Rebellion (Zero Series) (8 page)

I walked over to see what she was doing.

“What are you making?” I asked as I approached.

“A hook,” Jet replied.

“A hook? What for?” I asked.

“I dropped a credit in the sewer grate over there and
I need to get it back. This metal wire will attract the magnetic tracking strip
in the credit and I’ll be able to pull it up,” she said.

“That’s a good plan. Do you need some help?” I asked
uncharacteristically. I normally would never talk to someone randomly on the
street but I was stricken by her beauty.

“Actually yeah I could use some help,” she said
finishing the hook.

“What do you need me to do?” I asked.

“I need you to lift the sewer grate up enough for me
to slide the hook down to reach the credit,” she replied.

“Sure thing. I’m Zero by the way,” I said.

“Jet,” she replied. We walked over to the nearby
sewer grate and crouched down. I gripped the grate and lifted it out of its
slot. She slid the hook down and within a minute, she had retrieved the credit.
She pulled the card out of the hole and I saw the gold gleam. The credit system
in Marsh City was classified by colors and grades within those color classes.
There were bronze, silver and gold, bronze being the lowest and gold being the
highest value. In each color, there were three different classes. In the
bronze, the three grades were five, twenty five and fifty. In the silver, the
grades were one hundred, one hundred fifty, and one hundred seventy five. The
gold classes were five hundred, one thousand and twenty five hundred. The
credit she pulled out was worth twenty five hundred. I obviously had a
surprised look on my face because she immediately said, “It’s my dad’s credit.
I’m on my way to pick up medicine for my mom.”

“What kind of medicine?” I asked.

“My mom has a chronic disease that eats away at her
antibodies and immune system,” she said.

“You’d figure that some doctor could give her a gene
spike that could help her,” I said.

“I wish but my dad works for Kraken,” she said
casually.

I almost turned and just started walking away. She
sensed my tension and said, “I know what you’re thinking but he only works for
Kraken to get enough money for advanced medicine. We don’t condone what Kraken
does.”

I was still skeptical. “I see,” I said, “I bet it’s
hard to keep relationships with people when your family is so closely tied to
Kraken.”

“You have no idea,” she said, “I hate to ask, but
could you come with me to pick up the medicine? Today’s shipment is larger than
normal and I won’t be able to carry it all myself.”

I was hesitant. Did she know that I had a gene spike?
Was it a trap? I figured that if I got into trouble, I could use my power to
get out of it. “I can help,” I said.

“Thanks. It’s not too far away from here,” she said.
I nodded and we set off. We made small talk the whole way about the city and
who we were. We approached the medical facility and entered through the sliding
glass doors. There was a woman at the desk wearing a typical all gray Kraken
uniform. We approached the desk and the woman looked up.

“Hello Jet,” she said, “Prescription card please.”

Jet handed her a black card with a neon green stripe
on it. She placed it on a touch pad and the green stripe lit up. Jet then
handed her the gold credit. She smiled, handed the card back and pressed an
intercom button. “Order seventy seven pickup,” she said into the box. After a
few minutes, a mechanized cart rolled out with two medium sized boxes on it. We
each picked one up and turned to the door. We exited the facility and made our
way into the streets.

“How far is your home?” I asked.

“Not far,” she replied. We walked for a few minutes
until we came upon a nicer home that only Kraken members were allowed to reside.
Jet pushed the door open and we entered the sitting room. Her mother was
sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. She looked up and a smile crept
across her face.

“Who is your friend Jet?” she said in a weak voice.

“This is Zero. He helped me get the credit back after
I tripped and dropped it in a sewer grate,” she said.

“Well thank you for helping my daughter,” she said,
“Not many people would give the time of day to someone whose family is
associated with Kraken.”

“I normally wouldn’t,” I said, “but I could see that
she needed help and didn’t mind lending a hand.”

“That’s very kind. I am Ruby,” she said.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I replied.

“Here is your medicine,” Jet said having pulled out
one of the hypodermic needles from the box. She put the needle in her mother’s
arm and injected the bluish liquid. A look of relief washed over Ruby’s face.
Whatever was in the medicine was obviously the highest quality available since
Kraken hoarded all the best resources. I noticed she got a dead look on her
face.

“Is she okay?” I asked.

“She’ll be fine. The first treatment in each batch
makes her nearly comatose. It basically shuts her non vital functions down so
the medicine can rebuild and protect her immune system,” she said.

“How long has she had this disease?” I asked.

“Almost fifteen years I think. It’s hard to remember
when she got it. It seems like she has had it forever,” she replied, “She is
going to be out for a while. Do you want to go get some food?”

I felt strange. I had just met her but I wanted to
go. “Yeah I’m pretty hungry. I know a place we can go,” I said. We left her
house and went to a small bakery that I knew of. It served some of the best
food I had ever had. I don’t know how they got their food to taste so good with
the bland ingredients Kraken allowed them to have. Jet insisted that she pay
since I helped her and refused to let me hand the money to the owner. After we
ate a few pastries each, we walked out into the street. We stood on the side of
the road and leaned against a wall.

“Do you have any family in the city?” she asked out
of nowhere.

“No. My parents died,” I said.

“Oh I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked,” she said.

“No it’s alright,” I said, “There is no way you could
have known.”

“Can I ask how they died?” she asked.

“They were scientists who were part of the rebellion
and were killed in the ambush,” I said.

“So do you live by yourself?” she asked.

“Yes. I had to abandon my house for a while when
Kraken was ransacking houses right after the end of the rebellion but I went
back and have laid low since then. Kraken thinks I am dead so I avoid any
trouble or confrontation with guards,” I replied.

“They think you are dead?” she asked.

“When they came to my house and I wasn’t there, they
registered me as deceased. I guess they figured it was easier than trying to
find some kid of rebellion scientists,” I said.

She just nodded. What could she say? What did I
expect her to say? Something down the street caught my eye. It was a pair of
Kraken guards checking citizens for contraband. Kraken guards were ordered to
do random searches to halt any movement of illegal items. A sudden fear washed
over me. I remembered that I had a small bottle of metal pellets in my bag,
which were illegal. Kraken officials said that if enough force was applied, the
pellets could kill someone. I used the metal pellets to distract guards so I
could pass streets undetected. “What do I do?” I blurted out.

“About what?” she asked.

“I have contraband in my bag. They are going to
arrest me and throw me in one of their work camps,” I said. I was trying to act
more worried about the contraband but I was really worried that when they
realized that I had a gene spike, they would kill me. They were talking to a
man about five feet away from us. Jet suddenly moved towards me and began
kissing me. The guards approached us but quickly moved along when they caught a
glimpse of us. They obviously were uncomfortable by two young people embracing
in public. Once they were gone, she pulled her head back and said, “Sorry about
that.”

“Don’t be,” I gasped, still surprised by the kiss,
“If it weren’t for you, I would be in jail.”

“Well, I guess that makes us even now,” she said.

“Does this mean we can’t hang out anymore?” I asked
laughing.

“Not at all. I like hanging out with you,” she said
leaning back against the wall. We both laughed and after a while, I walked her
home. From that day on, she spent all her free time with me and the others.
During the beginning times of the Insurgency, it made me feel better to think
of the peaceful days I spent with Jet.

I got up from the bed and entered the main room.
Flare was sitting on a crate manipulating fire. She was wearing a new pair of
gauntlets. Jet already had made a new pair it seemed. How long had I been
asleep? Flare was making the fire change into different animal shapes. She stopped
when it was in the form of a deer. It began prancing around the room as she
controlled it and made it run around the floor. It ran to my feet and
disappeared. I looked up and Flare was smiling at me.

“Well look who is finally awake,” she said.

“What time is it?” I asked groggily.

“I think a more appropriate question is what day is
it?” she replied.

“What day? How long was I asleep?” I asked in a
concerned tone.

“Five days. A lot has happened,” she said.

“What did I miss?” I asked pulling a chair up.

“Well, Jet told me about the other night. How you
told her you cared about her,” she said slyly.

“I figured it was about time. Jekyll put me on the
brink of death. In the moment that I thought I was going to die, the only thing
I thought of was Jet,” I replied.

“Better late than never,” she said.

“I guess so. What else went on?” I asked.

“Jet made a few more pairs of gauntlets, Pan raided a
small military convoy and got us a year’s worth of ammunition. I don’t know how
he did it. He backed a large truck up to the entrance to Sanctum and once we
unloaded it, he drove it five hundred feet away and did something to the engine
and it exploded,” she said.

“Oh man,” I said, “It seems that he survived for so
long for a reason.”

“He is very resourceful,” she said.

“You should have seen his city. It was incredible,” I
said.

“What was it like?” she asked.

“Unlike anything you have ever seen. There were
buildings in the trees with large bridges connecting them,” I replied.

“That sounds amazing. It’s too bad that it burned,”
she said, “Oh by the way, Pan said he needs to meet with you as soon as you
were awake.”

“Did he say what it was about?” I asked.

“No but he said it was urgent,” she said.

“I’ll go straightaway,” I said, “Where is Frost?”

“He is teaching Jet how to shoot a rifle in the
woods,” she replied.

“Well I’m going by myself then I suppose,” I said.

“You should probably get your disguise and wear your
amplifiers just in case something goes down,” she said.

I gathered up my gear and took off towards the city.
The sun was going down and the sky was an orange pastel color. The evening
would provide a good cover for me while I snuck into the city. I approached the
city gate and noticed that Kraken had beefed up security. There were six armed
guards stationed at the gates. I sat behind a large rock and tried to think of
a way to make it into the city without alerting the rest of Kraken to the fact
that I was inside the walls. Night had descended upon me.
I sat and pondered
how I would get into the city without alerting the guards. As I sat, I
remembered that I had the amplifiers. I waited for full darkness to set in.
Once the inky darkness covered the land, I stood up and prepared myself. I put
my hands in the same position I had when I first took flight. I concentrated on
my hands and before I knew it, I was midflight. My hood flew off from the speed
I was traveling. I had never seen the city like this. From above, you would
never have known what it was like in there. There was a beauty to it from this
angle. The light of the houses flickered in the darkness but all were
overshadowed by the shining brilliance of Poseidon Tower. I knew that evil
resided inside the tower, but I still could appreciate the illuminated glory of
the building. I lowered my altitude as I got closer to Pan's base. I passed
over familiar areas and became nostalgic. I wanted nothing more than to end
this and lead a quiet life. I came upon Jet's old house and landed quietly in
front of the door. I knocked lightly on the sturdy wooden door. Pan quickly
opened the door and I slipped in. "It's about time. I radioed in for you
two days ago," he said.
"Sorry. The amplifiers really drained me
after the fight with Jekyll. What did you find?" I asked.
"I can't really explain it. I have to show
you," he said.
"Well let's get a move on," I said. We
took off from the house and moved through the "What is this?" I
asked.
"It is supposed to be an abandoned
munitions factory. I noticed some guards lingering around here. Why would
guards be patrolling an abandoned factory? I snuck in and found something
startling," he replied.
"I have to see," I said. He nodded his
head in the direction of the warehouse to signal that it was safe to move. We
moved to the door and Pan sidled along the wall away from it. He waved his hand
signaling for me to follow him. He led me to a ladder that went to an opening
on the second floor. He began up the ladder and I hovered upwards. We both
arrived on the catwalk at the same time. We entered the facility and I stopped
dead in my tracks when I saw what was on the floor. There were forty cryogenic
tubes lining the walls all with computer consoles and cables and tubes running
from them.
"Go have a look at what's inside," Pan
said. I slowly descended to the ground and approached a tube. I put my hand on
the small glass window and wiped the ice crystals away to reveal a face. I
jumped back and bumped into the computer console. It whirred and the screen lit
up.