Doves

By TheBossSilverSharpie

394 13 3

Lucius and Auto-Inseparable best friends-find out about the government's testing of biological weapons on civ... More

Doves
Part 1: Big Brother is Watching
Chapter 0
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 10
Part 2: Big Brother is Waiting
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Part 3: Big Brother is Hunting
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Epilogue

Chapter 9

12 0 0
By TheBossSilverSharpie

  The walk into town took a good couple of hours. There were cameras and cops everywhere; on street corners, in random places, pulling cars over. Cameras that I'd never noticed before suddenly seemed to be everywhere. I pulled up the hood on my jacket, hoping to blend into the few crowds on the street. The Surveillance officers patrolled the streets, and where they used to make me feel safe I now felt vulnerable.

 I plodded down the street, looking for a familiar landmark to get myself oriented. Auto's phone was off, so the tracker was dormant. The last time the dot had appeared on the screen he was heading into a mall. I would have to wait for him to turn it on before I would be able to find him. Hopefully the phone wasn't dead. Or ditched. I was itching to get us off the map.

 I stuck to the crowds, hiding around in small stores and coffee shops, leaving every time a cop entered the building. Eventually, I found the mall. Slipping inside, I stayed near the exits in case there was need for a quick escape. It felt like a huge game of hide and seek or cops and robbers. I was looking for Auto and trying to avoid any police, and the police were after both of us.

 It didn't take long to become paranoid. Everywhere I went it seemed like people were looking at me, and looking for too long—as if they were on the verge of recognizing me. I found myself frequently ducking in and out of stores, always looking over my shoulder.

 And the cameras. They were everywhere. I couldn't go two steps without being in range of at least three, at most ten. I was just waiting, almost wishing that someone would spot me, try to arrest me, so that I wouldn't have to bear the tension. But the cameras just kept zooming by, on their way to report a traffic incident or follow a celebrity. I had always thought they were more fine-tuned, but I guess the crime had dropped solely because of their looming presence.

 I continued to act as normal as I could. For some reason, it didn't seem all that convincing. I suddenly didn't know how to do normal. Or what it looked like. Was I walking too fast? Maybe this was a bad idea. But how else was I going to find Auto? What if he had left? No, I thought, there's got to be a chance that he's still here. But where? Of course, he would be trying to hide himself just as much as I was trying to hide.

 The phone buzzed in my pocket. Auto was active again. Inside the mall. Of course, the thing couldn't be specific and tell me where he was. All it could tell me was that he hadn't left yet. I quickly scanned the store I was currently in. No Auto. Was I going to have to check all of them? Oh wait. I'm stupid. But what if it was a trap? Why would he turn the phone on now? I stopped, stepping one way, then changing my mind to go another. This was too much. Screw it.

 I got the phone back out. Where are you? Send. I ducked across the open lobby and into another store. No Auto here either. I scoured the crowd flowing by store's window. Nope. He wasn't out there either. Diving back into the crowd I checked the phone. Still nothing, although it said he had checked it. Did he think I was a trap? That would be fantastic.

 Someone grabbed my shoulder. Oh shit. Surveillance, they've finally found me, I thought. I was about to turn around myself, when the hand whipped me around. "What the hell are you doing here?" Auto hissed at me. A grin split my face. "It's not safe here. Not for both of us. Especially not together." He added, glancing around us at the crowds.

 "Auto!" I cried triumphantly, almost pulling him into a hug. Instead, I clamped my hands on his shoulders. He shook me off, clapping a hand over my mouth. "You idiot!" His eyes shot around the crowd, making sure no one had heard.

 "You'll never believe what happened." I started.

 "I left you for a reason."

 I rolled my eyes. "Shut up, I'm not your girlfriend. Just listen to me," I tried again more seriously, glancing around at all the people sweeping around us in waves. Auto cut me off, "Not here. We've gotta go. Now. Come on."

 He grabbed me by the wrist, ignoring my protests and struggles. We left the mall and hurried down the streets. It would be getting dark soon, we'd be safer when the sun went down. He dragged me absentmindedly towards downtown, where just days ago we would've been two normal kids shooting the breeze. Funny how everything can be ripped away so quickly. We ducked into an alley. At this point he didn't have to drag me anymore.

 We silently walked the maze between apartment complexes, coming to a building where the fire escape had been built into the wall. We silently climbed the rusty rungs of the ladder. We used to go up when we still thought we had a chance at learning parkour. We stepped to the edge of the roof. Beneath us there was a another building, a two or three foot drop from where we were now.

 We hung our legs over the edge. Eight stories down streets latticed the ground and cars streamed around the squares of road. A dog barked somewhere. It felt like old times. Then Auto spoke.

 "So do you want to tell me what you're doing here? And why you aren't ...y'know..."

 "Dead?" we both finished at the same time.

 "...Yeah." he confirmed.

 "Well, it's a bit of a long story, but since neither of us have any where to go...I'm gonna tell it."

 Auto grunted his permission.

 I proceeded to recount my adventure since he had so unceremoniously left me to die. I informed him of Viper itself and the reason we had been framed this way. I also explained that, in case he hadn't guessed, the people who had murdered his parents weren't Viper or any form of government officials, that those people were the terrorists Viper had spoken about. 

 I told him about Scarface and the Jittermen, filling him in on everything up until when he found me in the mall. He sat quietly, processing everything. "So we're doing the secret government's dirty work?"

 "Basically..."He was silent again. "Well that makes me feel fantastic." he stated. I nodded."Why can't they do it themselves?"

 "In case something like this happens again. It sure does seem like it would make things easier if Viper would go ahead and handle it though. I mean, they know what they're talking about. But instead they got a couple of noobs like us."

 We mulled things over in silence for a little bit longer before I broke the final question.

 "Why'd you leave?"I kind of expected it to be met with silence. It was. Car horns blared below. A few police cars wailed up the street and around the corner. The sun was setting, the sky blazing orange in front of us. It seemed like the whole atmosphere was on fire. I looked at Auto. He stared into the sun, unblinking. Through the reflection of the sunset I could see mixed emotions flashing through his eyes.

 "I needed someone to blame." It came out sounding like an apology. I didn't push him for more. The sun slid down behind the city buildings. Pink and purple flooded the sky, overtaking the red-golden clouds. We sat in silence as the last of the light faded from the sky. Streetlights came on below us.

 "We're gonna need to tell some people," I muttered. My phone buzzed in my pocket. Without looking at it, I took it in my hand like a rock. Auto gave me a look. I chucked the phone out over the apartments, watching as it rushed down to the streets below.

 "Yeah. It's gonna be tricky." Auto confirmed.

 "You sure you don't want to back out?"

 "Nah, man."

 A pained smile crossed his face. It really wasn't like we had much of a choice. Either we tell people and we live to tell the tale, we tell people and we die, or we don't tell people and we die. Well, either we choose to do it or we choose to do it, right? We could have any life we wanted as long as it was a life as a fugitive.

 Auto chucked his phone. "How're we gonna go about doing this thing?"

 "I dunno," I began, pondering, "What if we put it all on a website?"

 "Don't you think that's too slow?"

 "What else could we do?"

 "We could tell the newspapers..."

 "Would people buy that? I mean, that it's real, not the paper. Of course people buy the paper."

 Auto climbed down onto the lower roof. He sat with his back against the wall. I sprawled along the rim of the roof, ending up laying on my back, staring up at the stars that were starting to peek through the orange.

 "I'm just spit-balling here, but what if we got a press member or something." Auto suggested, "Like, what if we called HPN anonymously or something and asked for them to send a reporter out and then we meet up with 'em or something. Or maybe we do the whole thing over the phone."

 I pondered it. That could work. If we told a reporter, it'd be the top story for weeks. If we were to call in and tell her some tidbits and then tell her who we were at the very end. Then people would have to hear about it.

 "Do you know any news ladies?"

 Auto looked at me, awaiting a response.

 "As a matter of fact...Nope."

 "Lucius, you little..."

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