Reclaim

Tension

                                    Cal
I hope Jeff doesn't like his job that much because he's definitely gonna lose it after this. Me and Griff hid, ready to jump at a moments notice when Jeff, the H-Rag that's friends with my dad, comes over to check in on him.

I had a tack hammer, and Griff had his fists if he chose to jump in. Dad would have the jump on Jeff, and the two of us would beat him down, making sure he didn't overpower us. I was nervous but ready. As for Griff, not so much. Hopefully, he doesn't fumble the whole plan somehow.

Jeff was a softie and a sucker for conversation. He started being friends with my dad after he started realizing he "liked talking to him." I felt bad for him, but we had to do this. They put us here after all. Now they were gonna help us back out.

The door opened, and Jeff came in. His helmet was off since he trusted dad so much. He was a short haired blondie with brown eyes, his voice matched his face perfectly. He reminded me of a kid in his dads uniform.

"Hey Smith, big day today, eh?"
My dad was good at keeping his composure. You'd never know he was plotting to get you jumped until it happened.

"Yeah, almost a new year, gonna be real different, huh?"
"Nope, not really, you know the Instigate."

They laughed a little before dad got back to work. Jeff was looking away. Now would be his chance, but he said something that made beating him unconscious harder than it already was.

"Hey Smith, can I ask ya something?"
Dad put down his tools and looked over at him, "What's up?"

He leaned against the table behind him and spoke up.
"They're thinking about cutting me, they say I'm not living up to my quota or whatever, barely overheard them talkin' bout me... you think their gonna reclaim me?"

Dad looked speechless, but he didn't skip a beat.
"No... why would they?"
Jeff sounded like he was lost and scared but spoke with a little chuckle.
"H-rags don't get put in the system cus they know stuff. So they'll probably just reclaim me. I don't know what to do..."

He had a good point... he was probably gonna die... anyways. I stood up slowly, ready to pummel him, Griff hesitantly followed. Dad focused his attention on him, not so much as glancing at us. I gripped the tack hammer with both hands until my knuckles turned white as I strengthened my grip on it, like I was gonna drop it if I didn't. Then I swung it at his head, knocking him over, slamming into his head harder than I expected it to.

He was still conscious, so Dad, ready for anything, jumped on him and pinned him down while covering his mouth so he couldn't scream.
"Get the baton!"

I dropped my hammer and got on the floor trying to rip his baton out of his belt, but he was struggling, kicking and punching like he was ready to get jumped today. Griff picked up the slack and grabbed his arm, being flung back as he tried punching him away.

He was screaming through dad's hand. He knew if he got knocked out, he's dead, and realizing that just made doing this to him hurt more than it had to.

I grabbed the baton and almost pulled it free when he finally managed to punch my dad square in the face, shoving him off, before throwing a haymaker at Griff. I ripped his baton out and tossed it to dad as griff slid back.

He caught it as Jeff kicked my legs out, dropping me on the floor. Dad gripped the baton and then slammed it into his face as he got up, reverberating with a metal Kathung, as he fell back on the floor.

I scrambled back, reaching for the tack hammer I dropped. It lay on the floor by Griff. His nose was bleeding, but he knew from my look what I wanted. He turned over and kicked the hammer over to me. I caught it, grabbed it, then shakily got up before chucking it at his face as hard as I could, breaking some teeth and knocking him out cold.

His face was bloody, but he was still alive, more or less. We took a quick minute to breathe, and then my dad grabbed the knife and cut the watch off his wrist, foraging it onto mine.

"Take his armor, and they won't know it's you unless they scan you. There's a higher ranking armored guard door down the hall that will let you through."

Higher. Ranking. Armoured. Guards.
Dumb acronym, in my opinion. Regardless, I didn't have a lot of time to waste criticizing the early names of the Instigate, so I geared up on the H-rag armor as quickly as I could.
I knew the plan.

I'd get in there and find the armory so I could go get extra armor for Griff and dad. The security will be lowered in the H-rag halls since most of them are ouy celebrating, so I shouldn't have to worry about cameras or guards catching me.

We had a good 20 minutes or so before our shift ends, meaning I had to get back by then, any later and the suckers will see we didn't reach our quota and come looking for us.

I opened the door, peering down the hallway before going off into the unknown.
"Good luck son, you'll need it."
Yes, yes, I will.