Episode Seven- The Getaway

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A handful of Patrolmen still guarded the gates. They were unreactive to the shouting that echoed through the streets. All they concerned themselves with was the job left to them—keep people in the city and keep people out of the city.

Alex settled herself close to Cicero. They were squatting close behind a car parked alongside the street. A mere twenty feet away, a Patrolman stood with his back to them. Alex looked up at another Patrolman pacing a walkway on top of the gate.

The walkway connected two, small towers, barely two stories high, but tall enough for them to be spotted if anyone looked in their direction.

"What's the move?" Rollo shifted closer to Cicero. As the Keepers, the responsibility to get everyone out safely fell on their shoulders.

"I could shoot everyone," Ace suggested.

"Oh, good idea. How about we all set off fireworks at the same time, too?" Rollo said over her shoulder.

Ace snorted at her response, having been the only one to find his joke funny. He had always been a man of blunt comments and inappropriate humor, but he could shoot the wings off a mosquito from three-hundred yards away. Ace was a useful, though sometimes annoying, addition to their team.

"You could always go ask them something in Korean, I'm sure that'd be a great distraction while they try to figure out what you're saying," Alex said.

Ace leaned back to look at her from the other side of Rollo. A rather confused expression crossed his face. "Why is it you think I know Korean?"

"Aren't you?"

"What?"

"Korean." Alex frowned.

"Doesn't mean I know how to speak it. I only know I'm Korean because Rollo told me I was," Ace replied curtly.

"I didn't mean-"

Cicero turned his head quickly to her. Everything written across his face was telling her to be quiet.

"Oh, c'mon. I was just trying to make a suggestion, and it felt like something Ace would do," Alex tried to look at the other Keeper for some kind of back-up, but Rollo met her with an equally haughty glare. "Lighten up you guys," she muttered to herself.

"I definitely would," Ace whispered, grinning. "But your idea is terrible."

"We're just trying to think here. You guys arguing like children isn't exactly helping," Rollo managed out after a moment of silence.

"Wait, that gives me an idea," Alex said. The others turned their heads in unison to look at her. "Not the arguing part. I just mean... we need a distraction, right?" She pulled a small, round object out of her pocket. "I swiped this a couple months ago from one of those traders they let in the city."

"You stole something?" Ace gasped sarcastically before taking the object from her hand. "A projector?" He rolled the piece of metal in his hand for a moment before he nodded in understanding. "A distraction."

"Remember, you dared me to break the rules for once?" Alex took the projector from his hands, a smile and a nod showing Ace recalled his dare. "Children are always a distraction. No one likes the unpredictability of children more than Patrolmen. This will give us a chance to get past them."

"And what about the gate? How are we going to get past that?" Rollo questioned.

Alex frowned, kicking herself for not even considering the most troublesome part of their escape. Only the Patrolmen could open the gate.

"All we have to do is get through the side door those assholes use to get around the gate. Maybe with a little luck." Ace made a dramatic wave of both his hands in front of his face, and when he stopped, he pinched an identification card between his forefinger and thumb. A grin dimpled Ace's cheeks as he showed off the card.

Squinting at the picture, Alex realized it was the Patrolman that had stopped them in the apartment building, Officer Sandoval. She recalled Ace's movements when he leaned in to read the Patrolman's nametag.

"Who's the thief now," she joked. Her gaze drifted over to Cicero for some kind of acknowledgment of the plan. Surely he had to think it was a good plan. Well, at least not the worst plan.

"I'm still stuck on the fact you stole something," Cicero paused, directing his words to Alex, who sunk back at his scolding, before continuing, "Once we get through that door we all run like hell, ok? The Patrolmen will keep their attention on the projection and we make it through the door. We'll keep going once we're on the other side. No looking back."

"What, you want us to run out there?" Alex scoffed. She had figured they would just stick to the buildings and make their way through the destroyed parts of the city. Cicero didn't smile back. "Going out there is suicide. Those are the Wildlands."

"The Wildlands aren't real, Alex. It's just desert. When the Patrolmen realize we're gone, they're going to comb through this city first. Out there we have more time to get away," Cicero said.

"But—"

"We don't have time to argue." Cicero grabbed the projector from her hand and placed it under the car they were hiding behind. He aimed it toward the street and pressed a single button, dragging his finger slightly to the right before releasing it.

A nearly realistic 3D image of a child appeared beside the car. The figure started running down the street, just as Cicero directed. Almost instantly the Patrolmen took the bait, darting off after the image of the child.

A single Patrolman remained close to the gates.

"Dammit," Ace growled. "There's still one left."

One is better than all of them," Rollo said, leaning forward onto the toes of her boots. Her stance and intense stare reminded Alex of a lioness watching her prey. She was ready to take off for the hunt.

In a matter of seconds, Rollo had darted out and around the car before the Patrolman could even turn to face her. She struck out her palm and landed a very precise blow to the only exposed part of the Patrolman's suit—the neck. The Patrolman dropped to his knees and grabbed around his throat with both hands. Even through his helmet, Alex could hear him gurgling and gasping for breath.

"Did you have to kill him?" Ace questioned as they joined Rollo.

"I didn't kill him," she retorted.

"Yeah, it's not like you need your windpipe or anything," Ace grumbled, waving the card in front of a scanner next to the door.

Alex glanced behind her as the door opened. The Patrolman was unmoving on the ground. She didn't see his chest rising or falling. His hands remained wrapped around his throat, as if he had frozen into place already.

Turning back around with a deep breath, Alex gave an uneasy look at Rollo as she passed through the doorway with them. It was easy to forget what a Keeper would do to protect their Designation. She could only imagine what Cicero would be capable of, given the situation.


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