of no importance, but if you wanna live FLY TOWARDS THE RIVER!" john quickly ran towards the edge of the building, he jumped off calling his board; it landed beneath his feat right before he hit the ground. He quickly flew towards the river, black shapes following him they were slowly gaining on him.
John pushed his board, he hadn't gone this fast since he had first got the board. The bolts started to shake as he accelerated.
"Make a sharp right turn In 100 feet." The voice said, the black shapes slowly gained on John.
John obeyed the command and turned, he almost fell off the board, and the sneak suits scales on the bottom scraped the top of the board.
"Right turn NOW!" the voice order, john turned he was in-between 2 building, with only about 2 feet of space for him. The sides of the board were scraping the concrete and metal building , sending sparks flying through the air.
"Jump when the space opens, send the board going right, and jump to the left." The voice ordered.
John obeyed the command, it was a 4 story drop, branches and trees interfered with the fall, desperately slowing him down. When he finally hit the ground he heard a snap, a wave of pain emanated from his leg.
"Look for a small camouflaged bundle. When you find it inject the needle, it will go through the scales." The voice continued.
John searched for a couple of seconds; the black shapes that had pursued him were flying above, chasing the rider less board. He finally found the aforementioned bundle, it had camouflaged scales like his suit did, making it almost invisible. He opened it , to reveal a syringe and a small piece of paper.
"Follow the Orders." The voice ordered, a sound notified him that the connection was cut off with his unknown rescuer.
John opened the paper, there was a message printed on it.
The syringe contains nanos to fix your leg, and the same shot that fixes your condition, at least for a short time. Be at East Wind, 400 hours tomorrow.
John injected the syringe into his neck then stuffed it and the note and the small scales into a pocket in his sneak suit. Slowly black began to drip down on his vision, clouding it and johns senses began to cloud, and slowly they faded out of existence.