Chapter 4: On the Run
June 4729, PF
Aileen drove the troop carrier down the highway, making her way towards Inkopolis. It was about 200 kilometers from her current position, roughly two hours at her current speed. She knew she wouldn't make it the whole way in the troop carrier, considering the fact she didn't have any money on her, and the truck was already down to a quarter of a tank. According to her estimates, she'd be within 50 kilometers of the city when the truck ran out of fuel.
The road before her was essentially empty. It never had been the busiest highway, but since the octoling takeover, practically nobody drove outside of the city anymore. Vacations and other getaways weren't much of a likelihood these days. This made for extremely easy progress, but it would also make evading capture all the more difficult. It was only a matter of time before a search party was sent out, considering she'd already been missing for at least 10 hours. All she could hope for was to make it the whole way without being seen, but she wasn't counting on it.
A large, black vehicle in her rear-view mirror caught her eye. It was the same exact model of truck as the one she was driving, and she felt her hearts skip a beat. The radio on her dash lit up, indicating an incoming transmission. Annoyed, she slapped the button to accept it.
"Corporal Marso," an angry voice crackled, thin and tinny through the speaker. "Where are you going?"
Aileen groaned, recognizing the voice, and grabbed the microphone to reply. "My destination is none of your concern, Smith. Please, just let me go and say I was lost, or something along those lines. I have no desire to return."
"You can't just quit the army," Christie Smith replied. "The only reason I'm chasing you right now and not the military police is because I can come up with an excuse to keep you out of serious trouble. I managed to convince them to let me go first so they don't have to deploy the MP's after you."
"That's too damn bad, because I'm not going back."
There was a pause on the other end. "Don't make me call the MP's, Aileen. Please."
Aileen spotted a highway exit up ahead, and slowly aimed herself for it. "Chris, I told you that I can't go back. We're brainwashed, and I'm not subjecting myself to that again."
Chris laughed. "Where'd you get that kind of crazy idea?"
"She doesn't believe me," Aileen thought. "Take your goggles off and see for yourself, Chris."
"You can't be serious."
"I am. Chris, you know me, why would I make this up?" The exit was now upon her. She waited to just barely pass it, but not be entirely beyond it, then wrenched the steering wheel towards it. The troop carrier swerved to the right, jumping off the road, before meeting up with the exit ramp. Aileen quickly turned left and straightened out. She grinned, seeing her pursuer fly down the highway, missing the exit.
"Aileen," the radio crackled again. "What the fuck are you doing?"
"I already told you, that's none of your concern. Been nice knowing you, but I have to go." Aileen put the microphone down and unplugged the radio. As she turned toward the east, she threw her radio out of the window, hoping there wasn't another tracker elsewhere.
The winding side roads threw a huge wrench in Aileen's plan. The distance they added over the main highway was greatly noticeable, and she already calculated that she'd have to hike an extra 50 kilometers in order to reach the city. Slowly but surely, the fuel gauge dropped.
After an hour without any glimpse of somebody pursuing her, she pulled off the main road onto a gravel one, winding deep into the woods. Once out of sight of the road, she stopped and got out. Even if there wasn't any way for the troop carrier to be tracked, she didn't want to drive something that stuck out like a sore thumb.
In the back of the truck sat her travel pack. She rummaged through it and pulled out her old goggles. Looking them over revealed a microchip on the inside of the front face. She broke the chip out, and the goggles went dark. "Supposedly, they're disabled now," she thought. "These should work to keep the appearance that I'm under control." Shaking slightly, she lifted them up to her face, hesitated for a moment, then put them on.
Nothing happened. She let her breath out, not realizing she was holding it in the first place, then strapped them in place. She slung her travel pack on, picked up a rifle, and shut the back of the truck before walking down the gravel road back to the main road. Before she made it back, she slipped into the trees, peering out at the road before her. No vehicles were in sight, so she crept out from her cover and darted across the road, ducking into the trees on the other side.
Traffic was sparse, so she made up her mind to continue on her way on foot for the time being. After all, she told herself, the traffic would come back eventually. She could easily hitch a ride or hijack a vehicle if needed.
Aileen's ears caught the sound of an engine off in the distance. She stopped, looking out to the road. It had been 10 kilometers since she abandoned the troop carrier, and she was hoping for a car or pickup.
Her eyes widened as she saw a large, black truck crest a hill, heading in her direction. "Another troop carrier," she thought. Quickly, she threw herself to the ground, attempting to hide herself. She got low in the flora and watched the troop carrier pass. Aileen breathed a sigh of relief and began to stand up, but threw herself down again when the troop carrier slowed to a stop. The driver door was flung open and Chris jumped out, Octoshot in the collapsed low-ready position. She scanned the area with her eyes, then looked exactly in Aileen's direction.
Aileen jumped, not expecting the sudden movement from Chris. She held her breath, hoping she was concealed enough by the foliage. Her hopes were shattered when Chris raised the weapon to the ready-up position, flagging Aileen.
"Come out already!" she shouted. The distance between them slowly shrank as Chris made her way closer, currently about 60 meters away. Aileen quietly backed away, keeping herself as low as possible. "I don't want to shoot you!" Chris called again. Aileen grabbed a rock beside her and lobbed it towards a bush 5 meters away. The sound caused Chris to turn in that direction, allowing Aileen a split second to jump down a small hill behind her, then scramble to her feet. She took off into the woods, moving as silently as she could while maintaining a reasonable speed.
She heard Chris pursuing her a ways back. She bobbed and weaved through the trees, attempting to lose her. The woods grew thicker as she continued, and she could hear the distance between them grow steadily.
"Aileen, this is your last warning!" Chris called out. The sound echoed off the trees, sounding farther away than it really was.
"I'm not going back, just leave me alone!" Aileen replied. A shot of ink hit a tree beside her. "Shoot me all you want, I'm not going to change my mind!"
"I'm sorry Aileen," she heard Chris say, causing her to hesitate. A burst of ink hit her in her leg, causing her to tumble to the ground. She rolled briefly before stopping on her back, grimacing. She quickly grabbed her Octoshot and aimed it at Chris.
"Don't make me shoot you too!" Aileen shouted, holding back tears. "I'll do it!"
Chris stopped, staring down at Aileen. "You know that you have to come back."
"No, I don't. You telling me that I do isn't enough."
"Why are you even running? You have somewhere to live, they give you food, the work isn't bad...what is there to run from?"
"I'm not a killer, Chris."
Chris laughed. "You? Not a killer? I visited where you dropped your trainees off. Not a killer? Tell that to the two inklings who aren't ever going home."
"That's not who I am! You talk to anybody who knew me 5 years ago and they'd all say the same thing! You don't know me for who I truly am, all you know is the brainwashed, ruthless version of me that shouldn't exist."
"A lot can change in 5 years, Aileen. Last chance: come with me, and I'll just say you were attacked and got knocked out. We'll discuss the whole brainwashing claim later."
Aileen grit her teeth. "No. I can't. Let me go. Forget about me, tell them I ran away, I don't care. It's not happening."
Chris sighed, raising her weapon. "It was nice knowing you, then."
Aileen quickly raised her Octoshot and pulled the trigger. Shots of ink hit Chris at nearly point-blank. Her body collapsed to the ground as Aileen dropped her weapon, trembling. A tear ran down her face. "Yeah...nice knowing you, too…"
April 4726, PF
Aileen sat silently, looking at those surrounding her. She was a passenger on a bus full of octolings, most much younger than her. Like all the other octolings, she wore a set of goggles, fashioned to appear like a set of sunglasses with glowing red eyes. She sighed to herself as the bus rolled to a stop. The doors flung open, and another octoling stormed on.
"Everybody up!" he shouted. Everybody made their way to their feet as he strode down the center aisle. "I am Staff Sergeant Davis! When I give you a command, you will reply with 'Yes, Sergeant,' and nothing else! When I ask you a yes or no question, you will respond with either 'Yes, Sergeant' or 'No, Sergeant!' When you speak to me, the first and last word out of your mouth will be 'Sergeant!' Is that understood?"
"Yes, Sergeant," everybody replied.
"I can't hear you! Octolings in my army shout! Again!"
"Yes, Sergeant!"
"Good! Now get the fuck off of my bus!"
"Yes, Sergeant!" Everybody filed off, stepping onto a large concrete pad outside. Davis led them to their barracks, yelling at them at every opportunity he could find. Aileen zoned out half-way through his introductory speech, and began to doze off.
"Trainee!" Davis shouted, having moved to stand directly in front of her. Aileen snapped out of her daze, jumping, and looked up at him. "Do you find my speech boring?"
"No, Sergeant," she replied quietly.
"Stand up!" Aileen did as commanded. "What's your name?"
"Aileen Marso, Sergeant."
"Would you mind explaining to me why you were dozing off during my speech, Trainee Marso?"
"I...uh…"
"'I...uh…'" he mimicked. "Shut up. I have no reason to listen to you anymore." He began to turn away before whirling back around with a left hook. His fist hit home on the right side of her face, knocking her to the ground. "You clearly have some relearning to do here," he spat before resuming his speech.
Before Aileen noticed, she was lying in bed in a large, dark room, staring up at the ceiling. The rest of the speech had blurred by, as well as dinner, rack assignments, and any other minor things that was covered.
"Psst," she heard the octoling in the rack next to her whisper. She rolled over to see a female octoling looking at her. "You okay?" she asked.
Aileen nodded, then winced in pain from the movement. "He didn't draw blood at least," she muttered.
"My name's Christie Smith," the octoling said with a smile. "We should stick together, training may be super rough. It's nice to meet you."
Aileen smiled. "Likewise."
Present
Aileen stumbled through the woods, dragging her Octoshot behind her. Yellow ink splatter had dried all over her uniform, with some on her face being smeared from tears. Her eyes, albeit dry now, were horribly bloodshot.
Memories of her and Chris flooded through her head as she continued aimlessly. Chris's lifeless body lying on the forest floor flashed before her eyes over and over, and it took everything within her to not drop to her knees and scream.
"Three kills," she whispered. "All at my hand. How am I even capable of that?"
The highway appeared in front of her and she redirected herself to Inkopolis. Another 20 or so kilometers remained, and she trudged on as the sky began to blacken, turning to night.
Character Bio
Code name: N/A
Real Name: Aileen Marso (formerly Aileen Brach)
Age: 26
Primary color: Pink/white
Hobbies: relaxing, gardening
Dislikes: running
Description: Despite a troubled past, Aileen is a generally optimistic person, and overall a good person to be around. She met Josiah when they were young squids, and they grew closer over time. She has a formal education in botany and enjoys tending her garden in her free time, as well as relaxing around the house.