"Was this part of your plan?" Roco teased, hands tied behind her back and ankles together. They were both resting on their knees in front of a group of masked people, guys and girls almost entirely equal. But by group... she meant three people.
Timber batted an 'are you serious?' eye at her, focusing the other to stay on the masked bunny "Who are you guys?"
"No no. You're the one who's been asked that and I'm still waiting for an answer." The girl said, keeping a strong grip on the shotgun.
Timber had a stare off with the other girl.
"My name is Timber Alpharo, and this is Rocori Louvremont. We just escaped from Arcana State Penitentiary, and were running or hiding from the cops when we arrived here. We used the sewage system — pardon our stench." She spat.
"Your turn." Roco glanced at the other people in the room. "How long were you in prison there for?"
"One week, 2 days." The brunette shrugged carelessly, as if that was a normal time to be in prison for.
"... Kyarra Whitehorse. I've heard both of your names on the news before." Kyarra bowed her head, slowly moving the gun away.
"Pleasure to meet you."
"How old are you, Kyarra?" Roco peered, checking her up and down. She did look young. "I'm 25. I know you're 24," Kya pointed at Timber, "And you're 22." Roco seemed embarrassed about her age. I would be too if I still made poop jokes🤨
"Yes. That is correct."
"Am I now a threat to the police because I have you here?" She actually set down her gun, taking a fancy glass and taking a drink of water. "Unless you have cops sleeping over here then no. You're fine." Timber shot a grin.
"Would you like to join our little crew?" She blatantly gestured to the others in the room. Roco took a glance at her — Kyarra had the equipment, hideout, team, cars, clothes, showers. This was a good offer to take.
"If you're willing to put up with us, sure." Roco chuckled, moving from resting on her knees to her butt, going in criss-cross.
"Very well then." Kya grabbed another glass from wherever and took a bag from the freezer closest to her. Or at least she supposed it was a freezer — very cold and air was visibly rising from it.
The bag was red.
Plastic, with a label on it and deep red liquid inside.
That was fucking blood.
"Blood?" Timber cleared her throat, gulping in fear. "Blood cc. How well have you controlled your animal instincts?" Kya opened the top of the plastic bag, the smell of bunny blood filling her nose. Shit.
"I'm not just going to let you walk in. I, we, can handle putting up with the two of you." The blood was poured into the glass, thick and smooth.
"Take Rocori into the other room, let's have a drink, shall we?" She knew what she was doing.
Bastard.
—
11 Months Following of their Escape.
Her plane charged down, propellers whirring to a stop and sending light gusts of wind to the grass near them. Inside her helicopter, there was a large black duffel bag that was similar to a body-bag.
Timber and Roco leapt out of their seats, taking the bag buy its ends and walking inside the hidden door of the volcano base. Criminals were bustling in and out with their cars, motorcycles, bikes, planes, whatever transportation they had and trading items, sharing drinks, painting their weapons, and collecting money.
"Good evening, ladies." The Collector said, a bright smile on his face while he made space on the table in front of him. He was dressed like Indiana Jones but from the future — way further into the future, more than half a century.
"Good evening. We got it?" They tossed the duffel bag on the table with a loud thud, Roco left the table and walked somewhere else, probably to get a drink. "Fascinating..." The Collector squinted his eyes, trailing a finger over the mummy inside.
Another successful museum robbery to add to the list!
"Thank you very much. Have a splendid day, Miss Alpharo." He bowed his head, pushing a small bag that was loaded with cash inside. Timber nodded back to him, taking the bag in her hands and greeting Roco at the small kitchen area. "How much did you get for it?" She handed her a coffee.
The brunette examined it lazily and drank — coffee had no taste nor affect on her. It didn't work in her systems. Although she loved the smell of it. "Sixty-seven-thousand."
"Only? Hmph. How much do I get for helping you?" She grinned. "None. You already got your money for that large jewel and the knock-off Mona Lisa painting from centuries ago." The real Mona Lisa painting was actually hung in Roco's apartment room currently, covered up by a picture of the ocean at night.
They liked to joke and laugh about how they have the real painting, and they basically photocopy the old one and keep it placed in the museum.
"True. I wonder if they'll fix her nose in the next photocopy!" They laughed. Timber sighed, finishing her cup and rinsing it in the sink, placing it in the drying rack on the side. "What's your bounty at?" Roco brought up the image from the web of her status. You'd be surprised at how fast they increase it. "I'm at 8.5 million, you?"
Timber tapped the little pad on her wrist, bringing up her status. "14." Roco scoffed. "Spoiled fucker." She laughed at her, pulling up the metal door and headed outside. "Hold on!" Kya shouted, jogging after them, holding a large crate in her hands. "Can you drop me off at the city base? Have some supplies." She breathed.
"Oh, sure. Hop right in." She gave a grin and placed down the metal crate in the back, sliding the doors shut and hopping in. Roco was busy fixing her shoes and taking rocks out of them, that by the time she came to open the door: Timber locked it. "Hey—HEY! Don't play with me. Do not play with me."
The two snorted laughs, barely able to press the unlock button. "Not a word." Roco said, pointing fingers at both of them. "Mhm." Kya said with a large smile, making her burst out laughing again.
"Yeah yeah let's just go." Timber giggled, starting up the plane and pushing the thruster forward. "So you actually found a place for a city base?" Kya nodded. "An abandoned warehouse next to the cargo port — very convenient when robbing the cargo plane. It's not on the radar either."
"Sweet." She says, taking their shortcut over the sand dunes. Warm gusts of wind pushed against the plane, trying to throw it off-balance, small clumps of sand decorated its painted black and gold surface. This trip saved them time when trying to reach the city, and let them blend in with the other Blackhawks around.
An alarm beeped in the plane, and the propellers slowed. Everyone exchanged glances as Timber fiddled with the buttons on her car. "How many feet in the air are we?"
"Twenty-four-thousand Feet from the ground." The computer in the plane said. "Elevation dropping rapidly."
"Timber..." Kya started, trying to get her to do something about the situation. "Activate emergency pressures." She demanded, staring out the window below her frantically—the clouds were getting closer to them.
"Emergency Pressures are currently deactivated."
"What?!" she exclaimed, tightening her seatbelt that went over her shoulders like an X. "Fasten your belts, guys. And desperately hold on for dear life."
"Can we die from this height?" Roco breathed. "What do you think, Sherlock?" Timber grumbled, smacking her fist at the box behind her seat, grunting.
"Elevation: Twenty-thousand Feet."
"How fast are we dropping?!" Her fist hit harder. "You are dropping at 327mph." Kya groaned. "Timber that's—"
"That's a lot of feet-per-second I know!" Timber kept punching.
"Elevation: Fifteen-thousand Feet."
For the first time ever, Timber saw Roco do small prayers to herself, mumbling
things under her breath.
"Elevation. Thirteen-thousand Feet."
"If it gets any lower, it's way too dangerous!" Kya yelled over the sounds of the blaring alarm and punching on the emergency box.
The beeping stopped and Timber instantly grabbed the 'wheel' and pulled it down and back, reactivating the propellers and elevating back up again. Out of breath, she turned on the autopilot, staying low but just above the legal height. Timber flicked the button that put on the flashing lights, in a car: these were the Hazards or 'Four-Way Blinkers'.
"Computer, run all diagnostics on this Plane." There was a beep in response, and silence for a while. "All systems are operational." She sat up, eyes widened. "What? Check again. Run ALL diagnostics."
Beep. "All systems of the Blackhawk-82B are operational and running." Computer said. The voice always sounded happy and monotonic, if you were dying the voice would still be happy. "I'll drop you guys off at the new base and get back for repairs. A better diagnostics check."
"Do I not meet your expectations, Miss Alpharo?" Computer asked. "No. You're lying. That's all." Timber scoffed, approaching the cargo port and lowering down. "I am a computer. I cannot lie to you."
"So... we all just imagined that we fell like fifteen-thousand feet out of the sky?" Roco laughed worriedly. "No. We didn't. I feel sick." Kya groaned.
Timber powered off the engine, activating any emergency options she could that would keep it on the ground no matter what. "Hey, this isn't that bad of a spot. You were right."
"It's a great spot." She objected, holding her stomach. "That's why I picked it." Roco laughed at her comment. "Whatever. I'll see you guys later."
••
Donuts.
Somehow, these still existed. Almost 2 centuries later these things still existed.
Donuts.
She stared blankly down at the pink-glazed donut. This store made amazing donuts, but they only made them strawberry flavoured.
The shop? Pink
The uniform? Pink
The tables? Pink
The floor? Pink, and checkered white.
It was very... bland.
Timber dropped the half bitten donut on the table, leaning back in the chair. The bell above the door rang — one of the oldest things in the history of inventions, in this time and era — and a few footsteps trampled in.
She lifted her eyes to the glass, staring through the reflection at who it was. Police Officers.
Calmly, she lifted up the mask hidden in her shirt, usually she only used it for her dirt-bikes and motorcycles, or skydiving from airplanes. But these occasions worked too.
Acting casual, she went up to the cashier (or at least next to the cashier) and took a napkin, wiping her fingers off and tossing it in the trash.
One of the cops stared at her the entire time whilst doing that. He held no expression behind his eyes, but when she locked eyes with him going out the door; his jawline tensed up severely, moving his adam's apple.
Timber rushed out of the convenience store and hopped back in the plane, starting it up and heading out.
"Rocori Louvremont sent a message: Can you pick me up at the new base if you're still around?" Computer announced chipperly.
"Computer, ''Yes, I'll be there soon.'' Please." A whooshing sound — the message went through — boomed through the plane.
She glanced over at the direction of the city base, vaguely remembering where it was. The 'address' was only in her gps once — and once again, like a car, it goes against the law to use 'devices' in the vehicle — and fiddling could be bad.
Ironic. A criminal choosing to abide some laws. Timber hesitantly turned on the autopilot to keep straight briefly, communicating with Computer to retrace the last address, pressing buttons thoughtlessly.
"Doors unlocked," Computer said randomly. Her brow raised, going to press the lock button again. "Emergency Eject."
Her eyes widened further than the sun. "WAIT!—"
Before hell unleashed from under her seat, she grabbed the closest parachute — or maybe that was her jet pack. She was too stressed out right now.
Falling from thousands of feet in the air, her plane was coming after her too, the computer faintly was announcing the elevation. Who needed a computer telling you how close to the ground you were when you could see it yourself?
"Computer! Override all systems, Factory Reset!" Timber screamed hopelessly, eyes beginning to hurt badly from the wind force. Squinting her eyes, farmlands, cities, lakes and the dunes started coming into view.
Although she wasn't falling very fast, her plane was, and it was catching up to her fast.
Computer started speaking in different
languages, starting up. "Timber Alpharo! Memory Code 197-Kr!" She shouted as loud as possible. The plane's lights turned on, blinding her briefly. "Welcome back, Miss Alpharo."
"Computer! Autopilot on and go full speed straight down! Don't move the angle!" Timber was practically crying now, staying in line with the plane as well as possible. "Okay, Increasing Speed. Elevation Eight-thousand Feet."
Eight? Shit... that's basically 8 Eiffel Towers.
She braced for impact, aiming to smash the windshield. Yes, cuts and bruises were expected. "Rocori Louvremont sent a message: Hurry yo bitch ass up."
"Airline Difficulties!" She pleaded, seeing the nose of the plane almost in arms reach. "Elevation: 7,500 Feet." Computer chimed in. "Increase speed by double!"
The propellers whirred, the small engines on the 'tail' part of the plane whining to speed up. Timber's world froze, pain striking through her when she collided with the windshield. It shattered on the driver side and left a crack along the passengers.
Reacting as quickly as she could under the adrenaline, where the elevation was closer to 6'500 feet now, she pulled the plane up by force, leaving a large burn mark on her hand. "Autopilot on. Reduce speed to 50mph." She placed her thumb on the 'hazards' lights again. "Reduced speed to fifty miles per hour. Elevation returned to ten-thousand feet."
Timber leant back, staring at the burn mark left in her hand from the 'wheel', and the huge chunk of glass sticking in her thigh.
I just want to go to the city base once, without dying. PLEASE?
"I wanted a ride. Not a death wish." Roco crossed her arms over her chest when Timber landed back down. "I already had my other deathwish." Her eyes widened when she stepped out of the plane. "Woah, okay, clearly you had yours too."
"I'm fine. Just—do we have any medical supplies here?" She sighed, sliding out of the plane and hopping over to sit in the side of it. "Yeah, that's the first thing Kya brought here. I'll go grab some." Roco bolted back into the small little warehouse, rushing back out moments later with a duffel bag.
"Wanna tell me why your windshield is broken?" She chuckled, bracing her friend to take out the glass shard. "Emergency Eject."
"WHAT?! I THOUGHT YOU WERE BLUFFING!" Roco screamed across the sky at Timber. This time, they were flying much closer to the ground so injuries wouldn't be life threatening.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME YOU SHIT!" Timber braced for the ground, hoping to hit a dune on the downcurve of it so she could roll. To her luck, she did. She instantly let her legs collapse as she did a casual forward-roll, going pretty far and resting on her back.
"Ow." Her brows creased, whining. Roco hovered down beside her, panting in exhaustion. "So," She breathed. "All in favour of selling your plane?" Timber laughed a little, staring over at the dented plane, scratches lining the surface paint.
"No. I'll figure out what's wrong with it. For now, I'll stick with driving." She stood up, limping back over to the plane, starting it up slowly. Roco joined her shortly afterwards. "Run small diagnostics."
"Running Diagnostics... Systems are clean. Minimal damage to the outer armor." Computer said. "Thanks."
"Do you think it is suitable to call me Computer? You are able to give me a name." Her voice asked, a smile behind the automated messages. "Maybe I'll consider giving you a name when I find out what's wrong with you."
"There is nothing wrong with me, Miss Alpharo. Would you like me to run a diagnostic—on—m—self?" Roco stared at her curiously. "Repeat that, Computer."
"Would—you.... run me—self."
The lights blared inside the plane. A male voice took over the Computer's.
"Having issues?"
Timber's heart dropped, doing a manual scan of the area around them, searching for certain radio waves.
"You can keep running away from the problem, but you cannot hide from it."
Suddenly, a man dropped out of the sky. Tall. Brunette. Masked. Eyes shooting all sorts of bullets at them. Behind the man, his Blackhawk landed down, black as night and had edges sharper than blades.
"You are the next part of my game. Be careful how you use this information, because I can take you out of this game just as easily as I am putting you in it."
The male turned around, holding onto a bar on the side of his plane, lifting back into the air. "Computer, who the fuck is that."
"I lost connection with you for a moment. I did not see their face."
"Being up the security footage of the last five minutes. Run Facial Scanners." Timber asked, lifting towards the volcano base.
"Scanners identify a Police Officer for APD. His name is Striker... The record of him does not provide a surname. Notes say he is most commonly called 'Officer Striker' and that is it." Computer explained, bringing up a small document of him.
"No image provided of him either? Isn't that illegal?" Roco took her turn to investigate him. "Technically, yes, Rocori." Computer closed the document.
"Then... how is he an Officer?" Timber's brows lowered. "There is ways around policies in the law. Officer Striker appears to have found that path."
Roco and her exchanged stares,
sighing out of their noses.
Striker is now their biggest threat,
and they're stuck in his game.