"Don't go too fast or you'll crash into the ice faster than I can break it." Toivo said to Ella who was driving the boat which Henrik left the keys to before leaving.
"You're right. I wouldn't want to damage Henrik's boat. Especially after we took it without permission." Ella replied.
"I don't think it's actually his."
"Huh? How so?"
"The side of it has the symbol of the coast guard on it." Toivo pointed out after having noticed it while peeking over the edge.
"Oh. In that case it probably doesn't matter that much. But I still shouldn't scratch it because it might sink." Ella reasoned.
"And since it's the coast guard's property, it might also have one thing." Toivo said worriedly.
"What would that be?" Ella wondered and noticed a bullet fly past her cheek and hit the windshield of the motorboat.
"A tracker!" Toivo shouted and got low.
Since Toivo was no longer breaking the ice, the boat crashed into the ice before Ella managed to stop it. Ella hit her forehead on the steering wheel and then fell off her seat and down to floor of the boat. She felt loopy and dizzy and heard more shots being fired. She looked to her left side and saw that Toivo was also on the floor and keeping hands over his head as if to hide.
"Is it over?" Ella asked once she was somewhat there.
"What?" Toivo asked, not having heard properly.
Before Ella could repeat herself, she felt cold water on her body. The water got more and more on her and her entire body was quickly getting submerged
"Is it over?" Ella asked again just before her face was submerged and a few more bullets hit the boat.
"It's not over until we end it." Toivo said and put an arm over Ella to pin her down and then held the seat of the boat with his free hand as the entire boat sank into the cold water with the two fugitives still on its floor.
Once they were both under the water, Ella came to her senses. Toivo let go of the boat but still kept his arm stuck to Ella, letting the boat sink while they stayed floating in place. They no longer heard anything from above. They faced each other under the freezing water where the rising Sun of the morning gave them light. On that brief moment the freezing water didn't bother either of them as they floated in place facing each other in the perfect silence where all they saw was each other. Only when Ella looked down and saw the boat sinking, she remembered the situation that they were in, and noticed how cold the water is. Toivo looked where Ella looked and had the same realization. They both swam to the surface and took heavy breaths once their heads were above the surface. Once they both opened their eyes, they looked at where the shooting was coming from and no longer saw anyone there. Once Toivo was sure that nobody was there, he swam to the ice and tugged Ella's sleeve to tell her to follow. Toivo climbed onto the ice and with great difficulty helped Ella get up on the ice too. After helping Ella get on the ice, Toivo lied down on his back on the ice and looked at the sky while freezing, and Ella lied down next to him and also looked at the sky.
"I sank the boat. Sorry, sir. No, they didn't have any more with them. Just two. I didn't see them resurface. I think they sank with the boat. Okay. On my way." Some voice faintly said from a distance but as Toivo and Ella looked to the direction of the voice, they only saw a glimpse of someone in a uniform who then disappeared behind a corner.
"No, Ella. It's not over." Toivo said while breathing heavily on his back.
"It will be over if we freeze here and don't get moving. Why did you let us sink with that boat?" Ella asked with little enthusiasm.
"To hide us from the shooter." Toivo answered.
"Did it work?"
"I think it did. Do you still have the phone?" Toivo asked.
"I don't know." Ella answered.
"Check you pocket."
"Can I do it later?"
"You said we have to move." Toivo said and Ella groaned.
She checked all of her pockets and found nothing.
"I think it's in the bottom. But I don't think we need it. The city hall is right there. We can remember the way from here." Ella said and pointed at the city hall and the bridge next to it that was still broken.
She sat up and struggled to get on her feet while shivering. She lended a hand for Toivo to help him get up. She saw how hard it was for Toivo to get up, so she put Toivo's arm over her shoulder to help him up. Toivo saw how hard it was for Ella to walk like this, so he put Ella's arm over his own shoulder to give support.
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They walked along the ice towards the town hall and saw people on the yard of the town hall looking at them from above. Once Ella and Toivo got there, they climbed a ladder that took them up to the town hall's yard. Some people took steps back upon recognizing their faces, while some others hurried to help them up. Up at the yard of the town hall Ella and Toivo put arms over each other's shoulders again to help each other stay up.
"That's the superpowered disease carrier and his harborer!" Some scared citizen shouted.
"That's all a lie! They're victims in all of this!" Somebody else shouted in response and a big argument started.
More people came to look what the arguing was about and why the people were gathered there.
"I'm not having them here walking freely. I'm calling the police here!" A scared citizen proclaimed but Toivo focused on the citizen's phone and shattered it and then just started quietly walking forward with Ella by his side.
They quietly and slowly walked on the yard with their entire bodies dripping with water and their hair stiff and nearly frozen. There were people on both sides looking at them. Some looked worried, some confused and some judgemental. Toivo broke the phone of some other citizen who was dialing it.
"Fine. I'll get them myself and get the finder's reward!" Somebody shouted.
Toivo turned his head to the direction of the voice and saw somebody rushing towards him. He just focused on the ground and made dirt and snow fly up, spooking the attacker.
"Just leave us alone." Toivo said weakly and kept going forward.
"Look at how sick they look! I'm getting out of here!" Some voice shouted and some people started walking away while some kept looking at Ella and Toivo from behind as they walked out of the yard, some even followed them curiously.
They made it out of the town hall's yard and into the street where the broken bridge was on their right side. A group of people followed them to the street while keeping a cautious distance to them. The broken part of the bridge had a shaky plywood board made for construction workers to use while the bridge was being repaired.
"Come on, Ella. Let's go over the bridge." Toivo said exhaustedly and looked at Ella from behind his frozen front hair.
"You sure?" Ella asked.
"I'm sure."
"Fine." Ella replied tiredly and they both headed to the broken bridge.
Some contruction workers were working on the bridge as Toivo and Ella approached it. There were signs by the bridge telling people to keep away, but Toivo and Ella just walked past the signs. The supervisor of the project briskly walked to Toivo and Ella and started telling them to go away until Toivo put a hole in the supervisor's helmet. The supervisor looked at the helmet, dropped it and took a step back.
"I don't want to hurt people." Toivo said quietly.
At the plywood board Toivo put his foot on it to see how sturdy it was. It was only supported by two cinder blocks on top of both ends of the wide board.
"It holds well enough." Toivo said and Ella seemed to agree.
They crossed the board and the rest of the bridge together and even some other people crossed it to follow them. On the other side of the bridge they came to the streets where people were walking to work and freight trucks and electric trains were on the roads.
"You remember where to go?" Toivo asked.
"Easily." Ella replied.
"Good. Let's not walk on the sidewalk. Too many people."
"Agreed." Ella said and so they got on the road.
People on the sidewalks looked at them to see what these two sick looking youngsters were doing on the road. Some recognized them and many took photos and videos. Horns were honking at them as they slowed down the vehicles behind them by being on the way.
"We don't want to hurt anyone. I just want to get my sister back and save people from the crazy minister." Toivo quietly said while walking.
He got an empty glass bottle thrown at his head for that comment but he didn't even bother to look where it came from. More people started following them as they walked along the road.
"Sick flea!" Some voice from the streets shouted but that didn't bother them.
Toivo just shattered the shouter's phone before any police could be called.
He however couldn't possibly break the phones of all the people who wanted to report on him, and eventually the sirens of a police car could be heard from ahead. Some people from behind Ella and Toivo rushed to the sound of the sirens and when Ella and Toivo had made it to where the sound came from, they saw some people blocking the way so that the police car couldn't drive closer. The officers inside got out of the car but got surrounded and couldn't move anywhere.
"If you don't make way, we are allowed to use force!" One officer shouted at the crowd, but the crowd didn't care.
Some people were filming and the officers knew it, which made them afraid to actually use force. Ella and Toivo got past the police car without trouble and the vehicles behind them were still honking impatiently.
"Useless cops! They're right there! Just get them! Shoot them if you have to!" Some voice shouted from the street but the officers were busy at the moment.
After some more walking, another police car could be heard ahead, but this time less people were following Ella and Toivo. Just as the police car came to their vision, a long train came from the left and got between the police car and the two people that it came to catch. Toivo focused on the bottom of the train and broke its wheel, causing the train to stop. He listened closely and heard that the officers inside got out of their car and started running around both ends of the train.
"We need to go through it." Toivo calmly said and broke a door of the empty train and once inside, he broke another door of the train and they both went through the train that way. On the other side of the train, he broke the tire of the empty police car that was waiting for them, and then just walked past the police car.
"You have permission to use lethal force now." A voice from the police car's radio said.
"Freeze!" A voice from behind called, and so Toivo and Ella stopped.
"Turn around." The voice again called.
Toivo and Ella turned around and saw an officer pointing a weapon at them. Toivo just sighed and destroyed the weapon, turned around with Ella and kept walking.
"We're so close now." Ella complained.
"Sir. We don't know what to do with them and we're quite frankly scared to go near them." An officer from behind said into a radio and some incoherent yelling came from the radio after that, but Toivo and Ella didn't care and kept walking forward while people on the sidewalks looked at what was happening and trucks and buses stuck behind the train kept honking.
"The minister's home is on the top of that tower." Ella said once they had walked all the way to their destination.
"And that's where Three said she was. Let's go get her." Toivo said and picked up speed.
They entered the open parking hall where they hid last night. At the end of the parking hall they found the door to an elevator.
"You think that leads to his home?" Ella asked.
"We can look." Toivo said back, pressed the button and listened to the elevator come down.
When the elevator was down, Ella pressed the button and hoped that the door would open, only to read on the LED-screen that a card is needed.
"Just break the door, Toivo." Ella said and Toivo did as told, breaking a hole into the doors that both could fit through.
The light inside the elevator turned off and a red X appeared on the LED-screen as an alarm went off, scaring Ella and Toivo. They separated as they entered the elevator where Ella mashed the button that should make the elevator go up, but nothing happened.
"It won't work! What now?" Ella wondered worriedly.
Toivo left the elevator and saw another door that had a drawing of stairs on it.
"We're not lazy. Let's take the stairs." Toivo said and started going towards the stairs.
Ella didn't have any better ideas and so she followed him into the staircase where the blare of the alarm was painfully loud.
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The blare of the alarm could also be heard up at the penthouse, under which Erik was about to throw 32A into the quarters again but stopped everything he was doing when the alarm went off and echoed in the hallway. Both Erik and 32A covered their ears, but 32A realised what opportunity she had.
"I knew you'd come back for me." She thought and slipped past Erik, took his stun gun, threw it on the floor, stomped on it and then ran the stairs up.
When coming out of the staircase, the kitchen was the first room but nobody was there except a laptop on the counter and on the laptop a video call with the Chairman was still on, as the defense minister didn't get a chance to end it. 32A noticed the Chairman's wrinkly face on the computer and figured out who it belonged to, based on the conversation she was listening to downstairs.
"Are you that chairman? Granlund is a lying shithead. Okay, bye!" 32A said and spat at the laptop's screen and then ran into the living room where she saw Granlund frantically pressing the elevator button and waiting for the elevator to come up already.
"Since you're leaving, I may as well come with you!" 32A shouted from behind, causing Granlund to turn around.
"Erik! Get in here!" Granlund screamed.
"I don't think he hears you over this alarm!" 32A shouted back and charged.
Granlund grabbed an umbrella from a coat hanger next to him and pointed it forward.
"Don't get closer!" Granlund shouted, but 32A got closer.
"You're not dropping that bomb!" 32A screamed at Granlund.
"Get in here, Erik!" Granlund screamed and poked the umbrella forward.
The move was predictable to 32A who knew that Granlund would do something with the umbrella. She ducked the poke and grabbed the umbrella. She tugged at the umbrella and pulled Granlund closer, kicked his shin and then got behind him to choke him with the umbrella. Granlund spinned and stumbed around, hitting 32A into walls but she kept her hold tight.
"You're not dropping that bomb!" 32A screamed at him but got no response, only more struggling.
The struggle came to an end however when 32A was grabbed by the neck from behind by Erik's big arms and ripped away from Granlund. 32A swung the umbrella upwards and blindly hit Erik's forehead with it, causing him to let go. She stepped away from him and looked at him as he came to.
"Don't worry, sir. I got this." Erik said and took a fighting stance.
Erik was looking at the umbrella that 32A was holding, and she knew it. Erik expected 32A to use the umbrella as a weapon, and she knew that too. What Ilkka taught her had worked in her favor every time so far. 32A charged forward and appeared as though she was going to swing the umbrella, but Erik put his right foot up and tried to kick 32A in the gut. 32A expected it from the previous time she faced Erik, and stopped her attack short, just as intended, and kicked Erik in the left knee. The kick wasn't very hard but made the big man lose balance for a moment. 32A assumed Erik to be staggery and was about to unleash a big swing on his head, but Erik got his balance back sooner than 32A expected, and punched her in the face with his big fist, causing her frail body to fall to the floor.
"Choke her. End that mad witch!" Granlund screamed.
"Really, sir?" Erik turned to the minister to make sure he heard correctly.
"Finish her!" Granlund screamed.
"I don't think that's right." Erik said to the minister and didn't see 32A standing up.
"She's up again! Finish her this time or your brother will remain in prison for the rest of his life!" Granlund screamed at Erik who got angry and turned to 32A.
"Rather you than him." Erik said to 32A and charged forward with a punch that she ducked.
32A ducked punch after punch and kick after kick, each one being more predictable than the last. From the corner of her eye 32A noticed that the minister was wiping his switchblade with a cloth and looking manic. The sight worried 32A and made her lose focus, causing her to get a strong punch in the cheek. The punch caused her to unintentionally bow down and when she looked up, she saw the minister charging at her with the switchblade. Granlund didn't tell Erik that he was about to intervene. Erik was raising his hand to throw a second puch at 32A just as Granlund had gotten close and was about to shove the blade into 32A's gut. 32A grabbed Granlund's thrusting arm and pulled him in front of her, causing Erik's big fist to hit Granlund in the kidney. Granlund fell to the ground wheezing and whining and Erik knew that he had made a mistake. He turned to 32A who was crawling away backwards in a sitting position. He was about to go for 32A's neck but just then a loud noise from the staircase could be heard. 32A noticed that she hadn't felt a painful pulse in a while and she knew what that meant. Erik turned his head to the direction of the noise, which gave 32A a chance to kick Erik in every man's weak spot. After doing exactly that, she stood up and ran to the kitchen and from there to the staircase, but just as she entered the staircase, her nose bumbed into Toivo's forehead and both fell to the floor, almost falling down the strairs.
"There you are! The minister is here with me! Let's go teach him a lesson!" 32A said while sitting on the floor.
"He's here right now?" Ella asked with surprise while looking down at the other two who then stood up.
"He is! But he's not alone here. He has security!" 32A warned.
"I can handle that. Let's go!" Toivo said.
"Follow me!" 32A ordered and led the way through the kitchen into the living room where Erik had just guided the minister into the elevator that was now up.
"You get out of here, Sir. I called the police down there. I'll get the woman." Erik said to Granlund and watched the doors close.
"No! He's getting away!" 32A screamed and Erik turned around.
The alarm had gone off and it was quiet in the penthouse. Erik charged at 32A, not caring about her backup, but he quickly stopped when Toivo shattered the ceiling lamp and made the shards and sparks rain on Erik's head, spooking him. Toivo then broke pieces of the floor to spook the guard some more.
"Just stop already." 32A calmly said.
"I need to kill you to get my brother out of prison." Erik threatened.
"You're not killing me." 32A said and Toivo broke the television on the wall of the living room.
"Sorry for your brother. But we have to get going now." 32A said to Erik and turned around to walk out of the living room.
"What prison is your brother in?" Ella asked Erik.
"I don't know where it is. He got thrown in with the disease carriers because he visited the no-contact zone." Erik explained bitterly.
"Oh that place? Everybody in there escaped. If it's the place that I'm thinking of. That's where we escaped from." Toivo explained and followed 32A out of the living room.
"Wait. Escaped?" Erik asked.
"Yep. We broke out of the facility that we were in and so did everyone else." Ella said and followed 32A.
"There's only one of those facilities. So if everybody there broke out, then so did my brother. Forget about this job then! I don't need this!" Erik exclaimed and stayed in the living room.
"Sorry for kicking you in the nuts! You struck first!" 32A shouted from the staircase.
32A walked down the stairs further down than she had before and found a broken door that she hadn't seen before as she never came this far down.
"Are you behind this?" She shouted in the staircase as Toivo and Ella were catching up with her.
"We are. Well, I am. The elevator wouldn't work so we had to come this way." Toivo explained once they caught up.
"It seems to work now, since mister minister used it to get away." 32A said back.
"I'm so sorry that we didn't come sooner. We got caught and then we had to escape and then..." Ella was explaining.
"I can tell by looking at you two that you had some problems along the way but...Wait you actually got caught? And you said that you broke out of the facility and so did everyone else? Toivo! Did you get our family out?" 32A asked excitedly.
"I did." Toivo answered somberly and 32A noticed the tone of his answer.
"What? Did something go wrong?" 32A ask worriedly.
"No, they're all safe. At least for now." Toivo answered.
"Then what's the problem? We'll stop the bomb and then we'll return to them and run away somewhere. As easy as that."
"I'm not sure if we can. You already know that we're criminals, and even if we aren't "disease carriers" we'll still be wanted for all the crimes we've committed. And I don't want my family to be found guilty of harboring criminals so I wished them Goodbye." Toivo explained.
"What? So we're just not going back to them anymore?"
"We can. Someday. But for now I think we should go somewhere else. You can make your own choice, but I've made mine." Toivo explained with pain.
"And of course where you go, I have to go too or I'll feel endless pain. So nice to be stuck with you." 32A complained.
"Come on! Just get along now and worry about that later. We have a thing that we need to do." Ella added.
"Ella is right. We need to stop the bomb and whatever happens, happens." Toivo argued.
"I just wanted to return to my family. Our family." 32A said.
"It doesn't have to be a Goodbye. Now let's go before many other people lose their families." Toivo said and started walking down the dark staircase.
"What if the police is waiting for us down there? I just know it." Ella worried.
"They probably are. Let's be careful." Toivo said and slowed down his walking.
"Ohh I just know it." Ella said and got increasingly nervous.
They all tried their best to be quiet while going down the stairs and none of them heard anything from anywhere. Only the echo of their own steps. After coming all the way down, the green exit light of the door was both a welcoming sight and a scary one as well.
"There will be ten officers there pointing guns at us." Ella guessed worriedly.
"And I'll break every one of them." Toivo said and opened the door.
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All three of them sighed in relief after Toivo opened the door and saw that nobody was there. Just a lifeless parking hall with idle police vehicles. They made their way towards the daylight until they heard the elevator behind them come down. The doors opened and everybody turned around.
"You're welcome." Erik said when walking out of the elevator.
"For what?" 32A asked.
"I called the police when the alarm went off but I told Granlund that I had killed you and so he told the police to turn back." Erik explained.
"Where's that bastard now?" 32A asked.
"He had to go to the meeting with the chairman anyway. The chairman's jet has landed already and they're both on their way to the parliament building where the meeting is held." Erik answered.
"And you don't even care anymore if I know that?"
"Why would I? There's nothing he can offer me anymore. Do what you want. I'm going to find my brother now." Erik explained and walked past all of them and left the parking hall.
"I hope he finds him." Ella commented.
"And I hope we find Granlund. Where's the parliament building?" 32A asked Ella, expecting her to know.
"I don't know. But I guess we can take a bus there. I'd figure that some bus goes there." Ella replied.
"But isn't it really hard to get in the buses and trains during this panic?" Toivo asked, remembering what he was told earlier.
"I didn't say we'd have to get in with permission." Ella replied.
"Since we've come this far, may as well break another law." Toivo said and shrugged and then got moving.
They walked to the nearby bus stop where the hooded man and the police officer looking to buy drugs were no longer there, much to Ella's relief.
"But no bus will stop for us since they're only for show. Why are we even waiting here?" Toivo wondered after they had waited at the stop for five minutes.
"We'll wait for a bus to arrive and then we'll stop the bus the same way we stopped the train that we arrived in." Ella explained.
"Good idea. But what do we put on the road?" 32A asked.
"How about this sign here?" Ella proposed and slapped the sign at the bus stop.
"So do I do the thing?" Toivo asked.
"That would help." Ella answered.
Toivo focused on the pole holding the sign and made it snap, causing the sign to fall to the ground. He then picked it up and tossed it on the road. They all took some distance to the bus stop and when a bus finally arrived, it stopped. The driver got out of the bus, looking tired of living and went to pick up the sign from the road. That's when Toivo, Ella and 32A ran in a queue into the empty bus and Ella as the only one who knows how to drive got into the driver's seat.
"Hey! What are you hooligans doing?" The driver shouted upon noticing the unwelcomed people in the bus but Toivo scared him away by making the windshield of the bus shatter into pieces.
The driver ran off and Ella got a feel for the wheel.
"I've seen you drive your dad's car. This can't be so different." 32A said to Ella.
"That was a highly modified illegal rally car. This is not the exact same thing but... It's moving at least." Ella said and got the bus on the road.
"So... We had to talk about what do we do after we stop the bomb. You wanted to run away somewhere without our family." 32A said to Toivo.
"I didn't say I wanted to do that. But I think it's the better idea. If we get captured, then that's our problem. But if the police find our family harboring us, then they'd all be in trouble." Toivo explained again.
"But how would they even find us? If we live somewhere where there's not a lot of people around, we could keep living a peaceful and quiet life just like before all of this. We stayed hidden for the last ten years until Sampo got his great idea and stole a bus from the town."
"And that's exactly it. Life is unpredictable. We thought that we could live there for the rest of our lives, but then something happened that none of us expected. And it might happen again."
"That's not a reason at all! We just need to tell Sampo to calm down and we'd be good. And if we leave them, they're helpless if something happens to them. We could protect them!"
"I feel like we'd just endanger them. The police found us living in the same area where they took them from. They probably know that we're connected in some way. If the police found out where our family lives, they'd come there to look for us and catch us. And if our family decides to become legal citizens when the paranoia is over, tracking them would be even easier for the police, I'd guess. If we lived with them, they'd have to live in fear. If they live without us, they have no reason to fear because they haven't done anything wrong. Assuming this paranoia passes." Toivo argued.
"So you've made your choice?" 32A asked.
"I have. And it's because I think it's better for them. We can still visit them sometimes. I won't know where they decide to live, but The Sabertooth has a clue. If we want to go back to our family, we can always ask the Sabertooth."
"Well... I guess you're right. But where do we go?" 32A wondered.
"No idea. No place that we've been in has felt safe." Toivo replied.
"I know a place where the police won't ever look for us."
"What place is that... And what was that?" Toivo asked just as the bus shook. Toivo and 32A looked through the windshield and saw what Ella had just done.
The bus had bumped to the back of a police van in the traffic lights.
"This is not good." Ella said and backed away a little.
The sirens of the police van turned on but Toivo looked through the hole in the windshield and made the sirens shatter right away, along with the back tires of the van.
"Go!" Toivo shouted at Ella who hastily turned the wheel and drove the bus past all of the traffic, not caring about traffic laws one bit.
"Go watch our back in case somebody chases us." Ella commanded seriously while focusing on the road.
Toivo went to the back of the bus and looked out of the back window and saw a drone flying above and following the bus. He had never seen one of them with his own eyes but didn't want to keep admiring it. He focused on the drone in the sky to shatter it but instead the back window of the bus shattered, surprising everybody in the bus.
"Okay! I just learned that I can't break things through glass! It just breaks the glass!" Toivo shouted in the bus where the wind was bashing in everybody's ears even worse than it was before.
After recovering, he focused on the drone above and made it fall down to the road and shatter even worse. Toivo stood in the middle of the corridor to scout out of the broken back window but then flew backwards like a javelin when the bus suddenly stopped.
"Sorry! People are crossing the road. I can't run them over!" Ella shouted from her seat.
"Wait. You said that you don't know where the parliament building is. Do you even know where you're driving us?" 32A shouted from the back of the bus.
"There's a navigator here that shows me the route!" Ella replied when she had idle time waiting for the people to cross the road.
"Just honk the horn and tell them to hurry up!" 32A shouted.
Ella honked the horn and the people hurried up and cleared the way, allowing the bus to continue ignoring traffic laws the entire way. Absolutely no more police remained on the streets. The one van that Ella crashed into earlier was the only sign of authority on the streets, but as the parliament building came to Ella's vision, the explanation became evident. The parliament building and the two short bridges that led there were all surrounded by tall chainlink fences and people who were gathered around in crowds. Armed security and vehicles were in all sides of the building and in all corners of the yard where the people had gathered around. There was a stage and a large screen with large speakers in the yard of the building, and two limousines were parked in the yard, and Ella guessed what that meant. The Chairman and the minister had arrived, even though they weren't on the stage.
"This has to be the place! Come look!" Ella shouted from her seat after she parked the bus on the bridge between the city and the little island that contains the parliament building.
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Toivo and 32A came to the front of the of the bus to also look at what Ella saw.
"You're right. It has to be the right place. So what do we do? Do I just kill both of them?" Toivo asked.
"They may deserve it, but the place is packed with security. If you did that, they'd lock the place down until they find us." Ella reasoned.
"I'd just break the fences and we'd run away like we always do." Toivo argued back.
"From all of them?" Ella asked.
"Me and Toivo already proved that we're pretty unstoppable back at the ice yesterday. But just killing the two dudes wouldn't change anything. Granlund told me personally that if it wasn't him, it'd just be someone else in his shoes. I'd guess the same applies to the chairman." 32A added.
"Getting people's attention and telling them the truth is our best bet, but even then we'd be stopped if we made too much noise." Toivo said.
"Well, we need to think of something because there they are already shaking hands." 32A pointed out and looked at the stage where the defense minister, a close advisor and the Chairman were already getting ready to sit down on their chairs.
"What? Already? Let's get closer then." Toivo said.
Ella made the door of the bus open and they all left the bus and let it stay parked on the bridge. They all hopped over a guardrail and blended in with the crowd and pushed their way closer to the stage.
"I'm sure everybody here knows what this meeting is all about so let's not waste time with formalities. We have a problem and we need help from higher up." Granlund said to the Chairman in English as cameras of the media filmed.
"And as the chairman of the United Nation Project, I have the duty to care about the needs of our member states." The Chairman said back.
The whole conversation felt like it had been rehearsed in advance.
"And all the member states are fortunate to have such a responsible chairman. Especially us since how serious our threat is. A serious outbreak has been unleashed in our once flourishing land. The disease that destroyed all civilization in the former Finnish State has now made its way here through people that have been coming from there to here over the years. Our loyal and brave police have done their best to contain all the people who bring the disease here, as well as all people who have made trips to the no-contact zone and brought the disease with them, but this solution isn't sustainable. The arrival of the disease carriers may not be a wave, but it's a gradual leak that is slowly rusting the foundations of our society until it one day inevitably collapses under its own weight. That's why we need to end it now and not when the rust has gotten too widespread. Our hospitals are already filling up and street cleaners have to pick up bodies from the streets sometimes. It's absolutely tragic what is happening to my land. I can't just watch what is happening to my people and do nothing." Granlund explained passionately.
"You say that, but when I came here, it didn't look any different than the last time I came here two years ago. People were walking in the streets and most were not looking worried or scared. Trains and buses are still moving like usual, even though I noticed that nobody is in them. All commercial and government buildings are still open." The Chairman mentioned.
The advisor of the defense minister bowed down and got on the minister's ear.
"We really didn't think this through. We should have given the city government the memo. We should have hired actors to play corpses and told all places to shut down." The advisor whispered to the minister, but the microphone on the minister's collar picked it up.
The Chairman didn't understand it but the crowd did.
"Well, people are not taking the problem seriously because most people are stupid." Granlund said back and the crowd murmured.
"So what is it that you are requesting?" The Chairman asked even though he already knew.
"I'll just be straight. I want to drop a nuclear bomb into the no-contact zone. Just destroy the place and make it unlivable for anyone who still tries to survive there. That would put a permanent end to this leak." Granlund said proudly.
"That's a little extreme." The Chairman replied.
"We don't know how many people are living there, but it has to be less than here. If we let them infect our people, and then our people travel around the world, their disease may spread all over the world. It may have already started. We can't afford to take that risk. I understand that it would be a cold blooded mass killing, but we can't suffer the same fate that their society did, and that is why brutal means will have to be employed." Granlund explained.
"What is he saying?" Toivo asked Ella while they were blended in with the crowd.
"Explaining why he wants to drop the bomb. Do we speak out?" Ella replied and asked.
"Is that one of the Sabertooth sneaking over there?" 32A pointed out once she saw a familiar looking young woman moving where observers weren't supposed to be.
"It's Sofia! What is she doing? She seems to be looking at the speakers there." Ella said once she noticed Sofia.
"Who?" 32A asked, never having learned Blue's name.
"Is she crazy? The guards are looking at every spot near the stage." Toivo commented.
"We need to help her in some way. Create a distraction or something." Ella said.
"Like this?" Toivo said and made the screen behind the Chairman and the minister shatter just as the minister was showing some statistics on it.
"Who threw that?" The minister's advisor yelled out.
All guards in the area looked towards the stage and drew their weapons and the people in the crowd got mostly nervous. When the guards weren't looking, Sofia unplugged the microphones from the speaker and plugged her phone into the speakers. Granlund tried to say something to the crowd but most couldn't hear him now that his microphone was unplugged.
"Check the speakers!" Granlund shouted at a guard who did as told and found Sofia there doing something with her phone that was connected to the speaker.
The guard caught Sofia by surprise and grabbed her by the arm to drag her away, but the phone remained where Sofia left it. A piece of ground right next to the guard's shoes went flying all around as if it had been shot. The guard got spooked and let go of Sofia who ran away and tried to climb over the guardrail and get into the crowd, but another guard grabbed her. The crowd started pulling her to their side and played tug of war with the guard, with Sofia as the rope. Some more guards joined the tug of war but even more people in the crowd joined in.
"I think I know what she tried to do." Ella said and hopped over the guardrail herself.
"What are you doing?" Toivo asked from behind but too late.
While the guards were busy playing tug of war and the people on stage were trying to control the crowd, Ella snuck to the speakers and to Sofia's phone. She opened the tab of audio files where she found a recording of the call between 32A and Henrik where the Chairman and Granlund admitted many interesting things. Ella played it on the speakers and when the part about the inconvenient travel blog came out of the speakers, the crowd started to sound curious and Granlund was losing his mind on the stage.
"Who's playing that? That's faked! Impersonators did that!" Granlund shouted on the stage and started to walk over to the speakers himself.
Toivo made another crack into the screen to spook Granlund a little and to buy some time for Ella who slid the phone under the small gap between the speaker and the ground. Ella then tried to quietly make her way back into the crowd but Granlund noticed her.
"It's that harborer! She's here! Security, get her!" Granlund shouted.
The security had lost Sofia already and turned their attention to Ella who made a run for it. When it looked like the guards were catching up to Ella, Toivo focused hard on the big screen and made the whole screen blow up to pieces. The guards stopped in their tracks but Ella wasn't phased and she hopped over the guardrail and into the worried crowd. After that, the part of the conversation where the Chairman and Granlund talked about buying and selling servants came up.
"What? Did you hear that? Servants?" Some lone voice in the crowd shouted and the people listened on as the conversation about servants continued. After hearing about Granlund's desire to sell servants and the Chairman's willingness to buy one, the crowd became fully hostile towards the defense minister and the Chairman. The noise of the crowd drowned out the conversation playing from the speakers.
"Order the crowd to quiet down." Granlund said to the chief of security who then ordered the guards to fire shots in the air.
The crowd quieted down as a result. The silense of the crowd came just in time for them to hear the part where Granlund explains his motives to 32A along with the actual reason why he wants to drop the bomb. At that point everyone in the crowd knew what was going on and that Granlund's whole campaign was a lie. Many people were filming the events taking place and sharing the footage to others.
"So you wanted to make yourself the hero of the day? You tried to trick me in order to protect your own spot? The whole disease was a lie after all?" The Chairman asked Granlund while they were both getting yelled at by angry people.
"I assure you, sir. That conversation is faked." Granlund responded nervously as the sounds of him smacking 32A with a belt blared from the speakers.
"We had that conversation this morning. You were talking to me in the beginning of that recording. It was not faked. And I don't think the people believe so either. You'll be too hated to be useful now. You're no longer beneficial for the United Nation Project." The Chairman coldly told the defense minister.
"So you're going to just dispose of me after all of my accomplishments for the continued security of the United Nation?" Granlund asked angrily.
"Police, arrest Mr. Granlund for lying to higher authorities and investigate him for human trafficking." The Chairman said to the chief of security.
Granlund was grabbed by two officers who dragged him off the stage while he was kicking and screaming. As he was being dragged away, he saw Toivo and Ella in the crowd and got furious.
"Ella Nyman is right there in the crowd! The harborer of the disease carriers with her destructive disease carrier friend! Get them! They're right there!" Granlund screamed.
The chief of security heard it and looked at where Granlund was looking and also saw the same people.
"Looks like we're not off the hook just yet." Ella said and tugged the sleeves of the twins to tell them that it's time to go.
They understood and turned around to make their way back to the bridge once several guards and officers hopped over the guardrail to chase after them through the crowd. The criminals however easily disappeared in the crowd and made it back to their bus.
"There they are! By the bus! Go get them!" Granlund screamed while being taken away.
Some guards saw the criminals getting ready to enter the bus. The guards ran to the bus and shot the front tires and then several of them pointed their guns at the criminals. Six different guards were holding their guns aimed at them. Toivo knew that if he broke even one of the weapons, the rest would make Swiss cheese out of him and the others.
"Guess all we can do is explain it to them. We have a pretty stong case." Ella proposed.
She climbed to the roof of the bus and none of the guards fired a shot. The twins also decided to follow her there as the guards and the crowd looked on.
"Why are you still trying to get us? We all just heard from the man himself that all of this paranoia is based on a lie!" Ella shouted from the roof of the bus as the twins stood behind her.
"It was faked! You're still disease carrying threats and I'm being unjusty persecuted!" Granlund shouted while resisting and being shoved into the backseat of a car.
"Based on what? I was born in a remote community and ten years ago these twins showed up with a few other people from the no-contact zone and nobody in my community ever got any unusual sickness from them!" Ella shouted back.
"You may have developed an immunity over time!" Granlund's advisor shouted.
"If I can, then so can you!" Ella shouted right back.
"Ella!" A familiar voice shouted from the crowd and Ella looked into the crowd.
"Ella, why are you still engaged in this madness?" Ella's father shouted from the crowd and took a step ahead.
"Dad! You're here?" Ella shouted in surprise.
"I'm here. I was caught but I negotiated a deal with them to let me go." Ella's father replied honestly.
"I overheard that it was you who gave the police our location and got us caught! Why did you do that?" Ella asked, feeling betrayed.
"Because I wanted you to get off this ride already. Do your time and then come home. That entire crew is bad influence on you!" Ella's father shouted to her.
"Bad influence? What?" Ella shouted back with confusion.
"I've never had a good feeling about them! They've always just been trouble and a burden to us!"
"Is she being held hostage by the others?" The advisor asked Ella's father.
"She'd deny it but I think she is. That young man basically dragged her into this ride. She was scared of him when this all started." Ella's father said to the advisor.
"I heard that, dad!" Ella shouted back.
"So you are being held hostage by disease carriers who have gotten you in danger to fulfill their own goals? If you surrender yourself, you can be absolved of your crimes and be given therapy!" The advisor shouted to Ella.
"I'm not being held hostage! These people are not sick and they're not bad influence on me. And I'm not in any way scared of Toivo. In fact, watch this!" Ella said and forced her lips on Toivo's who wasn't expecting it at all and just stared with wide open eyes while Ella had hers shut.
She stayed like that for ten seconds while her father looked disgusted and some people in the crowd whistled.
"Clear case of Stockholm syndrome." The minister's advisor said just as Ella finally pulled away.
"Sorry. I've been wanting to do that for a really long time now." Ella nervously said to Toivo.
"You mean in general or specifically with me?" Toivo asked with uncertainty.
Ella then kissed him a second time the same way and then smiled after pulling away.
"Does that answer your question?" She asked.
"Okay, little birdies, enough of your little moment! Even if you're not disease carriers, that doesn't absolve you of all the crimes you've committed. Between the three of you, you are guilty of destroying government property, destroying infrastructure destroying corporate property, tresspassing in a government building, freeing prisoners unlawfully and injuring police officers. Since we can't know specifically which of you did what, you are all guilty. So turn yourselves in now! There is nowhere you can go!" The chief of security shouted.
"It was me!" 32A shouted and took a step forwards.
"What are you doing?" Toivo asked her.
"Letting you two go. You two at least have one another now but in prison you'd be separated. Better if I take the blame and the punishment." 32A quietly said back.
"You woman cannot possibly be behind all of it. The earliest security camera footage doesn't show you, but it does show the other two. You are however still guilty of tresspassing in the central police headquarters." The chief of security shouted at her.
"Well, there went my noble sacrifice." 32A said bitterly.
"No tricks and no magic this time! You have no way to fight back against all of us and your tires are broken. You have nowhere to go. Give up! Get down and lie down on the asphalt face first with your hands behind your backs! The longer you draw this out, the longer you'll stay in prison." The chief of security shouted.
"So we really have no way out of this now?" Toivo asked with defeat in his voice.
"At least we saved our family and the Deadland. That's what matters to me." 32A said.
"I hoped we could have gone home after all of this and returned to the way things are..." Ella said, got close to Toivo and then continued emotionally explaining:
"But before we're separated for who knows how long, at least I got to say that I love you. I wanted to say it for a long time but I never did because I feared that if the feeling wasn't mutual, it'd ruin our friendship. Then Sofia told me that I shouldn't wait, but even then I didn't want to say it because it never felt fitting as there was always something more important at hand, but now and here I felt like..."
"And I love you too, Ella." Toivo interrupted her with.
"I wish I could have said it earlier. Now it's too late." Ella said back, holding back a tear.
32A was looking into the crowd who was angrily looking at the Chairman and the defense minister's advisor. She was looking at the armed officers who had their eyes on her. She remembered a time in her life that she never wants to return to. Then she decided to share her last wishes to her twin brother.
"Hey, Toivo."
"Yeah?"
"You remember all those years ago when we swore that we'd never live in cells again?" 32A asked.
"I've always kept that in my mind." Toivo replied seriously.
"And that if one of us has to suffer that fate, the other would help out?"
"I've always remembered that and been serious about it." Toivo replied.
32A looked around the area around the bridge that the bus was parked on. She saw absolutely no way to walk out of this situation.
"Well? Are you going to come down or will we have to shoot you down? Every minute you spend there adds time to your sentence!" The chief of security shouted impatiently.
"Fine! We'll come down!" 32A shouted back and turned to Toivo and Ella to ask them something.
"Toivo. Back home you said that I don't know you." 32A said to Toivo.
"What? How is that important right now?" Toivo asked with confusion.
"It isn't. I understand that I'll never know you. Sorry for being mean to you so many times."
"Okay?" Toivo just said back.
"And Ella. Sorry for brushing off your apology after you and Toivo went too far away from the house." 32A said to Ella.
"I now know why it upset you when he went too far away. Are we still friends?" Ella said back.
"Of course we are. But can you stand a little closer to that edge and let me take center stage?" 32A asked them both.
"What do you want to say to them?" Toivo asked.
"The last things that I'll ever say to them." 32A simply replied.
With a little bit of confusion, Toivo stepped closer to the edge of the bus, and Ella did the same.
"Fine, mister big bossman! We'll come down!" 32A shouted at the chief of security.
"It's getting really cold standing here with just t-shirts." Ella said and shivered.
"It's going to get colder." 32A said.
57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGUMMCqdh5L
32A pushed Ella and Toivo down from the edge of the bus and off the bridge entirely, sending them down to the ice below where they both crashed through the ice. She then dove after them and aimed at the wide hole that Ella and Toivo created in the ice. While falling, she heard shots being fired but when she landed in the water, all she heard were the sounds of the underwater. The water was flowing under the ice and in the darkness she saw glimpses of limp hands and with all of her strength and power she swam towards them. After spending a lot of energy to travel a short distance, she grabbed one of the hands, and then saw a glimpse of another hand ahead of her in the water that was getting darker the further she dove from the hole. She spent even more energy chasing that hand and after exhausting herself nearly unconscious, she caught the other hand too, and now had both Toivo and Ella in her hands. The hole in the ice was too far now as the flow had taken them far away from it, and with a moment's decision she did the only thing she could think of. Under the water she used her last bit of strength to use her ability to revive Toivo's unresponsive body and then passed out. Toivo woke up under the freezing cold water in the darkness and was suffering from an initial shock when he woke up and couldn't breathe. He saw very dim light coming through the ice above and then looked below him and saw 32A holding his hand and Ella hanging from her hand. He understood what the situation was and focused on the ice above to break a new hole into it. He used all the strength in his body to swim directly upwards with the weight of two bodies holding him down. He could only use one arm and his legs and as he swam up, every stroke felt heavier than the last, but he was not going to let go. After a heavy and exhausting resurfacing he finally got his head above the surface. He put an arm on the ice, but he had no way to lift the other two above surface. He broke some more ice around him to give himself more space to move, but he still had no way to get the other two above the surface. He made a decision.
"Getting caught is better than dying here." He thought.
"Help! Someone! Help us!" He screamed with all the remaining power in his lungs.
Fortunately for him, somebody nearby was around to hear. As the Sabertooth members who were in the scene were sneaking out themselves, they heard his shout. All four of the remaining Sabertooth got on the ice from the land and carefully but quickly stepped towards him. Henrik started pulling him up by the hand but quickly found out that he was unusually heavy. The other three then joined in pulling him up and after some great effort, they managed to pull all three from the water to the ice. The motionless bodies of 32A and Ella were laid out on the ice.
"Can they still be saved?" Toivo asked furiously and desperately.
Without replying, the four Sabertooth members worked together to try to revive the two bodies with first aid methods that Toivo was never taught. Eventually 32A spat out lots of water and gasped for air. Ella however was still not responding.
"Three! You're awake now! Can you help Ella?" Toivo desperately asked her.
In her disoriented state she looked at Ella receving aid and crawled over to her. She put her hand on Ella's forehead and focused on Ella with all she could.
"Come on, Ella! Say something." Toivo begged while 32A focused on Ella.
Toivo was desperately looking for any signs of life in Ella, and after a moment, Ella gasped for air and then vomited water out. Toivo just lied down on the ice and felt relief and gratitude. Ella was shook and traumatized after coming back and just sat there.
"Is that what dying feels like?" Ella wondered out loud.
"It doesn't feel nice." Toivo replied, having experienced it twice now in the span of two days.
Three of the Sabertooth members put their brand new colorful hoodies on the freezing trio on the ice, just to give them something.
"Thank you for coming to help us. Thank you for all the help you gave us." Toivo said to them sincerely.
"Just doing the right thing." Sofia replied.
"Where do we go now?" 32A asked while breathing heavily.
"We can't stay here anymore." Toivo replied.
"So where then?" Ella asked, also breathing heavily.
"We won't be allowed in trains or anything. So get ready to hike." Toivo said.
"Ahem. We have a boat. If you want to go somewhere far quickly, you can have it. We can always get a new one." Henrik suggested to them.
"Would you let us?" Ella asked just to make sure.
"Your help sent Granlund to prison. You deserve a reward." Henrik assured.
"Thank you. We can take it and then just travel with it until we find a place that feels right." Toivo added.
"I know a place where we'd be welcomed, but it's pretty far." 32A suggested.
"Where would that be?" Toivo asked.
"If we can't go back to our family, there's only one place where I want to go. I feel like I'd be appreciated there and needed there. It's in the Deadland." 32A answered.
"You want to return to that horrible place?" Toivo asked.
"I know how horrible the place is. That's why I'd be needed there to help those people who I met. They can't always do it themselves. If you don't want to come with me, then I'll just find a way to get there myself." 32A said seriously.
"If people there need to be helped, then I'd want to come too and do what I can. And I wouldn't want you to suffer from your pulses there." Toivo replied.
"If you're going there, then so am I." Ella said to Toivo with determination.
"I'd love to have you with us there, but you've never been there. You don't speak the same language as the people there, and your dad wants you to come home. Aren't you supposed to inherit the business after he retires?" Toivo reminded Ella.
"I don't care what dad thinks anymore after that move that he pulled and after finding out what he thinks of you. I want to be with you in the distant travels. I want it more than anything over here." Ella explained sincerely.
"So you're absolutely serious?" Toivo asked for confirmation.
Ella sat closer to him and took his hand.
"I'm absolutely certain."
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