The People We Are

Chapter 6

Lieutenant Jeffery Small was anticipating this moment with pleasure.

They had not only located Vanjeet Ra'Hala, but two of his fellow Outcasts: Daiyu Everett and Daniel Ward. Oh, wait- Daniella Ward. After she changed gender, the CC forgot to change her name on the criminal record.

But there was one other person, of whom Jeff hadn't seen yet, but knew existed: Evelyn Blackwood. Age 14. A small girl who had been taken by Vanjeet, to who knows where. The CC had been planning on searching a small abandoned office block that morning, where she was last seen, but all the search team discovered was a sad little room with a sleeping pigeon inside. 

But here it was: A door painted with the letter 'O', wearing a bandana. The symbol of the Outcasts. Subtle, he thought with a wry smirk. Jeff and his CC crew- a young man with ginger hair and an older bloke with a bald, shiny head- waited patiently outside, listening to see if they could catch any snippets of conversation.

"I can hear something about 'learning to fight'," the ginger bloke, PC Worthing, whispered.

"Shh," the bald man, St. Staverton, elbowed the constable angrily.

"Stop arguing!" Jeff barked in a whisper-shout. The two CC officers halted their quarrel immediately. "Alright," Jeff continued under his breath. "On three, you use the battering ram to barge in. You got the ram?"

Worthing held up a huge piece of wood, putting his free thumb up.

"Good." Jeff turned to face the door. "Okay then. One... two... THREE!" 

With the strength of a bull, Worthing bashed into the door with the wooden ram. 

BANG.

It buckled a little, but didn't give way. Jeff could just make out a voice- a girl- saying "The frick?" loudly. Obviously panicked, but trying to hide it.

BANG.

The door moved a little more. Jeff could hear other voices inside, but before he could decide what they were saying, the door fell down onto the ground, knocked off of its hinges.

BANG. 

CRASH.

Dust and debris flew up in the air. Jeff coughed, his eyes watering, but barreled into the room, taser in hand. Staverton and Worthing followed behind him,  leaving the battering ram on the floor outside. 

After a few moments of confused struggle and shouting, Jeff managed to grab the upper arm of a girl. She was short, muscled and carried a knife in her hand. Immediately, she tried to slash at his hand, but he pushed her roughly to the floor, setting his taser to the maximum strength. She struggled valiantly for a few long moments, but one taser shot to the neck and she instantly blacked out, eyes rolling up and her head slamming into the floor. Jeff swiftly disarmed her and looked around for the other Outcasts.

"Got one!" Worthing called out triumphantly, holding up a teenage girl who had just been knocked out on the floor. There was a nasty lump on her forehead which oozed blood, but that was the least of Jeff's worries. She had jet-black hair and an average height. His eyes widened; he'd never seen this girl before. Could it be...

"Damn!" Staverton swore. He rushed up to Jeff, coughing up a little bit of dust. "The other two escaped."

Jeff cursed under his breath, but breathed a sigh of relief. At least they had captured half of them. Better than none at all. And, what's more, they potentially had the newest Outcast, right there in Worthing's arms. "Alright, men," Jeff said, "back to the Containment Centre."

"Yes, sir," the others saluted smartly. 

***

Running. Daniella didn't know where to, but she just kept going as fast as she could for what seemed like forever. Her only sense of direction was Vanjeet, who ran ahead of her, faster than what was feasible for a 17-year-old boy. She ducked into an alleyway, pausing to catch her breath. Vanjeet doubled back, running the twenty-or-so feet distance back to Daniella. He breathed quickly, but steadily. "You okay?" he asked.

"Yep," Daniella huffed, wiping her brow. "Just tired. How long... how long do we have to run for?"

"I think we've lost them," Vanjeet answered, looking around cautiously. When he sensed no immediate danger, he turned back to his friend, eyes hard. "But we gotta go back soon. We left Evelyn and Dai behind."

"Frick. You don't think... you don't think they caught them, do you?"

Vanjeet nodded sadly.

Daniella had to sit down. The amount of times they'd ran from the CC, and escaped- it amounted up to the hundreds. But, now... She tried hard to be strong. She had to be, for the sake of her friend, and the new girl of whom she wanted to get to know better. "When do we go get them?"

"I don't know yet," Vanjeet admitted. "But for now, we need to find somewhere to rest for the night. Come on."

Daniella, wiping a stray tear from her eye, nodded, and gripped Vanjeet's open hand. Together, they jogged at a more sensible pace through the dark street. When they saw an open window, Vanjeet climbed in, looked around, and helped Daniella inside. 

It was nothing more than an abandoned charity shop, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that they were safe, and they had to go back and rescue their fellow Outcasts as soon as possible. Daniella curled up on the floor, and Vanjeet lay next to her, their shared warmth blocking out the bitterly cold night. Maybe there was nothing romantic between them, but Daniella revelled in the closeness of him, of the life another person could share. She blushed, blocking out the thoughts. Not appropriate right now, Dan.