Children's Games: A Story of Modern Consequence

Chapter 24

~Emilia~

The city of Fimiston had limited amounts of technology. People tried to avoid it altogether to save money. So luckily, street cameras around the city were scarce and in poor condition. There was nothing stopping them from running the city undetetced and unopposed in the black of the night, so long as they used the right path.

Emilia, silent as a ghost and quick as a rabbit followed Liam in front of her. He was the leader as they jogged through the city, taking a peculiar path towards their destination in order to avoid the bigger streets that were subject to regular surveillance from cameras and military personnel. They saw no one and spoke no words even to each other, a silent pride on the hunt. If they were seen through the windows of onlooking apartments, it was assumed that they were authorised, protectors of the city.

As she jogged, an overwhelming feeling of doubt and hopelessness overtook her as she considered their task. Liam had only briefly gone through the plan, as everyone else had already completed it once before. Basically, they had to follow a specific path to the council buildings, break back into the data room, and collect information for the rest of their missions' goals. Assassinate the elders, assimilate into the culture, find the locations of the remaining camps, and find what was behind the high security facility. The lack of details scared her.

So instead, she did what she had been taught to do during the routine scouting's that they all took turns of during the day. It was incredibly dark now, as this section of the city was washed in shadow from the roof, creating a moonless twilight.

She noticed, with second inspections, that a lot of the buildings on the lower tiers, where the pharmacy was, weren't actually buildings. They're storage containers and old train carriages! They were stacked one on top of one another with windows cut out of the thick steel and cords that travelled through small holes that allowed them the comforts of electricity when necessary. Towards the bottom of the mess of box apartments, was a communal bathroom that provided those residents with all their showering and toiletry needs.

She looked away in shame. At the house, there was eight to the one bedroom, but they had space to house more. They had whole other rooms for lounging and dining in. They had their own bathroom and their own basement. What has this war done to people?

She held her gun in a tight grip as she silently turned the next corner and entered a familiar street. They were in front of the hollowed-out building that she had visited on her first day. It was now more clearly wrapped in 'caution' and 'warning' tape that barred their entry to the inside, though Dominik led them to the back to a fire exit ladder. One by one, they followed each other in complete silence.

At the top, she peered over the edge and felt a cold breeze ruffle through her hair, and she remembered how she felt that day, believing that she was a deserter.

Mary appeared next to her and reached over and pulled the thick material back over Emilia's nose, shaking her head with an amused twinkle in her eye. All of them, as a last-minute precaution, wore a thick black beanie that had the top cut out so that it could cover half their face. She had let hers slip under her chin when she was climbing the ladder.

Re-joining the group, she found that Liam had placed a long wooden beam over the railing. It extended to create a stable pathway to the next building only a few metres away. Without hesitation, Mary jumped up and shimmied across while Liam held the end to secure it's balance.

Emilia raised her eyebrows in shock, not having expected something like this, but she tried to bury the feeling as each person of the team took their turn to walk across the plank. They've done this before, she tried to remind herself as the nerves hit her stomach.