3. Chapter 3 (1/1)

act i - at night

i decided to go out and check the sewers. i needed to wait until it was dark though. so i waited. and waited. i checked my watch. 9:00. curfew for everyone other than cwu officials or the cca was in affect by now. but like normal district two was quiet. i got up and looked out my window. not a single cp to be seen. i put on my normal day shoes and went out the door... as if to be discreet i hid alongside the wall and made my way towards the sewers entrance. as i drew near the construction yard i realized now that i was closer that the sewer entrance was an underground entrance. i jumped down into the yard and took a quick look around. i didn't see anything but rubble. i came to the entrance of the sewers. and i thought, if i get caught down here i'm as good as dead probably. i stood there holding the side of the tunnels bars. i climbed in. inside it was dark, so i turned on my light i had gotten attached to the papers. there was two directions i could have gone. to the left or to the right. i chose to go to the right first. i walked cautiously down the dim hallway only lit up by red alarm lights with no alarm. at the end of the hallway there was a fencing. i tried to open it, to no avail. i decided if i came this far i might as well keep going. i kicked down the fence gate and walked through it. i heard voices murmuring.. i walked out onto a catwalk. i looked out to the right of the catwalk. there was another tunnel and some control modules. under me was a large stream of water. but it didn't look too deep that i couldn't walk through it. suddenly, the voices stopped. i slowly looked to my right. where i saw 4 people armed with pistols staring at me. they waved and one motioned for me to come down to him. i stood there shocked for a moment. then i looked behind me, at where i could run off to. but i took a deep

eath. and i came down the ladder and slowly and cautiously walked up to them. they all smiled a little awkwardly. and i noticed what they were wearing. they all had on rebel armor plating and jeans that looked different from the basic uniform jeans. one had a beanie and two others had some black gloves on. i looked at all of them in silence until the one with the beanie spoke up. "what's your name lad?" "i'm alexei vladislav. i was just relocated from 74... who are you guys?" they all looked at each other and the one in the beanie said "well we can't tell you that. not exactly yet. i go by the name of jap. and this is doc." he pointed to an older man who gave me a nod. one of the other two spoke up, "i'm soap." and the last one, "and i can tell you my first name. i don't have a nickname. i'm jack. pleasure to meet you alexei." i gave a slow nod. jap looked at me, gave a half smile, and said "eh, i'm sorry but i'm afraid we are going to have to pat you down. nothing out of the ordinary just need to know that you aren't carrying any cr devices. you understand right?" i gave a nod once again. thinking that speaking to them might further the consequences if we do get caught. they pat me down from everywhere it's possible to be pat down from. "alright. he's good." jap said. "alright. so what do you boys want to do with him?" jack asked. "woah woah woah wait. i'm not just some guy that isn't going to be involved with this." i said. they all looked at each other. and holstered their weapons. "alright. what do you want us to do with you alexei?" soap asked. "take me with you. i don't need another one of these city catastrophes happening again and me being in the middle of it." "alright then. he's with us. let's get out of here before cps show up." they walked towards the tunnel to the right. it was 10:00 now.

- 2 hours later -

12:00. we are at the end of the tunnel, only way i know this is by the look of the opening at the end. we walked through and i looked up. the stars were glimmering like thousands of jewels in the night sky. "you have been oddly quiet alexei. what's troubling you?" asked doc. "... i'm not going to be able to go back am i?" i replied. "no you will. there are few that they keep track of in the city. and besides. you aren't vested. you are a simple refugee. don't take that as an insult lad. i've seen refugees do many good things. of course after they get vested." "thanks.. i think i'd rather keep my head down in the city instead of being vested though. and that word refugee. we could change that couldn't we?" "i believe we could if we had enough people on board with it. but at the moment we don't. mainly because we don't have that much gees to begin with. 's a damn shame let me tell ya." soap cuts in here "well i suppose we could have a little work for you. call yourself a runner, grab supplies and people and

ing them back with you to the caves." i was silent the rest of the walk there. hours passed...

- 5 hours later -

the sun is beginning to come up, and with it the looks of dark clouds. i just now realize the terrain of where we were walking. it looks a lot like a canal system. i should have known as soon as i noticed we were still in water. "my clothes are going to be soaked through in a second here, how much farther?" "we are here..." jap said. they came to a

oken tunnel gate and climbed inside. i followed behind them. as we went in, the one in the back turned to me and said, "hold your

eath", gave me a smirk, then went under some water. i took a deep

eath and followed him under. as i came to the surface on the other side of the tunnel there was a blinding light. i shielded my eyes until the glare got better. then i saw 3 other people behind barricades aiming weapons at us, but they slowly put them down. "jesus jack. you nearly made us think there was a raid coming." a female voice said from behind the barricade. the group climbed over the wall, and i just walked up to it, thinking there would be some kind of introduction. but there wasn't. the woman just offered me a hand up. i took it. "names finely. used to be in the united states army. i guess this whole war thing never really ended did it." "alexei. thanks." i walked off to join the rest of the group. jack turned to me as i walked up to them. "alexei this is our leader, beswick boswaldis. you will be taking orders from him from now on as a runner." beswick walked up to me and smiled, offered a handshake, i took it and smiled back. "good man. so here's the plan. we gotta get you out of those city clothes, but into something still legal. he motioned to a dark area, "walk with me. we can discuss this further inside."