Chapter 11: Sidetracked
The night bore down on us as we traveled from fence to fence. Lifting, heaving; I was passed from person to person, far too many times than I could count.
Even I could feel the fatigue.
Nobody had complained about it though. Not even Neil who would only grumble and survey the houses where we had come from. But I could feel Audra's arms shaking during the last few minutes as she diligently hauled me up. And then Hanz would get me on the other side. Repeat the whole cycle a couple more times.
It could be an hour or two when Neil whistled low for us to stop. Hanz, who was about to climb over yet another wooden fence, dropped back down, gave us a questioning glance.
"The map," Neil said, before anyone could speak. "Can anybody give me the map? Where is it?"
"Deep in the backpack," Hanz replied, sounding like he was seconds from running out of air.
The guilt I'd been trying to suppress all night bled out from my chest, jumping on my throat. They were tired because of me.
"We didn't want it to fall or something." Audra sounded breathless too. "We'd have a hard time getting out of the sewers if we lost it."
Neil gave us a harrumph. "Fine. But how many fences left?"
"Just this." Hanz pointed to ours. "The next one will lead us directly to the main street."
The only street we needed to cross. But the most crucial one nonetheless.
Cutting through the neighborhoods's yards gave us cover and the shadows. The next street would lead us directly to the enemy's womb. Or so it felt like it.
Audra adjusted me on her back. "Anytime you guys are ready," she said.
With the second to the last fence behind us, the four of us inched to the final one and stopped, gave each other knowing looks, prepared for whatever would jump on us.
We were past the guessing game at this point. Hanz looked like he just wanted to get it over with, while the rest of my companions had those sparks in their eyes, as if they were about to go on war.
I sucked in my breath as Hanz finally climbed the fence, then dropped down. This was it.
But like the first ever wall we'd reached in this journey, Hanz didn't give a signal, much less told us if everything was alright from the other side.
A minute passed like that. Silence from his end.
And then two. Three. Five minutes, until Hanz came poking down his head from above, sporting a goofy grin. "It's clear, guys," he said.
"What took you so long?"
Hanz stared at an irritated Neil, per usual, goofy grin not vanishing at all. "Construction," he said. "There are machines and all. I thought I might ride on one first."
"You mean you took those minutes playing?!"
"Hey, I was surveying the area too." Hanz said to his defense. "And besides, the machines are tall enough. I thought climbing it a little might help us."
"So what about the manhole?" Audra asked. We were getting off-topic here.
"Oh, that," Hanz said. "Yeah, we might have a problem."
My eyes widened when Neil pushed Audra away— we almost crashed down— in order to get to the fence. What was he doing? This was not protocol at all. Him climbing the fence after Hanz was completely out of our agreement.
Neil was beyond any explanations, however. He climbed the fence until he was levelled with Hanz, then dropped down on the other side, groaned. "Damn! Damn it!" I could hear his frustrations through the fence. "How are we suppose to pass the manhole now? It's covered."
Hanz, from above, gave me and Audra a weak smile. "I guess we need to get Pax over the fence first."
After the two of them got me to the other side too— no thanks to Neil, I saw what the cause of panic was for.
Yes, there was a construction. Yes, there were the yellow cones and asphalt and digging materials needed for that. And yes, the manhole was completely sealed shut, what with a forklift covering where the hole was supposed to be.
Neil looked around in desperation, eyes landing back on Hanz. "Do you know any other way around?"
"Yes. But its a bit far."
Neil kicked imaginary dust. Then ruffled his hair. "Alright," he groaned. "Alright. We'll go to the next nearest manhole. Audra. . ." He glanced at us, his eyes narrowing. "Come here for a second."
Audra and I got into motion.
"Give me your hand." Neil was being very specific.
Audra, without question, gave her hand regardless, only to be handcuffed in a split-second. The other end of it was then snapped on Neil's wrist, the clicking sound of it like an end to a sentence.
"The hell?!" Audra pulled at her hand in shock. "Neil! What is this?!"
A sinking feeling went into my stomach. Already, I knew what he was going to say. But I still had to listen to it anyway. "Do you think I don't know what you're planning?" Neil boasted. "The three of you are in this together, aren't you? You're going to divert our mission so you could go to Pax house." He shook his head in disgust. "I'm not stupid, female. I'm doing this for us."
The sinking feeling I was experiencing quickly turned to anger. At Neil. At his whole being. This could have been a good plan from Audra, but he was ruining it all.
"Guys. . ." Hanz, who hadn't joined in on the conversation— or wasn't paying attention to us at all, turned to us again, worry on his face. "There are people out there beyond the machines. Tracers, I think."
Neil yanked at his wrist as if not hearing a thing, causing Audra's hand to be yanked with his. "We go back from where we came from," Neil whispered. "You have no other choice but to follow me."
"Not like this." Audra yanked her hand again, as if the sheer will of its pull could break away the handcuff in place. She growled under her breath when it didn't do anything. "Neil, where's the key?"
"Guys, quiet down. They'll hear us!" Hanz hissed.
"There's no key," Neil remarked. "I found this thing on that Dante guy's drawer. But there's no key. And you know I'm the only one who can pull it away."
"No!"
"Guys!" Hanz was shifting into position now. Meanwhile, I looked at all three of them in panic, not quite sure what to do or who to side with. One thing's for sure, it wasn't going to be Neil.
Audra pulled at her wrist angrily for the third time. "I know you have the key," she snapped. "Give it to me now or I'll—"
"You'll what, Audra, huh?!" Neil moved closer to us. "You'll stab me like you want to do with everyone else? Fine!" He puffed out his chest. "Kill me! Stab me!"
"Guys, please!" Hanz was on red alert now, pulling at his hair, yet Neil was still talking.
"Go ahead, Audra. Hurt me. But I'm the only one you can count on these times, you know. Without me—"
"Grr!" Hanz had stood up to full height, turned onto Neil and shook his head. "You really leave me no other choice, buddy."
Audra and I watched dumbstruck as his fist came crushing down.
Neil deserved it, I repeat. Neil deserved it.
So why did I feel like puking for the last thirty minutes as we slowly but surely made our way to my street? Why did it feel like the Neil would open his eyes any time and take a swing at us?
My gaze went to him. He'd been asleep for far too long. Ever since Hanz had taken a punch at him, and we scurried away from the construction site before any of the tracers could reach us.
Audra and Hanz had exchanged places; Hanz was now carrying me. Audra was now carrying Neil because she had no other choice. And the bags were divided amongst the two of them.
But I was still asking. Did Hanz, perhaps, kill Neil by accident? I shook my head in regret. No. Audra would have known if the her best friend stopped breathing, wouldn't she?
Then why?
Hanz and Audra stopped. For once, I looked up, curious with the holdup.
"Is it a tracer?" I asked.
"No, it's your house."
I took a sharp breath. Audra was right. In the distance, still in the dark, loomed my house; all the way onto the second floor, though no lights were opened.
Were my parents asleep? Or were they still at work? Either could be possible.
Hanz tried to look at me over his shoulder, saying, "We've talked about this, Pax. It might not be safe there too. We should be ready for whatever's waiting for us." Tracers, he meant. Those tracers could just be around the block, expecting us to come home.
I took another deep breath. Didn't they know that I had already thought of that? There was always the possibility of the enemies surveying in the dark, getting to us. That's why we couldn't just call my parents. Or any of our loved ones for that matter. But I had to take a risk. This were my parents we were talking about. I had to see them.
"Let's go," I said.
The air was chillier than ever as we'd made it to my front porch. My house was not ridiculously designed like Hanz's. It just followed the theme of the street. A blue rooftop barely recognizable in the dark. A two-storey house. A home. It had a nice, big yard, but the flowers that we'd planted long ago hadn't been blooming as of late.
My hands were sweaty as we took a better look around.
"There are no signs of people," Hanz said after a while. "We're right on the money." He walked to the window, then tried to peer inside. "Can't be too careful though. What me might have seen on the street could be different from what's inside."
We both froze when the main door to our right swivelled open.
"Sorry," Audra whispered, as both Hanz and I turned to her. "Old habits."
How did she open the door, though?
The answer came to me when she lifted the key.
"Under the rug, right?" She smiled. "You might think about changing that hiding place." Either way, she motioned inside. "Homeowner first."
The house was exactly as I'd left it the other day before I went to school. At least, it seemed that way in the dark. The days had been so mixed up in my head as well, and I didn't know exactly how long I'd been gone or hiding in the convenience store with the others. It felt like an eternity somehow.
Hanz, who was leading us all, tilted his head left and right before nodding to Audra. "It looks safe," he said. "Surprisingly so. We can open a lamp for now."
"Just a lamp," Audra supplied, before going to the left.
My eyes blinked in shock at the sudden brightness after a few seconds. That was another thing too. We were always in the dark.
Hanz was the first one to talk after the sudden burst of light. "Wow, it looks so homey," he said. "Not quite like my house, though. No offense, Pax."
"None taken." I was just glad to be home. No, more than glad; ecstatic. We were safe now.
Audra, in the meantime, was hurrying back to us. "By any chance, do you have a hair clip or a paper clip hiding somewhere, Pax?" she asked.
"Upstairs." But before I could ask for what, she turned around and I noticed Neil again slumped on her back. That made a lot of sense somehow. "It's in my parent's bedroom, in the drawer," I supplied. "You'll know it when you see it."
"Where are they by the way?" Hanz piped up.
"My parents?" I sighed. "At work. Probably." How do I put this? "They take a couple of days on duty in the hospital nowadays, especially with the rally."
The whole room turned silent. Of course now, the freaking rally wouldn't be there anymore. Whatever happened to all those people, we wouldn't know.
Audra nodded to us, her face not giving a thing. "See you in a bit then," she said. "I'll just remove this handcuff."
"And I'll place Pax on the sofa," Hanz replied, as if only remembering he was carrying me.
Right.
The four of us parted ways. Or rather, the two groups split, with Audra going up the stairs. But before Hanz could put me down anywhere, I was speaking again. "Do you mind if you take me somewhere for a bit? Afterwards, you don't ever have to lift me again. None of you does."
"Sure." Hanz agreed. "Lead the way."
The door where I pointed Hanz to had not been opened for many years. That's why I wasn't surprised when loads of dust puffed up on our faces when it was, causing both of us to have a fit of coughs.
"God, what are you keeping in there?" Hanz said, waving his hands. "Dead bodies?"
"Something like that."
It took a while before the smoke cleared, but when it finally did, the familiar shape of the crutches beheld me inside, exactly as it looked that time.
Hanz saw it too. "Good idea," he remarked. "Whose was it?"
"Mine."
"Really?" He glanced at me over his shoulder, his eyebrows cocked up. "When did you have an accident though? I don't remember seeing you on that."
"A long time ago." I breathed out.
"Well, in any case," Hanz said. "Seems like I don't know a great deal about you after all all. Though I'm wishing now that I'd taken the time to."
"It's okay," I brushed off. "I wouldn't have talked to you anyhow. Remember what happened on the bus?"
"But still. . ." Hanz looked forward again. "So how do we do this, huh? I just put you down?"
"Yes, please."
My heart did a whoop when he suddenly went on his knee. It was just like riding a rollercoaster. Or something else entirely.
"Now what?" Hanz sounded lost.
"Now you reach out for the crutches, give it to me. And I can handle myself from here on out," I said.
He did so without another word, reached out to the crutches, and gave it to me afterwards. The sensation of holding the metallic stick was so familiar that I almost choked.
"There," I said, as I propped myself up, trying to sound cheery. "All done."
Hanz stood up and swivelled around, saw the look on my face. "Does it hurt?"
"Yup." I turned away. He was right. Not about the pain, but there were many things we didn't know about each other, and I preferred it that way.
"Listen," Hanz said, placing a hand on my shoulder. "I know it's not my place, but I can see that something's bothering you—"
"It's nothing."
"I just want you to know that you have a friend in me," he said anyhow. "And Audra too. And Neil."
Both of us looked at each other, shrugged out shoulders.
"Okay, probably not Neil," Hanz admitted. "He's definitely going to kill me. But Audra. . ." He shook his head in disbelief. "Audra's cool, huh?"
I didn't say a word.
"So maybe I should stay here and make myself a sandwich," Hanz continued, "While you go and check upstairs for her. You know? See how she's doing?" he squeezed my shoulder gently. "And maybe, just maybe, you'll know that you're not alone anymore, Pax. There are friends for you, you know? You just hadn't talked to us before."