Code Cyan

Memory File #1

Nickel was used to being kicked awake.

"If someone kicks you," her friend Silver would say, "call me."

Yet there he was

Kicking her.

"Get up, Goldie." Silver barked. "Copper's run off again."

"Stop calling me that!" Nick protested. "My name is Nick. Nickel, if you like long names, and Hey-You if you're a police officer. Or someone I don't like."

"What kind of name is Nick?" he asked, for the millionth time.

"What kind of name is Goldie!?" she yelped.

"It's not a guy's name." Silver murmured. "Now, hurry up, before Copperhead gets to the train. It took us days to catch him last time."

He grabbed her roughly by the hand. She tried to pull back, but his grip was far too strong.

When you've lived on the streets your entire life, you learn not to get attached to the things you can't bring with you on a seconds notice. She was ready to run. Nick had no belongings.

Silver was years older than her. He was around twenty, she was fourteen. They had recently started taking care of a twelve-year-old boy after he fled from his parents for an unnamed reason. He wouldn't tell them his name, so they called him Copper. Silver nicknamed him Copperhead for yet another unnamed reason.

They arrived at the train station, and Silver sighed with exasperation.

Adrenaline coursed through Nick's veins as she pulled out of Silver's grasp. She bolted down the street, her mousy brown hair billowing behind her. She looked behind her ans laughed as Silver yelled after her, and his path was intercepted by a police officer.

Copper's arm was extended from the train car. Nick grasped it and he pulled her up. She sighed, relieved.

"We did it!" she cried.

"Hey, no problem, sis!" he said, smirking.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and picked him up, spinning him around like a mother excitedly picking up her child. She plopped down and held him like a baby.

She inspected his dirty face and shoulder-length red hair. "Are you okay? Did you get hurt."

"Nah." he replied. He grinned widely.

Nick stood up and shut the door, looking out and smiling. "Good-bye, Georgia! Ya hear that, Copper? We're going to find ourselves a home!"