Sage bit her lip as she watched Basil retreat. Rubbing her cheeks dry she winced feeling her gritty skin smudge. Sniffling she slumped against a table slowly pulling the device out of her pocket. At first glance it looked harmless, but Sage knew better. There was a dark aura surrounding it and whispers filled her ears once her skin made contact with the dark metal.
Sage rolled in around her hands inspecting it carefully. The voices began to grow louder in her mind and Sage starred at the device. Loosing all focus on her surrounds, Sage became absorbed in rolling it through her hands. The world grew small around her and the voices began to morph into one.
You need to do this, a hoarse voice emerged from the rest. Sage did not respond as the ground shook below her feet. Snapping out of her daze she quickly put the device back into her bag the voice sunk back into the deep corners if her mind but she couldn’t focus on that.
Sirens blared too close for comfort and Sage ran towards the door where Basil left. Panic settled in being as a large spotlight shone through the tall window above the boarded up door. Pivoting to the left she pushed her body against the wall staying out of the bright white light. Holding her breath she heard the mutters of men and clicks of weapons and armor.
Sage felt a strong grip firmly drag her down and she opened her mouth to scream but chocked back the thought. Another hand forced her wrist against the wall when she went for her knife. Hot breath grazed her neck.
“Do not scream,” Basil whispered. Sage’s whole body shook but she managed to nod her head. Crawling on the ground she followed closing behind his form. Motioning for her to stop, Sage held her breath, her body quivered.
Stomping boots quickly rushed past outside the building. Silence returned. Sirens did not call out. Basil signaled for them to continue. Crawling their way carefully along the side wall towards a small boarded up hole in the wall. Basil carefully knocked the pieces down and surveyed the area.
“Basil-“ Sage whispered. But, before she could continue, he was dragging her through the hole and rushing down the alley. Keeping to the shadows he slammed her body against the wall hearing foot steps approaching.
“They have to be here somewhere. There was a report that a heat signature from a Nyem device was in this building,” a male voice said.
“You heard the Sergeant. This piece of crap building is about to collapse. There is not anyone inside,” the second voice responded as they walked across the alley away from Basil and Sage. The City’s enforcement knew she had her hands on Nyem technology. Her stomach knotted and bile rose to her throat. With her head spinning she leaned against Basil’s massive form for support. His sweaty grip on her hand tightened for a moment.
The months of training and drills and lessons with the Nyem Rebellion did nothing to prepare her for this. Not even 800 meters away soldier with weapons were searching for her. For her tiny piece of technology that was not DNA stamped and linked to her. Only her.
For once in all her life growing up in the soulless City, Sage was thankful for the soldier’s laziness. The years spent in the war driven outskirts of the City where the enforcement officers never gave her a sparing glance. Not when she was starving, lethargic on the sidewalk, cloths hanging off her malnourished body did they even look at her. Instead, they were busy funding the local drug cartel and dragging young women off into corners. They always turned a blind eye on the shadows.
Now the shadows were fighting back. With her abilities, she was going to be able to liberate everyone in the city. Everything will change.
Children won’t have to starve on the streets. The youth will not be on the streets begging for their next hit. No longer would the water token system be in place. The ocean will become pure again. Rivers will no longer be dry. The air won’t be filled with smog and people will no longer suffer from lung diseases that claim too many lives in the slums. Unable to afford the proper treatments and purification systems in their homes, millions suffered in outskirt sectors of the City.
Sage tightly squeezed her older brothers hand. In order to achieve all of this, Sage was being forced to destroy the City. Along with everyone inside the parameter. Sage was sure she would not survive what followed either.
Sage was jostled from her thoughts again being pulled around the corner and into another shadow across the street. A bright spot light erupted. Barely grazing past them, they sunk deeper into the darkness. Both of their bodies did not move a muscle.
Sage let out a sigh of relief and felt her body relax the moment they stepped over the threshold of Sector Seven and into Sector Fifteen. Basil carefully avoided all human and droid contact along the edges of buildings. Sage, who never been in Sector Fifteen before, gazed at the buildings in disgust. There was a good reason she never stepped foot into this Sector.
There were no longer any buildings. All structures were fornicated of old, rotting slabs of metal. The make shift houses could topple over is one good gust of wind swept past. Rows upon rows of these structures were stacked onto on another. Rust flew with the wind and stung her nose. Feces filled her nose and she was positive her boots were covered in it.
“Why are-“ Sage began finally finding her voice. She gagged when the smell hit her full force and she could taste it on her tongue. Ripping her hand from his firm grip she races towards the edge of the path. She could not get herself to call it a road.
“We need to keep moving Sage,” Basil bit out nervously.
“Where are we going?” she asked wiping her mouth with a grimace.
“Somewhere safe.” Sage did not get any more out of him for the next few hours.
The sun was rising by the time Basil came to a stop in front of a metal shack that was covered in black paint. Rubbing her eyes she swayed from exhaustion and tried to focus on the writing on the wall. It was a language Sage did not recognize.
“Why would the officers not fine for this?” she asked in a daze pointing to the writing. Basil shook his head.
“What officers Sage? Look around, this is hell. Not the City.”
Confused Sage tried to force herself to focus on her surroundings. Since the moment they entered into Sector Fifteen, Sage turned her brain on autopilot. Her body was suffering from shock. Sage had not realized how deep into the Sector they had ventured.
The feces and urine filled road they were once following was no more. No roads existed. Nothing but tiny narrow paths between large rows of metal huts filled the sky. Lines of tattered laundry hung high and billowed in the dirty wind. The cloths were torn, much like her own, but Sage came to the conclusion that none of them would ever be truly clean.
Children stood huddled together around the corner. Every one of them eyes sunken in. Arms so thin Sage held back her horror. Sage had never seen such malnourished bodies before. Tears formed in her eyes when she saw a few forms on the ground, positive they where no longer alive.
“Where are these people’s rations? Water Stores? Officers to at least-” Sage stopped. Basil simply shook his head. “Why didn’t any of the Nyem tell me of this?” Sage begged as she began to weep.
“Because, you needed to decide to do this on your own,” came a woman’s voice behind her.
“I spent ten months training for this suicide mission, because of my talent, and you couldn’t tell me the conditions of the other Sectors had depleted this bad?”
“You are too emotional child,” the old women said as she leaned on her old walking stick. Her dark eyes, almost black, bore into Sage’s soul. She could not think of a response. Instead, she silently follower her brother into the metal hut.739Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡga02EyWjFV
