37

On another platform a few kilometres down, there indeed was a camp. And it was much bigger than any of us had ever expected.

It seemed that a large group of the city's homeless population had gathered together with the bright idea of taking refuge underground. Here they have the benefit of shelter from the elements, and someone had managed to get the heating system running, which was a huge relief.

We had folded our wings underneath our shirts before we approached, but that didn't stop us from being noticed. Two of the hobos even came up to us asking, "who the hell are you?"

"Just a bunch of kids, looking for food," Jace said, finally remembering that he didn't have to swear every other sentence.

"We set up camp a few platforms down, and we need supplies for a while." Raine was smart. Together, the siblings were doing all the work of coming up with a lie for me. After all, there's no better lie than a half-truth.

"Yeah," the older one said, " There have been two other groups over the past year and somehow, you remind me of them. But for some strange reason, they weren't looking for food, or even shelter for that matter. They were looking for a computer of all things." The old man shrugged. "Kids these days. Always relying on technology."

"Anyway," the other guy put in, "there's food in the back. Take all you want. We can always get more. I'd be wary around Mike though. He's getting paranoid these days, what with everyone messing around with his laptop."

"We'll keep that in mind," I assured them, while moving the group along.

38

It didn't take us long to find the supplies. In fact, we would have gotten to them much sooner had no one gotten in our way, but of course someone did, and I'm guessing by the laptop under his arm that this was the person that the guys out front told us to be wary about.

"Oh, great," he said, immediately beginning to complain. "More strangers. You want to screw with my computer as too? Huh? Do ya?" I wasn't in the mod for wasting time like this. After all, we needed to get out of the city ASAP, so we could get on with the assault. Unfortunately, he obviously wasn't going to leave us alone.

While he was pestering Raine, I casually reached over and pinched the base of his neck. I'm not sure how, but Mike, which was his name according to that hobo, was instantly out cold. He slumped to the ground, and I knew that he would be out for a couple of hours. He probably wouldn't remember the few minutes leading up to the event either, which was good. It meant that he wouldn't remember us.

There was much less commotion than I expected there would be.

I could have sworn that somebody thought glad someone could do it.

39

We didn't take much... For us, anyway. We took what would last a normal person a week, which with our mutant metabolism, would only last one of us two days. And there were six of us. The food didn't last the afternoon. At least we finally had a decent meal.

On the way back, Jace flew closer to me and said, "I didn't know you could do that."

"Honestly," I replied, "I didn't either." He looked at me in confusion. "I'm serious. I just reached over and pinched him. I didn't know it would knock him out." He still looked confused, but he wisely let the matter rest.

We arrived at our platform, where Sarah was waiting patiently for our return. "I found a way to the surface," she said, as I landed clumsily, having not enough time to slow down. I immediately forgot about the conversation with Mike, which bit me in the ass later.

"Show me." So she did. She lead the three of us to a stair case, where Eric was waiting. There was a draft here, which meant there was an air flow coming down from the surface.

"Aaron's gone up, to check on things," Eric told us, as Aaron appeared at the top of the stairs, looking out of breath.

"Something's wrong," he said, when he reached the bottom.

That could not be good.

I had fun writing this, but methinks I need more people interested in this story. If you like it, review, and get someone else to read and review. Constructive criticism is always welcome.

Also, I know the cliffie is evil. Want to guess at just what is wrong?