Fated Retribution

18 [Target Delta]

16th September, Tuesday, 6:30 am, 2028

Sneaking into the records room of the ATPD with a dead shoulder and the most clumsy being in existence was not on my bucket list.

"Want to go for an adventure?" Aurelia had said, God how I wish I would have denied but her hopeful eyes and bottom lip stuck out in plea reminded me of her thirteen year-old self when I wanted to sit out on one of our volleyball matches but she had convinced me to play.

So, at five in the morning Ivory had knocked out the nurse who was supposed to change my bandage, a few minutes later, Aurelia had done the nurse's job which involved more arguments and screaming required to do such a thing. Half an hour later, the duo had explained to me their marvellous plan of sneaking into the ATPD and finding as many records on the Grave Markers as possible.

At six, after a lot of convincing, when Aurelia parked into the station, she surprised me with another news that she would be going back to her place to get the records she had when she was covering the terrorist groups' arrest while Ivory and I will go back to ATPD.

"So you want to split up?" I deadpanned.

"What? Are you deaf?" Ivory said through gritted teeth, growing more and more impatient.

"It's the best option we've got." Aurelia said, shrugging her shoulders and I shook my head.

"Dude, I'm not splitting up, that's how people die in horror movies!" I exclaimed. Aurelia's face palmed while Ivory gave me a bored look.

"We're not in a horror movie, Bridget. And for god's sake, the station opens at seven, we have a window of half an hour, so we don't really have time for your teenage fears." Ivory spoke sharply, her patience now running out almost completely as Aurelia started to push me out of the car and Ivory opened her door too, "We'll meet back in the hospital parking lot at 6:50 sharp."

She closed the door behind me as I got out and pushed on the accelerator, "Hey! What about our ride-" I cut myself off as she drove out of sight and Ivory started to pull me towards the station's entrance.

"This is very stupid, y'know?" I remarked as Ivory plucked out a bobby pin from her hair and pushed it into the keyhole of the locked door.

Ivory simply gave me a death glare in response as she continued to rotate the pin in the keyhole, I leaned against the wall, waiting patiently as she continued to struggle to get the door open. "You didn't plan enough, did you-" I cut myself off when the lock clicked and Ivory opened the door, giving me a triumphant smile.

I gave her an impressed look as we walked into the station, Ivory leading the way. We faced a wooden door, a metal plate embedded on it which read 'RECORD AND FILES'. We looked at each other and she nodded as I opened the door which let out an eerie creak, making me jump.

"Jeez, McPhinnon don't get your panties twisted now." Ivory sniggered as we entered the room, "Don't call me that." I grumbled in response.

I stayed near the door and turned on the light as Ivory started to look for the correct box of files among hundreds of them. She muttered the alphabet under breath, going about the shelves while I stayed on guard near the door, staring out towards the main entrance from time to time.

"Grave Markers, here it is!" She exclaimed quietly, grabbing the huge cardboard box and placing it on the table in the middle of the room. There were several files dumped in the box, all labelled with the name of the terrorist group. Ivory and I started to go through them one by one, trying to find anything of our use.

"These are mostly court proceedings. What will we do with these?" I observed as Ivory nodded in agreement, slamming a file shut.

"We ought to keep looking, there must be something we can-"

"Did you hear that?" I cut her off as a light chatter reached my ears, followed by a click of the lock. Ivory and I looked at each other, our eyes wide in panic as I turned off the light and shut the door as she grabbed the box of files, ducking under the table while I hid behind a shelf.

I peeked out from the little window on the door to see two officers had entered the station. They went and sat on their desks as one of them sipped on coffee while the other munched on some bagels. I craned my neck to see if more were coming but the entry hallway stayed empty.

"Oh my god!"

My head snapped in Ivory's direction whose hands were on her mouth in horror, "What?" I mouthed and she signalled to a dead rat in the corner of the room and I rolled my eyes at her antics.

"Flies are feeding on it!" She exclaimed and I raised my finger to my lips as I noticed one of the guard's attention pulling towards the record room, "Cut it out." I whisper shouted as she frowned at the animal's state.

I looked back at the officer who was now busy with his work, my eyes scanned the room and I noticed a door in the corner of the room. A wave of hope crashed over me as I waved my hand to get Ivory's attention, she looked at me in question and I pointed towards the door. Ivory gave me a nod, signalling that she understood as she started to drag the box towards the door and I latched the entrance of the record room.

Ivory pushed the door open and I dashed out after her, locking the door behind me and sliding against it as I panted heavily.

"What's the time?" I asked in between breaths as Ivory glanced at her phone, "6:44." She said and I looked at her in bewilderment, "You're telling me we did that in fourteen minutes."

"Yeah, we did." She said triumphantly and I smiled at the statement in pride. "Brilliant, how do we get to the hospital now?"

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that."

Ivory and I turned around to find a man in uniform with bright blue eyes in contrast to his dark skin and messy raven curls sitting on his head. He had a smug smile on his face and his gaze was fixed on the sandy-haired girl beside me.

"Leo?"

"Who?"

I said as the guy, Leo, started to walk towards us, spinning car keys on his finger. "Where ladies in need, There Leo resides indeed." He said as he bowed in front of us and extended a hand in Ivory's direction. I could see a pink tint coating her cheeks, I squinted my eyes at the pair before slapping the boy's hand away who frowned.

"Oh my fucking God, you're Bridget, from Velvet Concord!" He said breathlessly as if he had seen me properly just then. I shook his outstretched hand which was trembling under my touch, making me smirk a little, "Wetting your pants, knight in shining armour?"

He cleared his throat as he let out a nervous laugh. "No, no, Ms. Bridget I just simply did not expect you to be here. Big fan, by the way."

I smiled at him as Ivory grumbled under her breath if we could "Go already." I let out a laugh at her reaction as Leo led us to his car when I was suddenly pulled away from the duo. My back was slammed against the back of the police station and my eyes widened as a familiar figure came into view,

"Miss me, McPhinnon?"