“We’re here to rescue you,” Ex said, “Party Poison.”
Party’s eyes widened slightly and he stood shakily.
“Alright,” he said, “I’m ready.”
In all honesty, I expected him to blither on about how it would be too dangerous and how it wouldn’t work and other crap like that but he didn’t. He walked forward and stood in front of Ex.
“Let’s go,” Trans said, “Before we get caught.”
He led us out and down the hallway, but we froze when a voice crackled on over the intercom.
“Attention all citizens and employees, there is a fire in the building. I repeat; a fire in the building. Please do not panic and let your guard lead you to the nearest safety exit. Do not panic.”
It cut off. Trans shook his head, exasperated, and beckoned for us to follow him.
“C’mon,” he said, “Let’s go.”
But instead of leading us down the hallway and out the door, he led us into another wall, where he tapped a panel and door slid open.
“Inside,” he said, “Come on.”
“But if it’s a fire don’t we need to go outside?” Mech inquired
“No,” Trans said, “It’s not a fire; it’s code.”
“For what?”
“They know Party has escaped.”
Silence.
Trans climbed into the tunnel and we all followed suit. After a few minutes of crawling, (that felt like an hour), we made it to a large chamber with doors on either side. Trans closed them and sat against the wall.
“Trans,” Mech said tentatively, “Won’t they be able to see us through the windows?”
“Nope,” Trans said without looking up, “One-Way glass .We can see them, they can’t see us. I thought you guys were outlaws, don’t you know about all the gadgets?”
“No,” I shot back, “Being an ‘outlaw’ isn’t always, or ever, glamourous. We don’t have fancy glass…and guns….and….pillows!”
Trans laughed, “Guns and glass we have but the pillows here are craptastic.”
Mech sat down next to him and asked him something in a quiet voice. They began talking. Sunshine and Play sat next to each other and started laughing about something; probably a book or television show. Party sat down in a corner, leaned up against a wall, and closed his eyes.
I sat down far away from the others, and Ex sat next to me. We were both silent for a while before Ex spoke.
“Remember when we found you?”
That struck me as an odd question, especially for her.
“How could I forget?”
“Well,” she paused, “I wasn’t completely truthful with you when I found you.”
“Meaning…”
“I do know you, well, I did before BLi took over. We were good friends in eighth grade and all through high school.”
I was quiet. Memories were running through my head; Ex and me skateboarding, us singing, watching Sunshine swim in a meet. And, I remembered it clearly, the time I had kissed her on the night of her seventeenth birthday. She had hit me and stalked off, not leaving me time for any explanation. Not leaving me time to explain that I was moving the next day, and that the kiss was meant as a friendship kiss. (I probably could have thought about that better but of course, I didn’t.)
“Why are you telling me now?” I asked, “Why not earlier or later?’
Ex sighed.
“Because I don’t have a good feeling about the outcome of this rescue,” she said, “And if something does happen, you have the right to know who you are.”
I was quiet. Though I remembered everything I still couldn’t recall my own name.
“Are you going to tell me?” I asked softly, “I remember everything.”
Erin was really quiet. I hated moments like this, where it was so quiet and awkward.
Then she sighed.
“Kaleb,” she said, “Your name is Kaleb, or CanadianWolf as you liked to be called. You used to skateboard better than anyone I knew, and you introduced me to so many great bands and musicians. I talked so much about you that Emmy was dying to meet you. With you and Emmy, and our little band, I felt really happy. Remember how I kept trying to get you to come to youth group with me? And then that night you finally came, I was so proud of you and myself.”
I snorted. Church was always the last place I’d go, but she’s convinced me and I didn’t have a horrible time.
“Kaleb,” I said, “Kaleb. Kaleb what? What’s my last name?”
Erin shook her head, and I decided I wouldn’t press any further.
My head was reeling, my stomach was twisting. I knew how to fix this, fix it all, but I needed to do it now, before we ran out of time.
So I stood up.
And pulled Erin up with me.
“Wh-“ I put my hand over her mouth. It was now or never.
So I hugged her.
At first she stiffened, obviously surprised by the impromptu affection that I never showed to anyone. But then she decided that this was the only hug she would ever get from me, so she relaxed and wrapped her arms around me; hugging me back tightly.
We stood like that for a while, and I was 90% sure that everyone in the room was staring at us, but I don’t think Erin cared.
“Excuse me,” a voice said over the intercom, “Can all dracs and guards please report to Corridor 5, I repeat, all dracs and guards to Corridor 5. Thank you.”
Ex and I pulled apart, and I looked over at Trans; he was sitting in the same spot he had been in earlier, and he made no indication that he had acknowledged the message. Instead he continued talking to Sunshine in a quiet voice. I caught snippets of their conversation, “Lauren,” and “Noah,” and the constantly repeated “Alive.”
“Static,” Ex said, “Can I call you Static? It’s just more natural.”
I nodded. I was used to it too.
“I'm sorry about hitting you that night. I know, maybe you had to do it or something, and I gave you no time to explain. I shouldn’t have hit you over it.”
I was weirded out. This was very, very strange for Ex. She never apologized for hitting anyone.
“Why’d you do it?”
“Because that night, was the last night I was going to live in Marietta,” I started, “My parents were moving to Boston, and I had to go with them until I went to college. I knew I’d probably never see you again, and I just…panicked. I meant it to be a ‘good-bye, we’re friends’ type of thing but I don’t think you saw it that way. I probably could have done something better about it.”
She was quiet.
“Yeah,” she said softly, “Sure.”
We stood their awkwardly for a few moments before Trans got up and cleared his throat.
“Alright people, we better get moving before they find us. There’s a tunnel that comes out in front of the building; do you have any transportation?”
“Black and white BLi delivery van,” Sunshine said, “Parked outside the base. It has a sizable dent in the passenger side door and a blue paint smudge on the bottom left fender.”
“Perfect,” Trans said, “Let’s go then.”
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