encircling them.
"Did you notice those lights before?" Nayaa asks perplexed.
"No, I didn't. I think they just came on."
"What are they?"
"Dun'no. I can't tell."
After a few minutes they get closer.
"I think it's a fence." Andee is first to comment.
"Yeah, I think it is."
They continue walking and after a few more minutes they reach the fence. It is a three meter tall fence made of interlocking thick metal mesh. There are faint lights on top of the posts which are about four meters apart.
"Why is it buzzing like that?" Nayaa asks noticing the strange hum coming from the solid and well built metal fence.
"I don't know." Andee answers following a step behind Nayaa. She leans in, getting her face closer and closer, then gently reaches out to touch it.
"No!" Andee snaps and lunges grabbing her wrist. "Don't touch it. I think it's electric."
"Huh?" Nayaa doesn't understand.
"Electric, like our lights."
"In a fence? How?"
"Not sure actually. Mykee would probably know. He's all about Bitani tech. What I do know is that the electricity sent to our homes by the Bitani comes through buried metal wires, and is very dangerous. If you touch the metal part of the wires, it can kill you."
"Well, duh, it causes fire, everyone knows that. It's how it makes light." Nayaa emphasizes her point with a condescending tone.
"But it can also kill if you touch metal that has electricity in it."
"You mean set you on fire?" She asks with a disbelieving tone.
"Nope, just kill you right out."
"I never heard of that."
"I have, at Old Man Tom's junkyard. Last year we salvaged a piece of a wrecked lightship that was full of electricity. One of his mechanics was taking it apart and got zapped hard. He didn't die, but Old Tom said electricity passed through his body because he touched the metal. It burned his fingers and knocked him unconscious."
"So you think the Bitani put electricity in this fence to do that to people, intentionally? Why?"
"You know the Bitani are hiding all kinds of things from us?"
"That's what you keep saying."
"I say it because it's true. You've seen some of the tech the Old Tom has in his yard from the wrecked Bitani lightships. They have things we can't even imagine."
"You know, everyday you sound more and more like the troublemakers."
"I'm no troublemaker." Andee shakes off the concept, but then thinks for a moment. "But what if they're right?"
"How could they be right? They're troublemakers. They wouldn't be called that if they were the do-gooders." Nayaa emphasizes her point with broad round eyes lifting her brows.
"Maybe, whatever, but we've got to get over this fence somehow or we're stuck here."
"If we had a pole we could vault over it. We could easily clear that, no?" Andee nods his head in agreement. "Hey what's that?" Nayaa suddenly changes the subject as she points over Andee's head. He looks over to the north following Nayaa's finger.
"What? What are you looking at?" Andee is struggling but sees nothing in the dark blue sky.
"That black spot, above Peak Crest. Up there. Way over the horizon." Nayaa is pointing North above the highest peak in the ridge of the north mountains.
"I don't see anything."
"Great. You see men in blue robes but you can't see that obvious black blob moving in the sky."
"Oh wait. OK, yeah I see it."
"See, I don't imagine things."
Andee's flicks a quick dirty look her way but then both watch the dark shape approach silently from the opposite side of the warehouse. It gets closer and closer until it simply disappears into the far side of the gabled roof of the warehouse.
"What? Did you see that? Where did it go?" Nayaa blurts mystified.
"Maybe it landed on the other side." Andee answers.
"In that tight courtyard we were just in? No way. That thing was too big. And it flew right into the roof and vanished. I don't even understand what the hell it was."
"A hopper." Andee blurbs out loud.
"A what?"
"I'm not sure."
"You said hopper. What's that?"
"I don't know."
"But you said it?"
"When I rescued-ah, Ricio, he was waiting for a hopper."
"A hopper?" Nayaa repeats herself lifting her brows.
"Yup, a hopper. Some kind of Bitani flying machine, but he didn't want to tell me about it."
"So you think that's what that was?"
"He said it was big. It could carry lots of people."
"Why would the Bitani carry people into that warehouse, at night?"
"I have no idea. Maybe it's not people. Maybe it's something else."
"I've got a bad feeling about this." Nayaa changes her tone. "We need to get out of here, now. Come on." And she takes off running in the direction of dome rock along the fence. Andee follows. The fence is long and both jog by it for a while, but it is a wide curve and it is now turning them away from dome rock and back towards the warehouse district. They stop, and in that moment, the light atop the nearest fence post suddenly glares bright right into their faces.
"Oh-oh, what does this mean?" Nayaa asks nervous.
"Crap, some kind of security. They can see us."
"Look!" Nayaa shouts looking past Andee. "What is that?"
Once again she is pointing at something dark moving in the night. This time it is two small black blobs moving towards them at ground level, but fast, very fast, and coming from the warehouse.
"What do we do?" Nayaa looks at Andee concerned.
"Run!" He shouts, and both take off.
The bright light on the posts follows them as they run past each one, lighting up one after the other. The two dark shapes are gaining fast, pining them closer to the fence. One moves slightly ahead squeezing them even closer, and rides into the light. Illuminated, it looks like a hovering black bobsled crossed with a moped. On it, leaning forward and riding it like a speed bike, is a man dressed in an all black leather body suit and a black helmet.
The forward hover-ped quickly moves in front of the running duo and comes to a hard stop sideways, but remains floating and completely dark and quiet. The identical one behind, stops as they break hard themselves now caught in the middle. The lights on the fence suddenly all go back to dim, like they were before. The dark riders nearly vanish, but they are in line with the horizon. Details are hard to see, but their silhouettes are clear against the purplish background glow.
The man on the front hover-ped rises, standing up on his foot rests, which have slightly lowered when he did so. At the same time the handles have risen also, so now even standing upright he is still holding on to them. He stands there for a moment, helmet still on, yet clearly staring at the two without making a movement or sound. The guy on the rear hover-ped puts his feet on the ground and remains seated but with handles moved up with his new position to give him a more comfortable upright seating stance.
There's a standoff for a moment. No one makes a move. Andee and Nayaa seem lost and extremely intimidated. They've never seen such devices, nor people dressed in such strange outfits. Add to that the aura of unpredictability from the unexpected long glaring silence from the rider up front, and this whole thing rises to a new level of surreal, if not a down right terrifying scenario for the two inexperienced teens. Nayaa, frozen stiff, gently leans back until her mouth is next to Andee's ear.
"What do we do?" She whispers.
The standing man on the first hover-ped suddenly raises his right hand with something in it.
"Go!" Andee shouts and both take off running towards him, but split, each running on opposite sides of the hover-ped. Andee passes between the front of it and the fence, while Nayaa passes behind it. As Andee runs past the front, the hover-ped turns after him with the rider still standing on his foot rests. Nayaa suddenly stops dea
d in her tracks, then forcibly hops backwards turning towards the hover-ped, landing behind it, and shoves it forward with all her force. It slides with ease. The standing rider falls backwards thrown of balance. His falling momentum forces the hover-pad forward even faster, right into the electric fence and; POW-ZAP! Large sparks explode everywhere. The lights on the posts flash and then go off completely, while the man falls off his hover-pad, flat on the ground, and does not move. Andee stops and turns catching a glimpse of the explosive mayhem while Nayaa runs up next to him. The second hover-ped heads to his injured partner and stops to help him.
Looking to Nayaa; "Off the thing and over, can you do it?" Andee asks and nods with his chin to the front of the second hover-ped now facing them. Its rider is still on it, but helping his dazed partner rise up off the ground and not looking at two teens.
"I think so." Nayaa answers nodding her head.
"Go, I'll follow." Nayaa bolts off running towards the hover-ped. She leaps with her right foot onto the front, and using it as a boost she shoots up into the air diving over the rider somersaulting right over the fence just barely clearing it. The rider drops his partner as he forcibly looks up and over following Nayaa's move and sees her land safely on the other side. He quickly snaps back, but Andee is already the air flying towards him. He lands with his right foot on the front of the hover-ped. The rider accelerates forward just as Andee leaps up. The negative momentum from the forward thrust cuts Andee's summersault short, and as he flips upside down over the rider he is far below where he needs to be to complete the leap and clear the fence. As a result he and lands near the top, head down like a gecko, and with the tips of his feet over the top edge, but on the fence