Arcadia : The Hidden Child

Chapter 2

10 Years Later.....

    "It's time Araleigh!" Cash said in a hushed urgency into my earpiece.
    It's time! The words I had been waiting patiently for. I pushed off the cement wall I was standing against. "Everything ok on your end?" I had began to think Cash had been caught. We had been studying the plans for about a week now and found this small thirty minute window where guards were changing over, and fortunately for us Mr. Always Late was a little slow to his post. Who would care about this side of the compound at four o'clock in the morning? I smiled at the thought. We would...we would Mr.Guard.
    "Yea. All good. Ran into a guard or two but they won't be a problem," he added, "for a while anyways."
    I could tell he was smiling through the ear piece.
     "Good job," I pulled Roxy out of my pocket to activate her. She was the latest toy I had been working on, she could fit in the palm of my hand and had a single blade that kept her propelled in the air. "Eyes and ears Roxy," I commanded softly and pulled out my comm's device. I quickly flipped it over to ensure the chip was still plugged in. Relief, it was. I had already checked it once, but one could never be too sure. The chip was something I had created that redirected the transmission from my comm's device back to the main hub located in my apartment. We weren't allow to be out between eight in the evening and six in the morning and there was no way to cut off the transmission of the comm's device without alerting the Authority, I had been trying to figure out a way for the last ten years. I got close a couple of times, but it always still somehow triggered an alert. Fortunately, I was always able to talk my way out of it, but I figured my luck would run out eventually and I know I didn't want that to happen. The last couple of people that went against the Authority were publicly executed, meant to set an example. Other's disappeared to await a trial that I am sure never really came, and they were never seen from or heard from again.
    Roxy began to speak in my earpiece, her voice sounded mostly human with only the faintest hint of a droid. "You are clear. I will be right back, I am going to do a quick sweep of the perimeter."
    "Be careful, you can't be seen."
    "I won't." It sounded like she was smiling, or possibly enjoying the thrill, which I knew wasn't possible since she was a robot. She had come a long way from when I initially built her.
    I swung my backpack around and grabbed two small discs out and tossed them gently on the ground. A bright green light turned on, lighting up the perimeter of the discs. I stepped on each of them and two straps shot out of either side of each disc and wrapped around my feet, holding them in place. I lifted the toes of my feet, gently angling my heels to the ground and the discs began to slowly rise. Much quicker than climbing the wall, I smiled. I had found these on one of our last raids and thought they would come in useful. The guards use them. They have all of the latest technology to chase after us or rather unnecessarily torment us if they choose. I took the tracker out of each of the discs and made a few modifications to them. It was a little difficult at first because there were symbols I had never seen before.
    "Where are you Cash? Ty?"
    "I am almost in position," Cash said.
    "I am making my way towards you Araleigh." Ty responded.   
    "Ok, I am almost over the wall."
    "You should have come with us," Ty said.
    "I know, but I wanted to try out the discs and plus I wanted to be over here in case anything changed."
    "Always prepared." Cash joked.
    I crested the top of the wall and changed the angle of my feet, to point my toes to the ground, I must have pointed them too much because I shot down the wall and lifted my toes right before I crashed. The straps popped off my feet and I stumbled.
    "Like a swan," Ty said running up to me.
    "Shut it." I walked back and picked up the discs off the ground and put them back in my backpack. "I am still learning, and if I recall, that was still more graceful than when you tried."
    "That is true." Cash said through the comm's device.
    "You always take her side and you aren't even over here!" Ty said.
    "Yea but I know Araleigh," he laughed, "And I saw how epically you failed."
    "You know that doesn't help your chances, she will never date you."
    "He is right," I said chiming in. Although the few people I talked to already thought we were dating and when I corrected them, thought I was crazy. Who wouldn't want to date Cash? He is tall with an athletic build, short dirty blonde hair he spikes, with greenish blue eyes and a defined jaw line. He was very attractive, just not my type. Although when I told girls I wasn't with Cash they automatically assumed I was with Ty, who was equally attractive but a little taller than Cash, with a chestnut skin tone, crisp green eyes, and short dark hair. They couldn't believe I wasn't with either of them and I couldn't understand why they always assumed I was. We were all just very close friends, really they were my only friends. I had a few other acquaintances but there weren't many I trusted, though I feel like a lot of that is a direct result of the Authority. They don't want us to have friends, they discourage it. Friends mean alliances and alliances give power. They didn't want anyone but them to have the power, didn't want anyone to stand up against them and tell them what they were doing was wrong. They impose these curfews on us, dictate when and where we work, who we can socialize with, and if we dare try to step out of line there are consequences. They also limit our food and drink intake, rationing weekly portions at a time, and if we have done anything that week not in line with what they deem as appropriate then our rations get cut in half. There are a few restaurants and bars on the outskirts of town we can visit but they are so expensive and so far away that you only get limited time there if you live in the middle of the city, which is where most people have to work. They'e done a phenomenal job keeping us separated.
    "Are you ready?" Cash chimed in.
    "Yea." I gave the gloves on my hand and extra pull and tightened the black hoodie around my face, so only my eyes, nose and mouth were visible, and I watched as Ty did the same. "Are you Cash?"
    "Yea, count down from five," I said.
    "On one or after one?" Cash asked.
    "What do you mean?" I was confused.
    "The countdown from five."
    "Does it matter?" I shook my head and looked at Ty who shrugged his shoulders.
    We walked over to the door and I jiggled the handle.
    Locked, as I expected.     
    "Roxy, unlock." She moved over and attached herself to the panel by the door handle, seconds later it beeped and the lock disengaged.
    I pushed the door open and the lights closest to us flickered on. "We have three minutes from now." We set our comm's devices to three minutes and started the countdown.
    Ty and myself walked in, the air was moist and warm and the smell of rotting vegetables hit us hard.
    "What?"-
    "Rotten vegetables, ignore it." I said, we didn't have time to waste, but I couldn't help but look around in disgust. This warehouse was huge, there were racks floor to ceiling with crates at least six shelves high, row after row full of food, rotting food, food that was never given out to the starving people. It was more important to make us all starve and waste food than be human!
    I shook my head to clear it, I would have to deal with that at a later time. "Cash, one minute and then we will be ready."
    "Sounds good. We are ready over here."
    I nodded at Ty and we quickly went to work placing the little black boxes on the as many of the shelves as we could. They were small magnetic boxes about the size of starburst chewy candy and they stuck to the metal shelving. When we placed the charge, there was a small button on the top that we had to push to activate it, a green light would flash once connected. We didn't have time to make sure they all activated correctly, we just needed a couple to light up green.
    "Ty, fifteen seconds and we need to be out."   
    "Finishing up now, race you to the door."
    I placed my last two charges and saw him running towards the door and took off after him.
    We cleared the outer set of doors and I spoke into my comm's, "Cash we are ready in five seconds."
    "We are ready and waiting..but is it on one or after one?"
    "Does it matter?" I rolled my eyes. "After one."
    "Thanks."
    Five. We started running the way Ty had come to meet me. Four. I glanced behind us, we still needed more distance. Three. Ty looked over and me and smirked, everything was always a competition with him. So I pushed harder to try to put some distance between us, but it didn't work- he was a fast runner. Two. There was a wall up ahead we could duck behind. One. Here we go. My comm's device flashed red as we raced around the wall and ducked down, instinctively covering our ears.
    BOOM!
    I felt the ground shake a little and peeked my head over the wall, smoke was billowing out of the top of the warehouse we were just in.
    "Shall we?" Ty said standing up.
    "Do you think they are ok?"
    "Yes, you have to trust them. Cash can handle it, plus you won't always be around so you have to learn to trust we can handle things."
    "That's kind of morbid." A rock landed feet from where we were sitting.
    "Not like that," Ty said lightly punching me in the arm.
    "It was just my way of trying to convince you that you need to trust others."
    "Fine." I shrugged and took one more look at the building behind us. "Let's go back to the compound and wait."
    "That was almost too easy," Ty looked at me skeptically.
    I shrugged. "Well we need to get out of here," I nodded in the direction of two oncoming guards who were running straight for us.
    "Ah," he groaned and I smiled.
    We stood up and started running for the exit which was behind the guards, we had nowhere else to go. Thinking back on it, we should have planned this part a little better. We were closing the distance when one of them yelled out, "You are going to pay for this!" I jumped up and leapt towards them, extending my arm out to punch one in the face. He side stepped me and I quickly regained my footing and spun to face him. Behind my guy, Ty and the other guard were exchanging blows.
    "We are almost done here." Cash said through the comm's device.
    I turned around and saw three more guards coming our way, this was not going to be good.
    "We need to get out of here," I said to Ty.   
    "You won't be going anywhere, the director will want to see the two responsible for blowing up one of our storage houses," the guard in front of me said.
    The other guards were getting closer.   
    "Everything ok with you two? We are out and on our way to the compound."
    "Yea, we didn't really make it out yet." I lunged forward and made contact with the guards chin.
    He shook his head, "You really shouldn't have done that." He moved toward me with fury in his eyes and reached out to grab me. I moved to the right but he grabbed my arm, I screamed out in pain. I spun around to loosen his grip, but was unable to pull free, and his grip only tightened. He started pulling me down the street away from Ty.
    Get yourself together, figure out a way out of this. All of those sessions with Cash had to have been worth something. I couldn't figure why he was so insistent on teaching me self defense a couple of years ago, but now I needed those teachings more than ever. At first I thought they were a waste of time, but he kept pushing that it was for my own safety, eventually I just gave in to make him happy, but in the process I found out I was pretty good at it and actually started to enjoy it. Think Araleigh, think.
    I stopped fighting against him and started pushing the same way we were moving, it caught him off balance and I took that opportunity to circle around towards him, twist my wrist free and use my free hand to strike him in the throat. He grabbed his throat and dropped to one knee. I ran away from him and the other guards and caught back up with Ty, who at this point was running towards me.
    "You had me worried for a second, thought I was going to have to come rescue you."
    I laughed, "That would be a first wouldn't it," I took off running. I chanced a quick look behind us and saw the guards were not following us. One was checking on the guy on the ground, who seemed rather upset, while the others were making their way to the building we had left. That was odd, I thought to myself as we continued to run away from them.
    I swung my backpack around and pulled out 2 sets of disc's. "I brought you a present." I looked over at Ty and smiled.
    "Oh you shouldn't have."
    I handed him his discs, "You should use them."
    "If I was that suicidal I would have just stayed with my buddies behind us."
    "Suit yourself." I tossed the disc's out in front of me and when I ran over them I gave my feet a little bounce and the disc's lit up and the straps popped out quickly strapping my feet in. I was going up in the air, just a little since I didn't angle my feet, and leaned forward. I started to pick up speed, I turned behind me and saw Ty debating on whether to use them or not.
    He stopped running and looked around.
    What was he doing?
    "You need to get out of here." He said in the comm's device.
    "I am not leaving you, let's go."
    "It's too late for me."
    "What are you talking about? Get on the discs and let's go."
    What was he doing?   
    "I am coming to get you. Put the discs on the ground and step on them to activate them. When I get close I will swing around you, grab my arm and I will guide us."   
    "No Araleigh."
    "I am not leaving you." I said sternly. I had already turned around and was making my way back towards him. I was unsure if this was going to work but I had seen where the Authorities guards had the discs paired up, they somehow attached to one another but could break apart when they needed and rejoined. They made it look so easy, hopefully it was.     
    I was approaching Ty, I held out my hand as I swung around him. He grabbed it and up in the air he went. I felt our discs repel each other like magnets when they get too close before latching together. That was easy. I leaned forward and we started picking up speed.
    "You should've gone without me."
    "I was not going to leave you."
    He wobbled a little and grabbed my shirt.
    "It is fine, I've got-"
    A shot ricocheted off my disc. "What was that?"   
    I looked around and saw behind us were a line of four guards coming after us. "They are shooting at us."
    "We did blow up their building."
    "Their trash building. There was nothing in there except rotten food."
    "They are gaining on us."
    "Do you guys need help?" Cash chimed in.
    "No, stay where you are," I said.
    There was another shot.
    "You wouldn't happen to have a laser gun with you?" Ty asked.
    "Yea, unzip my backpack," I said leaning forward, I had to pick up speed, but it was not working.
    "Always prepared, I love it," Ty said, pulling the gun out of my backpack.
    "What are you waiting for? I'll steer, you shoot."
    We had to get rid of them before we could go back to the compound and it was getting lighter outside.
    "Cash. You need to get rid of the food. Don't wait on us to get there, we won't have enough time."
    "Already on it."
    "Good."At least if we're captured our mission will still be a success. We had to get the food to the people that needed it.
    "How much were you able to get?" I said swerving us to the left.
    "Enough for about one hundred homes."
    "That's great."   
    "You guys sure you are ok?"
    "Yea, we have handled worse." I said looking at Ty.
    His lips thinned and then he agreed, "Yea man. We are good."
    We were not good. We were outnumbered and they were getting closer to us.
    Ty shot again and was able to hit one of the guards who fell to the ground. We were only about eight or nine feet up in the air so it wasn't enough to kill him, just really hurt him. The laser when it hits, administers an excruciating shock, temporarily immobilizing you for a few moments. I looked around trying to find a place we could go but we were still in the middle of their compound. The outer wall was to our right with building after building to our left.
    "We have nowhere to go." Ty said.
    "Don't say that Ty. We'll get out of this." Another shot hit at our feet.
    "They are trying to take out our discs," Ty said.
    Makes sense. "They don't want to kill us, just capture us."
    "Why?"
    "I don't want to find out."
    "Yea me either."
    I looked down and saw two guards sitting against the wall slumped over. I was confused for only a second until I realized those must have been the ones that Cash had knocked out. We must be close to the food storage facility. They all looked the same, I don't know how Cash was able to tell them all apart.
    Ty took another shot and missed.
    They fired three more shots at us in rapid succession, the last hit me in the back of the leg. I felt a burning sensation shoot across my whole body and I screamed out in pain. I felt a warm liquid run down by leg.
    "You are shot." Ty said pointing out the obvious.
    "Yes I know." I said through gritted teeth.
    "They are getting closer."
    "Yes I know."       
    What to do? Think Araleigh.
    They kept shooting at us. Ty continued to return fire, but I could tell the energy supply for the gun was getting low, the purple line on the side of the handle was close to empty.
    "I only have a few shots left Araleigh. We can't get caught."
    "I know. I don't know what to do."
    "I have an idea." Ty said.
    "Just be ready to gun it when you get my signal."   
    "What are you doing?"
    "Just be ready. Ok?"
    I turned to look at him.
    "Ok?" He asked again.
    I did not have a good feeling about this, "Ok."
    He grabbed my hand, "Give 'em hell."   
    "What?"   
    But before he could answer he pushed away from me, his disc disconnecting from mine. He was falling towards the ground and the guards were coming up on him fast.
    Ty, what are you doing?
    "Take care of our girl Cash." He crash landed on the ground but regained his footing, kicking the discs off. He aimed the laser gun straight up and as the guards were flying over he shot out and hit the center disc and because they were all connected they all fell from the sky.
    "Go Araleigh."
    "I can't-"
    "Go now."
    I saw the guards getting up from the ground in anger. They all drew their guns and aimed them at Ty and moved his way. He threw the gun to his side and fell to his knees with his hands on his head. When they got over to him the tallest guard kicked him hard in the chest. He fell forward onto the ground while he rest of them turned to look at me.
    "Go Ara." Ty managed to whisper.
    I was frozen. I didn't want to leave him.
    "Now." He gasped again before he got another kick in the side.
    "I will come for you."
    "W...in...g."
    Our word, that meant everything was going to be ok. At this moment I didn't think that was going to be the case. They were going to torture him until he wished he was dead. I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. I could see him looking up at me barely able to keep his head up.
    "Wing." I said reassuringly. I was going to come back for him.
    They punched him in the head. There was a small pop in my earpiece, they must have broken it.... and him. He fell to the ground.