Young Writers Society

                                                            Chapter 3

The air felt cold, dead where these Ellies walked. As though everything was repulsed by them, dying upon contact. Even to me, these suited men were not people you mess with if you don’t have too. Every minutes I sat in the shadows trying to work up the courage to do what I had in mind - was a minute less my wolves had. With my resolve shoved into place, I give a silent sigh, walking backwards a few feet I steadied my stride and walked out. Not loudly, but not silently either. It was the walk of someone not wanting to draw attention to them, but not caring if someone did end up looking.

Coming around the corner I paused when I looked up, this was closer that I had dared come to them so far, and I could feel muscles all over tense as I walked headlong into a threatening situation. I turned towards them as though to get a better look.

All six of the Ellies had turned to watch who  would come out of the ally and were not surprised that a woman had walked out - in fact, four of them had agreed inside of their helmets that it would be a female. The two who had not not even had time to respond, were the newbies. The four vets were not happy about training the greenies, but they got to use the new suits as well as take on this large gang - one said to be quick on their feet.

All of the Ellies snaked their hands down to rest on the guns sitting in their belts and watched the woman take a step back towards the alley, not backwards into the main road like they had expecting. This person might be a woman, but that single thing told them that this was a smart one. One of the Ellies stepped forward and watched my eyes narrow, a simple silent command from him and the feed he was getting from the camera changed, he was now able see almost through everything, it was the newest version of X-ray. With this new feed, he could see five needles on her and sent the image to the others, another vet stepped forward.

“Miss. We are going to ask you to remove your coat and take all five needles off your person. In order to prevent injuries we need your cooperation.” The man’s voice seemed to be amplified as it bounced off the narrow walls of the closed in side road. In such a way that had I not been standing right in front of them, even I would have had a hard time pinpointing them. My eyes narrowed further at the mention of my needles, how they could see through my clothes and pick those out? It made me feel as though they had stripped me naked right there, it was oddly degrading.

“And if I tell you I have no needles on me? Who keeps five on them anyhow, that seems a bit excessive, tell me where all of them are and I might just obey.” With the challenge issued I shift my weight to rest on my right leg, moving an inch closer to the ally, none of them spoke and it made her nerves fire in anticipation. I didn’t dare turn my back on them and pretend to walk away, having lost interest. That would be asking for a bullet in the back of the head. In the silence, my mind raced as I tried to figure a few  things out - how could they see how many vials I had me?  All of them at the same time, it had to be something in that helmet of theirs that was allowing it, that’s all I could figure out.

“One on each arm and leg, and one on your chest.” The voice was smaller, younger, I made sure to make the weirdest face I had in my facial bank. Maybe not all of these solider were killers - yet.

“Why would I attach a needle to my chest, don’t you know that could kill me, I may not be your average woman, but I’m not suicidal! As well as why would I need two vials on my legs if I can’t even reach them.” Usually by now I would have a plan in place, but my mind was all out of ideas, I could only hope to stall them long enough for….for what? Even if I stalled them they would either shoot me or let me go and continue on their way. When they did this, they would find out how much of a user I was when I appears for a second time right before I would have to attack them. The tug of the lone wolf coming into her radar distracted me for a moment, it was that wolf I didn’t recognize, and he was gone just as soon as he had appeared.

This question seemed to once again stall them,the feeling of being left out on some conversation was tickling the back of my mind. Not for a moment did I doubt that I was indeed out if the loop. If those helmets could allow them to see through my clothing, they could at least communicate to each other silently. The first vet to talk brought his gun out of its holster and leveled it at my chest, right on the vial. She raised her hands slowly, careful to show she had nothing in her hands, nothing went good when someone leveled a weapon at your chest. It showed how much forethought had gone into this when she didn’t even have a weapon on her, although. That could have been one of the things that had saved her.

“Were not here to play games, so either you obey and remove the vials or we shoot you and remove them by force. It was not the man holding the gun, nor the younger voice this time, it was another older sounding man. Of course it was, no smart person put a group together with a large majority of younger untrained people, that hope flew out the window faster than it had come in.  I set to removing my long coat slowly, trying to think of a plan right up on the spot, I bent down onto one knee and removed first the vial in my left boot, then switched and removed the one in my right boot.

When I stood and went to take the other vial out, one of the men moved forward and I froze. This made the rest of them pause as well, it was like they were expecting a trick, which was smart because that’s the only thing running through her head at the moment. That was before she felt the lone wolf enter her radar again, which mean he had to be close by. Standing still, I removed the vial strapped to left arm and let it drop, watching with cringe as it shattered, making a very loud crash. I repeated this with the right one, dropping it to the ground. This put the Ellies on edge and I could feel the line I was toeing, the one separating life and death.

She slowly placed her hands on the leather vest she had on and removed it. Underneath it was another addition of black, a tank top. The cool night air breathed against the flesh, so rarely did the wind get a taste of me. I could almost feel the men’s eyes as they watched me, the feeling was that they were twitching to pull on their triggers. Why you may ask, because the amount of muscle and tone I had compared to what they could see of me,  it was clear I was not messed with often and could kill any of them in a fair fight. But this wasn't a fair fight.

They vial was cleverly concealed so that even in the single layer of clothing, the vial was barely even a  bump from only ten feet away. As my hands reached up into my shirt to remove the final vial, all the Ellies were practically paralyzed with shock by what happened next. A wolf - the size of a small car, ran and jumped from a roof. Slamming into the me. Knocking me so hard against the wall that I was unconscious in seconds, blood already creeping down my back and arms to the ground. They lifted their guns and went to aim at the wolf, but he had the woman in his jaws and had disappeared before the last gun had even been removed from its holster.

I had felt the moment he had entered my radar, just as I had begun reaching for the final vial. what I had not felt, was the intent behind how quickly he was covering ground. I felt the impact of him slamming his body into me. all six hundred pounds of him. The wall was much harder than I had expected, and i was out like a light quicker than I could draw breath for a surprised gasp. This had not been what i had been expecting and while it saved me from having to depart from one of my favorite type of vial, it also caused me pain and possibly several weeks’ worth of injury to be watched and taken care of