The Strays

I noticed the uncomfortable silence. “Yes, I did just refer to them in the past tense. Delilah, head of The Elites, executed Miles a few months after the factions formed. It was her way of sending me a message. They hung him from a tree, but the drop wasn’t enough to snap his neck. It took ten minutes for him to die. I got there too late, and he died in my arms. If I had been a few minutes earlier, I could have saved him. I wasn’t even able to bury him because Enforcers jumped me and I had to run. Sean died in a car crash with my mum and aunt before everything went to shit. We were driving back from the hospital when my aunt had a brain aneurysm caused by the pathogen.” I paused briefly to wipe away the tears. “The car crashed on a bridge. I made it out, but the car went over with everyone else inside. Miles was at his friend’s house when it happened. I tried to find him after the world ended, but Delilah got there first.”

Stitch’s face went pale. She didn’t know what to say. “I guess that explains a lot, but why would Delilah come after you like that?”

“You know how I said I have a hard time trusting people. She’s the reason. She was the pretty girl, the smart one, top of her classes until I came along, and let’s just say her psychopathic tendencies meant she didn’t appreciate taking second place and made it her mission to destroy my life. It became a fixated obsession, but she was too smart to get caught. Now she holds the power and authority in the city, there’s nobody to stop her from coming for me, so when she got too close I had to pack up and run, it was the only way to stop Leo from getting himself killed.”

Stitch seemed surprised that I was sharing so much. “Does this mean you trust me?” She asked.

“Leo knows all of this and more. He knows my real name. You saved my life when you could’ve just as easily killed me. The least I can do is let you know what you dragged yourself into.”

“Does Mac know all of this?”

I shook my head. “No, Leo’s the only person in the city besides you now.”

“Aren’t you worried she can hear us?”

“Nope.”

“How can you be so sure?”

I took the ring that Linc had slipped into my pocket and opened the compartment hidden beneath its signet. “Short wave signal jammer, all they can hear is static, which means I probably have two minutes to pick that lock before someone comes to check on us.”

“And how do you plan on doing that? Mac searched you. I’m sure she would’ve noticed a set of lock picks, even if she missed the ring.”

“She would have, but she wouldn’t second guess the under-wiring in my bra.” I grinned as I took off my underwear and pulled it apart. Within a few seconds, I had an improvised lock pick I could use on the door, but before I could finish, it swung open, knocking me into the wall.

Stitch quickly helped me to my feet, and I defensively raised my guard as I pushed her behind me.

A familiar face stepped into view. “Calm down, GI Jane. We’re friendly.” Ty smirked as his brother and Leo followed him into the room.

“Indie relax, we’re getting out of here, but you need to show us where to go.” Leo sighed. “You know this place back to front. What’s our quickest exit?”

“The front door. Every exit is going to be guarded, but the front is our best bet because it’s the furthest from any occupied building, meaning it’ll take them longer to gather reinforcements.”

“You sure?” Ty asked.

“I’ve busted out of this place multiple times. The exit with the most guards is in the back. It’s doable if you’re alone, but in a group like this I estimate about half of us will get away at most. The front door has the best odds, provided everyone is comfortable throwing a punch or two.”

“Then I think you ought to lead the way.” Linc interjected.

I looked over at him. “Thanks for giving me my ring back, but when we get to The Paragon, we need to talk about respecting people’s privacy because you had no right to go snooping through my things.”

“Sounds like we’re both in for a long lecture.” Leo smiled at Linc as I walked out to check the coast was clear.

As soon as I was sure nobody was coming, I guided everyone out. Things were going smoothly and the front exit was in sight, free from guards. All we had to do was get over the turnstiles and we’d be free. Unfortunately, it was just before the finish line when things got hairy. I dropped to the back with Leo, letting Ty take charge, not wanting him to leave my sight, and that’s when Mac appeared on our tail with her friends. We were almost there, just a few feet, and we’d be clear, but Leo tripped. The Hellraisers were closing in fast as I tried to get him to his feet. It didn’t take me long to help him up, though as I looked around, I soon found myself surrounded. I kept hold of my friend’s hand as Mac’s people pulled us apart. Somebody’s hands started gripping my waist, lifting my feet off the ground, I thought it was one of Mac’s guys, but it was Ty, he’d taken out the three guys behind me and he was the one pulling me away, putting as much distance between us and The Hellraisers as he could, which forced me to leave Leo behind. “Let me go. We have to go back for him.”

“It’s too late. They already have him, and he wouldn’t want you getting yourself caught trying to play the hero. We can regroup at The Paragon and figure out a way to get him back. They won’t hurt him so long as he proves useful, and right now he’s their leverage.” He reasoned as he threw me over the turnstile to Linc, who was waiting.

“He’s right. Leo’s a fighter, he’s going to be fine.” The brother concurred as he pulled me into a nearby crop of trees that provided us with a useful cover as we headed back to our district of the city.

The streets were crawling with Hellraisers and Enforcers alike, meaning we would have trouble slipping through the territory border to our district.

“Do your friends at The Paragon have everything locked down tight?” I asked Ty as I watched the regimented patrols. They were looking for us and they were being thorough.

“Yeah, why?” He replied.

“We won’t be able to get to them until the heat dies down, and the best time to travel is at night, there are more patrols but we’d be harder to spot, and I’ve got a way back, I just need the cover of darkness to get us through.”

“Where are we supposed to go in the meantime?”

“I know a place. It isn’t far, but you can’t ask me questions about it, okay?”

The boys all exchanged looks with Stitch before eventually nodding their heads.

I led them up the back of an old building, onto the roof.

“This is your idea of a place to lie low?” Ty stated dismissively.

“No, we just stand a better chance of getting there if we aren’t on the ground. People rarely look up because they don’t expect to find what they’re looking for above them. We’ll use the rooftops as far as we can, only hitting the street if necessary. Do your best to keep up guys. I’d hate to leave any of you behind.”

Everyone kept up as we sprinted along the tops of the buildings, not hitting the street until we reached Elite territory.

“Are you insane? Your idea of lying low is in the lion’s den.” Ty sighed as I led them through the back of the streets until we hit a more suburban neighbourhood, I hopped the fence into one of the back gardens and opened the door to the house, ushering them all inside.

Linc and the others wandered around the house as I headed into one of the bedrooms, taking a seat on the bed as I stared at a paint chip on the wall.

“This was your house, wasn’t it?” Linc stated as he handed me a photograph. “Your hair’s shorter, coloured now and the tattoos covering your body make you look different to the girl in these pictures, but your eyes are the same. I recognise the younger boy with you, Delilah executed him. Who the hell are you Indie?”

“Caelyn Lewis, public enemy number one, that’s who she is.” Ty interrupted, throwing me an old birthday card.

“Before you say anything else, Leo already knows everything. I told him when I first agreed to let him stick around. Now you know how desperate the situation is, because I wouldn’t have brought you here if I had any other choice. He hasn’t even been here, and he’s like family. You lot should get some sleep. I’ll keep watch and let you know when it’s time to move.”

Stitch convinced the other two to leave me be, and the three of them pitched up in my brother Sean’s old room.

I headed up to the roof, sitting on the edge by the chimney, watching the city lights.

“Didn’t you think it would be risky coming back here, Caelyn? Surely Delilah has eyes on the place.” It caught me off guard, hearing someone sincerely call me that name as if they were talking to the girl I was before. “Don’t get me wrong, from a distance nobody would know it was you, but your friend was right in there, those eyes will always be the same, no matter what they’ve seen they still shine like a starry night sky, I recognised them immediately.”

“Ty isn’t my friend. I don’t even think he likes me all that much,” I replied as the stranger took a seat beside me and pulled down his hood.

Like Ty and Linc he had a scar on his hand, I recognised his face as well, he was in the van, he was the one that helped Leo. “You called me Caelyn, nobody calls me that anymore, she’s dead, has been for a very long time, but if you’re calling me by that name it means we knew each other in another life, so who are you, why don’t I remember you from before?”

“Drew, we had maths and sciences together for two years, I sat behind you in all of those classes, I didn’t think you’d know who I was though, you weren’t exactly one for small talk, your head was always in a book.”

I nodded silently. “You work for Mac and Hatter. You tell them where they could find us? How many guys did you bring?”

“I came alone,” Drew explained.

“Why?”

“I had a feeling you’d come here. It. It was the closest building that was familiar to you. It’s risky, but who would think to look for a fugitive in their old home?”

“I meant why’d you come here?”

“Leo’s in trouble, worse than you realise. Mac is turning him over to The Enforcers. Apparently, Delilah wants to speak to him.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“You probably don’t remember, but Delilah and her friends roughed up my younger sister after school one day. They gave her a black eye and were about to break her nose when you stepped in. You took four of them on, bust up your knuckles pretty badly, and got excluded when they claimed you attacked them. I was going to go mental, but she told me what you did. You vanished before I could say thank you. I swore that if our paths ever crossed and I could help you, I would. For her. It’s what she would’ve wanted.” He explained.

“What was her name?”

“Liza, she’d be turning seventeen this year.”

“What happened to her?”

“We weren’t running with a faction. I was trying to get us out of the city, but we didn’t have any protection. We got caught in the crossfire of a territory war, she died, but a Hellraiser patrol found me, their doc patched me up and I joined them, mainly intelligence, counter-surveillance, that kind of thing, today was my first raid.”

I tried to think back, to picture the girl he was talking about, but I got into so many fights trying to stand up to Delilah that they all blended together after a while and I never asked names.

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Things happen. I was sorry to hear about Sean. It made sense why you vanished though, and what happened to Miles was an atrocity. It should’ve never happened.” Drew sighed.

“No, it shouldn’t, and that’s why I’m going to do whatever it takes to bring Delilah down.”

“Getting your friend Leo back would be a colossal blow.”

“It would, but I’m not equipped for something like that, and if anything happens to those guys in the house, his people, he’ll never forgive me. I want to get him back, but I have to be strategic. Nights coming and the patrols are dying down. I’m getting those guys back to The Paragon. If you want to help Leo, you’ve got two days to find a way to my room in the old shopping centre. We can talk if you can get in without being caught. If not, I’m going to help him without you.”

“I hope your friend can hold out that long.”

“He’s as stubborn and spiteful as they come, honestly I feel bad for the arseholes holding him.”

Drew disappeared, and I headed back inside to wake everyone up. “We need to move, we stay too long here and the ghosts that haunt me are going to catch up, I don’t mind if Delilah knows I’m back in the city, I’d prefer it though if we didn’t get busted here, for your sake if nothing else.”

We made it back to The Paragon undetected, and I combed through the building, making sure I armed every trap before I locked myself in my room.

Meanwhile, Leo was dealing with his own personal turmoil at the old police station, which was now being run by Enforcers.

“What are you going to do with me?” Leo demanded as two Enforcers dragged him from his cell by his cuffs.

The two uniformed thugs escorting him remained silent. The only sign they were even listening to him was the smile they gave when they looked at each other.

“I’m not afraid of you Enforcers or the Elite faction.” He informed them as they locked him inside an interrogation room, a two-way mirror directly in front of him.

Leo looked at the glass confidently, scowling at the thought of someone watching from behind.

A beautiful woman stepped through the door to the interrogation room, she had long blonde braids that had red ribbon and string woven through them, her slender body covered by an immodest black, mesh, military crop top and a short, smokey grey, plaid skirt.

Leo looked deeply into her vibrant blue eyes, knowing immediately who she was. “I wasn’t dumb enough to fall for your tricks the first time, Delilah, and I’m certainly not going to fall for them now.”

Delilah looked at him with a sweet, innocent smile, but it didn’t disguise the evil he saw within her soul. “I didn’t want to hurt you then, Leo, and I don’t want to hurt you now. All I want is some information.”

He laughed at her sentiment. “I told you when you tried to infiltrate The Paragon, I know nothing about the recent rebel activity in the city, or who might be involved in such activities.”

Delilah’s false smile remained. “We have you on tape attacking the food shipment. It’s why I came looking for you all those months ago, but that’s not why you’re here. You see, it recently came to my attention that you know who Liberty is and you’ve been working under her orders. I’m willing to pardon you of your crimes Leo, all you have to do is give me a name.”

Leo rolled his eyes. “Even if I knew who Liberty was, not that I do, I wouldn’t tell you.”

“I’m not the enemy here, Leo. I’m just trying to protect the city and its people from terrorists like the E.A.D and Liberty. They’re dangerous, and so are their extreme ideas. Somebody could get hurt if they remain at large, unchecked and undisciplined. Liberty and the E.A.D have already killed countless people in other cities. How long until people here die as well?” Delilah desperately pleaded.

“You know what they used to say about terrorists. One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. The Emancipation and Abolition Division are fighting to free this city, just like the others. They don’t want to murder people, they want to bring in a democratic system, they want to give people a choice. Of course, you’d label them terrorists though, it’s an ugly word that evokes fear and you need the people to be scared to remain in power. Truth is, you’re the one that’s afraid. Nobody gave you the power to rule, it is entirely self-proclaimed and Liberty threatens that. There’s an uprising coming; you know you’re on the losing side.” Leo spat, defending his friends and beliefs.

Delilah’s patience faded, and her sickly, sweet facade replaced with a bitter, icy glare. Confidently, she crossed the room, sitting in a seat opposite her captive. “You might think you have this figured out, but you don’t. You think I have to play nice to make you talk? Well, I don’t. It’s just as easy for me to have my friends rough you up, which I doubt they’ll mind doing. I’m sure you believe strongly in what you just said. Would you die for that belief, though? I’m prepared to be honest with you. Nobody is coming to save you. Liberty couldn’t risk it. My friends want to kill you, send a message to those that oppose me, but I think that’s a waste. You’re smart, loyal and cute. You could thrive here, with me. Let go of the past and think of your future.” She reasoned.

“Do you give the same speech to all prisoners withholding information? Or am I special? It’s just that I’m pretty sure those words are from brainwashing 101 and I don’t fancy being indoctrinated into a cult. Thanks for the offer, but I’ll take freedom of thought and the possibility of death for ten points instead.”

Delilah slammed her fists on the table. Her plan hadn’t worked, and she was no closer to the truth.

Angry and irate, she stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her.

One of her goons was waiting patiently outside for his next command. “What do you want us to do with him? We can beat the truth out of him, no problem. He’ll break by this afternoon.” He eagerly grinned.

“No. Nobody is to harm him. It’s pointless. Leo won’t talk; he’s loyal to whoever Liberty is. He cares for them and I think he would genuinely take their identity to the grave. That doesn’t mean he can’t be of use to us, though. Scan his tag into the system, a transport will arrive later this week to take him to The Sanctum, I have a project there for him to work on.” Delilah ordered.

The henchman scowled, disappointed that he couldn’t have any fun. Still, he carried out his orders, subordinate to a fault.

He returned Leo to his cell, handcuffing him to the wall to avoid any misbehaviour.

“Sit tight and don’t go anywhere. I’ll be back for you soon.” The goon mocked and taunted before disappearing out of sight.

Leo sat there alone, in the dark, contemplating the decisions that had led him to this abysmal scenario. He just had to hope help was on its way.