Chapter One

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  Bang, bang, bang sounds the pounding of the door. The sound seems as a heartbeat resounding through the office building.


  I jerk up from my lousy sleep. The sofa squeaks underneath me, and I curse softly at myself. "How could I be so stupid," I say. I get up quickly and start to shake the bundle of blankets on the couch across the room. "Tommy, Tommy get up," I whisper until a head pops out of the bundle. His dark black hair is sticking up in every direction, and he's yawning. If the situation had been different I would have laughed at his rumpled state, but sadly we were in danger again. They had found us. Did I not cover our tracks enough? I ask myself, but really I already know the answer; they were just really good at hunting and there was nothing I could have done to stop them from finding us eventually.


  "Tommy we have to go. Grab your bag quickly." My feet pound against the white floor as I rush to grab my own back pack. It's shocking really. This building could almost make you feel as if we never left Earth behind, and the Originals weren't rounding up the last of us, but I should have known it wouldn't last. We had been here too long and should have left yesterday, but Tommy didn't want to leave and in all honesty I didn't want to either.


  It's the first place we'd stayed at in the city in over six months. Normally I would have never left the jungle, but Tommy had gotten sick and the cities were the only place to find the medicine he needed. The cities are left behind ruins since the Originals attacked and are constantly patrolled for left over people, but we had to risk it.


  Tommy sputters some more, then quickly stashes his things in his bag. His scared eyes search my face for reassurance. Its times like these that remind me of his young age, and I can't help but to smile back at him. He's only nine years old, I remind myself, but still if he wants to survive he has to be tough. We're in that kind of a world now, and it's terribly heartbreaking.


 I rush over to him and grab him by the arm. I lead us out of the little office room we had called home for the past couple days. I can't help but wonder if the sense of normalcy just got both of us killed as we make our way down the hallway and to the exit sign that holds the stairs. I rush ahead down the stairs to make sure it's safe. "Oh please dear God, let them not be in the stair well yet," I whisper to myself. At that exact moment the pounding stops, and I stop dead in my tracks. I frantically turn my head to look back for Tommy, but he's not behind me. My heart drops to the pit of my stomach and I stop breathing.


  I take the stairs two at a time searching for my brother. If anything happened to him I would...I shut that train of thought down before I got to the conclusion. I'm almost at the last landing that I passed when I see his little black head looking out the glass window in the door. I glance through the glass window too. What I see unsettles me to the core.


  The twinkling sunlight is blocked by a massive shape. A single red eye is all that can be seen through the row of windows lining the outside wall of the building. It was like its whole body had blocked out the sun and its red eye glaring in was the light. The only thing that moved was that red eye to survey the whole room, as its pupil approaches our place, I'm frozen in place almost afraid to move. This is a new trick in the enemy's arsenal I hadn't seen before.


  Since we had run away and hid in the forest, we hadn't been keeping up with the Originals. Just as its huge black hole of a pupil approached where we were gawking at it, I had the sense enough to unfreeze and jerk Tommy out of the way. Shaking off the shock, I pressed Tommy to move in front of me to go down the rest of the stairs. I trailed behind urging him to hurry. When we finally reached the bottom, I heard them. They were approaching us, and my heart grew frantic in my chest. I could hear their footsteps approaching the door to the stairwell.


   I threw the door open to the outside, and rushed into the alley. It seemed that old habits die hard with us humans, because our cities were built the same as on Earth. The difference is that the gravity here wasn't as strong so we could make the buildings in strange shapes and could make them taller too but they would never reach the height of the trees outside of the compound. Everything metal was tinted gold, since the suns' rays were stronger the metal reflected them more giving it its gold tint, which was a beautiful sight in the early morning hours.


  The alley was dark in the late day sun, though. I quickly looked from left to right. If they're out here waiting for us then we're done for, but luck seemed to be on our side today. After checking the alley, I go back to the door. It has a keypad for security reasons. I guess this building was important before everything went to hell. I press the lock button hoping that it will work. Since the building seems relatively unharmed, maybe the solar panels will be too. It seems our luck has run out. The door doesn't lock, but I still need to buy us time. I can hear footsteps coming from inside the building. I look around to try and find something to wedge the door, when I see Tommy. He is holding a ladder that must have fallen from the dilapidated fire escape. I grab it and rush to the door. I place it next to the door, trying not to make a sound.


  Next, I quickly scurry across the alley to where I know the cover is for the duct system underground. In order to preserve the look of the city, a scientist made the covers with technology to reflect its surroundings in order to make them invisible and keep the city beautiful. Not a lot of them are left, since a lot of the city was destroyed in the attack, but luckily I tripped over this one when Tommy and I first set up camp here. The duct system will lead us right out of the city.  As I make my way over to where I know the cover to be, the dirt squishes under my boots and covers the bottom of them with the orange color of the soil. Most outdoor spaces were left with just a dirt floor to lessen our impact on the environment. After all we didn't want the same thing to happen here that happened on Earth without impeding on our comforts.


 I quickly slide the cover off and drop my bag down the hole. Tommy follows my lead and does the same with his bag. I move him to the hole and gesture for him to go down. He sits on the edge and scoots over to drop down. The humidity here is a constant and caused the steps down to decay away far faster than it should. That's one of the reasons the compounds are in such ruin, and of course the attacks from the sky when the Originals came.


  I glance back down the alley. They still hadn't found us, but our luck wouldn't last forever. I turn back around to lay down on the ground and grab Tommy's hand to lower him down. This position will leave me utterly exposed, but I have to get Tommy down quickly. As I lower him down into the darkness, he gives me his scared face, and I just smile encouraging down at him trying to hurry this up as fast as possible. He lets go and a crash sounds as he hits the ground. "Move out of the way, so I can get down there," I whisper down in the darkness. I hear voices getting louder. I get up quickly, heart racing as I look back behind me.


 When I look at the cover for the hole still reflecting the orange soil, I remember the teleband bracelet I have. It can help me put the cover back on. I found my bracelet on a dead rich kid from my school back when the attacks first started, but I have to push that memory away quick. Time is running out. I can hear marching footsteps outside the alley way too now, and they have to be close to finished with checking the building. The next place to check would be the alley I am in.


 I scoot my body over the edge and let my legs fall into darkness. My feet dangle as my elbows scrape on the edge of the hole. The cover has to come back on in order to cover our tracks, so I can't fall down yet. The pounding feet are almost on me, and I am really starting to sweat. The Orginals are starting to pound on the door to the alley to get past the latter. I don't have much time before they get past it and the other troop march through from the open side. I reach to my band, press a button, and a blue light shoots out. I hold out my arm to the cover and almost lose my balance. I try again, and this time it lifts up. I pull it forward over the hole as I fall down. Then, gently, I set it down over the opening. I start walking as quietly as possible just as I hear the door crash open and the rhythmic stomping of soldiers converging on the alley. I round the corner and hope to God they don't follow our trail. 


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