Adrenaline

⌊Chapter 20⌉

23 Years Earlier

"Go. Please."

Bang!

She was dead. Marian was dead. Andy's eyes burned with horrible tears threatening to roll down his face. From the ground where the crying baby had fallen, Andy picked him up safe in his arms and darted out of the house. He could hear the clanging of metal armour chasing after him, but he had always been fast. He muffled the baby's cries by holding him close to his chest and he slipped into an alleyway, hiding behind a dumpster as far back against the wall as he could get. He took a moment to catch his breath as the murderers ran past the alleyway, only taking a quick glance down it. Once their footsteps disappeared, Andy looked from around the dumpster to be sure they were gone. He sat criss-crossed on the ground, cradling the child as the baby's tears dried, replaced with fearful whimpering.

"It's okay," Andy whispered, kissing the baby's head. "I'm sorry I couldn't save her. But we have to leave. It's too dangerous here."

Andy got to his feet and looked around the building. The POL was no longer in sight. They had been after the Rilot family since before Andy was born. He didn't know much about why - though the slight answers he got were speaking of a scandal the Rilot family pulled decades ago. How many years, he wasn't completely sure, but the POL held a grudge against people who were no longer alive. He turned back around and ran down the alleyway on light feet. The wind blew his brown hair in his face, but he had no time to worry about such a thing. He ran even through his breath running out, quickly moving toward the green train station called Pitchfall Central.

Pitchfall was a busy, bustling city, so it was easy to disappear into the crowd. Andy, Marian, and the child had lived on the outskirts, but Andy knew Pitchfall well as he had lived there for his entire life. He was born there, met and married Marian there, experienced a miscarriage there, and then received his first living child there. The miscarriage caused a huge rift in Andy and Marian's lives, but it was made up by their son, named Richard after Marian's grandfather who fought in the war and died on the front lines. Andy always used to call him Ricky, but Marian called him Rich. Andy took that nickname and began to use it as an ode to Marian.

Pitchfall was packed with people and when the train arrived, people started to move around. Andy looked at a board of destinations, trying to figure out where the POL wouldn't find them - somewhere big and busy like Pitchfall. Pitchfall went to Toucan to Fort Jansen to Revenand to Maruska to... Adelmir. Andy's eyes rested on Adelmir, looking no further onto the destination list. Adelmir would be perfect. It was big, loud, busy, and was in such an area that it would be easy to hide - especially since Andy was aware of the city's history, offering places to hide and get away. He gave a terse nod, still holding the baby close out of fear of losing him. He glanced around quickly. He had no money on him, but there was an old green ticket on the ground with no holes punched and he picked it up before anyone else could. He walked over to the train where people were filing in and offered the ticket to the conductor to be punched. The conductor hesitated.

"They put down the wrong date," Andy said as an excuse. "But I need to get to Toucan."

He knew it was foolish to speak out loud where he really needed to go. The conductor seemed lax, and he shrugged, punching a hole into the card, a small green circle falling to the ground atop of a bunch of other green circles which often didn't get cleaned up before the speed of the train blew them away. As Andy bordered the train with Rich, he went as far back on the train as he could get. He eventually took an empty seat by a window. The back of the seats had small tables that could be pulled down and he did so, using a pencil to scrape off the ticket's original date, replacing it with the current date. He pocketed the ticket and put up the table as he heard faint breaths over his shoulder. Rich was asleep. Perfect.