9: The Fun of Stealing

Currently in love with Eragon. Best book EVER.

A clatter up the street made them jump, but it was only a mangy dog looking for scraps. They had been led into what Logan imagined the cleanest part of the area, but it still looked sad and dirty. “Quiet,” hissed Alec. He and another girl, Thay, were showing them what they did for a living. Logan had also wanted to see whether Commander Brack or his men had showed up yet.

Thay stuck her head around the corner. She was fifteen, tall, with jet-black hair and bangs, and a nose piercing, clad entirely in black. Thay looked once more around the corner, then dashed out to the other side, the rest following behind. Under the filtered yellow light, the dismal street stood out of the shadows. Most of the buildings were single-level, a perfect example of urban sprawl. The bricks were faded, the windows dirty, the signs bright, kitschy, and annoying. They blinked in neon colours, though it was obvious no one was inside.

“This is the plan,” whispered Thay. “We want that building – Farmer’s Fun Foods. I’m going in from the front, and you wait in the alley until you hear me calling. Then come inside, load as much food as we can into your arms and sacks, then we’re leaving lickideesplit, okay?”

Alec, Flo P, Logan, Ji-Ji and Saraha all nodded and grumbled in ascent. Thay took off, stealthily and quick. She was almost a black blur, streaking over to the food-mart. At the door, she stopped. After a breathless few seconds, the door popped open and Thay disappeared inside.

Alec motioned them to follow. Slyly, they crept behind ugly buildings and under rusty balconies with dead and dried plants until they were next to Farmer’s Fun Foods. Alex put a finger to his lips, motioning the other to be silent, but whispered. “You ready?”

The four nodded. Logan felt his stomach roiling a little. This was his first real rule-breaking adventure since jumping the train, but he considered stealing worse. Still, it was all very exciting.

“Remember, we’re more important than the food. So what if the police nab our bag? We help our comrade before we take the food to safety. Although, don’t go fighting for a lost cause. One person who gets captured is better than two,” said Alec softly.

“You sound harsh,” said Saraha critically. “I’d go back for all of you, even Logan. Although, maybe not you, Alec, considering you wouldn’t come back for me,” she said distastefully.

As their bickering over morals continued, Logan drew Flo P off into a corner. “Let’s hope nothing goes wrong,” he said.

Flo P reached over and squeezed his hand, holding onto it reassuringly, for him and herself. He noticed her pale face, nervousness, the way she swung her foot when she was anxious.

“Are you okay?” he asked her. “I can ask Alec to take us back.”

“What are you calling me, a coward?” asked Flo P defiantly. She smiled in what she hoped was a sure way. “C’mon, nothing will go wrong. We can do it.”

Logan nodded at her. When Flo P wasn’t looking, Ji-Ji looked over, winked, and mouthed, ‘Good job.’

A shrill whistle sliced through the air. Everyone looked up. “That’s Thay’s signal,” announced Alec, and they streaked off into the building.

It was dimly lit, creating looming towers of Eezee Wipe toilet paper and Scrubbers kitchen soap. They noticed Thay in a corner, stuff her sack full of pears, ground beef, and potatoes. As they approached her, she hissed, “Alec, you get fruits and veggies; Saraha, beans; Logan, toilet paper; Ji-Ji, soap; and Flo P, meat.”

They set to their tasks immediately, and their sacks were full within fifteen minutes. “Go, go, go,” said Alex, and they all ran as fast as possible out of the store. Immediately, alarms when off. All that could be heard was wailing and screaming. Alec swore loudly, and took off, leading they way. He didn’t even try to hide and wasn’t cautious like usual; he streaked along alleys and backstreets without looking or caring.

Finally, the sirens stopped. Then a sound even worse met their ears: the sound of tires screaming on pavement. Flashing orange lights bounced along walls.

“There’s no way we can outrun them!” yelled Thay. Both she and Alec stopped. “You know what to do?” she asked him.

“Don’t worry,” he smirked, “I’ve got it.” He pushed his sack into They’s arms, and looked at them all. “See you soon,” he grinned hastily, and then ran off in the opposite direction.

“What’s he doing?” said Ji-Ji, uneasy.

“He’s leading them away,” said They as they ran. “Simple tactic.”

“That idiot! He was only pretending to be heartless, wasn’t he?” Saraha was frustrated.

“Don’t worry, he’ll make it back fine.” Even though she tried to sound indifferent, even Thay was worried.

They made it back to the hideout safely. Maxee, who was stacking and preparing food for dinner, looked up happily when they arrived. “Six full sacks of food! This’ll last us at least a week. Good job!” He looked up, noticing an absence. “Alec ran off, didn’t he?” He swore loudly. “Always showing off.”

He returned to stacking beans angrily.

Ji-Ji, Saraha, Flo P and Logan slumped into their hammocks in the corner that they’d been given the night before.

“He was pretty selfless, wasn’t he?” said Ji-Ji.

“Oh, stuff it,” said Saraha, vexed.

“He practically saved our lives, we should appreciate it,” said Logan, Flo P nodding in agreement.

“He may have, but say he dies or gets sent to an orphanage or gets injured – then it would be our fault, wouldn’t it? He may have saved us, but we certainly haven’t saved him.” Saraha rolled over and they lapsed into an uncomfortable silence.

His arrival was evident right away, because nearly everyone was asleep. When the first few shouts broke the silence, the four groggily got up to see what was happening. Lots of others were peering out of their hammocks and out of sleeping rolls.

Alec was grinning, standing in the centre of the room, blood dripping down his face. His normally bright red hair was a gross brown and a questionable black substance covered his face. His lip was split and a bruise was blooming on the left side of his jaw.

Thay looked so revealed she might have started to cry. Maxee was patting him on the back, saying, “I should have known you’d come back alright, but that was probably the riskiest time yet.”

Eventually Alec broke away from his well-wishers and the cooing girls, ogling over his bloody face and ripped clothes, and came over to the Quad Squad, what Logan and Flo P had been giggling about naming their group after eating too many dried cucumber slices.

“Wow,” said Ji-Ji.

Saraha whistled through her teeth, and Flo P asked, “What happened?”

Logan nodded, frowning, “Are you okay?”

Alec grinned, and launched into his story of dodging police, hiding in a residential building, jumping out windows, tromping through a sewer, and finally finding a safe place to hide in the neighbouring area’s quarters. “So you’re lucky I’m here,” he said proudly. “I could be captured by the fat old men waving doughnuts and bats, calling themselves servants of the law. There isn’t ‘law’ anymore. Nah, I’m kidding. It was pretty scary.”

“What do you mean?” Ji-Ji asked.

Alec sighed, “Just have twenty tall, muscled, darkly clad and armed men pounding the pavement to oblivion behind you, and you’ll know the feeling. It’ll never leave you.”

“So what are you going to do now?” asked Logan.

“Wait until it’s my turn for it to happen again,” Alec said gravely. 

8: Maximus Xent’s SKAT

Tribute someone, he knows who he is! Oh, and I think I’m going to make my chapters longer than before. There’s so much I want to add, now that it’s getting interesting!

Saraha immediately jumped up, grabbing one of her knives, unsheathing it, and pointing it at the stranger. “WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU WANT?”

“Whoa, calm down!” said the boy, around two years older than them – sixteen, maybe seventeen. “I just wanted to ask.”

Logan shot him a look. “Give us a minute,” he said to the youth.

“Who do you think he is?” asked Flo P.

“He could be ANYONE. Just because he’s young doesn’t mean he’s not with THEM,” said Saraha out of the corner of her mouth, keeping a wary eye on the stranger.

“We should hear what he has to say, though,” Ji-Ji said.

The boy smirked. “Are you done conferencing? I dunno if I’ve ever seen four kids as wary as you.

“But I’m being rude. My name’s Maximus Xent. I wondered what you were doing out on the streets this early, all alone – honestly, that’s all! I’m president of SKAT. That’s Street Kids Assosiation of Tribes.”

“What’s that?” asked Logan, furrowing his brow.

“I’m basically the head of this giant organization of street kids who’ve broken off and formed groups in different parts of the city. In the beginning, it provides food and shelter for kids who don’t know where to go. Then they join one of the city’s tribes. It’s totally underground, and no one knows about it except the lucky few, and the tribes, of course.

“So I know orphans or run-aways when I see them, and you four are clearly typical. Not wanting to be found. I can see it on your faces. I know it’s a stretch to say, but you can trust me.”

“There’s one thing we want to know, just to test if we can really trust you,” said Logan. Do you know anything about, say… walruses?”

“And don’t lie. I can see a lie on anyone, because it crosses their face in a split second and leaves. So don’t,” said Ji-Ji menacingly.

Maximus Xent chuckled. “Walruses? Not like the tusked, whiskered animals, marine animals? No, I don’t. Wait, I do! Not the Wal Clan, ruling the Southern Tarus area of the city? No, not that? Okay, then, I don’t have a clue.”

“We trust you, sort of,” said Ji-Ji, speaking for the group. She must have decided she wasn’t suspicious, but still was eyeing him warily.

“Lead us on, then, to wherever you’re going to take us,” snapped Saraha. “We’re not waiting here forever.”

Maximus smiled at them, then motioned them on. He was a lot taller than them and walked faster, the dishevelled group jogging behind him. He led them through unfamiliar dark alleys, all dirty and pitch dark. The one time they had to cross a lit street, Maximus hurried them across quickly, checking both ways to make sure it was empty before and afterwards. It might have been a fifteen minutes walk before Maximus Xent flung out a hand.

They were standing before a cellar door to a small, old, dilapidated factory. Maximus opened it and walked down the steps, telling Logan, who went last, to close them quietly behind them.

They followed Maximus to a basement. The roof and wall had crumbled. A small hole could be seen, but it all seemed to be broken and a dead end to the basement of the factory.

“Miaow with seven handles,” said Maximus, his voice bouncing along the walls.

Out from the hole popped a flaming, scarlet red head. It was followed by a toothy grin and bright green eyes. “Maxee, where were you, mate?” it asked.

Maximus grinned. “Look who I found! Interesting kids – you’ll see. I’ll have to go out again, to get the stuff, though.”

“Come on, then, don’t loiter,” said the head, and it popped out of sight again.

Maximus crawled through the hole, motioning the four to follow. Ji-Ji, Saraha, Flo P and Logan all threw each other a giant group glance, and then followed Maximus. The hole led through a tarp, into a dim room. It wasn’t too large, but had the appearance of being so. Hammocks were slung all around it, some scraping the ceiling, others brushing the ground. Kids of all verities lay on them, on the floor, others against the wall.

Maixmus smiled at the group’s faces. “What, is this atmosphere different from what you’re used to? There’s this type of thing in all large cities, although I dunno if it gets any bigger than our multiplex organization.”

The red-haired boy, lanky, grinned at them. He was nearer their age. “My name’s Alec. If you’re hungry, we’ve got food, but I’m ’fraid it’s not much. We’ve been running low these days. Come ’ere.”

He guided them to a corner stacked with boxes. Pulling off a couple, Alec pulled out five apples, and a can of beans. He divvied up the beans into four small helpings, as well as the apples, but kept one for himself.

“We’ve got food,” said Ji-Ji, taking a can of tomatoes and adding it to their sad-looking beans.

Alec looked agog. “Where’d you get that?” he asked. “No street kid can get ANYTHING anymore, and I mean it.”

Flo P looked at him. “We brought it from home. And what’s with this shortage of food and creeping about the city?”

Alec sighed. “You’re not from Andersbad, are you? I saw it the moment you walked through the door. Kids from great places who aren’t happy. You have no idea what it’s like surviving the rough, and trust me; it’ll get rougher.

“Our network was just a network before, not underground or anything. And then we were pronounced ‘dangerous’. People to be eradicated. Children to be rounded up and sent to orphanages. So then we had to go underground. You can’t show your face anywhere by day unless it’s if you look normal. Like part of society, not some vermin found on the street.”

“But how do you get food, then?” asked Logan. “How does this still work?”

“There’s always the sketchy people who’ll sell anything to anyone, but now the price is higher to turn one of us in than to sell any goods, so we mostly borrow by night,” explained Alec.

“Borrow? You mean steal, right? You’re just plain robbers who tell tall tales,” sneered Saraha.

Alec rolled his eyes. “There’s always haters. What would you rather us do, DIE? There’s something corrupt going on here,” he said, “and it’s getting worse.”

Logan eyed the other three, and they returned his stares. Maybe it wasn’t just them. Was it happening all around them? On such a large scale, maybe in the government, Logan wondered? And this frightening force… it wasn’t just after them, anymore… It was all around them.

7: Andersbad, HERE WE COME!

I have gotten a reader who doesn’t read because they don’t want to offend me by not reading. Yesssss! Thanks, Max!

PS. It’s going to be a super-long chapter compared to others.

“Logan?” hissed a voice.

Logan peered from the tree house to see Saraha and Flo P standing at the base of the tree, holding flashlights, rucksacks on their backs. Logan climbed down and turned to them. “Where’s Ji-Ji?”

“She said she needed to pack some essentials. Are you ready?” asked Flo P.

“I bet NOT!” said Saraha, eyeing Logan. After a look from Flo P, she said, “Naw, I bet the pansy’s cool and ready for action, right, Logan?”

Logan nodded, tried not to feel stung. After all, he was the new SUPER LOGAN; Logan the Brave; Logan the Strong; Logan the ROCK! “That’s right. Come on, guys. Let’s wait by the garage.”

On the way out, testing his new Super Abilities, Logan reached around and put his arm protectively on Flo P’s shoulders. If it wasn’t so dark, he could have sworn she was blushing, but she didn’t wriggle away. Logan felt so happy. Saraha cast one glance at the two, rolled her eyes and smirked. Logan thought her heard a, “Good Lord, what’s the world coming to?” come from her throat, but he couldn’t be sure.

Soon, a dark figure could be seen along the street. It was Ji-Ji, who stealthily crept up, and who they scared half to death by jumping out silently and leading into the garage.

“I’ve got all the things we need,” said Ji-Ji, showing them a light but packed rucksack. “Clothes, extra food, knives, lots of money, but also more essentials. I’ve soap, toothpaste, and calcium tablets to keep up energy, but most importantly, four heat-containing blankets.” She divvied up the blankets and toothpaste and soap.

“Are we ready?” asked Flo P hesitantly.

Logan decided: it was his turn to take leadership, to speak. “I just want to make something clear. You don’t have to come. You will never have to. But I’m glad it’s us. I’m glad I’m running away and hiding whatever’s so important in that document. I doubt we’ll get very far, but we can still try. I’m glad we’re friends.”

“That’s nice, Logan,” said Ji-Ji.

Flo P gave him a quick squeeze, and even Saraha said, “Thanks, O Pansy One.”

They set out for the train station, an estimated ten minutes with taking the bus, which they were not risking. They trooped down to the station, and since the town wasn’t that big, and Logan’s house was in the centre of it, it only took them twenty.

The train station was grey under the murky lamplight, and deserted but for two men, waiting to catch the train. Newspapers and cigarette butts littered the platform. Ji-Ji put her arm out to stop the other three, as they were about to make their way onto the platform.

“Stop,” she hissed. “We don’t want anyone to see us. We’ll take the far compartment when the stationmaster isn’t looking, or whichever one the two men aren’t in.”

“She’s right. Do you want someone to see us and report us barely an hour into our escapade?” asked Saraha.

They crouched in the shadows silently, one playing lookout outside, the other watching the platform, until the men boarded the train and the stationmaster strolled to the end, staring off into the distance.

“Train 115 is leaving in one minute. Please board the train!” rang out an electronic female voice, as the four kids scurried up to the far compartment and jumped in, just as the doors snapped shut. The stationmaster whipped his head around.

“Who’s there?” he called. “If I catch anyone jumping the train…”

But it was already slowly pulling out of the station. The stationmaster watched it turn into a silver blur, and disappear into the night.

“Great job!” cried Flo P.

Ji-Ji looked at them critically. “That was close, you know that, right?”

“So what?” Saraha asked. “So far, so good, right?”

They slumped down on the hard plastic seats, watching the occasional lights flicker by. The endless passing sea of neighbourhoods and suburban lots stood along the way to Andersbad, like a massive sea of plankton before an even greater urban whale. Andersbad was three hours away from the village by train. Logan suggested everyone get sleep, and then set his watch to quarter to three a.m.

He awoke and shook the others just as Andersbad loomed out of the darkness, with its lights and towers and foggy halo of bustle and noise, even in the cruel hours of the morning.

The four friends watched in awe as it loomed up, and soon engulfed them. The train stopped near the edge of the city, and waiting until the two other men had left out of sight, and nobody was watching them, they ran on and past the platform, into a dark alleyway wedged between two buildings.

Ji-Ji was solemn, but Saraha and Flo P and Logan were all grins.

“Perk up, Ji-Ji!” said Logan. “Andersbad! We’re somewhere that’s even harder to find four kids in! A massive city just to get lost and wander and plan, it’s fantastic!”

“It’s like our own metropolitan playground, just waiting for us to dive into,” said Flo P dreamily.

But Ji-Ji only had room for serious. “We need SLEEP. Where can we get that? You need to stop thinking about the present and start on the near future. We’ll never function properly if we can’t find our safe haven. Four innocent kids on the street? We’ll get kidnapped and carted to who-knows-where… Or worse. Come on. Let’s go.”

They tromped along the alleys and streets, until they were sure they had reached the outermost ring of the city. It was dark, dirty and smelled of garbage and sewers. The four’s noses wrinkled. It was nothing like home. Logan checked to make sure that the Walrus Document was still in his backpack, and contented, he put the file back in again.

The horizon was beginning to lighten. Flo P could hardly drag her feet much more, but Ji-Ji walked with energy, encouraging, telling them “We’re almost there!” But where was there, no one knew, not even Ji-Ji, who knew loads of important stuff.

Finally, Saraha collapsed on a dustbin. “I can’t keep going on this pilgrimage to find ‘shelter’, or whatever we ARE looking for in the first place.”

“C’mon, Saraha,” said Logan slowly. “We need to go.”

“Go where?” said a voice, stepping out the shadows turning to face the dishevelled group.