Arcadia : The Hidden Child

Chapter 2

I got back to the compound two hours later. 
"Where have you been?" Cash said as I walked in the door.
"I wanted to make sure I wasn't being followed."
That wasn't all, I needed time alone, time to process what had just happened.
Cash looked at me for a long second but didn't say anything.
"Glad you are back." He moved over to the couch and sat down.  "We were able to get all of the deliveries out before curfew lifted, so they all had the food on the doorstep before they left for work this morning."
"Great job.  How is everyone?" 
"Hub and Lisa are fine, Marley is a little upset.
I looked at Marley, who was sitting on the couch, and she smiled.  She was only fourteen, but passionate about our mission.  She didn't look or act her age, no doubt a result of losing both her parents when she was ten.  Her light brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her camouflage pants and black tank top fit her tightly, she must be going through another growth spurt.  I wasn't much older than she is now but I felt like her mom, guiding her, teaching her, and especially looking after her. She wanted revenge against the Authority for taking her parents, but didn't talk about it much.  She opened up to me one night, and told me they were eating dinner when a group of guards knocked down the front door, stormed in the house and took both of her parents kicking and screaming.  She never found out why they took them, nor did she ever see them again, they weren't one of the few that got a public hearing.  Seemed like most people these days were taken and never seen from or heard from again, which was a little unsettling as I remembered what had just happened.
"Cash." He looked up from the picture he was drawing. "We need to get Ty."
"Already on it."
I was a little shocked.  Cash was thoughtful, but usually didn't take the initiative to start working on things.  He was a less planned, more live by the seat of your pants kind of guy.  I didn't know much about his past or his parents, he didn't really talk about it, but that wasn't uncommon.  A lot of the people in our little group didn't talk much about the past, too sad, too much death and pain.  I didn't talk about my parents much and on the rare occasion I did, it was only to Ty and Cash.  I trusted them...and Charlie, they were the only people on this planet I trusted.
Charlie Thomas worked at the Authority as a guard at their front gate, but he wasn't like the guards that terrorized everyone.  He was older and needed a job so they gave him the smallest position they could, which was perfect for Charlie.  I typically wouldn't trust anyone that works for the Authority but I knew Charlie before he started working for them.  He used to work with my dad at the old textile factory before it shut down.  Him and my dad were really good friends and Charlie and his family would often come by to have dinner with us, more so after my mom left, because my dad went into a small depression.  He never told me why she left, though I was always sure he knew exactly why.  I felt like it was my fault, like my trip to another world, set them apart.  He always assured me that wasn't the case, but there was something that changed between them and it started the night I fell through the portal.  They grew apart, he would work more and she always seemed angry and after awhile when she looked at me it was in disgust.  It was my fault they were at odds, I just didn't fully understand why.  She eventually left so it was just the two of us, which for a while seemed to be better.  He was going on nightly walks, more happy and alive than I had ever seen him, but then after some time he went on fewer walks as he grew quieter and more depressed.  He was working longer hours, or if that wasn't the case, he just wasn't coming home.  One day Charlie came over and had that look on his face and I knew what he was going to tell me and in that moment I didn't know what to feel... should I feel joy that he was no longer sad or should I feel sadness because I was alone?
He never told me what happened to my father, only that there was an accident at the factory and he had passed quickly and peacefully, which was a rare thing to get, so I was at least grateful for that.  The textile plant paid me a large sum of money because of the accident, which weakened their defenses against the Authority, and within a year of the accident the Authority had managed to put one of the last privately owned companies out of business.  The Authority  acquired everything so people had no choice but to work for them.  Charlie of course offered to take me in, but I didn't want that, I didn't want to be a burden on his family, especially since he had no job. He accepted my choice but came to the house every night to bring me food while inviting me to be a part of his family.  After some time, I would occasionally go to his house for dinner or go with his wife and daughter to the markets and leave little stashes of money around their house, my way of thanking them for looking out for me without having to actually talk about it.
I eventually left my house and moved into the Racks, the large high-rise buildings on the edge of the city for people with no homes to stay, most of which were kids with no families.  I could've stayed in the house but it didn't feel right, too many memories, plus the Racks was where I met Ty and about a year later, Cash.  We all became very fast friends, which was unusual for me.  I didn't have a lot of friends before the night of the portal incident, but I definitely didn't have them after.  My dad had warned me not to talk to people about the incident because they would think I was crazy.  After sometime, I was able to talk to Ty and Cash about it and Cash was the only one who never questioned what happened, but just accepted.  Ty listened and didn't judge but occasionally he would shoot a weird glance my way.
We had to get Ty back.  "I will admit, I'm surprised."
He laughed.  "I like to keep you on your toes.  When I heard he'd been taken, I came back from the food deliveries and began drawing up plans." He smiled, "I am a little shocked it took you this long to talk to me about it.  I figured you were going to storm into the house and demand that we go blow up all the facilities until we find him."
"Thank you." I smiled.
"Hey, what are friends for?" He threw his arms out and smiled his big radiant smile.  "Go wash up, you look like crap.  I am going to finish up here and see what I can come up with."
"Who are you?" I asked walking away.  I didn't wait for a response because he was right.  I felt like crap, so I could only image what I looked like.
I walked back into the main room of our compound a little less than an hour later.  We had just moved from the Racks to this amazing abandoned building.  I say amazing, not because it was, but because it was ours.  It was a large empty building that was situated just a couple of blocks from the field, the field of dreams, I always joked.  That is what it felt like for me, a field of dreams, because nothing about that night seemed real.  I fell through a blue light and landed on floored that sparkled like a thousand starts, with beautiful people looking at me and a boy with crystal blue eyes that pierced down into the depths of my soul and a sky that had dancing colors, all to end up back on the front porch of my parents house. 
The field of dreams.  Which has since had a large fence put up around it, to block the view of anyone passing.  They had a chain fence put up for awhile and a sign that said to keep out due to some sort of falling rocks near the waterfall, just off the field.  The fence didn't do a great job at keeping people out because kids kept jumping over the fence to walk through the field to see if they could find any proof of my story.  The Authority, obviously unhappy about the disregard for their fence and sign started executing people in the main square.  When that didn't work they built a stone wall that was ten feet tall.  This didn't seem to help debunk my story but only add fuel to the fire, which is another reason I had to move to the Racks, anonymity.
The compound was nice because people had stopped coming to this side of town for a while and it was so tall that if you stood on the roof you could see part of the field over the wall. Occasionally, I would come up here to just stare at the field and think back, trying to remember anything about that night. 
Cash was pretty good with the Authorities old electronics we managed to find lying around and was able to activate and use them, so we had a pretty sweet little security system around the place that would warn us if anyone was within a three hundred feet radius.  Inside, the compound looked like an empty warehouse with a large floor space with metal stairs on the one side and rooms on the second level that overlooked the open space in the middle.  There was a kitchen in the back on the main floor beside the large bathroom section that had group showers and bathroom stalls.  I couldn't figure out what they used to make here but it didn't matter anymore, no one cared about it except for us.
"What do you have for us?" I asked Cash.
He flipped the screen on the table to face me.  Just another device he had found and brought back to us.  "Well, chances are that he was probably taken here to this building," he said pointing at the building in the center of the map.
"Perfect, so impossible to get to."
"Yes, but-"
The alarms started going off.
"What's that?"
Everyone jumped up from their seats to huddle around the table as Cash flipped to the camera feed.
"Authority.  How did they find us?" Marley said.
"You don't think-" Hub started.
"No," Cash and I said at the same time. There's no way Ty would betray us.  I looked at Cash who was thinking the same thing, but there was still worry on both our faces. What would they have to do to him to get him to turn on us?  The very thought made me sick to my stomach.
"Hide." Cash yelled to Lisa, Hub and Marley.
There was no use in us hiding, we knew they were expecting to find someone here or else they wouldn't be here.  I went to the wall and flipped open the secret hatch and pulled out two fully charged laser guns and tossed one to Cash.
He flipped the table top over to hide the screen on the bottom and pushed it against the wall while carelessly tossing a blanket over it to try and disguise it as a piece of junk.
We moved to the main doors, weapons drawn, I pulled Roxy out of my pocket to activate her, "Report for us."  She flew up in the air through an open window.  I clipped my earpiece onto the outer edge my ear.
"Three armed guards on the west entrance and two on the east." She said.
"Five guards?" I asked, not that I was upset by the number but I expected more.
Cash shrugged.
Maybe they don't know we're here?
"Two tanks and ten more guards en route." Roxy added.
Nope, they knew we were here, but how?
"Do we walk out and fight? Lead them away?" Cash asked.
"Tanks?"
"Make it look good?" There was the ever present reckless wild boy.
"I don't want to go down without a fight, but tanks?"
We walked outside and saw the first set of guards walking through the field.  We held up our laser guns, "Make each shot count."
"Araleigh, there are tanks," he said more matter-of-factly.
"You didn't seem to have a problem with that a minute ago!"
"That was before I thought you were going to walk outside and take on two tanks and fifteen guards." He rubbed his fingers through his hair.  "I'm supposed to be the fun, irrational, reckless one! Not you!"
"I see." I looked out and saw the guards were about one hundred feet out.  "Are we going to do this now?"
"Tanks have stopped.  They have set up in two locations on the north and south side of the street," Roxy chimed in.
The street was behind us, between us and the field of dreams and the guards were still walking towards us with a tree line behind them.
"Guards with the tanks have stopped as well," Roxy updated.
"What are they doing?" I asked.
"Waiting?"
"On what?"
Cash shrugged his shoulders.
A second later the guards in front of us stopped moving, forming a line with two arm lengths between each of them. 
"What's going on?" Cash asked.
"Waiting," I said sarcastically.
"Right."
About five minutes past and no one moved, then we heard a rustle coming through the trees.
"Incoming," Roxy said.  "One person on the hover boards."
We pulled our guns back up and the guards followed suit, everyone waiting.  We saw the figure on the board break through the tree line, wobble up to the guards, paused for a second and then continue towards us with their hands up in the air.  It wasn't until they were closer that I recognized him, Ty.
"Ty?" Cash said.
"What's going on?"
Before he could answer Ty stopped in front of us, his face bruised with a few cuts on his lip. 
"Ty? Why did you-"
He held his hand up to stop me.  "They already knew about this location and us.  I didn't give anything up."
I took a deep breath in.  "What's going on? How are you? Are you hurt?"
He held up his hand again and wobbled a little on the discs.
"Why don't you get off those?"
"I can't."
"You can't?"
He looked at me and then continued. "Director Brooks would like to see both of you."
"You're joking right?" Cash said.
"No."
"What did they give to you?"
"She said she is willing to make a deal with us."
"And you believed her?"
"Not at first."
"At first? You've been gone like what two hours?" Cash snapped.
"Four and a half," Ty retorted.
"You led them here."
"I didn't tell them a single thing about this place." He took a deep breath, "I would never."
"I know Ty," I said in as much of a soothing voice as I could manage, I was not good at soothing.
He looked at me and his face relaxed a little and then he smiled.
"They have two tanks ready to level this place and all of us." "What does she want?"
"She just wants to meet."
"Meet?" Cash laughed.
"Yes.  If you come with me then she will leave this place alone."
I laughed and Cash lost his mind, "You are kidding me right now?  You really think that woman is going to just have a little chat with us about what we did and then let us go on our way?  What, in her past actions, has led you to believe that load of b.s.?"
"Cash." I put my hand on his arm, trying to calm him down, but he jerked his arm away from me.
"No." He ran his hands through his hair again, "Just no."
"I don't really think we have a choice," I said looking at Ty, who shook his head in agreement.
Cash screamed out in frustration.  "How am I supposed to protect you when stuff like this happens?"
"Protect me?" I snapped back.
"And everyone else of course," he added, waving his hand in the air.
"What did she say exactly Ty?"
"She said you didn't have a choice and if you didn't come peacefully, she would blow this whole place apart and then take you by force."
"Ok so we got some options," I smiled.
Neither Ty or Cash laughed.
"We have to go Cash." I said in a more serious tone.
"I know," he said reluctantly.
Ty grabbed two sets of discs out of the backpack he had on and handed them to us.
I set them on the ground along with my gun and stepped on them, Cash followed.  We gave a small bounce to activate them and they floated up in the air and connected with Ty's.
"I don't like this." Cash said through gritted teeth.
"I don't either, but it's not like we have a real choice." I looked around.  "We know for certain she will blow this place up if we don't go, if we do then maybe she will save it."
"Sorry guys, this is my fault."
"No it isn't Ty.  I am sure you did the same thing we would've done in your situation.  You risked your life to save me this morning."
"Thanks Araleigh."
"Tanks are starting to move away," Roxy said.
I'd forgotten she was still active, but it was nice to know the tanks were at least moving away, it gave me a little hope we weren't headed towards our immediate death.
"Roxy, return to your hub and don't allow Hub and team to try and save us. We will be fine." I took my earpiece out and casually let it fall to the ground.  I didn't want the director to be able to use anything against us.  Cash must have seen me because he did the same thing.
"Let's go then."