-The Banditos-

-Chapter One-

I wake up in a prison bed, covered in sweat. I take a deep breath and sit up to see a sheet of paper at the end of the bed.

IDENTIFIED AS
FAILED PERIMETER ESCAPE
BY DEMA COUNCIL
VIOLATION OF SECTION 15388642
OF VIALIST CODE OF CONDUCT

At the bottom of the sheet it says:

                     Last chance - Nico

Nico is a bishop of DEMA. Bishops control everything that happens within the compound. Nico is in charge of Failed Perimeter Escapes and dealing with escapees.

This is my second time trying to escape alone, going off the plan that I was given just because I seem to have no impulse control.

"You know what will happen if you do this again, don't you, June?" One of the Bishops, Keons says, standing at the entrance of the cell. I'm unsure of Keons' purpose but all I know is that he hates the Banditos. And from his point of view, for good reason. They go against the code of conduct, they want to leave DEMA because they know the government is corrupt. That means he's a problem...

Because I'm a Bandito.

And if he or any of the Bishops ever found out I'd be Snatched. That's what happens to anyone who steps out of place too much. The Bishops take you by your neck and darkness takes over. After that, you have no conscious anymore, you're a mindless zombie. A slave to the Bishops. That's what the majority of the security in DEMA are, mindless and submissive to the Bishops.

"I get a smack on the wrist?" I retort sarcastically to Keons. His facial expression doesn't change and his stare on me doesn't waver.

"You know the consequences." He turns and walks off down the corridor, the cell door opening to let me out. He's right. I do know the consequences, but they won't stop me.

I leave the Tower Of DEMA, the Failed Perimeter Escape clutched in my hand as I look up at the grey clouds which match the grey buildings and clothes everyone wears. I half jog down to the end of the housing district and down the path that leads to a small abandoned bunker. I freeze, staring at the door. Seth is going to kick my ass...again. So is Chloe for throwing myself into danger...again.

To clarify, Seth is the leader of the Banditos and set on the escape and freedom of the Banditos. Chloe is my best friend and hates it when I blindly throw myself into dangerous situations. Which is understandable, but I have a hard time staying out of it.

I reluctantly walk in and instantly, everyone's eyes are on me. The Banditos are a big group and even I don't know all of them. They all wear some form of yellow clothing, whether it's a bandana or yellow tape on their clothing. It's the colour of the Banditos and represents life and freedom, something we all desperately want. To be able to live without the constant fear of the Bishops over us. It's the only colour we see in this world anymore.

"Problem?" I question. They all turn away and carry on what they doing and I hold my breath waiting for what comes next.

"JUNE?" Chloe yells, barging through the crowd, her brown hair flying everywhere as she pushes people out the way.

"Yes, Chloe?" I reply calmly.

"Are you stupid?" She questions, an angry expression on her face.

"No, I'm June." She rolls her eyes and puts her hands on her hips.

"Seth is going to kill you." She leads me to Seth's room at the back of the bunker.

"I know."

I step into his room and he stands there with his arms crossed.
"Want to explain why you tried to escape without a plan to outrun Nico, not to mention without a plan in general?"

"It felt right." He shakes his head as if in disbelief.

"Oh, that's it? It felt right?" I look over at Chloe for help but she just stares at Seth, "If you carry on doing things like this I'm going to have no choice but to ban you from the field."

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry, it won't happen again." I say.

"Good." He says sternly.

"Got another Failed Perimeter Escape for the collection, though." I hold up the paper and he sighs, snatching it off me.

"That's not a good thing. Whilst you're here we've had a new breakthrough."

"Wrong context, Seth." Chloe tells him. He ignores her.

"Jemma was searching through old records and we found something. Jemma?" Jemma looks up from a pile of papers. She's the smarts of this group and comes up with the majority of our plans to escape.

"Um, yeah. I was searching through Josh's records, and I found that there's a tunnel they built which leads out of DEMA and directly into Trench." Josh used to lead the Banditos about twenty years ago. He, the Banditos and his friend Tyler are said to be the only people who actually escaped DEMA successfully. Tyler was apparently the only person who broke through the Snatch and gained his conscious back, "The tunnel is what they used to escape all those years ago and is at the other side of DEMA, in the factory district. They say it's in the basement of one of the factories there, the one opposite the statue of the DEMA founder."

"But that place is heavily guarded twenty four seven, how could we possibly get there?" I ask.

"He says here there's two entrances. The Main Street entrance and the backstreet entrance. They only took the main street entrance because they caused a complete diversion, which started a mob of people the guards couldn't get through." Jemma explains.

"So we need to start a diversion." Chloe states.

"The Bishops would never fall for the same trick twice. Our best bet is to try and sneak there and take out the guards. But the question is, how many guards are there?"

"We need you two to scout out the area before we send a larger group of people."

"So you're sending the person who loves guns and the person with no impulse control on a stealth mission?" Chloe says, "Great."

"You're the only people we trust.  Stay alive and good luck."