Author's Note:
Guess what? No reviews. It's been... what, three chapters without any reviews? I know that some of you put this story on alert. Please, I just want to know if anyone's reading. If you reveiwed, review again. Gimmie anything! A word, a letter, a happy face, a full-blown flame! This is counted as a good chapter. I expect at least one (note my desperation) review.
All who review will get a virtual smooch. (Even flamers.)
Now, raise the curtains, characters enter stage left. Scene 8, Act 1. Three, two, one... DAZZLE!
"HIDE!" Mercury yelled. He pulls our arms to get going. We dive for different hiding places. I end up under a bush with Horus. Zee darts up a tree, now concealed in a leafy tree. Mercury ran behind a rocky wall, one that can hide him but gives him a clear way for arrows. I have no idea where Marlin is.
The shape in the sky dips a little, as though wanting to land. It was mortifying. I remember the level of superior technology they have, even higher than in District 13. What if they saw us through some kind of twisted telescope?
When it lost altitude, the shape began to take form and color. It was dark blue and prowled the skies like an oversized tiger. I hold my breath. Hoping that it's just experiencing some turbulence or whatever.
They don't land. When they disappear out of my limited vision. I crawl out of the bush, ignoring the scrapes and bushes from the brambles. Horus follows and Mercury straps his bow behind his back. Zee hangs from a tree branch before letting go.
"It's went where we're headed," she says worriedly.
"That may be a problem," Mercury says. Captain Obvious. "But we'll risk it. It's not like they're going to be looking for five dirty-looking kids with some weapons."
Quite the contrary. We'd look suspicious. But we keep on walking. The bag on my shoulders feels like a hundred pounds. While resting, I take inventory of the pack. There's the knives I used, a bottle of water, the retractable spear, walkie talkies (some sort of primitive comunicuff), dried strips of meat, darts (for fun or for poisonous intentions, I have no idea), a swiss army knife and a coiled rope. That's it. We're supposed to survive on that.
After what seems like a decade, our ragtag group reaches a big white building.
No, it's not big. It's gigantic. It's colored a regal white with Greek collumns supporting the flat roof. There's even a lawn in front of it, recently-trimmed and a stark contrast from the wild and sprawling forest. We hide behind bushes. On the lawn, a hovercraft has landed, the same one we saw previously. There's men with white uniform hustling about near it. Peacekeepers.
They seem to be unloading crates, probably filled with weapons of war. We watch them for a bit. Then, when all the crates were out of the plane, other people came out. They aren't Peacekeepers, though. They were dressed in brown clothes, dirtied and ripped. They look downright depressed. All their heads were drooped down and shoulders were hunched forward. They were young people, some young enough to be teenagers my age. They appear to have been living in the wild for a while because there are twigs in their hair and mud on their sleeves. Their wrists were cuffed behind their backs and they were trawling forward in lines. Even from the woods, I can see that some of them is crying. They were prisoners.
The Peacekeepers hold guns and looked on as they were patted down for weapons. These Peacekeepers were different. They were tougher and seem to have been born for war. The backs of their shirts said, "Operation: Flying Colors" in big, black, authorative font. One of the prisoners had concealed a throwing knife under his shirt. The Peacekeepers find it, untied the man from the group and led him away to the back of the building. As soon as he dissapeared from my sight, I hear a chilling scream.
"What are they doing?" Horus whispers to no one in particular.
Mercury points at the prisoners' line. "Those are Evacuators!" he says, shocked. A blonde-haired boy walks out of the hovercraft and Mercury gasped. "Tobias!"
"What?" Zee asks. "You know him?"
Mercury nods tightly. "Yeah. We're friends. We were given our tasks at the same time. He went to District Two, which is really dangerous. But the safety measures has been set, so he wouldn't be arrested. He shouldn't." He turns to us. "Get ready. We're going in."
"You're kidding me, right? You're kidding me?" I say incredously.
Mercury shook his head. He looks serious for once. "No. Those are Evacuators. People I know. I'm going to rescue them even if you won't."
"You can't!" I whisper. "They have guns and torture systems. We'll get pulverised! Then no one would benefit!"
Mercury looks to the sky like he was praying or something. "Then, I'll go alone. New Brooklyn is up north, like I told you."
"But-" I say, thinking of all the dangers in the wild without a guide.
"Rooba!" He looks at me as though urging me to understand. I just stare back blankly. Frustrated, Mercury turns to Zee and says. "Make her understand."
Zee takes a deep breath. "Sorry, Merc. I kinda agree with her."
"So, you're leaving us here, possibly to die? You do know that we're probably going to turn into lycanthrope kibble on the first night, right? Isn't there a rule against that or something? In the Evacuation guideline handbook or something?" I ask sarcastically.
"Or something," he says.
I open my mouth to say something but then, Horus says, "So the only thing we can do is follow Mercury."
"Yeah!" Marlin says.
I whip my head to face Marlin and Horus and give them the evil eye.
"Thank you!" Mercury says.
We have to stay together to increase our chances for surivival. A fool would know that. Getting seperated would mean death. Well, early death anyway.
I clench and unclench my fists as I say. "Fine. Let's go with your plan."
Someone, Horus probably, gives a small whisper-scream of triumph.
"Can it, Horse."
It rained.
No, I mean, it poured. Gallons and gallons of water is pouring out of the sky and on to our pitiful bush, slowly getting squashed by the sheer power of the downpour. I guess you can use that raining cats and dogs metaphor. Marlin sneezes. I look at him concernly because having a flu now isn't exactly convinient.
My jacket is already damp and the cold water is slowly leaking into my undershirt. I shiver and look at Mercury muderously.
"Well, at least it can provide good cover," he says. "You guys know the plan?"
We all nod. He has explained it to us at least half a dozen times. Rightfully so because it's quite complicated. After a lot of whining, we got Marlin to act as a lookout guard, the safest but also very vital. He's suppose to monitor the coming and goings of the building safely inside the forest line, using the walkie talkie.. Horus, Mercury, Zee and I will come inside and find the jail cell but we'll dispatch Horus as a checkpoint and also as an inside guard, also using a walkie talkie. He's also the strongest one, so it won't be a problem holding off guards and running , the three of us will get inside and bust everyone out. Escape plan: None. Piece of cake right? Negative.
Mercury stands up and gestures us all to move forward. I'm in the rear of the group. Mercury sprints silently to a behind a near truck. He looks back at us and wave a hand to say that the coast is clear. Zee follows. Then Horus. As I prepare to run, I pat Marlin in the back and say, "Good luck and be careful." Then, I run to the truck.
It isn't a long run, just ten or eleven meters but in the open sky, I feel so vulnerable, like a rabbit sprinting across a moor, fearful of getting caught by an eagle. I remember what Mercury tells us and crouch low. Not a lot of Peacekeepers are milling about but none sees me. When I arrive in the safety of the big bulk that is the truck, I heave a sigh of relief, to remember that there were six other trucks before we actually reach the building. It's a big yard.
Second truck. As nerve-wrecking as the first one, but the distance is shorter.
Third truck. Less nerve-wrecking.
Fourth truck. Getting the hang of it.
Fifth truck. I think someone saw me but we're moving too fast for me to care.
Sixth truck. A shout. A bullet.
I yelp and crane my head to the right. A Peacekeeper is holding a gun at me and is shouting words drowned out by the heavy rain.
"Move!" Mercury yells, already inside the building. We ignore the last leg of the journey and dive into a backdoor. He slams it shut and grabs a chair and jams it under the door knob. I just hear him doing this. Actually, I'm taking in the surroundings. It's entirely a pristine white hallway with several metal doors on each side and chairs and files outside each door. Everything looks like it has been recently polished, our wet muddy boots making big dirty marks on the floor. It's eirrily quiet, the silence deafening from the roar of the thunderstorm. We can only hear our own breathy pants and the squelching of our boots against the floor. It looks just like District 13. A wave of flashbacks pass through me almost overwhelmingly.
"Everyone okay?" Mercury's voice rang through the hallway, jolting me out of my reverie.
"Fine," I say. Horus grunts and Zee nods.
"Then keep moving. And weapons at the ready. You don't know what's behind these doors. Quickly."
We sneak around in a line, me at the second last. Horus the last person. We left our bags behind but stock up on weapons. Our belts were full with deadly items. My walkie talkie is safe and dry inside my pants pocket. I jam my only gun, my retractable spear and all my knives in my belt. I was going to bring my darts and a swiss army knife but I had no more pockets and Mercury said that it will weigh me down. I slide a good seized throwing knife into my hand. Horus grips a retractable spear and Zee fingers two large fighting daggers. Mercury holds a gun, a risky gamble, since we each only had one. He holds it near his face like a professional.
After a few minutes, nothing came out and jumped at us, though I'm scared for invisible cameras or getting sneaked up on. We turned left when things went downhill. A computerized screech emitted from nowhere and a casual female voice says, "Attention. Intruders. Intruders. Releasing mutts. Attention. Intruders. Releasing mutts."
We face behind us and look at a huge door. A red light is beeping. Mutts.
"What do we do now?" Zee asks, looking at the door nervously.
Mercury looks aggravated. He looks ahead of us. There's a hallway which seperates into four hallways.
"We split up. Walkie talkies if you find the cell." The red light turns green and the door starts to open. We hear unhuman growls. Somehow, a gravelly low voice finds its way into my head.
Kill... kill... flesh... kill...
They sound like zombies but they must be the mutts. They finally burst through. They didn't look like lycanthropes. The were much more well-kept, not like the wild mutts in the forest. They are in the prime of their life and the fur was a uniform grey. It's maw was bigger and there are wings sprouting out of their backs. They were smaller, but the wings will make them deadlier. The worst feature were their eyes. It's a haunting grey shade that pierces your soul and tears them into pieces. They are the embodiment of everything humans have feared since the beggining of time.
"Run!" Mercury yells and leaps in front of us, shooting two bullets at the mutts, instantly downing two.
Horus grabs my arm and pulls me along. Zee runs first, taking the leftmost hallway. Horus pushes me to the tunnel to right of Zee's and runs to the third, leaving Mercury the rightmost hallway.
The hallway I'm pushed at looks different. It's entirely black.
I stop after a few paces, thinking that I'm falling into an abyss. I'm not but everything looks the same. I smack into a wall when I begin running again. I keep running again, keeping one hand on one side of the wall. I look back and see that some of the mutts are in my hallway. I sprint faster and hit another wall. This time, it's right in front of me. It slowly dawns on me.
I'm trapped.
I face the incoming mutts. I'm making my last stand. It's strange, having only read about last stands in books and fairy tales. It's weird being in the place of a knight raising his sword to combat a fiery dragon that had cornered him. Instead, I'm holding a knife, rather shakily, and am facing a horde of winged dogs.
Everything seems to slow down. I put my left foot in front of me and hold the throwing knife with my thumb and index finger, using my left hand to grab more knives. It's impulse. I've been doing this for months, hunting all those animals for Marlin and Coin. It feels natural. I bring my right hand forward in a large sweep. I watch it as the blade spins midair and digs itself into the abdomen of one of the mutts. It falls silently. I have another knife in my hand by then. I send it to another one. Reload. Another one. Then another. I bring down three until a fast one launches itself at me.
I dodge to the left. I expect to smack into the other wall but fall through the blackness...
And back into the white.
It's the same white hallway again. There's a wall behind me, the way she I came through. It was strange and I feel like Alice when she went through the looking glass. I guess that this is some kind of portal or a secret wing of the building. It must be, what with the security around here. I push myself to my feet. Instantly, I feel a pain in my right hand. I have not gone unscathed. Blood is welling up again. That stupid mutt reopened the injury I got from that lycanthrope. And it's not stopping. This is a problem, since my right hand is my throwing hand. If it hurts too much, I have to switch to my left, and I'm not left handed. For now, it will have to do.
I run a hand across my belt. All my weapons are still there and I had only used up three knives, a fourth in my hand. I keep moving, trying to find out my bearings and how the heck I'm supposed to find that jail. For now, I decide to follow the hallway. Fuming, I contemplate Mercury's stupidness.
After all those survival skills, I would have expected a safe and reasonable approach to the situation. I would have expected us to still be together. Forget everything, I would have expected an escape plan! Now, all we can do is find those prisoners and bail them out, hoping that they will know the way out from the way they came in. One word. Thisreallysucks.
I hear footsteps. Panicking, I look around frantically for a hiding place. Then an arm grabs me. Blindly, I sweep my knife in the general direction of the attacker. He yelps.
"Geez, Rooba!" It's Marlin.
"Mar-" he doesn't give me time to finish. He pulls me to another hallway just ahead of us where a stack of boxes is piled conveniently for us to hide in. If the Peacekeepers didn't turn back, they wouldn't see us. We hold our breaths, not daring to move. The Peacekeepers were talking but using terms I didn't know. When their white suits come into my vision, I stiffen. They were only there for a moment. I breath a sigh of relief. Marlin pulls at my sleeve and crawls to our right. He stands up and whispers, "Knife."
What? No way I was going to give a little ten-year-old a knife. Shouldn't it say "Ages Thirteen and Above"?
"Why?" I say instead. He points to a vent above him. I almost smack my forehead. Marlin sure is smart. Now if he dedicated his smarts to his school work instead of espionage tricks. Nah, that'd be boring. I hand him the knife and carry him to give him space to open the vents. It takes longer than I thought and the Peacekeepers' footsteps ceases, only to be replaced with harsher tones of debates. They must be in a conversation and deeply debating some sort of issue. Great. We have to be really quiet now.
I spoke too soon.
"Rooba?" Marlin says, his sawing stopping.
"Yeah?"
"I'm gonna sneeze."
Immidiately, I bring him down to the floor and cover his mouth with my hand, regardless if his snot splatters on it. He can't stop it. He's still sopping wet. He's got a cold.
He takes a deep breath and let everything loose.
Author's Note:
How was that? Review! Oh, I am currently co-writing a Maximum Ride fic with my partner, Silver. wings. 05. If you read Max Ride, please click on my profile and scroll down until you reach an announcement and a link to this story. And while you're there, please take my very awesome poll.
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