by Natalie Reid
Frantically the man tried to rise from his seat, but the glass in his hands, along with the fire, went crashing to the floor.
The man froze, staring as the alcohol burned on the ground. He didn’t know what to do. It didn’t seem to be catching onto anything else. But as the alcohol spilled from the broken glass, it travelled outward in a pool of flame and headed straight towards a small electrical hole that had been hidden in the corner of the floor.
Outside, Task Force agents were shouting. He looked towards the back door of the restaurant. The helicopter hovered closer overhead. The flame fell down the hole, and the man ran for the back. The door closed behind him just as the sound of a screeching bike filled the air.
* * *
Griffin tried to swerve out of the way in time to avoid hitting the girl that had appeared in the middle of the courtyard out of nowhere. However, the brakes wouldn’t work fast enough, and he found himself leaning sideways, which caused his bike to crash to the floor. He and his bike slid a few feet on the ground before coming to a halt. When he stopped, he scrambled to his feet and looked over at the girl.
Jessie stared down at him, and then over to the side of the courtyard he had just come from. Task Force were surrounding that area, pointing their guns out towards them. Griffin looked back that way, and then forward, seeing the Task Force that had come in the direction she had. In a few moments, both of them had pieced together what had happened. They had brought their chases together, and were now surrounded on each side by their respective squadrons.
While they had both figured this out at the same time, it was Jessie that reacted first. She ran over to Griffin and hoisted his bike so that it hovered once more in the air.
She swung herself on, and then turned back to him, saying, “Quick, get on!”
Griffin didn’t waste time wondering what it was that this girl had gotten herself into, and if he should trust her. Right now she was his only ally, and she looked like she knew what she was doing.
She moved the bike in a circle in the middle of the courtyard, trying to gage the best possible exit. The men around them started shouting at them to get on the ground. The helicopter that she had attracted flew overhead and shined a light down on them.
“Jessie Fifty-Fifty,” a voice on a loud-speaker shouted out. “Surrender or we will shoot.”
Behind her, Griffin tightened his arms around her waist.
“Don’t worry,” she shouted out to him. “I’m not really a Bandit.”
“I actually don’t really care right now,” he yelled back. “Just get us out of here.”
She circled around once more, aware of every building and exit, and every move that the helicopter and the men around her were taking. They weren’t shooting at them right away, which meant that she had at least a few more seconds’ grace period to figure out a plan of attack before they started firing.
Then, before she could decide on a course of action, there was a scream from inside one of the restaurants in the square. A woman in a white dress burst out of The Jardo restaurant. The Task Force agents outside tried to get her to go back in, but she yelled out in a shrill voice, “Fire!”
More and more people inside began to stream out of the building in frenzied panic and empty into the courtyard. Flames were already visible from the open door and windows, and a cloud of smoke was drifting out and filling the courtyard in a dusty haze.
In the chaos, Jessie had acted quickly. When the woman had first burst out, Jessie had seen her means of escape and had started to head straight towards The Jardo. With so many high-class civilians now running around the square, it was impossible for any agent to take a clean shot at them.
“Head for the back of the restaurant,” Griffin instructed her, pointing out towards the alleyway that led towards the rear parking lot.
She nodded and swerved through smoke and coughing people, entering seamlessly into the alley. As she drove, Griffin looked to the restaurant that was now in flames, hoping irrationally that it wasn’t sparked by an electrical fire that had been caused by someone innocently pouring alcoholic drinks down a certain conveniently placed hole in the floor.
A moment later, the two of them were past the restaurant, across the parking lot, and headed down a connecting side-road. It didn’t take Task Force long to recover from their confusion, but with Jessie on the bike, she began to put greater and greater distance between them. She maneuvered that bike faster than any had ever seen. And the bike, which had once been abandoned for trash in the tunnels of a junk yard, responded to its new driver with ease and vigor.
When they crossed the border into the south sector, they had left most of the chase behind them. The helicopter was still searching somewhere in the west side, and they could only hear a few bikes patrolling a street nearby.
The most northern part of the agricultural section was composed mainly of residential neighborhoods for the people that worked to produce food. The heavier cover was further south. However, Jessie had been so quick on the bike that she realized they could already slip away undetected.
She steered the bike towards the side of a small, two-story apartment complex, and was going to park it with the three other vehicles that had been left outside, when she heard a car driving by. By the sound of it, it wasn’t a hover bike. They waited in the shadows for it to pass, still perched on the bike. Jessie did not want to let her guard down in case it was an agent, thinking that they wouldn’t be suspicious of a normal looking car.
When the vehicle came forward, she saw that it was a common silver car. In fact, it was the type that you could rent for a few hours, which made it the most popular car on the road.
Both Griffin and Jessie held their breath as it passed. Yet, as it was leaving, Griffin pointed to something sticking out of the window.
“Is that an antenna?” he asked.
“What is it?” she whispered.
Suddenly he grabbed her shoulders. “Catch up to that car. That’s my friend in there!”
She hesitated at first, but he had sounded so sure that she reluctantly drove the bike from the shadows and out onto the street. Before they could catch up to the car, it came to a sudden stop, and the doors opened.
Carver was the first one out. He ran past the car and was over to them in a few seconds, standing just a few feet away. “Jessie, are you alright?” he asked.
She was stunned by his sudden arrival, and even more shocked by how fatherly he seemed in that moment.
Before she could answer him, Griffin exclaimed from behind her, “Uncle Carver?!”
She shifted her head back to look at the young man she had taken along. “Uncle?” she repeated in confusion.
Carver tilted his head to look behind her. “Griffin, what are you doing here?”
“Griffin!” a voice shouted in surprise.
Harper came running from the shadows and bounded over to her friend. Griffin leaped off the bike and raced over to her as well. She was about to hug him, but stopped, grabbing onto his arm in an awkward substitute for a hug. Griffin, however, ignored this, and wrapped his arms tightly around her, breathing in a deep sigh of relief. When he pulled away, both of them blurted out questions at the same time.
“How did you find me?” Griffin asked.
“What are you doing here?” Harper exclaimed.
Griffin stopped and looked at her in confusion. “You weren’t looking for me?”
“Why is your face covered in grease?!”
“I thought you were in prison!”
“So you dumped grease over your head?”
At that moment, Tom stepped around Carver and looked towards the bike. When he saw Jessie, alive and well, his whole body moved in a sign of relief, and he looked up to the stars as if to thank them.
Before any more words could be exchanged, a sound at the end of the street drew their attention. Two bikes started down their street, the agents on top shouting that they had found their suspects. They began firing. One bullet hit the open car
door, sending it flying dangerously close to Tom’s head. He ducked in time, but Jessie’s temper had been set on fire.
She kicked the bike into action, swerving around her friends and aiming towards the two agents. Then, angling her body much like Griffin did to avoid hitting her in the courtyard, she began to skid with the bike on the ground. The bike protected her from the oncoming bullets as she slammed into one of the men. He went flying from his bike and landed on the curb. He did not move to get up.
The other agent spun back around to face her, and she was debating on whether she should stay under the cover of her bike or run out for the fallen agent’s gun, when a shot blasted out from behind him. In the night, she couldn’t see the blood or the bullet hole, but the man fell to the floor, dead.
She got up to her feet and peered at the shooter standing there in the shadows. Of all the people she expected it to be, Ritter was the last on her list. But there he was. Nel was gone from his wrist, and his gun was clutched in his hand. She hardly knew what to make of it.
Footsteps ran down the street, and in a moment the rest of her friends would be there. She knew this would be hard to explain. Like before, Carver was the first one to reach them. When he saw who was standing there, he started to charge forward at him. Ritter raised his gun as a warning, and Carver stopped in his tracks, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists.
“You want to call this goon off me, Chance?”
He glanced over at her and saw she was biting down on her lip in an internal struggle.
Finally, overcoming the voice in her head that told her to keep silent, she said, “He’s with me.”
Carver looked at her in disbelief, and then over at Ritter who gave him a smirk. By now, the rest of them had gathered around.
“You mind explaining this to us,” Denneck demanded, motioning to Ritter in a look of confused disgust.
“Yeah, I just saved her life,” Ritter said, acting as if it was knowledge everyone should know by now. “And if you want the truth, it’s not the first time.”
Carver surged forward. “Don’t you dare!”
Ritter lifted his gun a little higher, giving him an amused look.
“Dad stop!” Jessie yelled out.
He immediately froze and turned around to look at his daughter.
“Dad?” Griffin repeated in shock, realizing what that meant. He turned to stare at Jessie.
“Well, isn’t this just the family reunion?” Ritter commented. “What’s say we have it somewhere private? Where we’re not about to be shot to pieces, huh?”
“He’s right,” Denneck said, coming over to Carver. “We’re not safe here. We should head back to Aileron.”
“What about him?” It was Tom that asked this. He had moved from the shadows to stand next to Jessie.
“Ritter, where’s Nel?” she asked.
“You and I are about to go get her,” he said, finally putting his gun away.
“She’s not going anywhere with you!” Carver spat out.
Ritter turned his head and gave him a tired look. “Well she’s certainly not going to Aileron Street. Task Force knows you’ve been hiding there. Frankly, I’m surprised they hadn’t acted on that already.”
“You’re lying,” Denneck challenged.
“Is she still in the woods on the north side?” Jessie broke in.
“Yeah, and I’m not going to waste any more time with your friends here in order to go get her.”
“But… why?” she asked, shaking her head. “Why would—”
“She made me,” he cut in, angrily. “Said she wouldn’t go any further if I didn’t go back and save you.”
“I’m sorry, who are we talking about?” Harper butted in.
“I don’t even know who any of these people are,” Griffin whispered to her. “I think you’re way more in the loop than me.”
Jessie turned to Carver this time, saying, “It’s his daughter.”
From behind him, both Harper and Griffin give small exclamations of “Ooooh,” though neither of them looked any more certain about what was going on.
“And I agree with him,” she continued. “We can’t go back to Aileron. Our best bet is to make it out to the woods. Once we’re there, we’ll find his daughter and then make for one of our training facilities to spend the night.”
Carver looked from her to Ritter in thought.
“Smart daughter you’ve got there,” Ritter smiled.
Carver ignored him and turned back to Jessie, giving her a nod.
Moving quickly and quietly, they stashed both the bike and the car in the parking lot of one of the apartment buildings, and continued forward on foot. They made it past the residential area, and into the more rural part of town. Luckily, the agricultural sector did not have a wall blocking it from the outside forest. Since it was further south, and was warm enough to accommodate farming practices, it needed a wider range than the rest of Aero City. In fact, some people didn’t consider it part of the city at all.
Once they reached an opening in the wall that led out towards the un-mediated field-land, they slipped out and started back up north along the wall, making sure to stay hidden inside the tree line. It was cold and quiet as they walked. They could hear the helicopter and sirens in the distance, but their noises waxed and waned.
So many of those walking had a million thoughts and questions running through their minds, yet no one had the guts to speak them. They were still on the run and had to be careful. The time for talking would come later.
However, when they had walked nearly a mile in silence, Tom couldn’t take it anymore. He and Jessie were walking in the back of their party, and as the rest of them continued forward, he slipped his hand into hers and gave it a gentle tug.
When she turned back around to face him, he whispered out sadly, “Jessie, what happened to your face?”
Her eyes cast down to her feet. “I can’t talk about that now.”
She tried to go, but he held her back.
“I know I kept secrets from you, but please don’t keep them from me.” He reached out to touch her face, but she turned away.
“I’m not keeping secrets. I just don’t have time to explain it right now.”
She tried to leave again, but once more he pulled her closer.
“All I want to know is that you’re alright.”
Her face softened. “I’m fine.”
Up ahead through the trees, Denneck called out to them, “What are you doing?”
They looked over at him, and both reluctantly started forward to join the others.
When they reached a spot on the wall that indicated they were near the north sector, Ritter had them stop and change direction. Now they started into the forest. A few minutes later he stopped at a tree. Underneath it was a pair of discarded handcuffs. When he saw them, he picked them up and then spun his head around. He called out to his daughter, but there was no reply. He gripped the handcuffs tighter in his hands and called out louder.
“Nel, please!” he cried. “I brought her back!”
When there was still no reply, Jessie came forward and stood next to Ritter.
“Nel, are you out here?” she asked.
Suddenly there was a rustle in a nearby bush, and a small leg poked out from it. Soon Nel’s whole body followed, and she was racing through the trees towards them. Ritter opened his arms, as if to catch her, but she ran up to Jessie instead. Jessie returned the child’s embrace, but couldn’t help but see the look on Ritter’s face. Corrupt man or not, he was a father with a daughter that had the power to hurt him immensely.
“You are so brave,” she whispered into Nel’s ear.
She pulled back to smile up at her. “Not as brave as you.”
Jessie shook her head. “You’re the one that saved me. Every decision you made tonight, you made to help me. You are the brave one.”
The young girl hugged her again, but Ritter broke in, saying, “We need to get moving. Which direction to your training fa
cility?”
She shook her head. “First you tell me where my mom is.”
Behind her, Carver shifted in the snow. “You know where Sarah is?”
Ritter glanced between father and daughter. “Now is not the time. Trust me, once we get to safety, I’ll tell you everything you need to know.”
“Trust you?” Jessie repeated, taking a stride closer to him. “You think any one of us trusts you? No, either you tell me where my mom is, or you don’t get to come anywhere near our facility.”
“Right,” Ritter stated calmly. “So I tell you, and you’ll what? Go and get her?” He stepped towards her as well. “Tell me, how’re you gonna do that?”
With the question out of his mouth, his hands reached up to grab her face. One hand gripped harshly to her pony-tail to keep her from moving while he jabbed his palm into her right eye. At once, Jessie let out a scream and dropped to her knees. She bit down on her tongue to try and silence herself, but the pain was searing in her head. Somewhere above her she could hear Carver and Denneck struggling to grab Ritter.
Her body felt like it was tipping and swaying again. Her palms grabbed at fistfuls of snow to try and steady herself, but no matter how firmly she clung to the ground, she did not feel stable. Blackness crept over the white snow. She could feel it dancing around her. Shapes hid inside it, threatening to take her the moment she let her guard down.
“What did you do to me?” she strained out, trying to find Ritter somewhere in the black.
His voice cut through her ears like a bitter wind. “I didn’t do anything. You’re the one that got yourself infected.”
“Infected?” Denneck asked. “What are you talking about?”
Jessie tried to get to her feet, but she was too weak.
“Ocular implantation. Your prized soldier’s been smoked,” Ritter said.
“You better start talking sense,” Carver demanded.
