Hellcats: Anthology

by Kate Pickford

  I didn’t have much time to dwell on this, though. A sudden movement in the evergreen bushes to my left was all it took for my instincts to kick in. I didn’t hesitate. I leapt up and over a fallen log, kicked back off its trunk and landed squarely behind my stalker, putting my knife to his throat.

  The boy’s muscles tensed beneath my arm. He was much bigger than me, but I held fast.

  “Drop the gun,” I hissed in his ear.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. All right…easy there.” The boy raised the hand carrying the gun up and away from his body, then lowered himself and dropped it to the ground. It clinked against the frozen earth.

  “Who are you?” I demanded, keeping my knife firmly in place.

  “I’m Ian. Who are you?”

  “I’m the one asking the questions here. Are you a Patrol?”

  Ian snorted. “Do I look like one?”

  “You’ve got the gun.”

  “Yeah, I do. It’s a long story.”

  “Why are you going past the Edge?” I asked. Ian turned slightly, and I tightened my grip on the knife.

  “Why are you?”

  “I said, I’m the one asking the questions.”

  “All right, all right. But do you mind? This is kind of uncomfortable.” He pointed to my knife.

  After a moment’s hesitation, I relaxed my grip and withdrew the knife.

  Ian rubbed his neck, a grin playing on his lips. “Phew, that was close.”

  “Watch it.” I pointed the knife at him again. Our eyes locked for a moment, and I quickly looked away, fighting my blush. He was handsome up close, but this wasn’t the time to lose my focus.

  “Easy there, tiger.”

  “It’s Hellcat, actually.”

  “Hellcat? I like that. So, Hellcat, what are you doing past the Edge?”

  “What did I say about the questions?”

  Ian raised his hands over his head. “Ask away then, Miss Hellcat.”

  “What are you doing past the Edge?”

  “Morning nature walk, can’t you tell?”

  I jabbed my knife in his direction. “The truth.”

  “Nothing but the truth.” Ian grinned. “What about you?”

  I hesitated, finally settling on a vague version of the truth. “I was told to come here.”

  Ian’s eyebrows shot up. “You were told to come here?” He lowered his voice and glanced behind him. “By whom?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “No, listen, you don’t understand.” Ian hesitated. “I was told to come here too. Many years ago.”

  “So what? People go beyond the Edge all the time.” No, they didn’t.

  “They don’t, and you know it.”

  My stomach clenched. “Who told you to come here?”

  “A man. I didn’t know his name.”

  “A likely story,” I scoffed.

  “Nothing but the truth, Hellcat.”

  “Prove it!”

  Ian bit his lower lip. After a moment, he pulled the left sleeve of his jacket up to reveal his wrist. Thin scars crisscrossed where his Deathday used to be.

  “Look closer.”

  I squinted, and I could just make out his Deathday under the scar tissue: it was a pale gray, hardly visible in the early morning light.

  The date emblazoned on his light brown skin was over five years ago.

  My breath caught. “Five years?” My voice was barely a whisper.

  Ian nodded, studying me closely.

  I stuck my knife back into my pocket and lifted my left sleeve, revealing my very own grayed-out Deathday.

  Ian’s eyes widened. “I’m not the only one.”

  My heart hammered in my chest. “My thoughts exactly… What happened to you?”

  “Come on, let’s walk, I know a clearing where we won’t be disturbed.”

  Ian scooped up his gun and began trekking further south. I hesitated for a moment, then called out to him. “Hey, Ian?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m Em.”

  Ian’s warm smile diffused any lingering doubts I had about sharing my story with him. He’d survived past his Deathday, too. If I couldn’t trust him, I couldn’t trust anyone.

  I glanced behind me at the concrete field and the City far behind, and then followed Ian through the thick underbrush, my footsteps crunching on dead leaves intermingled with dirty snow.

  Ian told me how he’d survived past his Deathday at only eleven years old. He’d been forced to leave his home until one cold, winter night, a man approached him. He knew Ian’s name and told him to go past the Edge. Ever since, Ian had been trying to figure out what Deathdays were and how he was the only human known to have survived past his.

  “Now there’s two of us,” I said.

  We approached the clearing and sat on a fallen tree. Could this clearing be my new home? If I’d stolen that taupe cloth from the market, I could have made a makeshift tent right here… I blew on my hands to keep them warm, while Ian seemed unbothered by the frost.

  “And there’s something else,” Ian said, kicking at the frozen ground with his worn boots.

  “What is it?”

  “Before he died, my best friend Theo found something out about Deathdays.”

  I spun around. “You know something?”

  “Not exactly. He got a lead.”

  I remained silent, hoping Ian would go on.

  “He found a bunch of books in a glass tank inside the White Tower.”

  My jaw dropped. “Books? Actual books? Inside the—”

  “White Tower, yeah.”

  “But how did he—?”

  “We. I was there, too.”

  I shook my head. “Unbelievable.”

  “It’s true. I’ll tell you the full story another day. For now, all you need to know is that he overheard some senior GA officials talking about a chip.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “A chip? What does that have to do with Deathdays?”

  “The books were about the history of the human race. And the GA officials instructed the Patrols to transfer the information in them onto the chip.”

  My mind reeled. “Hang on. So you think the chip contains information that could help us figure out Deathdays?”

  “Precisely.”

  I smirked. “Well, you’re in luck. This Hellcat happens to be the best hacker around.”

  Pulling my comp out of my pocket, I initiated my Hellcat login sequence. “I’m sure I can find something on their network. Where’s your comp, anyway?”

  “Had to get rid of it. I’m not an all-star hacker, you know.” Ian grinned.

  “I learned it all from Dad.” I by-passed the first few firewalls with ease. “Let’s see…if you were a chip, where would you hide?”

  “Probably with other potatoes.”

  A laugh escaped me. This was the first time I’d laughed since my Deathday. “Let’s try the GA’s intranet.” I bit my lip. “I’ve never tried hacking into the White Tower’s internal network, but maybe…” I hesitated, then typed several lines of code into the command terminal. I’d previously coded a handy little program that would get me into the Government’s network through brute force. Once I was in, I’d install a remote access tool on their servers and gain root access. From there, I could browse their files at will. Those script kiddies would be no match for me. “Let’s give it a go.”

  I hit enter.

  My comp beeped and a series of red warnings flashed across my screen. I cursed under my breath. “Damn it! They’ve disabled the remote access tool I’ve planted, broke through my encryption, and attributed my forged digital certificate to Hellcat!”

  Ian blinked. “In English?”

  My face drained of color. “We’re exposed. They’re tracking us.”

  Ian spun around. “Run!” He grabbed my hand. We flew across the clearing, while I simultaneously tried to disconnect from the network. My black boots slipped on the frozen snow, but Ian’s firm hand pulled me up before my face connected with the groun
d.

  “Follow me, I know the most direct path through the woods,” Ian called, rearranging the grappling hook on his belt so it was within easy reach. Why hadn’t I noticed it before? What else did he have about him that I hadn’t seen? I’d been so focused on the gun…

  We sprinted back through the underbrush, small branches swiping at me from all directions. My skin stung, and I tasted a warm, metallic liquid in my mouth. Blood. My lungs burned in my chest with each inhalation—running in these extreme temperatures without a proper warm up wouldn’t do me any favors.

  After a couple miles, Ian finally slowed. I rested my hand against the nearest tree as I caught my breath, trying to ease the pressure in my chest. Once more, we were back near the concrete field, although several dozen yards from where we first entered the forest. A lone satellite tower stood near the opposite edge of the field, its metal base rusted and overgrown with weeds.

  My stomach clenched, although I was sure it had nothing to do with our forest sprint. The unease I’d felt in the clearing had now morphed into a gripping panic. “Now they can trace my activity. I’ll never be able to use my comp again…”

  “Em, relax. Think. There must be something you can do?”

  I bit my lip again and thought back to all my training sessions with Dad. What had he said about hacking? That you had to be untraceable.

  Well, that wasn’t an option anymore. They knew where I’d logged on from, that I was Hellcat, and that it was I who planted the remote access tool. All the cybersecurity precautions I’d taken were for nothing. But what if I…

  “Ian, that’s it!” I slid to the ground, grabbed my comp and opened it again. “I’ll just reset the system, change my username and reroute my login location. Make myself untraceable.”

  My fingers zoomed over the keyboard, typing command after command. I wiped the sweat off my forehead, smoothed back my curtain of hair and hit enter again. “Say hello to BlackCat.”

  “Hello, BlackCat.”

  I shrugged. “I always wear black, anyway.”

  “So it worked?” Ian crouched down beside me.

  “Not entirely…I still have to reroute the traffic to throw them off our trail.” I glanced up at him. “But that’s where it gets tricky.” I answered Ian’s quizzical look before he could even say a word. “We need an alternative power source. And do you see a plug anywhere?”

  Ian’s mouth widened into a grin. “As a matter of fact, I do.” He pointed through the tree line, back toward the City.

  I shook my head. “No, we can’t go back into the City, there’s no time.” And it was too dangerous, surely Ian knew that?

  “Who said anything about going back into the City?”

  I followed Ian’s gaze, creasing my brow.

  Within seconds, understanding flowed through me.

  The satellite tower.

  “Brilliant!” I jumped to my feet, running through the calculations in my head. “The satellites are still in orbit, of course. They weren’t destroyed in the Great War.”

  “You got it. The Asian Superpower didn’t send any nuclear missiles to space, did they?” Ian smirked.

  “No, they did not.” I opened my browser, bringing up a few old satellite blueprints I’d found while hacking the systems one day. “We could use the antenna’s power source, connect to the satellite and try to get into the network from there.”

  If I could connect to the satellite, I’d be one step ahead of the GA. They surely weren’t using the ancient satellite systems. But to do that, I’d have to run across the concrete field, totally exposed and vulnerable. Mom’s warning about finding shelter and keeping safe rang through my mind. After a moment’s indecision, I launched myself toward the tower, my dark brown hair flying behind me. I had to do this.

  “Em, wait up!” Ian called after me, but I could barely hear him over my heart thundering in my ears. I didn’t dare turn around. If this worked, I would have virtually perpetual untraceable access to the GA network.

  Throwing open the ancient power box at the base of the tower, I fumbled for my comp cable and connected the two with trembling hands. “Please work, please work, please work.”

  A red warning flashed across my screen. “Damn it.”

  Ian had finally caught up with me. “What’s wrong?”

  “The dish is not aligned.” I glanced up at him. “I need to climb.”

  “Maybe I could—”

  I cut Ian off. “No, it has to be me. Besides, I’m the Hellcat.”

  Ian gave me a smile. “All right, but take this.” Shrugging out of his coat, he unfastened a harness off his body, pulled a metal cord wound around a spool out of his pocket and unclipped the grappling hook from his belt. He then handed the items to me. “I know cats have nine lives, but I’m not taking any chances. Not even with a Hellcat.”

  I took the harness from him and shimmied into it. “You stand guard, ok?”

  Ian nodded. “Hey, Em?”

  I turned back to face him.

  “Give them hell.” He grinned and retreated toward the tree line.

  Taking a deep breath, I jumped up onto the satellite tower and began the arduous climb to the top. The whistling wind whipped my hair in all directions, and the metal was freezing beneath my fingers. It was in moments like this when I wished I could afford gloves. But I gritted my teeth and climbed on, one step at a time.

  I was nearly two-thirds of the way up the tower when I saw Ian waving his arms frantically, pointing north. I grasped the metal rungs tighter and squinted through the morning air. My heart sank. A squadron of at least a dozen Safety Patrols were making their way toward the concrete field from the City.

  I swore under my breath, but I refused to back down now. Not when I was so close to getting the GA off my digital trail forever. Gasping for breath, I pushed myself up the last few rungs and positioned myself directly behind the dish, using its weight for support. Confirming the satellite’s exact position on my comp, I heaved the dish to the right as hard as I could.

  It didn’t budge.

  “No, no, no.”

  I hurled my entire body against the dish, straining against its weight.

  Nothing.

  “Come on.” I pushed again. “Move.”

  It gave way a fraction. I breathed a sigh of relief, but my job wasn’t done yet. I heaved it again, my knuckles turning white from exertion, and keeping one eye on the troop of approaching Safety Patrols.

  Once the dish was in position, I grabbed my comp cable and attempted to attach it to the base of the dish. My cold, stiff fingers fumbled with the opening.

  I took a step toward the dish and connected the two, just as my foot slipped on the icy rung.

  Time slowed.

  I flailed, my arms swinging from side to side as I fought to regain my balance—I didn’t. I crashed down several rungs, hitting my head as I went. With my last bit of strength, I grabbed on to one of the rungs with two fingers.

  “Em!” Ian’s voice called from far below. I could see him running toward me out of the corner of my eye. “Use the harness!”

  The harness. Of course. I fumbled for the grappling hook with my other hand and threw it into the tower. It connected with one of the metal rungs. I pulled the cord to test if it would hold. It did. The knot in my stomach unclenched. I knew what I had to do.

  I clambered back up the tower, wiping the sweat from my forehead. At least I wasn’t freezing anymore.

  I breathed a sigh of relief—my comp was still connected to the dish via my cable. Fastening myself to the tower with the grappling hook, I got to work on my comp, watching the Patrols out of the corner of my eye. I swallowed hard—they weren’t slowing down.

  Focus, Em.

  In order to reroute the traffic, I had to hack into the satellite’s power grid. Should be a straightforward job. I typed in command after command, but damn it! I couldn’t get in. There was still some interference blocking the signal.

  In my frustration, I slammed my fist into the d
ish. At once, my comp’s screen flashed green.

  I gasped and let out a shaky laugh. “I’m in.”

  Scanning the base of the tower for Ian, I locked eyes with him and gave him a thumbs up.

  Now, the next problem. The Safety Patrols. They were only a few dozen yards away. I’d never have enough time to climb back down the tower and make it to the cover of the trees with Ian. Bile rose in my throat. What else could I do? Frowning, I toyed with the comp in my hands.

  And then I knew. I smiled to myself and got to work.

  With one hand, I typed a few lines of code and fired up my remote access tool followed by a series of commands in the terminal. Then, I hit enter, watching the approaching Patrols closely.

  After several nerve-wracking moments, the Patrols stopped in their tracks. As if on cue, they each raised their com-link wrist communicators to their ears. Then, as one, they dropped them, turned on their heels, and marched back toward the north side of the City.

  I bowed my head against the rungs, let out a deep breath, and smiled. I did it.

  Climbing back down the tower, I took the rungs two at a time. I jumped the last few feet and landed with ease on all fours.

  Ian wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug, a huge grin plastered on his face. “You’re no Hellcat, you’re a superstar.”

  My heartbeat quickened, but I accepted the compliment. “All in a day’s work.”

  “Now that we’ve got the Patrols off our tail, come on, Em, let’s go.”

  I jerked my head up. “Go where?”

  Ian smiled. “Somewhere safe.”

  After half a day’s hike deep in the woods, we reached an unfamiliar clearing. Parting the snow-covered branches, I gasped. A striking building stood before me, ancient but regal. Its impressive exterior, which seemed to be made up of hundreds of stones, was partially obscured by twisting ivy tendrils. The tip of its dome reached the topmost branches of the neighboring trees. A mid-sized stone wall, overgrown with moss, wound around the building’s far side.