Author's Note: Hello again! I'm sorry for the really long wait, but this chapter is worth it. It's the story's first real fight scene. And it won't be the last! I'm a little short on reviewers lately. Again. So, I really need you to review! Many thanks, let the show begin.
"Excellent, are we supposed to drill a hole under us and hope we don't make too much of a racket?" Zee asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"No, there's a hidden latch someplace here. Says so on the map." Mercury points to a part of the map. I don't bother to decipher it but run my hands along the vent walls.
"Hey, I got something," I say. I felt a slight groove under my fingernails. I follow the groove and trace a small human-sized square under me. The panel was so fine that I couldn't even see the split, only feel it.
Mercury reaches into his bag and pulls a tiny swiss army knife. He finds the knife tool and works on opening the seam. The knife makes an worryingly noisy scraping sound. It easily falls out but Mercury didn't grab it fast enough. It fell to a clatter to the floor.
"Hey! You! Come out!" a man's voice calls out. Dread fills my stomach and we flatten ourselves to the floors hoping not to be seen. I hold my breath, fearful that they might hear us. After a few minutes of silence. I hear a different voice.
"Jare, stop messing around." It's a woman's voice. She sounds agitated.
"Lady, do you not see this hunk of metal lying on the floor? There might intruders!" the man, Jare, says.
She lets out an exaperated sigh. "I don't see anyone. If there were, the system would have warned us. It might have been a rat. And don't call me lady. Now for heaven's sake, put that gun down!"
Guns? Mercury didn't say anything about guns! It wasn't in the job description! I see Zee tense beside me too, which is somewhat a comfort because if no one else is terrified, I'd look like a wimp.
Silence follows. Then, Jare grunts and slams something onto a table. The gun? I exhale as quietly as I can.
"Thank you," the woman's voice says sarcastically. "We'll get the maintenance to fix this."
"Aww, Friz. I was having fun with the two newest shrimps." I tense. If he lifts a finger against Marlin, I am going to break it and the rest of his bones in his body.
I hear a door creak open. They must be going out right now. But before the door shuts again, the Jare's voice rings out.
"You two. This room is full of sensors. If you make a move escaping, I will know. If someone comes to help you escape, I will know." Jare laughs. "Welcome to Alcatraz, boys."
The door finally bangs shut and I muster up enough courage to go peek in the room. Zee pulls me back.
"What if there's cameras there?" Zee tells me.
"No cameras, only heat sensors. They can see if there's another person here through heat signals," Mercury says.
I can only think of the scene I saw in the room. There was nothing in the room. Marlin and Horus were chained on the wall with only their wrists. I can see blood welling out from their cuffs. There was nothing physically wrong about them except for their wrists, but I know Marlin in and out. He never stands up straight like that. There are never creases on his forehead. He doesn't clench his jaw or make a fist. Something's very wrong with him and I am afraid that the answer is more complex than just fear.
I realize that Mercury is talking and I tune him on again. "...move fast. Maintenance is coming and I've got a feeling five or six minutes is our deadline to get Horse and lil' kid out and move out of the vents. Then there's the heat sensors. We shouldn't be able to do it, but hey, that's what weapons are for." He grins and reaches into his bag. He hands me and Zee a heavy black stick. We stare at it with disbelief.
"A stick?" Zee asks. "We are supposed to fend off an army of grown men, possibly with guns, with a small thirty centimeter stick."
"Please, save the sarcasm for someone else. Press the button. It enlarges into a spear." Mercury says while rolling his eyes.
I spin the stick in my hand and see a bump. I press it and the stick expands and get lighter.
"Wow," I breathe. The point of the spear is sharp and shiny. It also almost skewered Mercury.
"Not now!" Mercury says. "You almost killed me."
"Oops." I retract the spear again. "Well," I say guiltily. "You should have said."
The next minute, Mercury tells us the plan as quickly as he could. Zee and I guard the door in case of unpleasant visitors. Mercury will cut through Horus and Marlin's bonds. We then allow Mercury to step over our hands and climb back to the vent, where he will pull us back us one by one with a rope. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. But if all else fails, prepare to engage in combat. We set to work. Mercury jumps in first and even before he lands on the floor, an earsplitting alarm set off. We are prepared. Zee jumps next and I follow. We expand our spears and lean by the door. Sweat from anxiety were already pouring down my forehead. The first thirty seconds was alright. Mercury works on Marlin's wrists first. He gets through the left cuff when I hear shouting. Suddenly, the door flies open and someone pushes me and Zee to the floor. I land on my stomach and roll to my back. I scramble to my feet and face my attacker.
He's a big fellow, his sleeves ripped off to show his biceps. He's chin was covered with a messy stubble and his teeth were yellowed, probably the effect of smoking. He looks like a person who might smoke. So anyway, it's two little girls with no training experience versus a big smelly ape. Fortunately, he wasn't carrying a gun. He might have thought that he could subdue both of us with his bare hands, but we've got spears.
Mercury starts to cut through the bonds faster but it's hard. They were made out of hard metal. I can't see past the guard to see if he brought back-up. Why would he? We're just kids. Big Fellow sets his eyes on Mercury and charges through us, as if we're invisible.
Zee moves so fast she's a blur. In less than two seconds, she's on the floor, tackling the heavier man to the floor. He drops with a sickening thud. He lands on my feet and instantly stirs. I hold the spear with both of my hands like a pro golfer and swung. It connects with his head with a crunch. He dropped back down. I hope he got a concussion. There was a slamming noise. I look back to see that Zee has thrown her back to the door. The alarm is still on. Everyone in District 13 would have probably heard the racket. I turn back to Mercury's progress and see that he broke all of Marlin's chains. He's on the ground, kneeling and rubbing his wrists. I run to him and pick him up with a sweeping hug. I might have crushed some of his bones. The hug lasts for barely a minute and in no time another thug rushed in. He must have been able to push past Zee. And he brought followers.
There are three of them, all wearing the same ripped up uniform as the first one, the one laying on the floor with a concussion. Zee was on one of them, dodging blows and giving them like a little whirlwind. Mercury whips his head around and hands over his knife to Marlin. I'm not sure that it's a smart move.
"Cut Horsey free," he orders. "I'm going to help the girls." Folks, you're witnessing a true gentleman.
In my periphal vision, I can see one of the thugs trying to sneak up on me. I back away as quickly as I can. It almost works. At first, I leap back fast enough for his meaty hands to just brush my shoulder, but then he lungs at me visiously and smacks the side of my head. I land on my side, sticking my hands out to break the fall, though the breath is still knocked out of me. Before I get a chance to recover, my attacker grabs me by my shoulder and shakes me violently. He grabs me by my hair and bangs my head on the floor. I see stars behind my eyelids. Blindly, I kick out with my boots and it hits home.
His sweaty hands let go of me and he's clutching himself. I roll to my stomach and use my spear as a prop to get on my feet. By the time I do, he's recovered and is marching to me, though with a slight limp. I have my back against the wall and take a second to asses the battle. Mercury is doing just fine. Marlin is on to the last cuff. If we just hang on a bit longer, we can escape. Those chances are slim. Zee's attacker has her by the throat and she's squirming to get free. I can't help her now. The door is open. More thugs may be rushing to the spot right now. The thug reaches me and I brandish my spear fearfully. I thrust it at his ribs but he grabs the spear- by the blade- and plucks it out of my hand and flings it away.
His bloody hands are reaching for me and I am unarmed. The next best thing I can do except run is fight tooth and nail. I close the distance between us. I can see the surprise in his face. I must look like a beaten prey. I shouldn't be able to fight. But I do. I rake my fingernails along his cheek and bite his left arm. He yowls but I bite harder. He shakes his arm to release me and my mouth fills with blood. I don't let go, instead I fling my left arm at his face. I hope it gets him in his eyeballs. After a while, my jaw starts pounding and I let go. I see the bloody angry flesh on his arm and smile in satisfaction, hoping my teeth is bloody. I feel like a vampire. I fight the urge to speak in a drawling Transilvanian accent.
"You fight like a wimp," I say. I heard some boy say that to another boy a few years ago. They got into a fight and one of them got his teeth knocked in. It carries great offence.
I can see the change in the man. He starts behaving more animalistically, with flaring nostrils and crossed eyes. He darts to me and grabs me by my shirt and pins me to the wall.
"You wish, muskrat," he says.
Then he spits on my face.
The next thing that happens is weird. I get really angry and the edges of my vision reddens. The sounds of other skrimishes became muted and I can hear myself screaming as if from a distance. As if in slow motion, I put my hands on his shoulders, lift my numb-with-pain feet and settle into a horizontal crouch on the wall, my body weight supported by the lump of meat in front of me and the wall behind me. The man's eyes widen and I push off the wall. The speed of my attack is too much for the thug. Before he knows it, his body is plummeting to the ground, my weight on his neck. His head met the floor and blood spread from the tiles. His grip on my shirt loosens and I back away, my hands bloodied. Did I just kill a man?
I start to hyperventilate. No no no, I keep repeating to myself. But it is futile. I am a murderer.
I close my eyes and swallow the bile that rose in my throat. I clench and unclench my fists. When I open them, I force myself not to look at my feet and look at my friends' battles. Mercury's thug lay bruised on the ground while he watches Zee's battle. Zee is well, burying her spear on her thug's foot. Good. He can no longer walk, which is fine.
As long as he's not dead. I shudder.
"Done!" Marlin announces as he breaks the last cuff. His high voice breaks me out of my reviere.
"Right! You know the plan!" He walks to the vent and looks at Zee and I expectantly. Zee and I link arms and with a count of three, hoists Mercury to the ceiling. He jumps and catches the edge of the vent like a cat. A second after he hauls himself inside, a rope drops from the ceiling.
I sigh, thinking of the man I had killed. "Let's get out of this place."
I land in a crouch on the hallway floor, a burst of cool air greeting me after the heat of the vent and the fire of the battle. We were bloodstained, mostly our blood but partly the thugs'. Everyone except Mercury has crawled out. When his bleached hair popped out of the vent, he neatly jumps out and hits the ground running. He's fast. We struggle to catch up. His steps were urgent and desperate. I've got a feeling that this isn't over. To confirm my fears, I hear a shout behind us.
"There they are!" I turn around and immediately wish I didn't. We got a whole bunch of thugs pursuing us.
I concentrate on following Mercury, though I sense that Marlin is falling behind. I push him ahead of me and ran.
The halls of District 13 had never been louder. Everyone is gasping and pointing at our scruffy group as we fly through the underground labyrinth. Mercury suddenly veers left, into an elevator. We pack inside, just as the first thug's hands stick into the closed space. Zee kicks it out of the way and we acsend. It was quiet for a while, except our laboured breathing.
Finally, Horus breaks the silence. "Umm... dude? What if Coin stops the elevator?"
"Can't," Mercury breathes. "The elevator isn't connected to Coin's system. It doesn't even have a system. It's powered by hydraulics and usually a surplus of energy."
After being with Mercury for a few days, I have found out about thirty flaws to District 13's security system. This is impossible. Such information is only entrusted into Coin's leading engineers, which is about two. No one, especially not a kid, could have known this. I keep silent though.
I hear Marlin take a sharp intake of breath to my left. "We're really going are we? To New Brooklyn?"
That is a good question. I murdered a man. Will the journey be harder? I should consider it, but what about the punishment that will face me if I go back.
After a pause, I whisper, "Yes. Hold on, little brother. This is going to be one heck of a ride."
Just then, I hear a big thump. Mercury punched the elevator wall.
"Hey!" Zee says with a scowl. "This thing's the only thing keeping us in the air, dufus."
"I can't take this!" Mercury yells. "This thing is so slow!"
"Well, maybe it's because we're several kilometers in the earth," she reasons.
Mercury makes a sort of cross between a grunt and an exparated sort of roar. "Sorry. It's just that I'm not used to these things. Go faster!"
Then, a smooth lady's voice beeped through an unknown place. "Excuse me. Would you like to go faster?"
Mercury's face lights up like a child's on Christmas. "Oh yes, please!"
Oh no. The elevator speeds up so considerably, we're rivaling the speed of light. I'm pressed down to the floor and we all scream. Well, except for Marlin. He's probably having a time of his life.
Suddenly, the elevator stops rising in an abrupt halt. We all rise to the air a few inches from our momentum. We sprawl on the floor of the elevator. Someone's foot is in my face and my finger is touching something wet. Is it a tongue or an eyeball? I take my finger away and wipe it on my loose pants. My back is aching like crazy. It landed on someone's elbow. One more bruise added to my list.
I sit up just as the lady pleasantly says, "You have arrived. Thank you for using elevator B-92."
"I hate you," Zee says. Wether it's directed to elevator B-92 or Mercury, I don't know.
But as soon as the door opens, I forget about my worries. Light streams in and it takes my a while to adjust to the light. I realize that I'm staring at something. I focus on it like you would focus a camera's lens. It was a daisy.
Author's Note:
Omigosh! I just turned the main character into a serial killer! Confused? Next chapter will be a bit more explanatory. A filler.
The Author's Note is drawing to a close and this is the time where you listen to that little voice in your head that says, "Review."