by T. J. Quinn
She wasn’t able to see much. They were close, but not close enough for the naked human eye to see. Fortunately, Rafaroy’s eyes were a bit more than human, and they could see a lot farther and even zoom in.
“There are at least thirty large quarters. If they are anything like the ones we used to live in, they can fit forty people in each one of them,” he explained, signaling the constructions.
“They have the families separated?” she asked, furious.
“I believe so. I can’t see any structure that could be used for a family home,” he pointed out.
“This is so unfair… those people had lives, the Taucets destroyed it, and now that they’ve been supposedly rescued, they’re still being kept prisoners,” she ranted.
“The government will use any excuse to get people under its control. People in camps are a lot more manageable than those free,” he stated, showing all the scorn and disdain he felt for the ruling group.
“It makes me want to set a bomb and free them all…” she mumbled.
“You would only turn them into fugitives…”
“I know, I know… but I still wish I could.”
He turned his head and kissed her forehead. “I know the feeling.”
She sighed out loud. “Can you see any children?”
“So far, none. Describe Alanna to me, please.”
“She’s a twelve years old version of me. She has my hair, my skin, and my eyes. Most people that didn’t know the true story would think she was my daughter, instead of my sister.”
He nodded, with a warm smile. “I’ll try to contact any of the cyborgs around the camp.”
She nodded and remained silent, still trying to see anyone familiar with the camp, to no use. They were too far for it.
“Rafaroy, what the hell are you doing around here?” Zandar, one of the cyborgs from his old unit asked, clearly worried. “Don’t tell me they’ve captured you.”
“Zandar… it’s so good to hear a familiar voice…” he greeted his friend. “No, I haven’t been captured.”
“Then what the hell are you doing here, so close to this camp?”
“I’m on a rescue mission. But I need your help.”
“A rescue mission? From this place? Have you lost your mind? This place has more guards than a regular military base,” his friend pointed out, trying to talk him out of whatever rescue mission he had in mind.
“Well… we’ll see about that. I don’t want to cause you problems, but I could use some help. I’m looking for a little girl, called Alanna. She has dark curls and green eyes, and she’s around twelve years old. Have you seen anyone matching her description around the place?”
His friend let out a loud laugh. “Who hasn’t? She’s a feisty one. In the few days she’s been here, she has already tried to escape once. They keep her locked up in solitary, to cure her of those insane impulses.” His friend explained.
Rafaroy laughed too. It sounded so familiar he felt he knew the little girl. “That makes things easier for me.”
“Of course, not. There’s no way to get to where she is without half the camp finding out, Raf,” Zandar warned him.
“I have to try. If I don’t, you’ll have a new prisoner to watch over, and I’m not ready to give her up,” he explained, scowling.
His friend laughed again for a few moments. “Now, I get it, but it’s still too dangerous. You would need to cross the entire damn camp to get to where she was, and then make the same way out. It’s impossible. You’d be caught faster than you could take your first breath.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Rafaroy stayed in silence for a few moments, trying to consider his options. “You said she tried to escape, right?”
“Right.”
“The door locks still work with energy power?” he asked again as a simple, but effective plan formed in his mind.
“Yes, of course. These quarters weren’t built for prisoners. There aren’t many security measures, that’s why there are so many guards, here.”
“If power goes off, that will generate enough chaos for a few minutes for someone to go to the girl’s cell, open the door and tell her to run to one of the less guarded doors, where I would be waiting for her.”
“Oh… I knew I would end up in the middle…” he teased Rafaroy.
“I don’t want to put you in danger…”
“I know that… why do you think the girl will believe a word I tell her?”
“Well, because you’ll mention her sister and the gold mine where they were supposed to meet if anything happened to their hometown. You’ll tell her Elena is waiting for her, just outside the walls,” Rafaroy explained, briefly.
“You would only have a couple of minutes while the power is off to get her out of here and get as far as possible.”
“I know… I could use a MotorStorm… any idea where I can get one?”
“As a matter of fact, I do. Not far from the camp, there’s a small place down the road where the soldiers send their vehicles to be fixed. The guy has a few of them stored there ready to be picked up. This could be your chance to get your hands in one of them,” Zandar explained, with a smile.
“Perfect. I’ll work to get things ready tonight. Can I count on you to do your part?” Rafaroy asked. “I don’t want you to put yourself in danger under any circumstances. If she’s the girl, I think she is, when the lights go out, she’ll know the doors will be unlocked. All I want you to do is to guide her in my direction,” he warned his friend.
“Don’t worry about me. They won’t pay much attention to me, with my leg still in recovery.”
“You’re hurt?”
“Nothing important, believe me.” Zandar dismissed his friend's concerns.
“Good to hear. What about tracker devices? Have they implanted trackers on the people at the camp?” Rafaroy asked, worried.
“Of course they did, on people’s upper right arm. It’s very shallow, you shouldn’t have any trouble getting it out of the girl,” Zandar explained. “It’s easily detected.”
“Perfect. I don’t want them on my tail.”
“They haven’t spent too many resources on these people. They just keep them here, in case the Taucets decide to recover their slaves.” There was obvious scorn on his friend's tone.
“I know… well, we’ll be in touch.” Rafaroy closed the communication channel and turned to look at Elena. “I believe we have a plan.”
He explained the whole thing to Elena, and though she wasn’t happy to be left out of the whole plan, she understood it would be better for her to stay out of the way and let Rafaroy do his job. It wasn’t an easy decision, but she had to trust he would do his best to rescue Alanna from the camp.
“Are you sure this will work?” she asked, a bit worried.
“Some things could go wrong, but I’m sure they won’t. Your sister seems to be a very clever girl, and she will run as fast as possible, towards the exit, Zandar will clear for us.
“I truly hope you’re right.” she buried her head in his chest.
“Stop worrying. Everything will be alright,” he assured her.
“I need you to stay here while I go get the MotorStorm for us. While I wait for the perfect moment to act, I’ll take you to a safe location as far as possible from here.” She started shaking her head, but he stopped her immediately. “I need to know you’re safe, far from here. If I have to worry about your safety as well, I won’t be able to do my best job rescuing Alanna,” he pointed out, in a stern tone. “I’m sure you don’t want that to happen.”
She inhaled sharply. “Of course, not… but…”
“There’s no but, Elena. There are too many things at stake here for me to budge on this,” he insisted, and she nodded.
“You’re right, I’m sorry… I’m just so worried about you two…”
“We’ll be fine. Now, stay here while I get one of those vehicles for us.”
She agreed and watched him disappear down the hill. Sighing, she turne
d her eyes to the camp, and though she couldn’t see much, she cursed the government again and again for taking away people’s freedom with impunity.
Rafaroy wasn’t away more than a few minutes. But to her surprise, he returned on foot.
“What happened?”
“I now recall why the hell those vehicles are called MotorStorms…”
“Because they sound like a storm,” she concluded for him.
“Exactly. But they are fast and slim, and that’s what we need right now, so let’s get you out of here.”
He took her hand and guided her to where he had left the vehicle. In a matter of a few minutes, he had put several miles between them and the camp. He chose a small cave hidden in the middle of the forest for her, and after lighting a fire, he left on his quest, but not before giving her a few last warnings. “Unless you’re in immediate danger, I want you to stay here. Don’t go wandering around the place. The last thing I need is for you to get lost in the middle of the woods.”
She stuck her tongue out at him and hurried him out of there. “I’ll be fine. Now go get my sister.”
Smiling, he leaned over and stole one last kiss from her lips, before getting on the infernal vehicle and disappear through the tall trees.
Elena sighed and took a seat in front of the fire, preparing herself for the long wait. Fortunately, the night was dark, and that would help their escape plans.
Rafaroy reached the north door at the planned time. He had discovered the camp’s power plant and destroying it had been a child’s play. There had been a single guard watching it, and he had had no trouble subduing him and tying him up.
They had chosen the furthest door possible to the power plant. He was sure the blast would attract most of the guards there, and he wanted to get Alanna out of the way. So, he fixed the power plant to explode on its own and ran as fast as he could towards the north door.
Rafaroy arrived just in time to hear the blast and watch as all the lights flickered before going off. Chaos erupted throughout the camp. After finding the door’s guard, he quickly neutralized him and forced the door. Using his infrared sight, he scanned the perimeter, finding no other threats, but the little girl still wasn’t anywhere to be found.
He was about to get inside and get her when he perceived two people approaching him.
“Zandar what the hell is going on?” he opened the communication channel with his friend.
“Damn, man… they were keeping her drugged,” he snorted, through gritted teeth. “A bit of help would be nice.”
Rafaroy remembered his friend hurt leg and jumped into action. Zandar was only a few yards away from him, with an unconscious Alanna on his back.
After moving the girl to Rafaroy’s back, Zandar gave him a faint smile and rushed him out of there. “Get out of here. What are you waiting for?”
But Rafaroy dropped the little girl gently to the ground before he turned to face his friend. “I can’t leave you behind. They will know you’ve helped me.” He pulled the knife from his boot, and before his friend had time to react, he pulled his arm up and quickly opened a neat square, under it, revealing his friend’s control system.
As fast as possible, he punched the right code and freed his friend, right before he deactivated the tracker systems.
“Have you lost your mind, Rafaroy? I’ll delay you, my leg is a total mess…” Zandar protested.
“Stop whining and let’s get the hell out of here. They must be about to turn on all the systems.”
Rafaroy carried Alanna on his back again, holding her in place with one arm and helping Zandar move with the other. They reached the door just on time before the lights were turned on.
Without wasting any more time, they disappeared into the woods to the place where Rafaroy had left the MotorStorm. In just a few minutes, they were far from the camp, and Rafaroy made his first stop.
They had to scan the girl for trackers. As Zandar had told him, there was one on the girl’s arm, fortunately, not very deep. All it took was a clean cut to pull it out and smash it against a tree.
Rafaroy cut a piece of fabric from the girl’s oversized shirt and wrapped it over her arm, stopping the bleeding, before they left the place, as fast as possible, this time to pick up Elena.
It was impossible to talk with the vehicle’s noise, but at least it took them fast away from the camp and into the woods.
Elena had been pacing the small cave for a while now. Her brain kept conjuring all kinds of images of all the things that could have gone wrong, and she simply couldn’t stay still.
When she finally heard the MotorStorm approaching, she froze, for a few moments. But quickly she burst into action, putting out the fire and picking up all of their things. She also erased any trace of their presence in the place, like she had seen Rafaroy doing since they had been traveling together.
By the time he reached her, she was ready to go. She let out a cry of relief when she saw her little sister between the two cyborgs, cuddled against a cyborg she didn’t know. But, though she had a million questions, she knew that wasn’t the moment.
After checking the cave and approving her cleaning up, Rafaroy helped her into the vehicle, and they left. The MotorStorm wasn’t made for four people to ride it, but the vehicle managed the extra weight pretty well and soon they were arriving at the place Rafaroy had chosen to dump the vehicle. They would walk from there on.
Or at least, that had been the plan, before Zandar had joined them.
Alanna was still unconscious, which spoke of the heavy drugs she’d been given. That was another impediment for them to continue on foot.
“Listen, you’ve done more than enough for me, Rafaroy,” Zandar said, at some point of their discussion, while they stretched their legs and tried to decide what to do. “I already have the rendezvous place’s coordinates, so we’ll meet there as soon as I’m able to get there. There’s no use for all of us to be delayed on my account.”
“We can’t leave you behind,” the refusal came from Elena. “We’ll find a way.” She turned to look at Rafaroy. “I had a boyfriend back in college that used to drive one of these things. I had completely forgotten about it, until I rode this one,” she told him.
He frowned, clearly not too happy with her mentioning another man. “Your point is?”
“Motorstorms were forbidden on campus due to the noise. But he was some sort of a rebel, and he managed to eliminate the noise and keep the speed. I think I still remember how he did it,” she explained. “If we can remove the noise to this little baby, we could use it, at least, as far as its fuel takes us.”
“You know enough mechanics as to do that?” he asked her, not very sure.
“Enough, and I’m sure you’ll know the rest. Fixing machines must be part of your training, right?” she asked him, standing in front of him with her hands on her hips. “We’re wasting time here… time we don’t have.”
A soft chuckle made them turn to face Zandar. “Now, I understand a lot of things,” he said, looking at Rafaroy. “I can help you, Elena, if you tell me what we have to do.”
“Actually, it’s quite simple. People never changed it, because MotorStorms were fun for the noise and the speed,” she said, walking to the vehicle.
Quickly, she removed some of the vehicle’s pieces, to access the engine. Zandar approached her and leaned over to see what she was doing.
“Do you think you can move these two pipes from here to here?” she pointed some parts of the engine. “This change will make those pipes work as silencers, and that will reduce the noise by more than half.”
Zandar nodded and put his hands to work. Like she had said, it only took him a few minutes to make the change and soon the vehicle was ready, and so were they.
“It still makes some noise, but I guess we won’t be finding too many people on our way,” Rafaroy pointed out. “We only have fuel for half our journey, but that will be significant for your leg and Alanna should be over the effect of the drug by then.”
“Exactly.” She clapped her hands happy.
He tapped the tip of her nose amused. “Let’s get out of here.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
But before Elena headed to the vehicle, she closed the distance between them and hugged him hard, hiding her face in his chest. “Thank you… thank you for bringing her back to me.”
“You need to thank Zandar for that, but you can leave the hugging just for me,” he stated, with so much possessiveness she raised her head to look at him, surprised. “Though, that can wait for later.”
Zandar was already inside the vehicle with the sleeping form of Alanna on his arms, and they hurried to take their places. They still had a long way before they finally reached freedom.
Alanna woke up at mid-afternoon. Not wanting to startle the little girl more than necessary, the minute Zandar felt her move in his arms, he asked Rafaroy to stop, to allow Elena to take her sister in her arms.
The little girl’s eyes flickered a few times as if she thought she was dreaming, before she let out a loud cry and opened her eyes wide.
“Elena… it’s really you… I’m not dreaming.”
Elena hugged her tight against her chest allowing her tears of happiness finally go down her cheeks. “I told you I would always find you, no matter what.”
Alanna hugged her back. “They said all of the people that had been captured by the Taucets had been freed and taken to Mirage, so, I decided to come out of our secret place to go there… but it was a lie…” she explained, sobbing.
“I know, sweetie, I know… but we’re together now, and that’s all that matters,” she comforted the girl.
“That place is nothing but a prisoner’s camp… I tried to escape, but they caught me before I was able to go very far…” she sobbed a bit more, showing all the adults around her, just how much she had suffered in the dreadful camp.
“You’re free now, sweetie, you’ll never go back…”
Slowly, the little girl calmed herself enough to look around her and see the huge cyborgs surrounding her sister.
