"Why do they want to kill you?" Mellie asked as she stumbled after Novah, nearly tripping over a rock sticking out from the ground. "Why not just let you be?"
Novah frowned. "Who knows? Maybe they think we will start a riot. I mean... Well, people are already crying for answers, aren't they?"
She had thought about this while she was on the run with Jordan. They had theorised that maybe there was something even they didn't know. She had wondered even though those scientists had said the experiment was a failure, what if it was not a complete failure? What if they thought that the escaped subjects would be a far greater threat than some rebels? What if there were going to be some side effects or something that no one would like?
But she didn't say that to Mellie. She didn't tell that to anyone. They didn't need to freak out over that. It was her and Jordan's secret.
"Simon thinks there will be a war." Mellie kicked at a loose pebble, glancing at Simon and Kaylin who were walking ahead of them.
Jordan looked back at them over his shoulder. "Maybe. Probably."
"Do you think you can fight them?" Mellie asked. "They have weapons. They have technology. What do we have?"
"If a war starts," Novah said. "It's not going to be just us. People will fight. The government depends on people, you know. If it comes to a war..." She shrugged, frowning. "I guess it will end in a disaster either way."
"This sucks," Jordan muttered, stretching his arms over his head.
The both of them had slung the rifles around their shoulders. They had parked their truck a few blocks away, hidden among a cluster of buildings. Or, rather what remained of those buildings. It seemed that this area had taken more damage than where they were before. There weren't many people around either and even the ones there seemed to be just passing by.
The five of them were going down a narrow and rocky slope. While in the facility Jordan had found a list of old warehouses the military had abandoned after the sun flares. Most were obviously destroyed but there was one safe house that was underground. It had a better chance of surviving the excessive heat than the ones above ground. Simon had suggested they find it. Novah had no idea of what might await them. But there should be more weapons in that warehouse, and hopefully, electricity. The government would come after them. They wouldn't just let them go. And for that time when they catch up, they have to be prepared.
"So, it should be somewhere down here?" Simon turned back to glance at the three of them.
He had stopped near a crumbled building. Blocks of cement and wood piled along the ground, dust rising to coat their shoes as they walked. Simon and Kaylin were studying the map Jordan had stolen when they escaped. It was hard to find any street names when everything was just charred pieces of rubble and it had taken them a day and a half to get on the right route.
"I guess so..." Novah trailed off eyeing the map and the pile of concrete in front of her. "We'd have to dig through this."
"It must have been under another building—this building. The entrance must have been inside it. Now it's blocked," Kaylin observed, tapping her chin.
"No. Look." Mellie was pointing at something among the rubble, standing on her tiptoes to get a better look.
Novah stepped closer and looked where she was pointing at. "Oh."
There was a trap door that once must have been metal but now it looked like a melted chunk. A melted chunk that was broken along the corners. Someone had opened it. Someone was already there.
"It seems like someone got ahead of us," Jordan muttered. "The others?" He looked to Novah, a questioning look in his brown eyes.
She shook her head slowly. "Could be. I'm not sure."
"Maybe we should head back..." Kaylin muttered, slowly backing away from the collapsed building.
"No," Novah said. "We came this far. We are not going back because it looks like someone opened the damn door."
She climbed over the large concrete slabs, one hand keeping the rifle in place. She heard the others following shortly behind, stepping over rubble and moving things out of their way. Novah crouched down next to the trap door, lightly brushing her fingers over the edges. There was a bit of dust but not as much as the other parts of the place around them. Someone had been here recently.
"Give me a hand, Jordan." She said, fitting her fingers underneath the hatch.
They tried to lift it off as silently as possible. Still, the light screeching noise of metal scraping against metal made her wince. If anyone was down there, now they would surely know someone was coming down.
There was a staircase leading down. Only the first few steps were visible in the sunlight. The rest were lost in shadows. Jordan and Novah took the lead because they were the only ones with guns. The others followed them, Simon placing a hand in front of the flashlight so only a little light would peak through his fingers. It was enough to see where they were going but not enough to what was waiting for them. But they couldn't risk being spotted when they had already made enough noise to alert anyone of their presence.
Novah knew they would not be welcomed here. If they were the first ones here, they wouldn't like anyone else coming down here either. But they had to check. They had to make sure.
"Stop right there!" A voice shouted just as a white light momentarily blinded them.
"Shit," Novah blinked, whipping out her rifle and pointing it in the general direction of where the voice came from. She could hear Jordan do the same next to her.
There was a gasp from Kaylin behind them and a small commotion and someone almost tripped. Novah blinked, trying to clear the colourful dots dancing in front of her eyes.
"Who are you?" A voice asked from below.
It wasn't the same voice as before. The first voice was a man's voice—probably middle-aged. This time it was a woman's, or maybe a girl's. Someone closer to their age.
"We mean no harm," Simon started. "We just came—"
"Wait I know who you are." The same voice that asked who they were said.
Novah squinted at them, trying to see through the flashlights still pointed at their faces.
"Huh?" She asked.
Was it someone she knew? She couldn't put a face to the voice.
"Oh, sorry," The woman said. "It's guys. You don't have to blind them."
The lights went away from their faces. After blinking a few times Novah could see the group of people huddled below the staircase, guns pointed at them. Great. The one in the front was a tall, black man around Simon's age. He must have been the one who spoke first. He was eyeing them suspiciously. Next to him was a young woman about twenty with dark blonde hair that looked like someone had taken a hedge shear to it.
There were three other people—a man, a woman and a small child clutching that woman's leg—huddled behind them. They looked better than Novah's group looked. They seemed to be wearing fresh clothes even though all of them were military T-shirts or plain brown shirts. There must have been a whole supply down here.
"So?" The man asked from the blonde girl, still glaring at Novah and the others. "Who are they, Lilah?"
"The subjects," The young woman—Lilah—grinned. "Well, the two with the guns anyway. Don't you remember, Chris? They were on TV. They were fighting soldiers."
"Uh huh," Chris said. "Where are the others? And why are y'all with them?" He used the gun to show Mellie, Kaylin and Simon.
"We don't know where the others are," Novah said slowly, contemplating whether she should lower the gun or not. "And these three—I knew them before I was taken. They are my friends. Okay?"
"It's fine, Chris," Lilah tapped his shoulder, lowering her gun. "Not everyone wants to kill you."
Chris made tch sound but lowered the gun. "Come on in then. But if I think you are a threat, I will kill you. Understood."
"Okay," Simon said, lightly nudging Jordan and Novah to lower their guns. "Alright. I assure you we are not trying to hurt any of you."
"So how did you find here?" Lilah asked, looking far too cheerful for Novah's liking. "Coincidence? You were in the area?"
Novah looked briefly at Jordan. Should they tell them that they had a map or should they just let them assume they came across this place by accident? But the second option seemed too unrealistic and if they found out they were lying, nothing would end in their favour.
"We had a map," Jordan said. "We found it in the facility. This place was marked as a safe house."
"Why did you want to come here?" Chris asked. He still looked a bit suspicious.
The other three people had wandered off into the corners and were watching them. The child didn't seem bothered by the strangers. She must have been around ten or eleven but the look in her eyes was far older than that. It was the look of someone who had seen more than they were supposed to. It was the look Novah saw in Mellies's eyes, in Jordan's eyes.
It was the look Novah saw in her eyes when she sometimes looked in the rearview mirror of their stolen truck.
"The government are looking for them," Simon nodded at Jordan and Novah. "I guess we are on the run..."
"I heard they captured two of yours?" Chris looked at Novah as if testing her.
"They didn't capture them," Novah shook her head. "They killed them."
"Why? Because you are dangerous?"
"I don't know," Novah said honestly.
There was a beat of silence as all of them stared at one another in the bright light of the flashlights. Then Chris shrugged, shouldering his rifle.
"I don't like this government and their little experiments either. You know what they say: the enemy of my enemy is my friend? I don't know about being friends, but," He tilted his head at them. "We'll help you. We'll fight them if it comes to it."
Total word count 13,865