When I reached the shore, I was covered from head to toe in salt water after having the boat topple over on me few times, once even having it hit me good on an arm that surely would lead to a bruise. My short boy cut hair stuck to the nape of my neck, making me even colder. With my hands gripping the bow securely, I pulled the boat out of the water. I had to leave less weight to my left arm because of the fact that it was still sore. I paused a few times to let the ocean wind blow off the collecting sweat on my forehead.
"Stupid," I grunted from behind my gritted teeth, "boat." After half of the boat was safely resting on the sand, I let go of it. When I straightened up, sharp pains traveled down my back muscles like slow moving knives. My feet left sunken trails in the sand as I shuffled from the coast to the faded grey road. There was no line to divide the left and right side of the streets, and it reminded me a lot of the suburban roads in Mesa, tucked away from the bustling main streets.
The wind here was more of a melancholy tune than the happy whistles of Arizona, the twirling leaves below me frantically swaying from one side of the streets to the other. Some of the long deaden fingers of the pale oak trees mingled with evergreens, and other of the boney branches reached up high into the dark December night. A few occasional cars would roar passed, leaving behind an onslaught of bittersweet gas, rustling leaves, and wind that froze the blood traveling through my veins.
I ripped my shaking hand and stretched it up in front of my head, holding my thumb up high. You'd think that it being the thirtieth century and all, we would have some automatic taxi or something. My body shook violently, branching off my arm that wavered in the sky. I rested my arm to pull my wool sweatshirt down, and a car zoomed passed.
"Damn it!" I stomped my foot once, the sole of my sneaker slapping the cold asphalt. The stiff jeans seemed to suck in all the cold, making me want to waddle like a penguin to avoid rubbing up against the rough fabric instead of walking like a normal person.
I spent another eternity with my thumb in the air, another millennia before a car finally stopped. It was a small sedan, a little ant compared to Xavier's white SUV. The black paint was faded from the acidic rain, the edges of the body rusted. The back door of the side that faced me was a lighter shade of grey than the rest of the car.
When I finally reached the car after inching my way slowly, the driver rolled down the passenger window. "Where you going, pretty baby?" I could see the even shading of his ebony skin, the light brown hair that clashed unexpectedly perfect with his dark eyes. He was like. I wasn't going to risk it anyways. Just because one pretty boy helped you out doesn't mean another one will. I frowned upon having my thoughts travel back to Xavier. Besides, he'll just end up giving up on you like paper would give way under the weight of rocks. I took another look at the man. He didn't look much older than I was, probably nineteen... I shook my head and focused on the guy.
I deepened my voice like I was trained to do. "Train station."
"Ain't no trains running at this hour, mama." He lifted his light brown eyebrow. "You are a mama, right?"
My eyes widened at his accurate guess. "Wha- no! I-"
"Aye, chill." He cocked his head to the other side, showing me his right ear. I could just faintly see the lacing ink of the Rogue's symbol. "I got your back." He turned back around and winked at me.
"There are a lot of you out here," I stated it unbelieving as I sat into the car.
"Drop the voice, it isn't even realistic." The guy shifted into first gear and began to let the car roll down the street. "And besides, this is where the most of us hide out." He chuckled. "Well, the ones that almost get caught. This place is what we like to call 'The Rogue Treehouse.'"
"That would make sense." I kept my practiced mens' voice, both to annoy him and for security.
"Aren't you cold in that?" The rogue turned briefly from looking at the road to point out my dripping clothing.
"No. It's almost dry," I lied. The shudder that tried to force its way down my spine almost gave me away, but I suppressed it.
"Uh-huh," He chuckled unbelievingly. "So where are you headed, mama?"
"Stop calling me that," I sighed. It was impossibly stuffy inside the small car, and it felt like the sides were closing in on me. Now wasn't the moment to be claustrophobic, though, so I leaned my head against the frosted window. "D.C."
The man whistled. "That's pretty far. Lucky for you, I'm actually headed to New York."
I just let my head nod in response. The sudden warmth of the car triggered the part of my brain that demanded sleep. Drowsiness swept over me like the waves that crashed over the rocks of Maine. My eyes fluttered closed for a second, giving myself the pleasure of darkness until I realize that I was in a car with a total stranger.
"It's okay, mama. You can sleep."
Maybe it was that I was already partly asleep, or just because this guy pressed his hand over my eyes, but I let the car rock me into a calm sleep.
~*~*~
"Thank you." I awoke a few hours ago, when we were already nearing New York. Last time I passed by here, it was dark, and we rode on the moonlit streets. Now, with this Rogue, I could see the towering buildings that disappeared above the clouds. I could look at the reflecting waters that were under the bridges we rode over.
We were now at the train station in the center of New York, by passers shouldering their way to their destination. Not one of them stopped to look at me, not one noticed that I am not a man.
"No problem. You'll want to take the bullet train A36, which leaves in five minutes. It stops pretty close to D.C., so you're really lucky."
"Bullet train..." I had forgotten that bullet trains were now all over the world, too. The Rogue flashed me a smile that shone bright and white, illuminating his ebony skin. He began to run off, then turned around to wave me goodbye one last time.
"So, see you around, Chrissy!" I finally ran off, leaving me flabbergasted.
I wanted to yell back at him, but it was too dangerous, and he was too far away. I never told you my name, Rogue.
~*~*~
It didn't take very long to reach Washington D.C. It was pretty obvious as to how to reach the Whitehouse, also. What wasn't so easy or fast was finding a way to blend in with the rest of the men. I was still wearing my salt covered clothes that pinched when I walked from last night, and my hair reeked of fish. It's like no one ever saw a dirty tourist before, jeez. I was just about to turn a corner when a man approached me.
"Excuse me, sir." I turned around to face the tall, lanky man. "But could you direct me to the public area of the park?"
"Pardon me?" It goes without saying that I was baffled. Who did this man think I was? I couldn't help but think to myself, a man, I hope.
"Well," his light skin tone became flushed around his cheeks and neck out of embarrassment. "You are the head gardener, or no?"
"Actually-" I was about to tell him that he was mistaken when a light bulb flashed above my head. "No I am not. I start today. 'Just got here myself, you see, so I have no clue where anything is." I rubbed the back of my head in an attempted to look abashed. "So if you will please forgive me, I must really get going." I gave him a two-fingered salute off my forehead, then began to walk away.
"Wait, sir!" The tall man hurried to catch up to me. "Wait, I'm going there myself!" His words made me freeze, and the man almost ran into my back.
"Huh?"
"Yes sir, I'm a trainee. Going to learn where the different areas of the gardens are, you know?" He paused to suck in a breath of air. "You said you're starting today, right?"
Damn it, what did I get myself into this time? "Yeah... I, uh, finished my training already. I'm looking for the office."
"So... you finished your training, but you just got here?" He looked at me with a skeptical expression.
I was seriously about to punch this guy out. "Yes," I answered irritated. "I trained elsewhere. Are we finished here?" I didn't wait for him to answer as I began to walk away. He didn't bother me further, just 'helped' me scout out the head gardener's office.
"Please tell me which of these packets are yours." A beer-bellied man ask from behind thick glasses. He slid forward a few different clusters of papers, each one with a different name up on top. Before reaching for any of them, I studied the faces of the both the men. One wrong movement, and I could easily be caught. I let the man next to me reach for his first, then followed quickly afterwards, grabbing the one with the most obvious signature: Marshall Richards.
He had sloppy hand writing, and dotted his i's with a thick circle. The circle was neat, yet the penmanship itself wasn't. He has to be left-handed, I calculated in my head as I stared at my papers. I can easily forge this signature without having to glance at it even once. It was another strategy I had to thank my mother for. Look into the handwriting, and you've got the signature. "Is everything complete," the head gardener asked in his alto voice.
"Yes sir," we both replied firmly.
"Then, I will ask you to please sign here to verify your signatures. This is a security step, so we don't have any nasty identity theft cases going on, yes?"
Once again, the tall man and I nodded our heads in a firm response. We both signed at the same time, then handed out paperwork in to the gardener.
He compared the signatures, and with a disgruntled hum, put down the papers. "Mr. Marshall-" the head gardener looked down quickly at the pile then glanced back up. "-Richards." He paused, and my heart raced. If I was fast enough, I could bolt through the door before he called security... But before I took a step towards the door, he smiled with his incredibly white teeth showing in a warm grin. "Welcome to the United States of America Whitehouse Gardening Unit."
He then turned to the tall man next to me and replaced his warm smile with a grim line. "Sir, I am sorry. But it seems that your signature does not match. I am going to have to ask you to please sit down." The head gardener pressed a button on his desk, and then swiveled in his chair to face me once again. "I will have one of our newest members escort you around the gardens. He will answer any questions, and give you helpful tips since he himself is more or less new here."
"Thank you, sir."
A few minutes later, I found myself waiting outside the head gardeners' office, waiting for my 'escort'. I almost felt back for the poor guy in there, he was so nice. And gullible. I was going over how I would shake off the guy that was going to show me around when I heard short, crisp clicks on the pristine marble floor. I straightened up from my slouch against the wall and looked in the direction of the steps. I could see a lean figure heading towards me, his features blurred by the distance. Though I couldn't see him well, it felt like I've met him before. The way he walked, the way his hair swayed from side to side, it all seemed familiar. Slowly, as he came closer, his features became clearer. Gentle brown eyes, soft brown hair, light skin... I stood unbelieving as the man edges closer.
"Hey there, I hear you're new." The man wore an amused smile that made me want to slap it right off his face. Something, that goes without saying, I did. It was also something I didn't realize I had done until my reddening palm rested limply at my side.
"Dick," I hissed venomously.
"Come on, we don't have any time to waste." Xavier went to grab my hand but I whipped it out of his reach.
"What, are we going to be late for the specific watering schedule? Wait, no-" I touched my chin with my forefinger, widening my eyes slightly to shock mock realization. "I going to throw off your special cutting ritual!" I burst out in a loud, somewhat maniacal laugh.
"No, before the security system flashes back on." His words left me paralyzed. "What, you thought that I just left because I got tied of you?" Xavier grabbed my hand again, and began leading me down a maze of immaculate halls with past presidents' pictures. I had lost count after sixty five. "Your bossiness isn't enough to chase me off. No, that isn't a good enough reason. I actually want to stop this war from happening, like you are."
Pang, pang. Two piercing shots pained my heart; the most obvious one was because of his lost cause against the war that he believed I was stopping. The second... was hard to identify. I wish I knew what it was. "So I got a head start. I knew that the security systems were over the top here, and I knew you, we, didn't have the equipment necessary to breach it." He paused, dropping his voice down lower. "Though it wasn't advanced enough to make it a long timed block, but only shortly temporary. It isn't actually that bad because then it won't come up in the computer systems."
"How long do we have?" The shock of Xavier's patriotism wore off, and I was completely alert now.
"Last time I checked the system, we had a little over an hour before the overdrive shut down."
"And if it shuts down while we're in the hall-"
"We will be trapped in a maze of ultraviolet laser beams that will set off an alarm to all the security guards."
"Alright. What did you do with the guards?"
"Set their schedules differently. Each one thinks another is guarding the files."
"Got it." We were already nearing the files hall when I heard a small beeping noise. "What is that?" We froze in the main hallway, the last of our steps slightly echoing in the distance.
"I don't think you need to ask." The beeping became louder as our steps became more and more frantic. I would know that beeping anywhere. Small. Electric. Quietly dangerous.
"Damn it. All the files will burn!" My patience snapped, knowing that the bomb was about to explode, blowing with it all the crucial information I need. We both broke into a sprint, knowing that no one was near this branch of the building. It was a matter of minutes before the bomb exploded, taking with it every single file, every single record kept of censuses over the past ten decades. I could feel every movement made, every square inch of marble under my feet. Slowly, as we neared the hall, the beeping increased, and I could faintly hear that it multiplied, the beeps overlapping one another.
Once I stepped into the hall, I felt the atmosphere shift. The air felt cooler, and the light was dimmer. On one wall, I could see small, microscopic red lights flashing. Instantly, I rushed over to the huge metal cabinet that lined the opposite wall, wrenching open the doors one by one.
"How long," I stage whispered over the beeping bombs.
"Three minutes."
I was about to tear open another cabinet when Xavier pulled my hand way. "The files you need, they're in there."
"Okay, so let me get them." I try to rend my hand free from Xavier's tight grip, but his hand was over my arm again.
"It also happens that so is a sensitive trigger. See? Listen." He slightly pushed my head closer to the door and indeed, I heard an even fainter beep emitting from inside the cabinet. "You move that, and not only will the files burn down, but so will we."
"Damn it!" My body shook with desperate rage. My temples began to thump painfully, and I had to rub the heels of my palms against them to make the headache die down. Out of the corner of my eyes, I could just barely see Xavier lean his head against the square door, pressing his hear flat against the metal. "What are-"
"The trigger is at the far side of the sliding door, which means that when the ball joint rubs against it, the trigger is going to send a signal, and in less than a millisecond, the bomb will explode. The only way to open this up is to pull the drawer down."
"How are we going to pull it down? We have like two minutes left, and if not, we have less."
"Take out the bottom cabinet. Then the one to the left of this one, and the one on the right of the bottom. Hurry!" I acted quickly to the commands, and soon the three cabinets were laying haphazardly around us. Xavier began to wiggle the cabinet slightly, pulling it down all the same. Soon, a flashing light, a yellow one this time, began to grow from above the slowly lowering cabinet. Once the light was half way out, Xavier shifted the cabinet so that it rested on the crook of his right elbow. He kept the trigger pressed down with his left thumb as he kept wiggling the drawer down.
The lights began to flash faster still when Xavier finally managed to pull out the drawer. Xavier grabbed half and handed the papers to me, then grabbed the other half and stuffed it inside his jacket. Quickly, he put the drawer back into place, all the while keeping the trigger pressed down. "Come on!" He pulled me with one hand as he cradled his chest with the other, holding the papers down. We ran quickly, dodging from the view of any other personnel of the Whitehouse.
We got to the opposite side of the building, heaving in cold breaths when we reached the outside. We stopped for a second before we heard the unexplainable sound of screeching metal and broken marble. Heat waves blew into my eyes, bringing tears. Another explosion followed instantly, a bigger heat wave blowing black my hair, and the tears fell from my eyes.
"Run!" My voice was screechy as I tried to yell over a cough. Ashes chocked the once blue skies, and the air was too thick for my lungs. I coughed once, and held my elbow up to my nose and mouth. I began sprinting again, not waiting or looking back to see if Xavier followed. I let myself get lost in the mob of desperate men shouldering themselves out to safety. Just as I reached the gates, another bomb exploded, this time at the Lincoln Memorial. The huge ball of fire swallowed up the statue of the sixteenth president, stretching before the water.
A few alto screams of surprised men erupted around me, and then the mob turned into a frenzy of terrified shoves and violent pushes. I made it out to the street just barely scathed, a few minor scratches reddening and bruising along my arms. I gave the crowd a quick scan, and managed to catch a mall glimpse of Xavier's brown hair above the heads of the other men. He looked over to me, and our eyes locked. Xavier cocked his head towards the back of a store, and I responded with a quick nod. It wasn't hard to disappear unnoticed with the running men.
The back of the building was filthy, and small mice scurried from one end to another. Strong wind whipped my hair across my forehead as I walked briskly over puddles of water. Once in the safety of the building's shadow, I crouched down and leaned my back against the rough edge. Xavier was just turning the back corner of the store when I began to flip through the papers, ignoring the graphs and bars. Xavier slid down next to me and pulled out the pack of papers he had managed to hide in his jacket.
"What are we looking for?"
I continued to flip though the papers, looking through all the cities. "The city with the most population census. Excluding the facilities."
"This is going to take a while isn't it?"
"No," I sighed. "They should have it somehow organized besides just alphabetical order." I paused to look at a sheet of paper. "There!" I smiled triumphantly at the numbers. "Seattle, Washington. Male population: nine million, seven hundred forty six thousand, eight hundred twenty five. Though, I thought it was New York?" I turned to look at Xavier in question.
"Well, after the Car Plague- which was caused by the excess monoxide fumes from car exhaust- New York was reduced to about the tenth most populated, I think. Then something about eating old fish killed a lot of people in California too."
"Well, look who is paying attention in school now."
"Well, now we go to Seattle."
"Oh God, another long car ride with you."
"Car ride? Are you crazy?" I looked at Xavier, bewildered. "I am beyond done with cars. You, sir, are buying us plane tickets."
"But won't you get caught?"
"I have a passport."
"So, what you're saying is that we could have taken planes this whole time, but you didn't want to?"
I just shrugged. "I wanted to lay low."
~*~*~
I sat in an itchy chair while waiting for Xavier to get the tickets. The Washington airport was uncharacteristically empty, just the occasional roll of suitcases echoing in the distance.
"I'm sorry, sir," I could hear a man speaking to Xavier calmly. I could just barely hear his reply, but I stood and inched closer to the men. I managed to hide behind a pillar a few yards away from them, so their words were clearer. "All flights have been canceled due to the recent events."
"Events? Not just one?"
"No. We are suspecting that the origin of these attacks were from terrorists-"
"Where was the other one?"
The man sounded uncomfortable when he replied. "Seattle, Washington."
It was like a heavy blow to the face, hearing the name of the city. I was lucky that the bombing at the Whitehouse hadn't affected my plans, but I'm not so sure luck is going to help me this time.
"What kind of bombing was it?"
"It took out the entire city. What do you think?" The entire city... Wait, that means that the facility was blown out too...There was a snort of laughter coming from the man who was tending to Xavier's questions before he continued to talk. "It was the third atomic bomb in human history. But, it was somehow small enough to only affect that city." Another small spout of laughter. "Some one really has it big for the city, huh?"
"Excuse me." I heard Xavier begin to walk, so I detached myself from the pillar. "You heard that? Seattle!" Xavier hissed to me once he reached my side, and began to take huge steps towards the door.
"The fact that Seattle was bombed is the least of our worries." My breathing became hitched, and my heart beat faster. "What worries me is why."
Once we reached the cold wind of the outside, I saw the flash of the sirens heading in the direction of the Whitehouse. All the roads were blocked with neon orange cones, police whistling loudly to honking cars. It took over an hour to reach Xavier's parked car.
Once in the safety of the soundproof cabin, I rubbed the heel of my palm over my forehead. The smell of ashes leaked in through the gaps of the car, making my headache worse.
"So why do you think Seattle was bombed?"
I didn't have an answer to his question, not a concrete one, so I just simply asked him, "Why do you think that the Whitehouse was bombed?" I turned to look at Xavier's pale face. "Why would some one precisely aim for the place the files are kept, and why would someone put a trigger in the exact place that the files with the information I need are?" I paused, then asked another question. "Why would someone then send an atomic bomb to Seattle, the very place I was headed next?"
Xavier scratched his scalp, visibly trying to think up an answer.
"Come on Xavier, the answer is so obvious!" I knocked on his head with my knuckles, the force coming out a little stronger than I meant to. "Whoever it is, man or woman, is trying to stop me from carrying out my plan, or trying to mess me up."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Hey guys and gals (that made it to the end!)!! I'm glad that you've been loyal to my story so far, so thank you. And I also want to announce the actress that will be playing Chrissy- Olga Kurylenko! I'll try to find a more natural picture of her, but that what she looks like!
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