Facade

Chapter 22- Two Left.

I run along the dirt road in my mountain boots, crunching the dry soil beneath with every step as Mikael follows behind me. We're just a few blocks away, as long as nothing happens, as long as Matthias meets us here, we'll be fine. I crouch down as I hear a noise and Mikael mimics everything I do.

"Lilith?" A voice whispers. I squint my eyes through the bushes to see a familiar outline. I smile and I spring out of the bushes, rushing to the voice to hug him. I hear him chuckle, hugging me back as Mikael clears his throat behind me. 

"Um... Matthias, this is Mikael, Mikael, this is Matthias." I say awkwardly as I introduce them to each other. They stare at each other for a few seconds before Mikael cracks a smile, holding his hand out for Matthias to shake. They don't break eye contact as they keep on smiling at each other. I chuckle at the sight and pat them their shoulders.

"Come one, they're waiting for us." Matthias waves us along to follow him. We move along the wall and I trace my fingers along it feeling the concrete that's cold and moist for some reason. We're getting out. This is finally happening. Just a few more minutes and we'll be free. I grin from excitement as we move closer and closer.

As I take another step my nose bumps into Matthias and I realize that he's stopped, he holds his hand out as a signal and then holds its to his lips. As I focus on hearing, silence fills the air. I raise my eyebrows as Matthias holds his hand to his ear, he obviously hears something.

I raise my eyebrows as I hear a faint bark, no, multiple barks. They are getting closer and closer from behind us. Fear spikes up as I look at Matthias frantically who looks back and forth between me and Mikael, realizing something and he utters something unmentionable. 

"They're tracking us." He says with an unreadable expression "the chips, the contacts." He darts his eyes back and forth, figuring out different strategies.

I look wide eyed at Mikael as he instinctively reaches out to feel the back of his neck. I feel mine, they're tracking us with this? Have they known the whole time about me and Matthias then? But only I showed up, Matthias didn't have a chip. We can't possibly get out of here if we still have the chip.

I turn back to Matthias and look at him with as much confidence I can muster "take it out." I slip my hand into my pocket and take out my pocket knife, putting it into his hands. I move my pony tail to the side and turn my back to him. The barking becomes louder, it becomes more imminent that we need to hurry, making me repeat myself like I'm ordering him. "Matthias, take the chip out."

"Okay," he takes a deep breath as he flips the knife part out of the pocket knife "I've seen people do this before, it should be a piece of cake." No worries, nothing back can happen. It's not like the chip is buried deep in my neck right? Besides, he's done a lot more than this. I breath in and out, calming myself down.

I close my eyes as he gingerly brings the knife to my neck, goosebumps appear as the cold metal makes contact with my skin. I wince and shiver a little, biting onto my sleeve as Matthias makes a small incision on my neck. The piercing feeling that breaks my skin makes me want to cry out but I hold it back. I try to zone out as much as possible as he tries to find the chip.

I wonder what we're going to do once we get out there. Does we even have a plan, Matthias should have one right? Well someone is getting us out so I can only assume-

"Done." Matthias sighs in relief and as I turn around he holds a tiny bloody chip between his fingers. I look in slight awe at the tiny little thing. This is what's been in my body for 17 years, this is what's been basically controlling me. 

I shake off the feeling to turn my attention to more important things. I turn around and dip my head back, I let out a ragged breath. I'm about to touch my eye for the first time. I don't know how to take them out, I've seen the doctor do it, kind of poking the contact so it sticks to her finger. I resist the urge to close my eyes and use one hand to make sure it doesn't and I watch my finger come into my peripheral vision to take out the contacts. 

I feel the contact move around and I press a little harder, successfully getting the contact out. I repeat it with my other eye and I blink rapidly, my eyes watering. It feels weirdly different. I never took them off. It's more comfortable.

I turn to see Matthias already working on Mikael. A few seconds pass by with a little wincing from Mikael and Matthias holds the two chips in his hands. Great, everything is out of our system. I watch as he wraps the chips and the contacts inside a piece of cloth, then throwing it into the bushes along a fence of some house.

Mikael rubs the back of his neck, feeling the mark and lets out a breath of relief. "Let's go then." He smiles and adjusts the straps of his backpack.

We move at a much faster pace since we lost time taking the things out making the dogs get closer and closer making me more frantic. We slink in between the bushes and the wall as Matthias looks for the extraction point. I hear a crunch a few feet away making my ears twitch and I snap my head in the direction of the sound. I hear a low guttural growl as a doberman appears from the bushes, still far away I bend down to pat the ground for a rock. 

I widen my eyes as we increase our pace even more and I see a rock about the size of a tennis ball ahead of me. I exhale and inhale, calming myself down for the deed I'm about to do and grab the rock. I'm going to regret this for the rest of my life. With all my strength I turn around for a second and throw the rock at the dog. I hear a yelp behind me though what follows is a growl. I don't know where I hit the dog and I don't ever want to know.

I hear yelling and shouting behind me, lights shine at us and I look around to see dozens of jopers chasing us. They practically filled the block, a majority of the jopers must be here. Adrenaline courses through my veins at the sight. This is life or death. With every step I push off with more power.

"There." Matthias shouts as he points to a square indent a few feet above the ground on the wall. To my surprise the indent was a large shaft and it popped out, revealing a man. The man widens his eyes at the mob behind us and frantically waves at us. 

A few feet away and I feel myself deteriorate but a hand wraps around my arm, Matthias, he looks at me with desperation as he uses his own strength to pull me. Jopers appear more than dozen feet away in front of us and Mikael gives a grunt. 

As time seems to slow down, nearing the opening Matthias gives me one last pull and propels me up, the man reaches out his hand for me and I jerk out for it. I look to the right as the jopers close in on us and I struggle to get up.

The man gets me up into the shaft with one pull and to my horror I look down at the scene below. Surrounded by jopers and dogs that are itching to bite Matthias grabs Mikael's shirt to pull him in, ready to push him up. 

Mikael pushes him off, shaking his head, he says something to Matthias just before he rushes into the crowd, determined to go down fighting he tries to push the jopers in front of him. Only managing to get a few, the rest reach for Matthias.

Matthias freezes up for a second as he's surprised at Mikaels act making me cry out for him. My cry seems to alert him and at the last second he leaps up to climb up the shaft, kicking the jopers below him. I frantically pull him in and I look down at Mikael. Why? He looks at me apologetically as his last words to me are "I'm sorry."