In The Back Of Your Mind

The Only Person To Ever Escape

What's going on? What just happened? How did this happen? I'll be caught within a day... I've got no where to go... Where am I?

"The escape of this man is strange to say the least. We have yet to discover how he got out, but it seems to have been from an immense heat. Officer Photon Avair is also absent, so his second in command has been set on the case and we are sure Mr Quro will be found within a day."

Photon gave a deep sigh.
"Sure seems weird," came Everest's voice from behind where Photon sat in Tremmor's large, black chair. His office was impressively tidy. Not a single item lay scattered, not one gadget out of place. He had a selection of suits lining the far wall on clothes hangers. They were labelled: relaxation, events, luxury and work. Tremmor's desk was spotless. It was a shiny mahogany with an array of pen pots in one corner but it was the three monitors that took up most of the desk. One screen had a map of Ghora, another had a CCTV of the gate and the middle one had an extensive list of all the cases that were active. The Copperland escapee was at the top of the list.
"Yeah... It does..." replied Photon, exhausted. His tired eyes glanced over at the photo of the culprit. Shock flooded through him. He knew that face. He knew that floppy, ginger fringe. Those brown eyes.
"Strangely, the cell bars and entrance door were melted in the escape." said the TV. Photon was stunned. There's no way he could've burnt the door down, it was heatproof. It was designed to resist any amount of heat colder than the centre of the sun. No human could generate such power. But the melted door and the liquified cell bars...
Then an idea hit him. He turned around to look at Everest.
"Do you have that Xerourian tracker?"
"Yeah, why?"

Photon and Everest bolted back to the rest of the group. When they reached them, Photon doubled over and panted,
"The escapee... Copperland... I think he's... a Xerourian... need tracker..."
"We need to... get back to... the tracker. I couldn't make it... portable. Sorry," wheezed Everest. Koulder raised an eyebrow.
"Ok? Get in the car."

It was a long drive back to Koulder's house. Most of it was in silence, no one knowing what to say. Photon and Tremmor weren't speaking to each other. The only noises where the rumbling of the van's engine, the thump of a slumped Everest throwing a small ball he found in his pocket at the wall and catching it again and Blood directing Koulder. The dull sounds pressed upon them as if it was solid. The journey seemed to take forever.
"When was Xero due to come kill us?" chuckled Ebony, trying to inject an ounce of humour into air. Tremmor gave her a 'shut up' look. Her smile faltered and she slouched against the side door. The next few hours past very slowly. Painfully slowly. When Koulder finally pulled up into his trash dump of a garage, the group sighed in unison.
"Time flies when you're having fun," groaned Everest as he clambered out of the van and stretched out his back, "I feel like Koulder's Granny Mavis, jeez."
"She died fifty-three years ago, mate," laughed Koulder.
"My point exactly," Everest grinned.

They entered the rickety house, trying not to knock anything over. Photon doubted it had had a proper clean in at least two years. It couldn't be more different to Tremmor's office. Tremmor was indeed grimacing at the untidiness of the place. Ancient books were precariously stacked up to the ceiling.
"Didn't know you could read, Kould," called Everest as he admired them. Drawings, tools and strips of wood and metal lay around like disobedient children. A clearly homemade bass guitar was propped up against a shelf.
"You play bass?" asked an intrigued Ebony.
"It's not the only thing he can slap." grinned Everest as he poked his head around the corner that led to his kitchen. Glob, Koulder and Ebony all laughed. Koulder slung the guitar round his neck and played a song by the Icy Cold Chilli Peppers (a popular Indie band in Ghora). Ebony smiled,
"Not bad, but shouldn't we be tracking this dude you say is a Xerourian?"
"It's through here." called Everest from Koulder's living room. Koulder and Ebony went into the room and Everest fired up the tracker. It made an extremely satisfying loading noise. Koulder walked over to one of the walls and thumped his head against it.
"What is it?" laughed Photon.
"That's his phone ringtone," replied Koulder, exasperated, "I'm so done."
"It needed a nice sound to make our futures seem less dismal."
"Guys, there's red dots on it, is that where the Xerourians are?" pointed out Tremmor, unimpressed by the humour.
"Hang on, there's more than there was before," noticed Ebony.
"Ah, I didn't realise the anti-tracker actually worked. I never bought one because I thought Xero would find out and kill anyone who'd bought one. They must not be permanent though, so that's why they've started to show up now" explained Blood, "looks like we might have a better shot than we thought at not dying, which is always a plus."