Pickpockets In Paris

Chapter 4

                                                                       Chapter 4

Clearing the shock from my head I rushed forward with Hutch and Cole. Hutch prised Roland from Felix's grasp and rushed his body downstairs followed by a shocked-looking Valentine, Jackson and Jamie. Cole and I each grabbed one of felix's arms and slowly followed the others down. When we finally reached the bottom of the stairs we practically carried Felix over to his family and set him down on his mattress. Elena, who in this sort of situation would usually have just stood motionless, seemed to snap into action the minute she saw her brother. 

"Leah, go get him some wet cloths, Cole, bandages, Finch see if you can get one of theodora or Julien to help," I stood still, I was so stunned at her change of character, "Now Finch!" I darted back into focus and ran up the stairs to find Julien trying to calm down Eli and Obsi. 

"Julien we need your help with felix, he is really weak and has a massive cut on his shoulder." I asked, well pleaded is probably a better word. 

"I can't just leave the boys they're scared out of their wits and taking them downstairs will make them worse!" He said, worry lines showing clearly on his forehead. Maia came down from the attic then, her thick, brown hair tied in a plait that ran down the length of her back. 

"I'll take care of them dad, go tend to Felix." She said. She sounded so wise, if I had been blind I would have thought her an adult in her mid-fifties not a ten-year-old child. Julien gave her an appreciative nod and then hurried down stairs with me on his tail. He quickly strode over to the already blood-covered mattress and immediately switched to doctor mode. Elena, Cole and Leah stood waiting for instruction. After checking Felix once over Julien set us all to work.

"Cole bandage his right leg, it appears to be either broken or badly fractured, Elena get him some water and pain killers, they're in the middle shelf of the medical closet, Finch use one of the cloths to wipe as much of the blood off him as you can, Leah go get me some tweasers quickly, their appears to be a bullet lodged in his shoulder." As we all went about doing our seperate tasks he himself started cleaning out the wound in Felix's shoulder. It always amazed me how calm Julien was when handling things like this. I wouldn't have called myself a squeamish person as such, but seeing Felix in that much pain and covered in so much blood was enough to make me feel light headed. 

Cole finally came to my rescue. 

"Hey Finch, you want to go on a round? I hear the twins are planning on raiding some of the goverment advisors' houses. They'll all be in the city centre trying to sort out what the East Gang did to the Arc de Triomph." Cole laughed as I nodded, I hadn't been out in a couple of days and it would be good to get back to thieving. The East Gang were one of the other three rebel gangs in Paris. They were founded slightly after Hutch founded us, The South Gang. The East Gang had recently spray painted "Joignez-vous à la rébellion! Fin à la tyrannie" all over the Arc de Triomph. They had been doing similar things to the different famous French attractions for years, my personal favourite was when they chopped the head off of the statue of Henri Adrien, our very own tyrant, or as he calls himself, our "High and Mighty Leader", and spray painted the word "Diable" (meaning Devil) on the statue's chest. The other gangs were The West Gang and the North Gang. The West Gang was the only other group of rebels I had actually met as they also specialised in thieving. The North Gang were the darker of the lot of us. They were assassins and had been plotting the assassination of the French leaders since 2506! They were kind of like celebrities to the rebels. They were very seclusive and took what they did very seriously. My childhood rolemodel, Clara Bordes, is the daughter of The North Gang's leader. 

Cole and the twins met me at the front after getting they're stuff. I noticed that Tilda was waving a big can infront of her. Cole and Theo looked impressed at whatever she was saying but I was too far away to hear. I ran over to them to find out what the mysterious can contained.

"What's that?" I asked. 

"Latest addition knock-out gas, good for when you know you're about to get caught. It lasts for up to three hours and now adds a little memory loss, so the gunmen won't even remember your face!" Tilda recited in her best sales pitch voice. I had to admit, this was one of the twins' better ideas.

"Nice. So are we going then?" I asked, I was beginning to get restless.

"Last one to the houses has to do look out patrol!" Shouted Theo as he sprinted away done the street. We all quickly followed after him, sprinting down the dirty streets, laughing as the wind blew at our faces and through our hair, nothing could slow us down and nothing ever would.