Against The Sun

The Lobby

The morning of the meeting Nate woke Mikey and Gerard before sunrise, handed them both a granola bar for breakfast and told them to dress inconspicuously. "We're going topside. We leave in 20 minutes," he explained before leaving to let them get dressed.

The brothers hadn't been out of the abandoned subway system since the night they fled from their former lives and Gerard would be lying if the thought of returning to the surface, where countless surveillance cameras, and patrols of Exterminators were just waiting to spot the two runaways, didn't make him anxious.

Gerard and Mikey silently got dressed in their most bland city clothes, before they both pulled on their hooded jackets to hide their faces. Gerard pulled Mikey's hood down low making sure his face was as obscured as possible.

"You ready to do this?" he asked gently.

Mikey gave him an anxious smile. "Even if I wasn't this is happening anyway."

Gerard frowned at him. "I don't care if it causes problems for anyone else. If you don't want to do this, then we aren't doing this. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready," Mikey said bravely after a moment.

Gerard smiled proudly at his little brother. "Then lets do this."

Nate had organised several groups of the Juvie Halls to scout their way just ahead of them reporting back any patrols and sabotaging any security cameras. He and Shannon, who Gerard had noticed acted as a kind of grumpy second in command, led the brothers through the subway like they could navigate the tunnels blindfolded. After a long and silent walk they ascended some stairs to a large and heavy metal door.

"On the other side of this door is the Lobby," Nate explained quickly. "It's about a ten minute walk to the rebel safe house where we will meet our contact. Stay close to Shannon and I. We have darkness on our side and we are going to move fast. Keep your hoods up. And if anything goes wrong I want Mikey to follow Shannon and Gerard, you follow me."

Gerard felt his heart stop for a moment. "No we aren't splitting up!"

"If you follow our lead and keep your heads down we wont have to," Nate explained gently. "But if this goes sideways we all stand a much better chance if we split up and loose them in the alleys than if we stay in a group."

Shannon looked at Gerard with sympathetic eyes. "As much as it pains me to admit this, he's right. Trust me, I will get Mikey back to you safe."

Gerard let out a shaky, anxious sigh. He wanted to trust that everything would be fine, but the thought of not having Mikey in his immediate sight while doing something so dangerous made his stomach churn uneasily. "Promise?"

"Cross my heart," Shannon answered sincerely.

The streets of the Lobby were so unlike anything Gerard had ever expected to see inside the walls of Battery City. The streets were narrow and unclean, with mounds of garbage piled up in the gutters, and looming above were imposing, brutalist tower blocks. Being this close to the edge of the dome the light from the artificial sunrise was at such an oblique angle that the buildings blocked it entirely, and Gerard doubted the lighting would be much better at midday. The eerie perpetual darkness was punctuated by the multitudes of glowing neon signs that advertised anything from gambling bars to brothels. All along the streets were Pornodroids working at tempting passerbys into back alleys and darkened doorways.