Children's Games: A Story of Modern Consequence

Chapter 32

~Emilia~

The house had been perfectly still for the entire day. There was no movement, no sound, no disruptions. They were all resting in the bedroom, like Dominik said they would. They were going to break into the high security building that night, and since they didn't have much of an idea what could be behind that wall, it was planned for them to stay for hours if they needed to, all through the night. If that's what it took.

So, Emilia had laid there, trying not to disturb the flecks of dust floating in the sunlight as she dosed in and out of sleep. She dreamt, but when she woke, she could only remember fragments. Red hair and hot sand, lightning storms and wet clothes, weapons and explosions. She woke each time feeling confused but woke each time next to Anna who rolled away aggressively at the disruption.

Anna had offered everyone her best stuff to ensure that they slept through the day to optimise the energy needed to operate through the night. Although Emilia didn't think they would need it, since they were up all the previous night anyway to prepare for the break-in. She was given a map of the outside security features of the building, as well as a thick document which refreshed her memory about the importance of following orders. It made her eyes blurry when she had finished the patronising story for the fourth time.

But it was Joshua who appeared over Anna's shoulder who give a quick shake of his head to the sleeping drugs. The small gesture was so subtle that it had almost gone unnoticed. So, she refused the shiny blue liquid, much to Anna's disappointment.

Emilia found herself wishing that she could have another private moment with him, like the other night on the rooftop. She would skip all the cool conversation and skip to racking his brain for information. She knew that he knew something that he hadn't shared yet and was prepared to get as involved as she needed to in order to get it. She was on her own.

***

The air was just as crisp as the night they broke into the council buildings, with most other factors being the exact same; from the empty streets to the silent procession from rooftop to rooftop, to the ignorance of the civilians watching them jog past. Except this time, they broke off into two groups of four; one being led by Dominik, and the other by Natasha. Emilia was part of Dominik's, along with Joshua and Anna.

They jogged in a single file line along the same route towards the hollow building. Only there, when they reached the top, they jumped to a different building than the other night to head in the opposite direction. Emilia was quickly lost as the only time she had actually been to the security building was last Tuesday when Joshua had led her there. She couldn't remember much of what happened that night.

This time, she wanted to keep track of which buildings they travelled across. But so far, it had been a disorganised maze in their attempt to avoid the city cameras that targeted every corner and intersection, even in the bridges that connected the buildings five storeys into the open air.

After a good twenty-two minutes of manoeuvring around balconies, and shuffling across loose wooden boards, they arrived at the building next to their ginormous destination.

It was the familiar large grey building built into the cliff face of Fimiston. Its appearance was plain and blank, void of any detail to indicate what its function was in a place like this. The balcony that wrapped around its entirety contained sentinels constantly walking around, which was the only indication that what was behind the plain facade was something of great importance.

Dominik took a red laser from his pocket and flashed it twice into the abyss... to which an identical signal responded from a shorter building on the other side. He took that to start setting up the rope with Anna. Emilia and Joshua stayed back with clear instructions to keep watch.