CHAPTER 4 : The Felons Claw

"Whoo! Ain't that fun?" She cheered as she ran from the station and jumped through another fence, which I almost hurt my ankle.

"That's your definition of fun?" I asked, catching my breath. "We were almost caught!" I exclaimed, having a panic attack.

I thought that I would be held captive the moment we were spotted taking off the train without walking through the bracelet scanner.

If she hadn't got a grip on my wrist and started dragging me, I would've been left alone and caught.

Whether I admit it or not, this odd pink-haired girl knows how to escape authority. Probably because of the environment she was raised in and got used to. And I, on the other hand, was an alien in this world.

"'Almost,' but weren't caught," she stated, quoting her fingers in the air as she opened a door that leads somewhere dark. "Believe it or not, I've been through a worse chase than that. What we just encountered, I call it a 'minor bird-dog' situation."

"Minor?" I repeated in a sarcastic tone. "What's in there?"

"It's the passage to the borders between Maven and Silk Road," she answered, handing me a scarf. "We pass Silk Road, we get to the outskirts of Junkyard. We pass Junkyard, we get to the Sickle Road, then we're onto Median."

"Where did you get this?" She's only wearing a small pack, not something that could carry anything necessary for us but a pouch stuffed with her endless topics to talk about.

"I have magic in my hands," she answered, wiggling her hands she lifted in the air. "Are we just going to make conversation here and wait for our asses to be taken inside jail or what?"

Sniffing the scarf, I had a theory that she might have picked it from some random store we stopped by. This girl is dangerous. Well, she took my bracelet without me noticing it.

Unconsciously, I felt my bracelet and had a sigh of relief when it's there.

With my eyes squinted, I tried to adjust my vision through the tunnel underneath the concrete road while listening to her grunts as she pushed the door closed.

The smell in the air is a mix of dust and rust. This System has evolved in many ways, but forgotten some parts and left them to rot in most ways.

I heard a click from behind me and a light made the path clear for me, making me wince from the sight that welcomed me.

"Oh, hell, no," I gagged, seeing how dirty and perilous the whole place is. Already feeling dizzy just thinking about stepping on it.

I've done so many things for the whole day. I walked through dirt, been bathed in my own sweat, touched germs, and breathed unhealthy air. But this? This is ridiculous!

"There may be another road to the Silk Road; we should take that instead," I suggested and headed for the door.

"Hey, snotty rich boy, you're an exile and you still have the guts to act like you belong in the towers?" She scoffed. "Face reality and start walking before I leave you behind."

"Are you bloody serious? Walk through that?!" I exclaimed, gesturing to where we're heading.

Everything was built of metal, old metal that creaks from the pressure of the wind. Fragile metal that will certainly break if I step my foot on it.

The path has holes.

I'm scared of tetanus, I hate having wounds, and I simply never liked being dead.

"There's no other way to Silk Road, smart ass. Maven has made sure that no one would dare walk through Silk Road because it's part of Omission's map." She started walking, ignoring the warning noises of straining metal under the sole of her shoes. "Last time I heard, those hungry and ruthless people took a Levy from a group and made him their dinner," she said grievously, looking back at me with a face that tells me I should be scared.

I paused. "Haven't heard of that before," I almost stuttered.

"Because I made it up," she giggled, causing me to blow my nose with some smokes. "You are so gullible. Hurry up; I want us in Median before sunrise. Simply imagine that you're taking a stroll in your family's garden of gold."

I can't make my feet move; I'm nailed where I stand.

Stopping in her tracks, she looked back at me with a frown. "Hey, gut up!"

"Just so you're aware, this is my first time trying to trust and talk to someone coming from a place that doesn't belong to anywhere." I realized how cruel my words could be for her and wanted to make it less hurtful, but then I heard her chuckling at me.

"That makes two of us." She winked at me, walking in my direction and snatched the scarf I only held in my hands. "I gave you this scarf so you could wear it on your head, not on your hands."

"I'm not stupid; I know how things work," I defended myself and heightened my pride as a person and took the scarf from her. "Just lead the way," I dismissed and wrapped the scarf around my head the way she did.

"Snotty," she commented.

The tunnel doesn't only have its perilous path but also... rodents and dirty insects.

"This place used to be an exchange station where some Maven members would donate some of their stuff to the Omission members in exchange for peace," she spoke, pulling my attention from the way all the hairs on my body were chilling. "I remember coming here when I was little, stealing toys and things I wanted. I was caught doing it once, but the Levy who saw me let me go because he thought I was too cute to resist."

"I highly doubt that," I commented.

Suddenly, she stopped and faced me, almost colliding with me. "How far are you going to judge me, huh?" she questioned.

"Just as long as I'm annoyed by your mouth," I answered.

"Then judge me for the rest of the night," she replied before climbing down the ladder.

Grunting, I noticed how dusty everything is.

"Big challenge, eh?" She mocked when I finally reached the bottom where I found her looking at me with her eyebrows arched and crossing her arms. "Come on, let's get out of here; I really need a lot of rest after this. You owe me a lot."

Dusting my hands off, I got annoyed when the stain of rust only left a worse smudge on my palm.

"Over here." She pushed a door open, revealing an abandoned place eaten by nature.

"Whoa..." I exclaimed silently, looking everywhere.

Is this Omission?

The buildings seemingly have been through a lot of disasters. Some were standing still but barely holding, some have given up and scattered debris of huge blocks that jammed the deserted road.

Everything's withered, all dried up.

"It's been almost two decades since people were forced to leave this place. Caused by the war they started," she explained; she must have seen the questions I have in my head. "The desert has taken back this town. No one's here to brush it out."

"What kind of war?" I asked, still following her while looking around.

"Hunger, poverty, the fight for justice. It's all about equality that the Palace failed to give since they changed the way they led this district," she answered. "The people who raised me told me that this district was one of the best in this System but was long forgotten when greed controlled the people with dusts of gold in their pockets."

"My father used to tell me that people in Median were greedy, but not as worse as Omission," I shared and she only jeered at that.

"Well, for some, yes. But why wouldn't we if we weren't given enough?"

The point is open, but I still can't make myself believe it.

"The Palace gave less and less every change of calendar, making the elders push compassion. The young ones were affected too; that was why the mid-ages tried to corrupt Maven. But they lost a lot and got nothing but hundreds of bodies to wail for."

"Who told you this story?" I want to laugh because it was so different from what I was given knowledge of.

"Everyone who witnessed it."

"Any man could exaggerate a story."

"They don't have to; you can see the suffering in their eyes," she said, the first time seeing her being serious since I met her. "I saw it with my own eyes," she added, halting her steps.

Frowning, I watched how her face showed me a strike of pain, recalling her past.

"But that was in the past; nothing could change it." Shaking it off, she started tracing the concrete barriers with her fingertips, not minding the dirt that would linger on her skin. "So tell me, what's your place like?"

Pursing my lips, I shrugged. Since I stepped my feet outside 400, my mind must have imagined myself lying in my bed, sleeping, and having a terrible nightmare.

I need somebody to wake me up.

"Very different," I curtly replied. "It's like Maven but less people, more decent."

"Is it true that 400 owns a huge structure that spits out water in the air?" She asked; I could hear the hunger of knowing what's in my place by the way she speaks.

"You mean a fountain display? Yeah, we have them. When I was a kid, I used to throw rocks at it and mostly got scolded by my father for doing it; then my mom would appear and rescue me," I chuckled at the memories.

"Wow," she mumbled. "You play with water. Do you know that in Omission, they only get a limited supply of water? The dam controlled by the Maven was almost always cut off, giving them not enough water. They're lucky enough to have a bucket of water per family."

A thousand thoughts, and one of them questioned; did my father know about this and turn a blind eye?

He used to tell me the cruelty brought by the Omission, and that what they suffer through was their fault alone, that what they deserve to take was brought upon themselves.

For the longest time I had believed that people under 400 don't belong anywhere near me. Now I'm walking side by side with someone who belongs nothing in between. Listening to whatever she says, frankly, getting convinced she's emitting the right story.

Theories in my head split into two. As much as I want to show a bit of sympathy, there's still a part of me that disagrees with what I hear.

My father has stated the dangers brought by the people outside the borders of my home. I still have yet to discover.

"I'm starving."

Just as she mentioned it, I felt my hunger visit me. I must have skipped that feeling, I got too engrossed with her endless stories and the things that had just happened.

"Hold up, do you hear that?" She asked, looking around the dark deserted place.

Keeping my feet still on the dusty ground, I listened to the howling air and the deafening silence of the place. But there's something in the wind that roars faintly.

At the cresting canyon, I found lights from bikes?

"Who are those people?" Pointing at the canyon, I heard nothing from her; instead, her hurrying footsteps made me turn my head. "Hey!"

She ran inside an abandoned building and hid in there.

"Were you just going to leave me?" I questioned her the moment I had her in my sight.

Not saying a thing, she dragged me down, causing me to tumble on my bottom and dirty my clothes even more.

"Hey!"

"Shut up!" She yelled in a whisper.

"Who are they?"

Hushing me, she peeped through the gaps of the window as the approaching sound of roaring bikes becomes louder and louder by the second.

"Omission people?"

"No, those people wave the flag of mutiny. Those aren't part of Omission." She shook her head. "Omission people are scavengers, these people aren't. They're smugglers, robbers, and murderers. Curse them."

"Murderers?" I repeated. The pumping of my blood stopped, my ears rang in high pitch, and I got lost in the trance.

A smack on the back of my head woke me up. "Get a grip, will you? We're not gonna get caught."

Massaging where I was hit, I fisted my hands, wanting to come at her. No one has even laid a hand on me, not even my mother. And she had the audacity?

"From what I heard, people from the Palace use them and give them huge rewards whenever 400 and Maven have escaped prisoners. Maybe they're looking for us, or for you," she said, giving me a reason to feel uneasy.

"For me?"

She chuckled. "Kidding. Come on, get up, we can't stay here. Let's use the building to get through them."

"You're that reckless?"

"Why? Chicken?" She mocked and pushed herself up. "Just follow me and we won't have to deal with those people."

Using just the moonlight as the guide, I carefully took steps, following from behind her. The floor of the building has a lot of cracks, let alone the walls that have fallen down.

The cracking of debris underneath my shoes echoes through the place, making me feel anxious that the whole building might fall above my head.

"Have you ever been caught by those people?" Curiosity doesn't kill the cat, it kills the curious mind. But what danger do I cost by asking something harmless?

"Twice," she answered casually, lifting two of her fingers in the air and jumped the gap between the open floor.

"And what happened?" Wincing as I almost slipped my foot and might have fallen and knocked my head somewhere down that dark hole, lucky I had a tight grip.

"Mind your step, would you?" She chided, waiting for me. "I won't waste my time saving you down there. Who knows there are poisonous scorpions down there."

"I'm not a wuss," I defended myself.

"Who said you are?" Pivoting, she squatted by the window upon reaching the other end of the building.

"It looks clear."

Nodding her head, she glanced at me. "You were asking what they would do to you when they caught you?" She showed me her wrist. "Rob you worse than I do, make you drink their pee, and spend about a week in a muddy pig before they kill you."

Shuddering, I looked at her eyes wide. "And you did drink their pee?"

"I'm a slippery little shit for them. After they got my bracelet, I managed to escape, but I couldn't get my bracelet from them. It's fine though, it doesn't have anything but twenty coins." She snickered. "Lucky me, they don't know how to get inside Maven. I do."

"When did that happen?"

"Just a few hours before we met," she replied, draining the color from my face. "Hey, chill, I did it twice. I can do it again."

"What about me?"

She grinned. "Now that's your problem."

Leading the way outside, I hide where she hides, I go where she goes.

"See those blinking red lights at the top of those towers?" She asked, looking in the direction where a garrison or some sort stood tall. "Once we entered those towers, we'd be in bigger trouble."

"Is that Junkyard?"

"Uh-huh, but I don't think we're going to need to worry about that," she added.

"Why?"

She needed not to answer my question. I felt a sharp, cold metal licking my neck, causing me to freeze in place. I smelled the lingering foul smell of both breath and odor mixed in the dusty air.

"Oh, shit," I muttered when my eyes found an unclean man grinning at me.

His left eye patched, his lips dry, teeth stained. I can't even dare to judge which is worse, his obvious lack of hygiene through sight or smell.

The growling coming from his throat reached my ears, chilling my skin that had been dealing with goosebumps from being welcomed by his sight.

"What do we have here?" The felon asked, making me wrinkle my nose from the awful smell of his breath. "Two adventurers in the dry land. What business brought you here?"

"Uh... we're looking for water?" She answered for me, also being held by another felon from behind her.

"What do you think I am, a fool?" The felon shouted, his spit landed on my skin, and I shivered in disgust. "Bring them in the cage!"

I was pushed and almost faced the dirt if I didn't get my balance immediately. "What are we going to do?" I asked her.

"Just chill and hide your bracelet; we're going to take a free ride," she whispered back to me.

"This is your plan?" I wanted to exclaim.

"No, I never plan anything in my life. What makes you think I'd go with this situation? As much as I was raised in the dirty and loud suburbs, I could never stomach their smell."

"Inside!" One of the felons shouted and pushed both of us inside the metal cage. "Get those horses running or I'll shoot them!"

The cage had been dragged immediately, shaking as the tires rolled over the uneven road.

"What am I, a pig?" I mumbled and had to crawl to the corner.

A man like me belongs in a neat house, lying on a soft mattress of my canopy bed, and eating tarts. At this moment, I should've been sleeping soundly.

I gasped when I felt something warm on my hand. When my eyes adjusted from the dark, I realized that there are more people inside.

Most of them are younger than I am. There's fear in their eyes, almost shaking. Their bodies thin and dry. So far from the stories my father has told me.

"Give them space, will you?" She pulled me to her side and sat unlady-like.

"Who are these people?"

"Scavengers, they must be taken while working at Junkyard. It's these motherfuckers' job to smuggle; remember what I told you?"

"And where are they going to take them?"

"To the sea," she casually replied.

"And what about us?"

"They probably got the same news from the Maven; your face is all over the digital tabloids, so they might call the Levies for 'your' head once they see your face."

My hand reached for my neck. "I can't, I have to find someone in Median. My godfather will help me."

"What if he doesn't show up?"

I paused at that thought. Hugh never told me when I should meet him. No, but he told me to find Jurgen, and that he will get me to Poison Ivy.

"Don't worry, I know all the places in Omission and Median. Isn't that why I'm with you? We're partners here." She nudged my side.

Not knowing what to say, I sighed and peeped through the little hole behind me. "What's the plan, then?"

"I told you, I don't make them."

Squinting my eyes, I tried to see the look on her face. "How am I gonna know when it's time to do something?"

"You'll know it," she said, shrugging her shoulders.

The chariot stopped in a loud place, sounding like someone seeking bargain products. In the middle of the night?

Someone opened the doors of the cage, the clanking of the metal and squeaking of lacking oil made my teeth grit. Everyone inside the cage made a rabble at the very corner, the stench of fear brought the foul scent of the place even stronger.

"Give me your bracelet," I heard her say.

"What?"

"Just trust me," she whispered.

We were being pulled outside and being knelt in a row on a muddy floor. "My bracelet holds everything of me. You listen well, I carry my bracelet, I carry what's left of my mother and my father," I told her, and she gave me a frown.

"Alright, snotty rich boy. If you really want that safe, just give it to me."

"No." And that is final.

"Suit yourself," she sang.

But just as I tried to keep it hidden, someone took my elbow and lifted my left arm.

"Lookie-lookie here, a nice golden treasure. I'll take this," the guttural-voiced felon announced and took my bracelet from me.

"Hey, give it back!" I shouted, jumping at the man who took what's mine and tried to snatch it away from him, but my frail strength isn't matched for someone who was raised in a place where weakness isn't a choice.

A mess started.