"Hey! Who are you?" A museum guard shouted at Ella, Toivo and 32A after they opened a door leading to the staff's break room.
"Oh. Sorry. We're just a little lost. Wrong room. We'll just pass through." 32A explained and walked deeper into the room and made her way across the break room to the door on the other side of the room while following the other two.
"Wait a second! What were you doing under there? How did you even get there?" One security guard asked.
"We were really lost. Sorry!" 32A said without turning around to face guard and then left the staff room with her travel companions while Toivo held his chin down to hide his face and Ella looked impatient.
"This place is full of cameras and staff. Let's get out of here now!" Ella said to the two others once they were in the public space of the museum.
"Before we go, I should ask somebody for the directions again because I completely forgot where the headquarters are." 32A said back.
"Great. Do that and we'll wait outside and try to stay hidden." Ella said and grabbed two guidebooks from a stand.
"With those?" Toivo asked and looked at the guidebooks in Ella's hand.
"You have a better idea?" Ella asked.
"Not right now but those aren't the best disguise. And the blood stained holes in your jacket look a little dodgy." Toivo answered.
"Well, do what you want then, smart guy." Ella said and started going towards the main door alone.
"What got into you now?" Toivo asked from behind and chased Ella on the way to the main door.
"Yeah. I wonder what." 32A sarcastically said alone and stabbed the air with an invisible shiv.
Toivo followed Ella out of the main doors and out to the street where Ella leaned on a wall and pretended to read the guidebook really closely.
"What is the problem? Why are you like this? You survived the attack in the tunnel! We're so close now and we need to be on the same page." Toivo said to Ella and stood face to face with her.
"I can't get over it. I came this close to dying in some dark tunnel because of some lunatic that none of us expected. If Three wasn't here like she initially wasn't supposed to be, I'd be laying dead in a dark tunnel with my body about ten holes richer than before. I hate this whole crusade. What are we doing?" Ella complained.
"How many times do we have to talk about this? I never forced you to come along. I never even asked you to come along. You wanted to come along for some reason. If you want to go home, then go. We're at the final straight and me and Three are basically unstoppable together. You and I already know that we won't see each other after this is over, so I wish you'd stick around for as long as you can, but if you feel like it's too dangerous, go home." Toivo said to Ella sincerely.
"What home? I can't live a normal life anymore unless I surrender myself. I can't live in my house because they'd find me instantly there!"
"Go back to your dad then. You know where he stays. He'll take you in with open arms."
"How? I'd have to show my passport to get a ticket there and I'd be caught! All I can do now is hide or surrender. If I get caught, I'll be thrown to who knows where with the rest of them. My life is ruined." Ella complained.
"I don't know what you should do. I'm sorry that you got forced into all of this when you did nothing wrong. My family got your home found and now you're here. I understand why you don't care about getting them back. I understand if you hate all of us and if you don't want see any of us anymore. Us living so near you has never been nothing more than a burden for you and your dad, and it might have been better if we never met. So if you want to go, then go. You'll find some place to hide. I'll still miss you."
"You're actually fine with me going away and hiding somewhere? You don't want me around?"
"I already said that I want you around for as long as possible. But more than that I want you to be safe. But I don't know if going away by yourself would even be the safer option. If you stick around, I'll defend you, and if needed, Three will always save you. Just like she did when I failed to protect you. But the choice is yours." Toivo assured.
Ella got quiet in her thoughts for a moment as the two stared down.
"This is not my crusade." Ella said.
"That's right. It isn't. As soon as you find a peaceful and safe place, you might want to stay there." Toivo said back.
"I shouldn't be a burden that needs to be protected and saved." Ella said.
"You were never a burden. You have good ideas that have helped along the way. I would have been caught by now if you had stayed behind."
"Do you actually believe that you and Three are as unstoppable as you say?" Ella asked, and the question made Toivo think for a bit.
"No. First of all, we don't know anything about the city. You do. I was wrong about us not needing your help. We might actually still need your help. But you can still go away if you want to. This is not your crusade."
"I don't care if it's not my crusade." Ella said with determination.
"What do you mean by that?" Toivo asked.
"What I mean is that I don't want to say Goodbye yet. I'll stick around until the end because I also want to be around you as long as I can." Ella decided.
"You do? Can you make up your mind?"
"You think I'd just leave on a bitter note and a quick Goodbye after all the years I knew you? If we have to go our separate ways, we'll do everything that needs to be done and say everything that needs to be said. And I don't regret meeting you at all. Whatever happens, I'll survive somehow. But before that, you'll still need help on your crusade. And I'm here to help." Ella said and got an emotional smile on her face.
"I'm glad that to hear that. So are we at an agreement?" Toivo asked.
"Yes! Because there's still one thing that I want to say that I still haven't said to you!" Ella shouted at him, but then suddenly got quiet when she remembered that she shouldn't attract attention.
"What is the thing you want to say?" Toivo asked.
Ella was quiet for a moment, and looked nervous.
"Will you hide your face with that guidebook?" Ella finally said.
"What?"
"You heard me. That was my plan. Do you have a better idea?"
"Well, no."
"I knew you still needed me. So follow my plan." Ella said confidently and got Toivo to do as she said.
46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmh5LUYCPR0
Inside the museum 32A was looking at the people who were there. There were not a lot of people inside, so she didn't have many options. She walked up to some young couple who had cameras on their necks and glasses on their eyes. She cleared her throat when she stood behind them.
"Hey, goggleheads. Either of you have a phone?" She asked confidently.
One of them replied to her English, which 32A didn't understand.
"I mean. Do you... Have the... Thing... Because I need directions." 32A explained slowly in Swedish while pretending to tap an invisible smartphone.
The strangers just looked confused so 32A gave up and walked away. She then walked up to a wide and bearded man who was gluing a small poster into plaque by a cannon on display.
"Is that legal?" 32A asked from behind while the man in a bright yellow hoodie was pressing the edges of the poster into the plaque.
"It's not. That's the point." The stranger anwered.
"Your only purpose is to do crimes? That's cool. Anyway. You have a phone? I need help."
"I don't have a phone or any smart device of any kind." The man answered confidently.
"I can see a phone in your pocket and a laptop in your bag." 32A said to the stranger like a disappointed parent.
"Sorry. Instinct." The stranger said back.
"Uh-huh. Anyway. I need directions. You have the whole map thing on your phone?"
"Fine. Directions to where?"
"The central police."
"The central police? Are you a pig?"
"What? Rude."
"So what's your reason for needing to be there?"
"They know something that I want to find out."
"This sounds interesting. I'll show you the directions if you tell me more." The stranger said with curiosity.
"I don't think I should say."
"Are you a criminal?"
"I don't think of myself as a criminal. Although I sat in the back of a police van for a minute after stealing their fuel." 32A answered.
"Wait! Was that related to the case in uhh... Where was it? When somebody stole fuel from a police vehicle and then escaped the police and the street lights mysteriously broke on an entire street and the officers felt like they got shot even though they didn't hear any shots?"
"Wait. You know about that case? Did the news carry all the way here?"
"I pay attention. So you are related to that case?"
"Okay. I am. But don't talk so loud."
"And according to my theory, the same people who ran away in that case were also behind the attack to that town's local police station where they made things shatter without even touching them. And they said that they're on their way to Stockholm to the central police headquarters. And that's where you're going!"
"I didn't hear about any police station raid." 32A said.
"I think you know what I'm talking about. Tell the truth or I'll call the police and tell them that I found somebody suspicious."
"You bastard. Okay. I know somebody who can destroy things without touching them. I wish he was here so he'd destroy your tongue."
"I knew it. And one of the people was identified as the daughter of a harborer of no-contact zone refugees. The other one's face couldn't be found in the database so he was assumed to be from the no-contact zone. So you're with those guys?" The stranger asked quietly.
"Okay. I'm from there."
"But you speak the language so well. How?"
"I've lived here for ten years now. And I'm not carrying a disease. There was a disease in there when I was there but only in some surfaces and not actually in people. Very easy to avoid. This whole paranoia about disease carriers that they're trying to scare you with is a sham." 32A explained.
"I knew it."
"How did you know that?"
"By using my head. If there were people in here spreading a disease that was deadly enough to collapse a society, we would have noticed it by now. People would have been dropping dead but so far nothing has changed except some more trigger happy pigs and some new restrictions. Such as this museum that only allows people who made their reservation in advance and showed their identification. But how did you get in? Do you have forged papers or something?"
"I don't. I've never needed them."
"How did you get in?"
"Through the back door. Now can you please just show me the directions? I told you everything you need to know."
"Not everything. Why do you want to get there? Tell me or I'll call them here." The stranger threatened.
32A took a deep breath.
"I hate you so much."
"Just tell me and you'll get the directions."
"Since I already told you everything, I might as well tell the truth. My family who is also from the no-contact zone was found by the police and I want to find out where is the place where they are held, and I hope I can get the answer from the central police."
"And how did you think you'd get the answer from there? By threatening someone? By looking into their computers?"
"I don't even know. This wasn't my idea."
"I know a way you can get whatever information you could possibly want from them. You'd help me too that way."
"Tell me. We have no idea what we're doing." 32A said embarrassed of herself.
"You'll need something from our Homebase first."
"Like what?"
"A flash drive to download all of their files into."
"Oh, I don't know how any of that stuff works. I've never used a computer."
"Never?"
"Never. We never had one. Not in the Deadla... The no-contact zone and never over here either."
"Sounds like we'll have to show you then. None of us want to go sneaking in there."
"Who's us?"
"You'll know when you meet us."
"Woah woah woah. I didn't agree to meeting anyone."
"Fine. Do the job your way then."
"Agh. Fine. I'll meet whoever you want me to meet. This better be all worth it. If you try anything, my brother will break your knees."
"Wait. The guy breaking things is your brother? Can you also break things?"
"Keep asking more questions and you'll find out." 32A said like she was tired of hearing the stranger speak, which she was.
"So you're threatening me now?" The stranger asked.
"I might be."
"But do we have a deal? I help you and you help us."
"I'll have to ask the others first. They should be outside. Unless they ran away or got arrested."
"Good. Go ask them."
"But before I do that, what is that poster that you just glued there?"
"Read it." The stranger said and moved aside so 32A could see the poster better.
"No bombs! Defence minister Granlund has made it clear that he intends to deploy a nuclear weapon into the no-contact zone to solve the refugee problem, and the puppets of the parlament are behind the idea. The last time the UNP flexed its nuclear arsenal was during the German refugee crisis following the Bloc War when they dropped a nuclear bomb in East Germany to stop the flow of refugees coming from the collapsed East Bloc. It didn't work. It was a disaster that killed millions and made many more suffer and its impact is still felt today in that area. Have they learned nothing?" 32A read from the poster.
"What do you think?" The stranger asked.
"A little wordy." 32A commented.
"But it gets the point across. Doesn't it?"
"I have no idea what it's talking about."
"Have you not heard of any of those events?"
"I've heard of the Bloc War but I don't know much about it. It led to the east collapsing or something like that, didn't it?"
"You've lived here for ten years and this is how little attention you pay?"
"We didn't have any of your smart devices or computers or a television. The only way I got to know anything about the world was by hearing about it from my neighbors who did have those things. I don't know anything." 32A said and chuckled.
"Do I need to give you a history lesson?"
"Please don..." 32A was about to say.
"I'll give you one then! So, for several decades the world was divided in a cold war between two superpowers. They funded civil wars and did some espionage and that sort of thing. It eventually escalated into a hot war fought in Europe by the forces of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. They were treaty organizations, in case you didn't know. The land war dragged on for a whole ten years with both sides pouring everything they had into the war effort. For the duration of the war, in the west the democratic systems were replaced by temporary wartime dictatorships that ended up being permanent even after the war ended, really making them no better than their enemy. The eastern countries just collapsed after simply running out of resources and that's how the war ended. And after the war, the west wasn't exactly thriving either and resources were scarce. When people in the west noticed that their temporary dictators weren't going anywhere, there were massive protests. I mean those were something you'll never see again. They went on for months but after nothing changed, the protests gradually died down and people just gave up. Shows you that peaceful protesting never accomplishes anything. Some years later when the west had recovered from the war, a few member states of the United Nations proposed a more powerful multinational government to prevent such massive wars from happening again. Most member states voted against it, but then the rulers of those states mysteriously died in gas leaks and another vote was held. In the second vote every member state agreed. Like every single one. And so the United Nation Project was officially created. It has a parlament that has as many members as there are member states, but the members of parlament don't even have to be from the countries that they supposedly represent, and they all have to answer to the chairman, who the parlament chooses by voting. So far there has only been one chairman becauce he wins all the time. There was a couple of times when someone was a favourite to beat him but on both of those times, the challengers died mysteriously in gas leaks. All of the members of parlament currently are from three different countries. Anyway, the first challenge of the young project was stopping the tens of thousands of refugees coming from the East Bloc through East Germany. They set up weak puppet governments in the collapsed and lawless Eastern Europe to stop people from leaving their countries, but that didn't work. They set up border patrols but people kept finding their way around them. They wanted to build long walls but they simply didn't have the funds for that. So they came to the next logical solution. Drop a nuclear bomb in East Germany where most refugees were coming from so that the entire region would be a radioactive wasteland that nobody wants to travel through. But they forgot to take one fact into account. Wind is a thing. Once the wind blew west, the radiation got into the edges of the West Bloc too and made many areas there inhospitable, killing many in the process. And now Granlund wants to do the same thing." The stranger explained.
"Wait. When did all of that happen?" 32A asked.
"Back when that happened, the no-contact zone where you came from still had a government and a name and was a member state of the UNP. So a long time ago. Before your time probably."
"And you think that dropping the bomb could harm this place as well?"
"If the winds blow west again, it could."
"And you want to stop the bomb?"
"Of course I do! If people are coming from there, that must mean that people live there. And on top of that, the bomb's fallout might get here. It would be ludicrous to drop that bomb. The word Ludicrous means..."
"I know what it means. But what do you need from the central police? Why do you want their files?" 32A asked.
"We just want the people to know some secrets. It's what we do."
"Well, I also want to know one of their secrets. So we have a deal."
"Great. This was a succesful tour then. Let me call my ride." The stranger said and pulled a smartphone out of his pocket.
"Wait. We're going there right now?" 32A asked.
"Haha. Don't worry. Not quite yet. We'll take you to the homebase and go through the plan first."
"Oh. I guess that's what we're doing now. I'll need to tell the others too."
"Go do that. The ride is on the way. You'll know it when you see it. I'll wait outside too." The stranger said after sending a text message.
32A made her way to the exit while the stranger stayed inside to hand pamphlets to other people in the museum.
46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk9iteCqByI
When 32A stepped outside she was amazed at the sight of the city. Right on the other side of the door was a street of tall buildings on the other side of a quiet road with electric rails dug into the road. She couldn't see her travel companions when she looked around and got worried. She accidentally bumped into a few pedestrians while jogging along the street and after a moment of jogging in one direction, she felt a painful pulse coming from behind.
"So he's there." She thought to herself and turned around.
She ran back along the sidewalk and after 59 seconds had passed, she didn't feel a pulse, which meant that she wasn't far from Toivo.
"Where did you go, Toivo? You were supposed to wait outside!" She yelled while frantically searching and looking.
A ludicrously long street train rode accross the road and once it passed she saw her travel companions leaning on a guardrail and looking down at the abandoned train tracks down below. She was relieved to see their backs but then got worried again when she saw a police van drive on the road and stop right where they were. The two officers in the van got out and grabbed Ella and Toivo from behind and slammed their faces on the guardrail and kept them there. 32A was about to run to the rescue but then stopped herself, knowing she could do nothing.
"What have you been doing?" One of the officers asked while applying force.
32A was looking from the other side of the road nervous and angry, not knowing what to do. She noticed how one of the officers had his legs spread wide and his back turned against 32A as he was holding Ella against the guardrail. 32A looked at her own shoe and made a decision.
"Don't even try to touch them, damn orcs." She murmured to herself before charging.
She sprinted towards the two officers with full intent to unleash a powerful kick but when she was in the middle of the road, a black van with a plow at the front crashed into the back of the police van. The police van rolled along the road almost five meters before it stopped. 32A fell over from the fright of the sudden sound and the officers let go of Ella and Toivo and took a step away from the crash. Inside the black van 32A saw the stranger from the museum and the passenger who sat next to her in the train. The two officers pulled out their weapons but couldn't fire them before Toivo made them shatter.
"Get in already!" The stranger in the van shouted to 32A from the opened window.
The two officers rushed to the van instead but the driver pulled out a homemade handgun on one of the disarmed officers and they both stopped as a result. 32A ran to Ella and Toivo and grabbed both of their wrists.
"I got us a ride. Get in." She said and dragged the two others behind her and they all got in the back of the van.
"You showed up at a good time." 32A said to the driver from the back of the van where there was thin wall between the driver's seat and the back area.
"Are these two criminals your friends?" The stranger that 32A talked with in the train asked her.
"How did you know?" She asked back.
"I didn't know. But I was called and I don't drive anywhere without the plow. I just recognized these two and decided to give a hand since I was here anyway. But I really came here because Yellow called me here to pick up him and you."
"Yellow?" 32A asked.
"That's what we call him today because of the color of his shirt today." The stranger in the green hoodie said.
"I don't understand. Thanks anyway. So we're going to your so called homebase?"
"We are. I didn't expect to get these two criminals as well but we'd be glad to help you hide. Anyway, get ready to rush out of the van when I say so. We're probably being followed already." The green wearing driver said to the people in the back who couldn't tell because it was completely dark in the back of the van.
"Who are you people?" Ella asked from the back.
"We're the Sabertooth." The yellow wearing stranger from the museum replied.
"Wait a moment! I know about you! A little. You were mentioned in some police report!" Ella said.
"We're definitely no strangers to the police." The driver in green said.
"So what do you do? What's your thing?" Toivo asked.
"We expose lies and secrets. That's really it. We had seen you in the news and I recognized you. I also saw you in the train but I wasn't sure back there if you were really them." The driver answered.
"I think we are. Why did you help us?" Toivo answered.
"Like I said. I saw you being arrested and decided to help. And also I don't think the media is telling the truth about all the disease carriers. So now that we have one here, we'd like to know your side."
"Well, there's actually two of us disease carriers here. And we don't actually have any diseases." 32A commented.
"If they did, I'd have gotten sick already. I've lived near them for the last ten years." Ella added.
"Interesting. I hope to give you a voice. We can let you send your message but everytime we post a statement, it gets removed in minutes. Our best tool is mass sharing the videos faster than they can be removed, but that doesn't always work."
"If we did that, if we let the people know the truth, would that make them give up on the whole bomb plan and leave our people alone and let our family go?" 32A wondered.
"If it did, we wouldn't have to bust them out." Toivo added.
"That would be much safer than the old plan. But how do we make them believe our statement?" Ella wondered.
"Your passport image and name have been in the news and I've been seen in the video footage without being identified, making them figure out that I'm not a citizen. If people see us explain the truth on camera, they'd believe it." Toivo answered.
"Hmm, I've just always been scared of being in front of cameras and crowds." Ella said back.
"Can't be as scary as messing with the central police." 32A pointed out.
"I know. And this would be to save people's lives." Ella replied.
"Sounds like you three have a plan then. Hold on to it. We'll need to leave the van now. Our second ride is here." The driver said when the van stopped.
The backdoors of the van were opened and the people in the back were let out. The owners of the van got into a faux police car that was completely empty and the doors were unlocked. They waited until everyone was in and then drove away, leaving the van behind.
This was the first time that 32A had seen the streetscapes of a modern city with her own eyes. In the traffic were trucks and vans that all bore the same logo, as well as street trains and buses that also bore a similar logo with each other. People walked on the side walks and there were police officers patrolling the streets and the pedestrians didn't seem to mind their presence.
"So you just left the van behind? That couldn't have been cheap." Ella wondered.
"We'll go get it back. Nobody goes to that place anyway. Now we have to get to the Homebase quickly. A private car attracts attention. Especially from these pigs who are around. The police paint on this ride can only fool them for so long." The driver explained.
"Why are all those buses and trains empty?" 32A wondered after noticing a bus and a train that were both empty of passengers.
"Getting aboard public transport is banned at the moment because they don't want any diease carriers using them after a bunch escaped custody today. They're still keeping them running to make the city look more lively and to impress the UNP's chairman who's coming to visit to negotiate with the defense minister." The yellow hoodie explained.
"So since the chairman is coming here, this really is the perfect opportunity to spread the truth and maybe even make the UNP big shots see it! This will be a piece of cake!" Ella pointed out.
"I wouldn't get excited yet. We've exposed these people's lies many times and nothing ever happens. People just forget and no one is ever held accountable. But you don't lose anything from trying." The driver commented.
"That's right. We don't lose anything from trying. And if we actually expose their lies and they let everybody free, then we can all return home, dad can continue his trade business and everything can go back to the way it was." Ella said full of hope.
"That would be the best outcome." Toivo said with less hope in his voice.
"And you said we'd never see again. This little adventure will just be a memory." Ella said from the middle seat while Toivo was looking out the window at the sky, thinking about what to do if they can't return home.
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