Young Writers Society

Kyre's POV

It isn’t long before I lose sight of Ashe and her captor altogether. And then I lose sight of the sun. The buildings loom over my head, blocking out the last rays of the sun, impossibly imposing given that I've been in this area before.

Once.

My shin throbs and I pause, breathing heavily to try and catch my breath. Once my breathing somewhat calms, I try to hear where Ashe and the Officer are, but to no avail. The song of crickets fills the otherwise empty silence, leaving no trace of the two.

Leaning heavily on my left leg, I rummage through a pocket in my hoodie and pull out a small cube, about half the size of my fist. I zip the pocket shut and tap the side of it repeatedly, trying to turn it on, gritting my teeth in frustration when it doesn't. Despite multiple tries, I haven't been able to fix that particular bug.

The cube's sides glow faintly and I release a breath.

"Display heat-seeking vision," I say, lowering my voice to the point it sounded quiet even to my ears. The cube shines brightly and I hurridly cover it with my sleeve, then tentatively move my hand when it dims. I hold the device at arm's length and move in a slow circle, carefully watching the six screens.

Suddenly the screens flash a brilliant orange, shifting to red when I move my arm slightly to the right. The number "2" glows on the one facing me in white.

The cube shines a brilliant orange when I move it east, and a robotic voice intones monotonously, “2 heat sources found in 50-foot radius.” I wince at the noise and hastily shove it back into my pocket, walking quickly.

By now, night has fallen completely; even the stars seem to be fading under the cover of clouds. I swallow hard, feeling a lump in my throat. My hands ache to draw out the cube again, if only for its meager light, but I force them to stay at my sides. Every rustling leaf, every whistle of the wind, every creak of a branch makes my heart leap into my throat, and it takes everything I have not to break into a run.

I hear a faint scrabbling and stop walking, feeling a cool trickle of sweat from my temple. The logical part of my brain tells me that it’s just a small animal, probably a rat or a squirrel, but my overactive imagination drowns it out. Shadows flit through my mind, teeth and claws and blood and pain and suffocating walls, so fast and with such force that I can't breathe. I stop for a moment next to a tree, then, without thinking it through, wrap my hand around the closest branch and haul myself up. My arms burn from exertion and are shaking by the time I sit up on the branch, but I don't feel safe. The darkness presses up around me, suffocating me with its nearness. It seems so impossibly near, so solid, I almost give up right there. Hell, I want to. But then Ashe’s face flashes through my mind, her brightness, her flaming presence, and warmth floods through me, pushing out the night.

I tap on my tracker to see my location―the locator works both ways, and I can basically see a map with my coordinates―and freeze.

There’s no way.

No. Way.

I hesitantly look out, apprehensive, and the sight below confirms my suspicions. I’m ten feet above the edge of Government Headquarters. Ominous dark silver buildings glitter under synthetic light-orbs, their edges unnervingly sharp. Bright red dots--cameras, I realize--are spread systematically over nearly every surface, blinking at regular intervals, watching their designated areas ceaselessly. The ground there is hard concrete, with the occasional tree breaking the monotonousness.

Like the one I'm on right now.

I look around, trying to find a safe place to climb down, but can't see one where there isn't a dot. Except for the roof of the building closest to me. My eyes rapidly and repeatedly scan the area, but no, there's nothing. Nothing to stop me from jumping on and finding a way in. I peer closer, and can make out a small rectangle of metal with the clunky metallic security setup from a few years back. It's older technology, the kind I have a lot of experience with hacking.

It seems too good to be true. Too easy.

I almost laugh at the incredulity of my situation. Here I am, sitting on a tree because a stranger that is as familiar as a friend got taken by a Government officer, trying to find a way to infiltrate their headquarters to bring her back.

If I get caught, it's instant erasing for me. If I leave any traces, I'd have to leave the surface world and move underground, maybe forever.

And less than a week ago, it was Government rules that kept me confined to Boss's house, doing her work for her. Obeying her every command, knowing that not following would, at best, have me kicked out with no shelter, and at worse, in a Prison.

I can't even begin to count the number of rules and laws I'm breaking by just being here, much less contemplating breaking in.

I gauge the distance between my perch on the tree and the flat metallic roof of a building, then swallow hard. Fifteen feet. Ice flows through my veins and for a moment, I can't move. I think of Ashe again--the strange familiarity of her, the spark in her eyes when she's drawing on her tablet, the way she somehow pushes my fears away--and pull my legs into a crouch on the branch. For her. Balancing precariously, I carefully inch my way closer to the edge, breathing shallowly. The branch creaks under me and I freeze, my breath catching in my throat. My heart beats like a drum, so loud I can feel it vibrating within me, almost painful in my chest.

And before I can second guess myself, I jump.

What the hell did I just do? For a long moment, I'm suspended in thin air, then I'm falling hard. I'm gonna die. And then I see the roof rushing up at me.

For a split second, I'm relieved that I made it to the roof, not the concrete ground, but that relief passes in less than a moment. Pain shoots like fire up my forearms, elbows, and knees, and the wind is knocked out of my body. I gasp, trying to force air into my lungs, but can't. The taste of iron floods my mouth. Black dots crowd my vision, then take over completely.