Hunter pulled Ella, in a half stupor, down the dimly lit alleyways, pressing himself against the wall and scanning his surroundings, before he entered any new opening. He knew they were moving too slowly, but there was no choice. Sometimes a moment needed blind action. This was not one of those times. Still, Hunter knew they needed a better way. He guided Ella to an empty crate next to a dumpster, set her down, and pulled down a rusty fire escape ladder.
Hunter turned to Ella and offered his knee as a step. “Up we go.”
Ella didn’t move.
“Ella.” He raised his voice slightly above a forced whisper.
But it was no use. The girl was in a faraway place, lost in her own mind. Hunter had seen that look many times in his own mirrored reflection. He leaned his head back and breathed out a puff of frustration. “Girl, wake up. There’s no time. I don’t know who Michael is, but I can tell he means a lot to you. We have to move before we end up like he did.”
The sound of Michael’s name snapped Ella back to reality, and she stood, hands gripped into fists, “He’s my brother.”
A memory of the crack of a distant tree and a familiar scream echoed in Hunter’s mind at the word brother. The image flashed through his mind, gone as quickly as it came, but the pain remained, a dull ache behind his eyes.
“Well, he was my brother. And I would give anything to make those monsters pay for what they’ve done.”
Hunter saw a flash of white spread across Ella’s irises for a moment, the air around her seeming to shimmer for a split second, before settling back to the blue he had seen when they had first locked eyes. He tilted his head and squinted at her. But the moment had passed. A trick of the light, or was it?
“I get it, more than you can understand. You’re angry, right?”
Ella nodded.
“Fantastic! I don’t know what those bastards did to you and your brother, but once we get out of here, I’ll help you burn them to the ground myself. But, for now, use that anger to push you forward.”
“Alright, what’s your plan?”
“We go up. The canopy market will give us cover.”
Ella craned her neck upward and studied the rusted out fire escape that looked like it could collapse to dust in a slight breeze. “Do you have any other ideas?”
Hunter pointed to the manhole cover labeled sewer at her feet. “We could go down.”
“Up it is.”
“I thought you’d see my point of view. Now come on.” Hunter pulled the ladder down again and patted his knee.
Ella sprinted forward, pressed her foot into Hunter’s thigh, and sprang upward, skipping the first four rungs.
“That was impressive.”
“What can I say, anger can be a powerful motivator. Try to keep up, old man.”
“Old man?” Hunter gripped the rung with his metal arm and jerked down. In one fluid motion, he rocketed past Ella, catching the top railing of the first landing, and slung his legs over. “Who are you calling, old man?”
He offered Ella a hand, but she slapped it away. “How did you do that?”
Hunter lifted his jacket and shirt sleeve, revealing the metal underneath. “You aren’t the only one with secrets.”
Ella reached out and touched it as a green LED light lit up her face. “It’s warm.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Yup. I have Thad to thank for that.” Hunter rolled his sleeves back down and continued up the next flight of stairs, with Ella close behind.
Ella took each step as quickly as she could, trying to keep pace with Hunter as he took two steps at a time, but her head was starting to swim. “I need a break.”
Hunter was about to slow his steps when the whir of a Republic drone filled the air. He quickly scanned his surroundings just in time to see the flickering red scanner light appear around the edge of the building.
Hunter reached out towards Ella. “Give me your hand.”
“What?”
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes.” Ella slipped her hand in his. “But something tells me I’m going to regret that answer.”
“Good. Now grip tight and hold your breath.”
“Why?”
Hunter didn’t take the time to answer. Instead, he swung Ella into the air, flinging her up and over the ledge of the roof. Once she was safely out of sight, he slipped the cloth mask to the bridge of his nose, slumped to the metal slatted floor, and closed his eyes. Hunter held his breath and tried not to flinch as the whirring got closer to him. His fingers twitched, unconsciously, when he could see red light through his closed eyelids. An outward manifestation of the raging anger inside of him. His body wanted to fight. To rip the machine out of the air and tear it to pieces. But Hunter knew better. One zap from the taser prongs fitted to the smooth exoskeleton of the drone and it would be game over. Not only would they kill him, the bastards would most likely force him to watch as Ella was tortured, as a penance for interfering with whatever they were up to. When the whir disappeared, Hunter slowly stood and made his way to the roof. When he knew no one was watching, he kicked out one of the nearby wooden poles, keeping a patchwork canopy in place to the ground. A moment later, Ella fell into his arms.
“You tried to kill me.”
Hunter let her down and shrugged. “Desperate times, call for desperate measures.”
“How’d you know this thing would catch me?” Ella pushed Hunter’s shoulder. “I could have broken my neck.”
“I’ve spent a lot of time up here. These things are stronger than they look.”
Hunter grabbed a nearby wooden bear figurine, tossed it on top of a nearby canopy, and gritted his teeth as the structure fell to the ground, knocking over the canopy next to it.
Hunter turned back to Ella. She stared at him, eyebrows raised, her hands planted firmly on her hips. “You were saying?”
He was about to respond when muffled curses caused his head to snap back to the chaos. A second later, a woman crawled out from under the canvas. Anger flushed in her wrinkled cheeks. Her silver hair was a nest of tangles.
“Are you gonna pay me for the mess you made?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Hunter pulled his techpad from his pocket, keyed in one hundred coins, and flicked it towards the woman with two fingers. “I am so sorry.”
A moment later, her watch beeped. She studied it for a second and then nodded. “Thank you, young man.”
“Don’t mention it.” Hunter turned to Ella. “We’ve got to get going.”
“Come back, again.”
Hunter smiled and motioned Ella forward with his head. “We will. Again, sorry for the mess.”
The two moved past tables with trinkets and shiny metal that reflected the flickered light of torches that lit their way.
“Well, she seemed nice.”
“Don’t let these people fool you. They’re no different from the people on ground level. They’ll throw you off the roof in a heartbeat if they think you’ve ripped them off.”
“That’s good to know. Speaking of, do you know where we’re going?”
“Of course.” Hunter pointed to a rope bridge that hung from one rooftop to another. “Across.”
“Are you kidding me? I’m not going across that thing.”
“What’s the matter? Scared of heights?”
“Heights, no. Falling to my death, yes.”
“Fine. I’ll go first.”
Hunter stepped forward, gripping the rope with both hands. When he reached the halfway point, a woman stepped onto the bridge across from him. She had a large, oversized bag strapped to her back and her eyes, dark and intense, never left Hunter’s. She walked confidently towards him, nearly knocking him over the side as she passed, whispering something he couldn't quite catch.
Ella cupped her hands around her mouth. “What’s the matter? Scared of heights?”
Hunter turned back to her, “Ha, ha, ha. So funny. I didn’t know you had jokes.”
He stepped off the last wooden plank, landing firmly on the next roof. Ella followed shortly behind. “Are you kidding me? I’m a bundle of laughs.”
“I’ll bet.” Hunter walked along the edge of the roof until he came to a white and black striped plastic trash chute hanging off the ledge. Without saying another word, he dropped into the tube, feet first.
Ella rushed forward, “Hunter?!”
“Mind that first step.” Hunter’s voice echoed up at her, “Come on.”
Ella stepped up to the lip of the tube. The air spilling from the chute was thick with the stench of rotting food and stale beer. She closed her eyes. “Hunter, I’m going to kill you for this, if you don’t kill me first.” She whispered under her breath and let gravity pull her down.
The transition of white and black morphed into a dull gray as she slid down the tube. She closed her eyes and swallowed down bile as it came to her lips until she landed with a thud. When she opened her eyes, she was laying in a pile of trash bags.
“Welcome to the dark side.” Hunter lifted Ella to her feet.
“Where are we?”
“I just told you, we’re in the dark side.”
Hunter walked towards a spiral staircase in the corner of the room and headed down, with Ella behind him. She counted her steps as she walked in case she needed to make a quick exit, but it was no use. They were moving too quickly. When they reached the bottom of the staircase, Ella took in her surroundings. A single bulb hung from the center of the room. On the opposite wall, furthest from her, was a door. To her left, there was another door. A person stood next to it, a military style duffle bag slung over his shoulder. He was leaning against the wall, the hood of a green jacket covered his face.
