"Can you quiet down in the back seat? I'm trying to listen to the police radio because it's a little more crucial than whatever drivel you're talking about." The driver of the car impolitely asked the passengers who were talking in the back.
"Did you hear that part? They're still looking for the van. So they haven't found it. They still think we're in that ride." Yellow said to the driver who looked at the rear view mirror and adjusted his glasses.
"Just as I intended and predicted." The driver said proudly.
"So how far away are we from your Homebase?" Ella asked from the back seat.
"Ugh. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Am I actually driving children around? Patience." The driver said mockingly and impatiently.
"I just wanted to know." Ella replied and felt bad.
"We're not far away but it's always a challenge to find a route where we won't run into too many pigs." Yellow answered.
"Like those guys?" Toivo asked and pointed out of the window where he saw a police officer beating a dirty and poor looking woman on the pavement while another officer was keeping guard with a pistol and telling people to put their phone cameras away.
Ella took a peek from the middle seat and looked out the window too and put a hand over her mouth after seeing the act.
"Like them." The driver calmly replied.
"I think that guy saw you." Toivo said after noticing how the officer keeping guard was looking at the car and talking into a radio.
"How unfortunate. I didn't want this to happen." The driver calmly said after noticing the officer looking at the car.
"A faux police car has been spotted in Hornsbergs. License plate FUP-411. Requesting backup as we're preoccupied at the moment." The police radio inside the car said.
"And we were so close to the Homebase too. We can't lead them to the Homebase. I'll drop you off here. Yellow will walk you there and I'll lead the pigs somewhere else." The driver explained calmly.
"Make it back safely like you always do." Yellow said to the driver.
"I can do that wihout you telling me to. You know the way from here. Get off the car here. I'll go lead them away from the Homebase." The driver said and stopped the car.
The wearers of the colorful hoodies nodded at each other and then all the passengers got out of the car. The faux police car drove away after it had disappeared and gunshots could be heard from its direction.
"Oh no. Did they get him already?" Ella asked.
"No. That's the sound of his trusty homemade. That's how he'll attract the pigs to him and divert them away from us. Follow me." Yellow said and took the lead.
"I hope he'll be okay." Ella said worriedly while following Yellow along with the others.
"He's done this before. He knows the pigs well and he knows how to escape them. He'll be at the Homebase before morning." Yellow assured while leading the way.
"At least we don't have to worry about hiding ourselves if all the attention is on that guy." Toivo pointed out.
"And let's get this thing fixed already." 32A said as she looked at the punctured holes in Ella's jacket and then repaired them with a look.
"Oh, thanks. I wanted to ask you to repair them but I didn't want to bother you." Ella said and rubbed the back of her neck ashamedly.
"Getting strange looks because of those would have been more bothersome for you, I'd imagine." 32A replied like it was an obvious statement.
"There's the building. We're just about there. Don't get caught now or you're on your own." Yellow said as he saw a certain tall apartment building.
He led the others for the rest of the way and held the door open for the others once they got there.
"This is the Homebase? Just some apartment?" Ella wondered as they were walking up the stairs following Yellow
"Were you expecting a military base under the ground?" Yellow asked exhaustedly while climbing the stairs up.
The others following behind him were getting frustrated at how slowly he was climbing the stairs, but no one wanted to complain out of fear of the consequences.
"So why are you guys called the Sabertooth anyway?" Ella asked.
"You'll see soon." Yellow said and opened an apartment door with his key.
48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOa7ibU6rEw
The first thing that everybody saw when the door opened was a carpet hanging from the doorframe. Yellow disappeared behind the carpet and entered the apartment.
"Hello again, Sabertooth and others. Lime had to take a detour tonight but don't worry about him." Yellow's voice said from inside the apartment.
Ella was the first of the three to step through the hanging carpet and 32A and Toivo just heard how she gasped while they were still at the staircase.
"Oh my God, it's a fat cat! I love cats!" Ella said when she saw a cat licking its paw on a desk at the back of the room.
She rushed to the cat in a state of adoration and petted it.
"What animals do you not love?" Toivo asked curiously after he and 32A had entered.
"Lizards." Ella answered while petting the cat.
"What's wrong with lizards?" Toivo asked.
"I don't like how they look at me. They always seem like they're up to something."
"I like lizards." A red hoodie wearing ponytailed young woman said while sitting on one of the six desktop computers inside the large room.
Ella wasn't listening because she was focused on pinching and pulling the meat on the cat's belly.
"Somebody's been overfeeding you. That's not good for you." Ella said to the cat.
"I know it's not good for him but his pictures started getting more likes after I stareted overfeeding him." The lady in red commented from her work desk.
"That's your reason?" Ella asked disgustedly.
The lady in red just shrugged and continued working on something on the computer.
"So that's the Sabertooth?" Toivo asked and looked at the cat.
"That's right. Dangerous beast." A man with long blond hair and a pink hoodie commented while leaning on a wall.
"So where's Lime running currently? You said he's taking a detour." A freakishly skinny young woman in a blue hoodie and a white cap on her head asked Yellow from her desk.
"The pigs spotted us so he dropped us off and then went off." Yellow replied.
"Again?" Red shouted from her desk.
"You never go outside. You don't know how hard it is to resist the urge to do something illegal out there." Pink said to Red.
"Now that we're here, could one of you turn on the police radio in case we hear something about Lime?" Yellow said to the rest of the room, and so a radio was turned on.
"Target has been arrested." Were the first words that everyone heard from the radio and everyone in the room got worried.
"That's the 11th one caught today. This one will be taken to the station to be questioned about the rest of the escaped ones. So far he doesn't seem to understand our speech so we might need a translator." The radio voice continued.
"Whew. So that wasn't Lime who was caught." Red commented and got back to work.
"So we have to film some sort of a video where we explain our case. When do we do that?" Ella asked Yellow
"When Lime comes back. We'd have to turn off the radio when you film the video and we won't do that until we hear something about him." Yellow answered.
"Everybody shut your mouths. They're talking about him now." The skinny woman in blue said loudly.
"The suspect is driving the faux police vehicle through red lights and on sidewalks. The suspect has fired shots at us with what seems to be an improvised weapon. We have no choice but to open fire. First shot missed. Appears to have hit a civilian in the arm. Send somebody to finish off the civilian to avoid lawsuits for us. Second shot hit the target's tire. The target is now losing control. The target has hit a wall! The target has now left the vehicle and is running away on foot. Remind the target that we have permission to use lethal force... Target is running away despite the warning. Target is now climbing a ladder. Target has been hit! Target fell down from the ladder... Target is terminated. Anyone have updates on the escaped disease carriers?" The radio said and Blue switched it off.
"He forgot that the pigs have become more trigger happy this week! He thougt that this would be just like all the previous times! God damn this!" The man in pink shouted in rage.
"Oh no." Ella quietly said with empathy in her heart.
The other Sabertooth people were distraught while Toivo felt awkward and 32A felt guilty as she was the reason why the lime wearer had come to the city today to begin with.
"Not the first one we've lost and won't be the last one. The fight goes on." Yellow commented coldly and got to work while Blue slammed her forehead to the desk and stayed quiet.
32A spotted a balcony entrance when looking around and started to quietly make her way there to get out of the atmosphere in the room.
"Where are you going? You have to film the message." Yellow said to her before she got far.
"I thought I'd give you a moment and get out of the way." 32A answered awkwardly.
"We don't have time for moments of silence. Just film the damn video already and then you three can discuss what you do next." Yellow said and tossed his smartphone at 32A who caught it barely.
"How do I use this thing?" She asked in awkward confusion before Ella gestured her to hand it over.
"Let me use it. I know how." Ella said and got the smartphone handed to her.
"Please film yourself in front of the symbol on the wall to make it seen in the video." Red requested before Ella could set the phone in position to film.
"Okay, so here?" She asked and went to stand by a black piece of plywood that was nailed to the wall with a symbol depicting six claw marks, all different colors.
"Okay. Let's get in positions. Uhh... Maybe Three in the left and Toivo in the mid..." Ella was explaining until 32A took the phone from her and tossed it back to Yellow.
"You set it in position and start filming and we'll be here." 32A said to him.
Her orders were followed and the camera started filming.
"Okay, everybody quiet down. Hello, people! You might have seen these two mugs in news reports about some disease carriers and their harborers. Well, here they both are." 32A narrated to the camera while having a hand on the heads of Ella and Toivo.
Ella nervously waved at the camera.
"The girl here is Ella Nyman, a pureblooded native Swedish citizen whose name you can probably find by searching for it, and the little boy here was born and raised in the so called no-contact zone, just like me. And guess what? We and other people from there have lived next to Ella and her family for the past ten years, and none of them ever got sick from this disease that destroyed our civilization way back when. I was in the no-contact zone as a kid and never saw anybody who was sick with that disease, because that disease is just about extinct! To catch it in the no-contact zone you'd have to be really stupid or purposefully go seek it out. Whoever is spreading this paranoia about disease carriers is doing just that. Spreading paranoia." 32A further explained.
Ella cringed when her name was mentioned and Toivo was annoyed at being called a little boy.
"Not a single case of any kind of a mysterious disease has been detected on this land ever since people started noticing that people are coming from the no-contact zone. People have been making boat trips there for years now, and I've never seen anybody return home sick. But now those same people are being contained because they might be possible carriers. If they actually were carriers, you'd notice it! One of the first things that were taught to me on that land was what the disease does! If somebody actually had it, you'd notice it. I promise you that. All the people who are being held captive because of this paranoia are harmless and iccocent. My family is being kept in some place that I don't know, and for no reason at all. Let them go!" 32A said to the camera with all seriousness and had nothing more to add, as did no one else.
Yellow understood what their silence meant and stopped filming.
"Great. Now that we did you a favor, you have to do us a favor." He then said.
"What kind of a favor?" 32A asked.
"Did you think you wouldn't have to go to the central police? We still want their files, and someone has to go get them."
"Finally Yellow provides something. Now none of us have to go in there." Red commented.
"Fine, we can go. But before we go, can I use one of your computers for one thing?" Ella asked.
"What thing?" Yellow asked back.
"I need to send a message to my dad to let him know that we're all good. I wouldn't take long." Ella pleaded.
"You think I believe that?"
"What do you think I mean then? I'm serious." Ella assured.
"She's telling the truth. She left her dad very abruptly and hasn't contacted him since then." Toivo defended Ella's case.
"Fine. Send your message then. But use your own account obviously." Yellow said.
"Obviously." Ella said back and sat on a work desk where the computer was already on.
"And by the way, it should only be us two who go give the central police a visit. Ella shouldn't risk herself in there." Toivo said to 32A.
"Yeah. And together we're unstoppable anyway. We'll be fine. Isn't that right?" 32A said back.
"That reminded me! You have your superpowers!" Yellow said to the twins.
"Yes. We do." 32A replied with little interest.
"Prove it." Yellow insisted.
"How?"
"Break this glass without touching it." Yellow said and picked up an empty drinking glass from one of the desks.
The glass shattered in his hand soon after he said it.
"Interesting. So that was the boy's power. What about the girl's?"
"I can repair and heal." 32A said.
"Heal? So if someone is wounded you can just heal the wound?"
"Yep."
"Prove it."
"How?" 32A asked and got a knife tossed at her.
She barely caught it and looked at it.
"Stab him with it. Since you can heal the wound anyway, that shouldn't be a problem." Yellow said to 32A.
"Stab him?" Ella shouted from the work desk and turned around on the spinning chair.
"I'm not stabbing him!" 32A replied with disgust.
"Fine. But your video won't be posted unless you do it." Yellow threatened.
"Can't she just cut my skin with it?" Toivo asked.
"Is that how little faith you have in her superpower? Full penetration is what I want to see or otherwise your message will stay in my phone." Yellow threatened.
"Why did you have to use those exact words?" Red quietly asked from her desk.
"Fine then. Stab me. Wouldn't be the worst thing you've done to me." Toivo gave up and said to 32A.
"Wouldn't be the worst thing? What worse has she done to you?" Ella wondered and got up from her seat but she didn't get an answer because Toivo got a kick in the shin and a knife through his gut.
32A pulled the knife out of Toivo's gut as soon as it entered and Ella grabbed Toivo as to not let him fall down. 32A instantly put a hand on Toivo's shoulder and made sure that Yellow saw the wound in the gut being healed.
"Amazing." Yellow simply commented.
"You could have warned me before you did it." Toivo said to 32A as soon as he was able to speak.
"I thought you were ready. Sorry. But at least this time I did it from the front so it wasn't as bad as that time when I hit you in the back with an axe as a prank." 32A said back.
"Yeah, that really was a heck of a prank." Toivo said and remembered an unpleasant instance.
"You what? When was that?" Ella asked.
"It was many years ago. And I healed his wounds immediately. Anyway, was that enough of a demonstration?" 32A asked Yellow.
"It was. Now let's show you how to use the computer and copy the files. It's very simple so come look." Yellow said and sat down by one of the computers, making the office chair squeak under his weight.
The twins looked and learned how the simple process is done. Ella noticed how the young woman in the blue hoodie was face down on her own work desk and not moving much. Ella walked up to her to see what was the matter.
"You haven't moved much since we listened to the radio. I'm so sorry about what happened to your friend." Ella said to Blue
"None of us are friends. We've all made that very clear. We only work together but we don't get close." The man in pink said from behind.
"What? But I saw and heard how you reacted when we heard the lime man's fate. You obviously cared." Ella said to Pink.
"I lost my self control. We've all decided to just focus on our work and only talk about things that matter. If we become friends, our emotions will get in the way and our inevitable losses would hurt our morale." Pink explained and then looked at his blue associate who was pathetically face down on the desk.
"Somebody forgot that lesson." Pink then added.
"I mean, I won't tell you what to do, but if you all actually cared about each other, wouldn't that also motivate you? Knowing that you're also doing it for people that matter to you?" Ella suggested.
"Emotional bonds make people make biased decisions. We have a greater mission here and we're all disposable. Even Lime." Pink argued back.
That's when Blue got up and faced Pink angrily.
"He had a name! And he hated this stupid color code thing you came up with! Together we always used our names because we both hated this thing!" Blue argued angrily.
"Are you stupid? The color code a has a purpose! And just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it's pointless. We never know if someone is listening. What if somebody heard your or his name?" Pink argued right back.
Ella awkwardly walked away and let the two argue. She went to Yellow's work desk where he was done showing the demonstration to 32A and Toivo.
"So you actually just refer to each other as colors?" Ella asked Yellow.
"We do. It prevents us from getting close. And we switch the hoodies every day so nobody gets attached to any certain color either." Yellow explained.
"So you switch your so called names every day too?"
"Yes."
"Interesting. But about the job at the police. So who does what?" Ella asked.
"I think you should stay here and let us do it." Toivo answered.
"And now that I think about it, I think you should stay here too and let me go alone. They'd recognize you there for sure." 32A said to Toivo.
"But what if something goes wrong? I want to be able to help." Toivo argued.
"And what if you both need my help?" Ella asked.
"They'd surely recognize you, Ella." Toivo said back at her.
"We could keep our distance and only intervene if Three doesn't come back in a given time." Ella suggested.
"I mean, that'd be nice. But you'd have to stay hidden. I don't want to get caught because of you. Only come in if you fear that I've been caught." 32A said to Ella.
"And to have any chance to pull this off, you should probably know what the place looks like." Yellow said to them all and showed on his monitor a blueprint showing the inside of a building.
"What's that?" Toivo asked him.
"A drawing that I made based on the security camera footage we have. Did I mention that we have access to the security cameras of the headquarters?"
"So this is like the map of the place?" Ella asked.
"Just the map of one floor. I have more here." Yellow answered and showed more drawings of different floors, even though they mostly looked the same.
"Why did you draw them on a blue basis? It's impossible to see any of that." 32A complained.
"Because that's how the professionals do it."
"Ugh. I guess it's easy enough to read. Can I get it on paper?" 32A asked.
"It would be more practical to get it on a phone so you don't look suspicious when you look at it." Yellow suggested.
"I don't have one of those things!" 32A replied.
"You don't? Who in this day and age doesn't?"
"How would I even get the license to own one?"
"Oh right. You aren't a citizen."
"Well, can she borrow yours?" Ella asked Yellow politely.
"Woah woah woah woah! That is not happening. There's some sensitive material in mine that none of you shall see." Yellow replied.
"By just looking at you I can guess what that "sensitive material" is and besides, I have no interest to know any of your secrets. What would I even do with them?" 32A replied rudely.
"We have a box of burners. Use one of them." Yellow suggested.
"What's a burner?" 32A asked.
"Phones that are only used once and then destroyed."
"So I just take one of those, use it to look at the map when needed and then destroy it on my way back? Why would I need to destroy it though?"
"You can call me with it if you need help or if you have anything to ask. But all calls are traced. That's why you should destroy it. Hey, Red! Toss me one of the burners!" Yellow said and caught a phone that looked outdated by the standards of this age.
"Impressive catch." Ella said in a friendly manner.
Yellow didn't answer anything but just connected the old phone to his computer to transfer the images.
"This takes just a few seconds but we have another problem." Yellow said.
"What is it?" Ella asked.
"We don't have a ride there. The van was left behind and the other ride was probably taken by the pigs."
"Let's just walk there then." Ella suggested.
"Ooh, I don't know about that." Yellow replied.
"Fine. You stay here and we walk there." 32A suggested.
"Is it safe for us to walk outside?" Toivo worried.
"What if we borrow your hoodies and use them as a type of disguise? You can survive without them until we come back." Ella suggested.
"It probably shouldn't be the yellow man who borrows his. We all could fit inside his." 32A joked.
"I have feelings too." Yellow complained.
"Ohh, I'm so sorry for my friend's mean words." Ella apologized sincerely.
Toivo just chuckled at 32A's joke and Ella's apology.
"So are the rest willing to borrow theirs?" 32A asked and looked at the other people in the room.
Pink and Red were just working on their computers while Blue was holding the Sabertooth cat close and breathing heavily with her eyes closed.
"I'll go ask." Ella said and walked over to them.
"I don't want to hear your pity!" Blue said before Ella could say anything.
"She can't handle the harsh truths that I told her. Let her get over it." Pink said from his desk.
Ella decided to say nothing and walked back to Yellow's desk.
"I'll ask later." Ella said when she returned.
"The images are in the burner. I'll stay here. I added my number into the burner phone. I also added the number of another burner phone into it so you two can communicate if you need to." Yellow said and handed phones to both the twins.
"So are we ready to go or do we need anything?" Toivo asked.
"I need a moment to prepare before we go. I'm nervous." Ella said.
"So you're actually coming too?" Toivo asked.
"I think I should, in case you two mess this up." Ella answered.
"I just really don't want you to get in trouble." Toivo assured.
"And I don't want you to get in trouble either and that's why I'm coming along." Ella insisted.
"I don't think I can argue with you."
"You can't. But before we go I want to take a moment so don't run away."
"I won't."
"Good. Now, yellow man, can I use your balcony? I just want some outside air." Ella asked politely from Yellow.
"Fine, but no smoking." Yellow answered.
"I won't. Don't worry. But uhh... I need to calm my nerves before we go so... Do you have coffee?" Ella asked.
"No. Too expensive for us. We have beer though. You want?"
"No! Eww! I'll just go to the balcony." Ella said and walked to the door that leads to the balcony.
The door to the balcony was between two vacant work desks. The balcony was large but there wasn't a lot of room to move because of all the plastic crates in there. Ella leaned on the guardrail, looked ahead and let the wind wave her hair and cool her face. Down below she saw the inner yard that is shared between the four apartment buildings that are close together. Down at the inner yard she saw a woman and a girl building a snowman and it warmed her heart.
"No matter what decision the ministers make, these people will live their lives as if nothing changed. In some way I wish I could go back to that, but here I am. Let's do this."
ns 15.158.61.8da2
