"I had thought that getting you to agree with me would be more difficult than Daren," Aksel said looking down at the store from under his hood.
The two had been sitting on top of another billboard in a quieter part of town waiting for the owner of the store in front of them to lock it and retire for the night.
"Why would you think that?" Yve mused, seeping back further into the shadows to avoid being visible by a flying Exter that was busily talking with someone on a call.
"Well, don't take offense but Daren is more simple-minded and easy to approach than you are," Aksel revealed making Yve scowl at his words although inside she was bemused. She had started founding this guy more and more amiable as time passed and especially because of his newest idea.
It irked her that she hadn't thought of it before but at least it was better than just living in this hell hole of a city.
"If you think from Daren's perspective then all that he has come to know, his life now has all encompassed of this city. He has been living here for the past two years and has found himself a balanced life; suddenly asking him to change that is hard for him," she explained turning to look at the one-eyed dude who had been the cause of havoc in their life for the past two days.
"But if the outside world is different than Aquilo then wouldn't it be better to go there?" he asked still unable to sympathize with Daren who had been siding to live in a rotten sewage than the outside world.
"That is what you are positively trying to assume, what if it is much more difficult and terrible to live in the outside world?" she asked making Aksel shut up for a second. He had been so hopeful about a future outside this wicked system that he hadn't even given the negative side much thought.
Yve had been right after all; for all they knew Aquilo could be their safest place.
"Even then I would rather try and find out the truth for myself than hide here and live a terrible life," he said after giving it some thought.
"We can't even be sure that we can possibly outrun the Branding System but for once I agree with you. Still, if Daren is not ready to leave the city then we will not force him to," she said suddenly standing up and following her gaze, Aksel saw the same Exter with bulging silver eyes from yesterday leaving the store after locking it.
"Well since we have both agreed to go on this journey then how about we pack up some food first," she said pointing at the store with a tilt of her head.
They had come there to steal food as they had almost run out of their rations and they needed to bulk up as much food as they could for their trip. What laid outside the city for them was unknown and how many days it was going to take them to go to the nearest town or a safe place was also unknown so precautions for water and food were a must.
The two got down from the billboard as stealthily as they could. Although this particular part of the city was dark and not many people were visible at nightfall to be loitering the streets, it was still very risky.
Aksel had never stolen in his life or even if he did, he didn't remember and his nerves tightened and knotted in his stomach at the thought of getting caught. The thrill that came with doing something wrong was unique to him and though he knew somewhere within what he was doing was immoral he could hardly care about it when his own stomach rumbled with hunger.
Making sure that the road was clear the two ran across the street and went into the lane beside the shop, there Aksel noticed them stopping in front of a door that weirdly had no knob or handles.
"There is no lock," he said, and soon as he said that a memory in his brain emerged making him aware of the locks that worked with the brands of the people whose codes had been enlisted in the device.
"Fuck, I didn't think that a small store such as this would have such a costly security system, that too on its back door," Yve muttered to herself as she took a few steps back wondering what she could do next.
"We need that Man's Brand to open this store, right?" Aksel asked just to be sure that his memory had been correct and when Yve nodded at him he soon realized that breaking open this store would not be possible today.
His stomach rumbled at his thoughts and clutching it he looked around trying to think of a way to get inside, without having to open the door.
"I could try breaking in but it would immediately send a signal to the man about a robbery and that would not be favorable," she said sighing as she kicked the wall beside it.
It was the first time Aksel had seen the fire in her die and he didn't like that. It was also his male pride pressing him to show off and solve the problem, now that his overachiever friend had fallen into a slump that he somehow wanted to open the door for her.
His brain was the only tool that could help him right now and digging through his memories he tried to think of something that might have been fed into him. It was really good that Aksel was a quick thinker because stumbling across something he asked, "You said that it was unusual for small stores to have such an advanced security system, right?"
The tone with which Aksel had asked her signaled the start of something brewing in his head and nodding at him she said, "Yes, I did."
"Do you still have the lamp with you?" he asked and without a question, Yve took it out and watched as Aksel suddenly broke it into two and throwing it down then trampled on it with his sturdy shoes.
"Are you insane? Having that was a luxury! How could you just break it!" She shouted ready to hammer some sense into him with her staff when pulling back his hood a little he looked at her and said, "Just trust me."
The manner in which he said it made her more annoyed and staying silent she watched as he moved away the scattered pieces and picked up a shiny black small circular disk as he smiled, "Found it!"
"A magnet?"
"Yes, a magnet!"
"Will you stop being so elusive and just tell me what you are going to do with it? I need to make sure that you don't find another way to get us killed," she huffed hating how smug he was acting after destroying something that was precious to her.
"I saw in my memories that in our school we were being taught about the difference between such doors and the technology used behind them. The fake security system usually is just for show to stop people from trying to steal but isn't effective at all."
"So you think this one is fake?" she asked, and standing up from his crouched position Aksel said, "Yes, you remember when the owner of the store had greeted us yesterday? I noticed then that he was wearing very old and rugged clothes. His store also doesn't look in the best of shapes so it is natural that this is not the real thing."
Standing up he then turned towards the door and glanced back at her to gain her permission. Yve was hesitant and though she had never heard of this before she felt it was likely possible and so grunted at him to continue.
Feeling more confident he wondered if he should take a risk but not letting the negativity affect him he swiped his hand over a flickering light that was there on the side of the door adjacent to the wall. In doing so a scanner could be seen waiting to scan the brand of the person and taking the magnet he pressed it on the center of the square outlined box that had appeared on the door.
There was a few seconds' pause as the two anticipated a siren ringing or something cautioning about their failure when suddenly the door whirred open and pumping a fist in the air Aksel said, "We have only five minutes before which the door will relock, and an alarm alerting the man would signal him about our robbery."
"Then what are we wasting our time for!" Yve said pushing him away to enter first and sighing at not even receiving so much as a thank you, he heard her shout, "The time is ticking away, hurry and fill the bag!"
Sighing he went inside, leaving the door ajar as he took the first step towards getting out of this blasted city.