When morning comes, I get ready and head to school. When I arrive at the entrance, I see Mason as he waves his hand. I walk over to him, and we start to walk towards the Lecture Hall.
"So, . . . did you do it?" he asks. I close my eyes and shake my head.
"It's practically my life's work. I couldn't give it up that easily and don't think I ever will," I tell him.
"Same," he says and starts to look around. "Hey, have you seen Sasha?"
"No, but we might see her in class," I tell him reassuringly.
"Yeah, maybe," he says looking uneasy. "What do you think is gonna happen?"
"I don't know," I say sighing, "Let's just hope it's not too serious?"
"Yeah," he says as we stop in front of the Lecture Hall. I look at him. He's looking around anxiously and tapping his foot.
All his worrying is making me anxious as well. I turn toward him, grab his shoulders and say, "Hey. Big breaths. Everything's going to be alright." He nods his head, and we walk up the steps into the building. When we enter into our class, we both look around for Sasha, but she is nowhere to be seen. This makes me worried. Did something happen to her after yesterday? We sit down in our usual spots, and I rake my hand through my hair. I look over and see Sasha's empty seat. My foot begins to bounce. Deep breaths Xander, deep breaths. Everything is gonna be fine. Sasha's fine, and so are we. She's just . . . tired after the party last night, so she skipped. Yeah, she just skipped. The professor gets out of his desk to start the class, so we take out our books.
"Good morning, class, today we're going to start reviewing for finals, so you don't really need your books, just your notes. We're going to start with the first lesson. World War III," Mr. Booker says and starts flipping through his planner. Class seems to go by slower. Every second feels like a minute, and every minute feels like an hour. I glance at the clock getting more anxious every second. My hairs stand on the back of my neck. I feel someone's eyes on me from behind. I turn my head and don't see anyone suspicious, so I turn back around slowly.
Mason turns around too. He looks at me with his eyebrows pressed together and whispers, "You felt it, too?"
"Yeah. Maybe we should just leave. Plus, it's just a review lesson," I tell him.
He thinks about it for a second. "Ok sure," he says, and we start packing our stuff up. Once we're finished, we stand up and leave the class cautiously looking around. "So, where are we going?" Mason asks. We open the door and exit out the classroom into the hallway.
"Uhm. Let's go to my place first, so I can get some stuff, then we can go to yours. If we still feel unsafe, we can always go to a hotel or somethin'," I tell him, and we hurry out the building. "We should also take a different route to our places. Just to be on the safe side," I say warily. We jog down the steps and start walking a little faster towards the back side of the campus. It takes us about three minutes to get to the back entrance. We cross the street and keep walking for a block. Most of the streets are barren since everyone is either at school or work. I feel someone following us. I turn around and don't see anyone. I nudge Mason's shoulder and tell him, "C'mon," and we take a left onto a side street. He seems to understand, and we walk faster. It still feels as if someone is following us, and I start to look around. "Wait," I tell Mason and I put my arm out. I turn around. I look towards the alleys we just passed. "Come out. I know you're there," I say looking towards the alleys on both sides. Mason's eyes go big with worry.
"Smart," I hear a deep voice say. *Bang* I hear a gunshot and a short-lived scream right by my ear. I look to my right and see Mason grimacing in pain while holding his left thigh and clenching his jaw. I look back up and see a body lying halfway out of the left alley. And right above it is . . . Sasha.
"Sasha? What are you doing here?" She comes running over, taking off her backpack. I look down and see a bandage on her arm. I hear a thud and another grunt of pain from Mason as he falls to the ground. I turn back towards him and crouch down. His eyes are closed shut and he's trying his hardest not to scream.
"I'm here to help you two since you decided not to listen to my warning," she says as she reaches us and kneels down. She opens her backpack and takes out some bandages. She starts to wrap up Mason's wound tightly and painfully enough for Mason to start cursing under his breath. "I swear you too are the biggest idiots I've ever known. Why can't you guys listen to me for once?" she says as she finishes wrapping up the wound. She looks at Mason and says, "I'll fix it once we're somewhere relatively safe. For now, this is all I can do for you," she says as we help Mason sit up. He winces in pain. She grabs a container from her bag, unscrews the cap, and pours two pills into her hand. She gives them to Mason and says, "Swallow these." He puts them in his mouth and swallows them. "Help me stand him up," she tells me.
"Ok," I say as we both grab one of his arms to help him up. "But how did you find us?"
"I was tailing the agent that was sent to kill you guys," she tells us, and we start walking towards the opposite side of the way we entered the side street.
I look over at Mason's grimacing face. I ask worriedly, "Is he going to be ok? It looks like he's about to pass out." It looks almost as if he's going to pass out.
"As long as he stays awake, he'll be alright," she says. "We're gonna have to keep to the alleys and side streets. We can't be seen holding a dude with a bullet wound in his thigh."
"Reasonable. But what's the bandage on your forearm?" I ask her.
"Uhm. As a quick summary, everyone associated with the head government gets a chip in their forearm. And since my parents have a high status in the government, I had to get one too, so that's why I cut it out," she says nonchalantly. We take a right into an alley way.
"You say that as if it's an everyday thing," I tell her.
"Well, it might become one," she looks at Mason who's on the verge of passing out. "Not to scare you Mason, but we're gonna have to take out that bullet and it's gonna hurt like hell," she says to Mason who wakes right back up with panic. "The consequences of not listening to me."
"How easy do you think it is to give up your life's work," I tell her. She sighs. "Where are we going?" I ask.
"Uhm, to this bunker. It's the safest place I can think of. Once we get there, I'll explain everything. For now, let's just focus on getting there," she says as we stop on the side of the street. "Oh, by the way," she looks my way, "we can only go and get your invention since your neighborhood is less populated and it's on the way there. Sorry," she tells Mason with a sorry look in her eyes. She looks up towards the left and right sides of the street. I hear her curse under her breath. "There's cameras everywhere." We wait while she gathers her thoughts. "Uhm, you know what? It doesn't matter. We'll just have to lose them in the alleys. There aren't too many there. Let's go. Oh, and we're gonna have to pick up the pace." She looks at Mason's leg, "Sorry . . . again."
"Just do what you have to do," Mason says. I guess the wound doesn't hurt as much as before since he could now open his mouth without letting out sounds of pain. Sasha counts us off and at three we run across the street. "That hurt like hell," Mason says with a look of pure pain on his face.
"Well, it's gonna be like that for a while. We're going to have to pick it up if we want to get to Xander's place before they do. Can you handle that?" she says looking at Mason with a bit of concern.
"We'll see," he says and takes a deep breath.
"Let's go," Sasha says, and we set off at a jog getting a little faster bit by bit. Driven by our determination. Five minutes pass and we arrive at my place. There's no sign of anyone have being here, so we enter through the backdoor. We put Mason on the couch, I throw off my backpack, and I go to my workshop. I look around and find a duffle bag. I put in some of the tools I needed to finish off the wings, the wings, and a bottle of the fuel. I take the bag and go into the living room putting it on the floor by the couch.
"Do you think we need anything else?" I ask Sasha.
"Nah, we gotta go anyways. They're probably on the way here. I'll take the bag, you take Mason, and I'll lead the way," she says. She starts to pick up the bag.
"Ok but be careful with it. There's some flammable stuff in there," I caution her. She stops and turns around.
"Would you care to tell me what it is now?" she asks.
"Oh . . .," I think about it for a second. She stands there waiting, and I decide to tell her, "Well, it's a set of mechanical wings, so there's fuel in there," she looks at me in surprise and a smile comes across her face.
"Thank you," she tells me.
"You're welcome," I say and turn towards Mason. He's asleep, so I shake his arm and say his name to wake him up.
Mason wakes up with a jump. "Wha-what?" he mutters as he wakes up.
"We gotta go," I say and put out my left arm.
"Ok," he says and grabs it with his right and pulls himself up on his good leg and grimaces in pain. I go on his left side and put my arm under his.
We look towards Sasha, and she asks, "Ready?"
I nod and say, "As ready as I'll ever be."
"Good enough," she says, turns around and walks out the door. I take a deep breath, and we walk out after her. She looks at her watch. "We're gonna have to run if we wanna get out of here in time. Let's go," she says and starts running. I count off for Mason and we run on three.
We go through alleyway after alleyway until we finally reach a house that had a stairway that led to, what I'm guessing, is the basement. Sasha takes out a pair of keys from her back pocket, walks down the steps, and unlocks the door. She opens it into a darkroom. She walks in and turns on the lights. I help Mason walk down the steps into the room. Once we enter, I see medical supplies on the left wall, weapons on the right, supplies on the front, and a living room like setting in the middle. "We're gonna have to stay here for the night. Put Mason on the table," she says and goes over to the left wall and grabs a needle and a tube. She turns around and sees Mason's eyes open in surprise. "On the table, Mason. We have to fix that wound one way or another. It won't hurt as much, I'm gonna put some numbing in it, so on the table you go," she tells him. I wait for Mason, and he finally nods. I help him to the table and set him down. "Uhm. I'm gonna have to cut off those pants."
"Mhm. Just get on with it," he tells her with his eyes closed. I go sit down on one of the chairs beside the table.
"Ok," she says as she puts the needle in the tube, walks over to the table, and goes over to the wall with the weapons. She grabs a knife and walks back to the medical side and grabs tweezers, alcohol, a needle, stitches, and some scissors. "Let's begin."