Chapter 15 – Keep Moving
Monday Morning, September 19, 2310
Ashley and Geoff had fallen asleep next to a log. Kaz, Sky, Hambone and the fire all slept nearby.
Ash sat up, hyper-alert.
Geoffrey was violently thrown to the ground. He woke in time to catch himself and mumbled her name. The syllable barely escaped his lips before her hand clamped over his mouth.
Early morning fog covered the level.
Ash couldn't see more than ten feet away.
Kids slept all around them.
She heard the water of the stream flowing close by, but couldn't see it.
Ashley crouched perfectly still, listening, her eyes closed, her head loose on her neck, mouth slightly open.
Geoffrey copied her.
They heard it; the tromp of booted feet. The approaching sounds of big, heavy men. The unmistakable rattle of metal against metal, leather, and cloth.
Then they heard others, even closer, stealthily moving toward them.
In a flash, Ashley was running. Geoff found himself dragged across leaf-strewn ground.
The cops were all around them now, yelling and shouting.
The other orphans also began to rise, always ready for fight or flight.
The cops tried to get a handle on the quickly deteriorating conditions, but their radio chatter gave away the nature of the chaos.
“Who is that running?
“Is that her?
“It looked like two people.
“Who are we looking for?
“What do we do about this goddamn fog?
“Who’s fucking idea was this in the first place?
“Stop her,
“Stop Her!”
Ash sprinted through the mist, using her brother as a counter-weight for her more extravagant moves.
Then one of them tried to stop her.
Ashley kicked out his knee.
He screamed and fired his automatic pellet gun through the air, waking everyone.
In the fog Geoff only caught glimpses of the cops in their riot gear, helmets, face-shields and gas masks, heavy riot-shields and less-lethal tasers and pellet rifles.
The dense fog also obscured the vision of the armored soldiers, slowing their assault. Their hearing was hampered by the helmets and masks. Throw in the aural confusion from the radios built into their helmets; they may as well be deaf.
Ashley moved at twice their speed. She was faster, lighter and more coordinated, even dragging Geoff along. She crossed from dirt paths to forested undergrowth with a grace and precision that Geoffrey found mesmerizing.
The soldiers couldn't keep up with her, let alone identify her. They had drifted so far apart in the fog; their command and control had completely deteriorated.
Ash took full advantage of the conditions and advanced on them at full speed, invisibly striking with such force that no one remained standing.
She attacked from their sides and periphery, they didn't see her coming or going. Once she hit them and all they knew was that they were now broken.
They shouted in pain.
Their screams and poorly aimed shots added to the accelerating chaos.
Ashley was everywhere and nowhere. She was every orphan and none of them. Soldiers continued to fall, as all the kids took up the fight. Weapons caches were raided and distributed, the children already moving in coordinated groups.
Soldiers closed in from the back, unaware of what was going on up ahead, and launched tear-gas canisters into the fray.
In the confusion, many of the advance troops pulled off their helmets and gas masks to try and communicate better. As the tear gas began to stain the fog with its yellow tint, they struggled to get their masks back on, most falling victim to it, like the children.
Ashley twisted helmets, broke arms and shattered knees with astonishing force. Soon, she and Geoff had escaped. Even the sounds, the curses, shots, and screams grew faint and distant.
Geoff looked at his sister with a new appreciation, but she didn’t acknowledge the look.
They found one of the protruding corridor hatches, a door at the base of a grass-covered mound, set into the side of a tall berm.
Ash looked at the diagram map mounted next to the door. Making a mental calculation, she showed her brother, with a quick hand gesture, their direction. He nodded.
"We have to run," she whispered. "You ready?”
Geoff nodded again.
Ash opened the hatch, the corridor beyond was clear. It stretched away and turned at an intersection ahead. They found tunnels leading away in every direction.
Soon she and Geoffrey had crossed the entire level. They reached a corner stairwell on the other side and climbed from the bottom level to the top of the topmost stadium. It took the better part of two hours, but thankfully the area was utterly abandoned.
All across the district, over the course of the morning, the search for Ashley widened. Soon all available officers were involved. Angered by the extra duties, the citizen-soldiers vented their frustration on the unlucky orphan residents. Three cafeterias deteriorated into riotous violence well before nine am.
When Ash and Geoffrey finally went looking for lunch, the district had virtually melted down. Fights and riots consumed entire blocks.
It was Monday and no one had gone to class.
Soldiers openly assaulted orphans all across the facility, beating them with their batons and indiscriminately firing less-lethal rounds at the kids. Occasionally they demanded Ashley's whereabouts, but for the most part, they simply beat the children mercilessly.
Outside a cafeteria, Ash and Geoff found a fight already in progress.
A guard, only a few years older than Ash, held his baton over his head, yelling at one of the orphans. The kid was on his knees, his hands behind his back. His face was swollen and bloodied. He was crying, having trouble staying upright. He favored a broken shoulder and was obviously in intense pain.
Three other guards stood nearby, laughing and watching. Half a dozen others could be heard in the cafeteria, smashing up the room.
"What the fuck did I tell you?" the young guard shouted. "I have a fucking warrant! Don't you understand that?! I told you to keep your fucking hands behind your back! Now you got yourself a broken fucking arm, don't you? You lucky bastard!”
The guys standing nearby chimed in. "Ole' boy gonna pass the fuck out in two minutes," one laughed.
"Ha! A ten spot says he don't got a minute left.”
Ashley stepped up. "I bet he stays awake longer than you.”
Without waiting for them to acknowledge her remark, Ash stepped forward, took the bully's baton and broke his arm in one smooth motion.
Then she stomped his kneecap, blasting it down the front of his shin and delivered a stunning elbow to his temple. The eyeball ruptured and filled with blood.
As he screamed and stumbled, the ruined orb swelled and bulged, then burst and leaked down his face.
The remaining guards stood huddled together, terrified.
Ashley struck the two outside guards with the baton, one in the throat, the other in the ear. Their heads collided with the man between them.
Ash delivered several lightning quick jabs to the center guard. With her final strike, she hit the men at the sides. All three fell to the ground.
The two-dozen guards inside the cafeteria caught wind of her arrival and rushed out to surround her.
Ashley fought them off as long as she could.
Geoffrey was pushed away with all the other orphans, he was not their priority, he was just another zero.
After almost a dozen guards had been critically wounded in the line of duty, Ashley was finally subdued and restrained.
Handcuffed and shackled, she was dragged away, over the bodies of her victims. In only two encounters, Ashley had put twenty-seven soldiers in critical-condition. Over thirty others were seriously injured.
The platoon dragged her through the facility like a trophy.
r /> Their comrades cleared a path with ruthless efficiency.
Ash was taken directly to the Bolt's main elevator bank.
They rode up to the district headquarters, where she was formally charged and processed. She was then dragged to a large open shower, stripped of her clothes and blasted with water from a fire hose. They threw her a small towel, a set of hospital-thin scrubs and dragged her to her cell.
On the way, she saw the tall janitor again. She was sure it was the same man she'd seen after killing Donovan. He reminded her of a famous movie star, but she couldn't remember the actor's name.
Before reaching their destination, Ashley passed out. The soldiers dragging her didn't notice.
Ash later woke in her tiny iron cell. A thin mat lay on the floor. Through a small rectangle of thick reinforced glass in the door, she could see that the narrow block extended three stories up from her level.
The filthy tile wall across from her cell reflected the above tiers. She could make out the catwalks of the second and third floors, empty of patrolling guards. The doors were all made of the same heavy red iron with imposing locks.