Chapter 7.
The city was under constant surveillance, and Nigel was in charge of it for last part of the evening and the first hours of the morning. He waited at his glass desk for the elixir to reach the blood stream of his two security colleagues. He was violating every oath and code of conduct he had once held so close to him by pouring the liquid into his subordinate's mugs. He held the life of his friends closer, though. He could see that much now. He tapped his foot nervously on the ground, and chewed on the end of his stylus. His dark eyes were wide and attentive toward only one body in the video feeds, Miranda.
Her hood was up, she was careful to hide her features from every camera she passed. She hid in the black of the shadows between buildings when she saw a councilman and his wife. She knew what she was doing, and hardly anyone noticed the woman marching past them. She walked fast and with purpose. She was a woman on a mission and she intended to see it through. Nigel's chest swelled in admiration of her bravery. He couldn't say that he would have done the same for his past lovers, but he had never known a love like the one that Miranda and Andrea shared. He would do as much as he could. He knew it was important to protect such a beautiful thing.
He swiveled his chair around to nonchalantly glance at the two men at their desks. They were beginning to yawn and stretch in their seats. One had his hand propped up under his chin, his eyes beginning to look drowsy. Any minute now, Nigel thought to himself, scratching at his scruffy facial hair. He had not shaved in about a week and his beard was growing in patches. He could never grow a full beard, so he would not normally let it go but he just hadn't cared to keep up with his appearance lately. He figured it was because of the stress of his high position in Metro surveillance, but he also knew it was because he was not exactly happy here.
He never quite bought that what they were doing was right but his instinct was to survive, not to question the morality of it all. Some other schmuck would have been sitting in his chair if he were not. That same schmuck would also be living in his apartment, occupying his vacancy as a citizen of Metropolis. He was here because he wanted to be but now he was not so sure exactly what he wanted.
Living here seemed to be the only choice that didn't involve death or misery. He never thought one could die without physically doing so but lately he had begun to think otherwise. Something about living so far from sunlight and working the same job he had no passion for every night, he imagined, could do that to a person. He knew helping Miranda was right. At the moment he was scared but this was something that he felt good about. He was alert to any movement behind him, once the sleeping agent kicked in he would have to act fast.
Miranda's feet stomped the concrete beneath them, cursing every square inch of this place with the muted rubber of her feet. She was getting close. She was walking past the magnificent structures of the capitol, it shown bright even in the darkness of the night. Like the beautiful centerpiece of the city. She knew that the corrections facility would soon be in view. Her mind raced with different pieces of information that she tried to put together to form her strategy. The guards at the entrance would prove a nearly impossible feat but she would take her first opportunity and go for it.
She stopped when she saw the entrance to the Metropolis Corrections building. It was a dark gray concrete, heavily fortified, although she was not exactly sure why. The entire city was enclosed and each citizen was screened relentlessly before they were allowed citizenship. There was no particular need for police. This place was for dissidence and generally bad behavior. They had a reeducation wing where those that they thought could be taught to behave were sent. She knew Andrea wouldn't be there. She was too smart to be brainwashed into believing this was a good place or that everyone in it was there for a higher purpose. She had no desire to serve and or to be a ruler of the new world. No, Andrea would most certainly not be there.
She noticed bared windows on the opposite side of the facility. That had to be it, Andrea must be somewhere behind the metal bars and concrete. It was three stories. She figured her wife to be on the top floor, making her risk of escape minimal. She looked up and down the streets, quickly counting every guard she saw. They were hard to spot, their uniforms were simple black suits, black ties and white shirts, they blended into the crowd's general attire, but she was able to identify them. The men looked like ex-military, their arms and necks thick with muscle, and their eyes more attentive than most. She counted nine of them outside.
Nigel heard a loud thump behind him. He turned his head around to see which one had passed out first. Mark was lying on the floor, his headset smashed under his large head. The other man, Daniel, looked over at the scene, startled but his eyes were barely open. He moaned lethargically. His brow furrowed in question of what Nigel was up to. The bald head officer looked up at Dan as he gave one final yawn before laying his head down on his desk. He began to snore almost immediately. Nigel was completely alone now. He gave a relieved sigh and walked over to the man passed out on his desk top. He would be easier to move because he was still sitting in his chair. He lifted the portly man's face from the glass and let him fell back into his chair. He bobbed there for a moment and his seat groaned in protest as he rocked back and forth.
Nigel observed the oily marks on his desk from his face and the video feeds Daniel's cheek had accidentally opened. He closed them all and then looked at his hands with disgust before he wiped them on his dark pants. He wheeled the man into the break room and laid his head on the counter, letting him sleep comfortably. He came back for Mark and stood over him for a moment, trying to decide how he was going to move such a large man. He had a bad back and knew it would cause his a lot of pain to drag him, lucky for him the break room wasn't more than twenty feet. He would have to tough it out. He knew for damn sure he couldn't just let him lay there in the middle of the command center.
He squatted and shoved Mark to turn him over on his back. His arms flailed out to his sides. They hit the ground with a muted thump. He grabbed both of his meaty arms and pulled. The pain in his lower back raged and he cried out, nearly collapsing. He stood and stretched his muscles and then bent over to try again. The pain ripped through him, angrier than before but he powered through it. He didn't have time to fuck around with this all night. He pushed through it, dragging the man quickly as he walked backward into the small room. He thought of Miranda on the floor of his apartment earlier that evening. The sound of her cries, the agony that she so clearly communicated to him. He thought of the pain she would feel if they did not succeed tonight, and it propelled him backward with a strength he did not know he had inside of him.
Once Mark's feet cleared the door way, Nigel collapsed to the ground. His eyes were watering and he felt his back muscles spasm from the abuse. He stood slowly, one hand at his back in hopes of denying pain access to his nerves but it provided him little relief. He closed the door behind him and locked it. He walked hunched over back to his desk. He sat in his chair and looked around. The place was dark, the only lights coming from the desk tops and the large wall of video feeds. It was time to get to work. He looked at his hands. He was shaking from all of the nerves and the pain that assualted his body. He flexed his hands, trying to gain control of them again before he sat them back on his desk with a sigh. It was time to get to work.
It took him a moment to find Miranda again. She was right outside the Metropolis Corrections Center, she seemed to be casing out the place from across the street. He wiped his brow of the bit of perspiration from his efforts and began thinking of what he could possibly do to distract the guards outside of the MCC long enough to allow Miranda to slip inside. He sipped at his now cold cup of coffee, rubbing his lower back with his other hand. He pressed an icon on the screen that would allow him to speak directly into the ear of one of the guards outside. He chose Guard 113, he took a look at the feeds and picked a random person in the crowds outside the capital that would provide a good distraction for a bit, he found one and pressed down the talk option.
"G one-one-three, we have a suspicious person on the front lawn of the capital, please send nearest agents to question. Approach with caution, you will be receiving a photo shortly. Nigel saw the guard nod toward the nearest camera and walk away from his post.
The lone surveillance officer opened another window on his glass top showing three dimensional floor plans for the Corrections facility. He observed the skeleton of it, studying the wires and pipes that ran throughout. He pressed the R option for the education wing and decided to turn the water in several of the rooms to maximum pressure. Inside, water began to fill the toilets, spilling over and flooding the rooms quickly. Water spat from every outlet it could find. The entire staff ran toward the mess. They were certain this was a conspiracy among students to coordinate an escape. He knew they would put the entire wing into lock down and every staff member would be on their way to make sure they had full control of the situation. That will do for now. Nigel whispered to himself. He sat biting his thumbnail nervously. He hoped Miranda would make her move soon.
Miranda saw the guards coagulate into a group of five and watched them mob across the street toward the front of the capitol. This was the opportunity that she had been waiting for. She looked both ways and then crossed the street toward the front of the facility. She gripped her weapon in her hand tightly, ready to draw it if she had to. She stopped just short of the front door and peeked inside. Surprisingly enough there was no one at the moment guarding the entrance. She stepped inside with great care. Her senses heightened, watching for shadows, and listening for footsteps that were not hers. There was no indication of trouble.
Nigel saw that she had gone inside and went back to his floor plan of the MCC, locking the outside doors behind her and then then opening up the options for full lock down. He chose partial lock down of the building, just the education wing. He trapped all who were in it until Miranda was in the clear. He pressed an icon to release all locks on the access doors on that side of the facility housing prisoners. She would be free to move throughout the wing for a short time. People would start calling him any moment now about the locks, she had to move fast.
She let her hood fall onto her back, her silver hair wild and out of place. She ran her fingers through it, the warm perspiration at her roots held the hair away from her face as she combed it back. She removed her glasses and allowed her eyes to adjust before she shoved them into her back pocket. She pulled her weapon from her sweater and held its nose to the ground as she reached for the large metal door that led to the holding cells. She noticed the keypad near it and expected it to be locked. The handle gave way. She didn't believe her luck.
She slid inside and saw that there was no one at their post in the hallway either. She peaked through the small rectangular glass of one of the cells, she saw a man curled in the corner of the plain white room on his metal cot. The only light was that streaming in from the window from the hallway, but she could see him clearly. He was simply staring at the wall, it looked like he was absent of mind, but she knew that look. It was the look of a broken man. She hoped they had not yet had the time to break her Andrea. The man looked up at her and his eyes begged for her mercy, for her help.
She tore her eyes away, focusing on the task at hand. She could not save everyone. She had to remember that if she was going to save the one person that she came here for. Mid stride she realized that this wasn't just luck. It was… Nigel. She looked up into the nearest Camera as she realized this and nodded, acknowledging that he was there and that this was his doing. She smiled as much as she could given the circumstances and continued on down the fluorescent hallway. She wasn't feeling so helpless now that she knew she had his help. She walked quickly, her eyes peeled for the door that accessed the stairs.
Near the very end of the hall she saw a small red sign that read stairs. She was feeling more and more confident of her success the longer she was here, but her heart beat faster and faster the closer she got to her goal. Everything was going so well, but she had to stay vigilant. Anything could go wrong at any second. Too much confidence could kill her. She pulled at the handle of the heavy door and it gave way without resistance. She climbed the steps, nearly running up them, hearing her footsteps echo softly in the small area. She worried briefly that someone might hear her. She slowed as she reached the top of the stairwell.
When she approached the door to the third floor she stopped to catch her breath and allow the burn in her legs to calm. There was a small rectangular window on the heavy metal door. She tried to peek through it and down the hall. She could not see much more than the two rooms across from her. She pushed the door open, and cautiously poked her head out. She looked down the brightly lit hallway.
Adrenalin poured into her system and made her heart pump even faster when she saw two men standing outside of a room in the very middle of the hallway. Andrea. She pulled herself back in and pressed herself up against the wall, holding her gun at the ready against her chest. Her other hand pulled the door slowly to close, trying with all of her might not to make any noise as she shut it. She looked over at the camera in the corner. Hoping Nigel could do something.
Nigel nearly spilled his coffee onto his desk. What were these two oafs still doing at their posts? He had relieved everyone from their positions to attend to the problem in the education wing. They must have been specifically assigned to guard Andrea. She was, after all, enemy number one at the moment. They had no one else in their custody that had spoken the way the young woman had dared and certainly not directly to the council. The men would not leave even if he ordered them to. His options were very limited. He acted quickly. He released the locks on all of the cells on the floor. He watched as each door clicked open and prisoners one by one emerged from their rooms. His hand clutched the arm of his chair. His nerves were getting the better of him. He wanted nothing more in the moment to be there with Miranda, just so she weren't facing it alone. He knew he was most helpful right where he was, but he wanted to be down there, fighting alongside her. Watching it from a distance was becoming nearly too intense for him to handle
"Hey! Stop! I'll shoot!"
Miranda heard a guard yell from the other side of the door. She was sure she had been caught. Surely the men had seen her closing the stairwell door. She peeked through the window quickly and saw the orange jumpsuit wearing prisoners emerging from the open doors of their cells.
"Everyone get back in their rooms! Anyone in the halls will be shot!" She heard him yell again.
This was her chance, she had to take it. She took a deep breath and threw the door open, she dove into the dark room across the hallway, and landed with a thump. The fall knocked the wind out of her. She quickly pressed her body against the floor, in a prone position. The floor was polished cement. She slid across it with ease. Ignoring the aches that immediately came to her, she crawled on her stomach to the doorway the cool of the concrete seeping through her sweater. Her weapon was just as cold, but it was more than ready to spit its improvised projectiles.
She listened, hearing her own labored breath and the heavy footsteps near the other end of the hallway. All in one moment she kicked with her feet and ejected herself from the room. She was sliding across the floor, when she was able to see the guards busy at the other end of the hallway, no prisoner in her line of fire, she took aim at one of the men in a dark suits and shot twice. She heard the bits of metal hit one of them and saw him fall to the floor. She quickly arched her back and kicked herself off of the wall and slid back into the room for cover.
"Who was that?" The only remaining guard yelled, panic leaking from every syllable. The man had not seen her. He was scared and confused as to how a prisoner came across a weapon down here.
"Show yourself!" He called out with a confidence that surprised his own ears.
Miranda lay there, still prone, her ears ringing from the loud explosions inside of her weapon but still attuned to everything around her. She heard the loud echoing chatter of the prisoners in their cells. She heard them contemplating a break for their freedom. She heard arguments about death and the futility of their escape from the floor. What would they do once they got out of here? Where would they even go? Would they test the only standing guard?
She heard the heavy footsteps approaching her location. She stood silently and pressed herself against the wall next to the door. The footsteps were getting louder and closer. She saw the shadow of the guard checking the cell next to hers. She wanted to take him by surprise. She stepped out of the room and without hesitation, it was reflex, she shot the large man in front of her. She heard the sound of her gun discharging, and felt its hard metal body recoil in her hand.
He fell to the ground with a hard slap, blood spilling from the holes she put in him onto the impeccable cement floor. She bent down and picked up his weapon, and unclipped the extra magazines from his hip. She heard men and women prisoners stepping out from their cells and felt their eyes upon her. They were equally afraid and in awe of the mysterious woman they believed to have set them free.
"Miranda?" She heard a sweet familiar voice call to her.
She looked up from the bloody mess she had made and saw her wife standing in the hallway. She was still in her long elegant red dress. She did not have her shoes, her dress was dirty and ripped in places. She ran to her and wrapped her arms around her fully, both weapons still in her hands, she crushed her with all of the affection she felt inside of her. They both wept out of sheer relief. Andrea was so sure of her death, that it had been quite a shock to see her wife before her, hunched over the body of a man she had just killed to get to her. She would never again doubt Miranda's resolve, or her ability to follow through.
"How?" the young brunette asked as she lifted her head from her wifes shoulder.
"Oh, Andrea, I couldn't let them take you from me" The white haired woman smiled through her tears. Her eyes had never been such a vibrant blue. Andrea had never thought her more beautiful than in this moment.
"You are everything. I could not hope to go on without you by my side" Miranda said before she crushed her lips against hers, as if they were alone in the world, as if they did not have an audience of stumped, orange jumpsuits around them.
"What now?" Andrea wiped the tears from her eyes.
Miranda reluctantly pulled away from their embrace and walked over to the first man she shot and took his weapon. She rolled him over, flinging his coat out of the way and unclipped the magazines on his hip. She handed both black semi-automatic pistol she had taken from the guards and handed them to Andrea.
"We're getting the hell out of this fucking city" She said as she quickly led her young wife by the small of her back down the hallway, back toward the stairwell.
"Wait, Miranda. I-I don't know how to use these" Andrea said as she lifted the heavy weapons in her hands, looking at them and then at her older wife.
"I have never fired a gun before in my life"
Miranda looked at her wife incredulously, and couldn't help but smile. She took one of the pistols from her small hands. She pulled the slide back, checking that the barrel was clear. She pointed it to the end of the hallway, aiming for the access to stairs sign. Andrea stood behind her and watched.
"I don't have time to train you, so just listen and watch me carefully"
"Always keep your finger away from the trigger until you're ready to shoot" She said as she aligned her sights.
"Never point the gun at anything you do not intend to kill"
"Take aim, Inhale, exhale, hold your breath and give the trigger a squeeze until" The gun kicked back in her hand, a powerful recoil that she was afraid her young wife might not be able to handle. She saw the hole, in the center of sign. She was happy to know she had not yet lost her skill.
"Try it, quickly" Miranda urged as she moved out of the way.
Andrea stood firm, aiming for the hole in the sign at the end of the hallway. She took one deep breath, letting the oxygen fill her lungs, and then blew out, emptying them. She pulled the trigger as she held the last bit of air left inside of her. The gun kicked back against her hand, rattling her bones and deafening her ears. The power of it startled her. She looked at her work and realized she had not even hit the sign, her hole was somewhere near the ceiling. She did not see her wife cringe behind her.
"Good enough" Miranda shrugged.
They really had no time for practice. She hoped that Andrea would not have to actually shoot anything. She led her the rest of the way down the hallway to the stairwell door. She knew that once they were on the streets again, there was no way they wouldn't go unnoticed the entire way back to the entrance of the city. God help us. She thought to herself. Retrieving Andrea was one thing, but it was a miracle that they needed in order to escape Metropolis.
