My knees shook violently and I scrunched up closer to the cabinet. The search lights had been going on for so long now and I had a feeling they sensed the gun missing. They'd been relentless - our leaders - and kept on spotting innocents around the block. Some of the names I recognized and some of them as incoherent as the next.
I could feel the hard gun pressed up against my hip, it had begun aching just after the search lights had decided to pay a visit. My teeth chattered uncontrollably and I did my best to conserve body heat.
A shuffling sounded just to the corner of the cabinet and a shadow emerged into my eyes, that shadow flashed some teeth and gave me a wave. "Why, Grace, how are doing on this unspeakably difficult night?"
I nodded, shivering terribly toward the figure. "Hey Nathaniel."
He smiled and sat down next to me, bringing his rather long legs to his chest. "No luck." he whispered to me. "Almost got caught one or two times, up until just a few minutes ago Jackson was tagging along with me."
I stiffened, I'd remembered hearing him being caught and ushered out of the court. He was one of my friends in the third Legion. With Nathaniel, it was a little different. I liked him more than a friend but that was always diminished when other girls came into it.
I sighed, feeling self-conscious at this moment was not to happen. I needed to get out of this god-damned place with the gun stowed away, carefully concealed. Nathaniel moved closer to me, the lights sweeping just over the tip of his shoe. I'd cut straight to the route that led out of the court, but that was seemingly close to a watch-tower and it'd been a risk I was willing to take.
"How are you doing in this?" Nate asked.
I worked hard to hide any emotion, "Nada."
Nate shoved me gently at the hip smiling, though he took a moment to frown and he glanced down at the place he'd hit me, "Uh..."
Before he could finish I took his arm and pulled him away from the quickly descending light. I let a few tentative seconds go by until I let him go. He gave me a horrified and surprised glance and then before I could even register what'd happened he was running away from the cabinet and was darting to the desk that'd been half broken down and crawled into the small space under it, harbouring himself safely. He smiled fondly at me and gave a thumbs up, silently saying the word go.
I smiled back, if possible smiling even wider when the bright gleam of the lights clicked off and I ran from the cabinet, shielding my head and sprinting for the next place I'd need to hide. I wasn't thinking when the lights came back on. Breathing hard I edged toward what looked like a hastily set up fort and dived in, settled down and slowed my breathing. So close. And yet with my target just in sight I was shaking up pretty bad. When my heart finally stopped racing I smiled at my own self certainty that I'd actually get out. I'd think myself a fool once done with this.
Darkness brought me away from my thoughts and I slowly emerged from the little fort. There, just ahead of me were the back gates and two leaders. I ran again at a slow jog and then picked up the pace. I stopped respectfully in front of the guards, pulled the gun out of the waste-band of my shorts revealing it to my leaders. I looked up at them and Claudia, one of the leaders of my Legion. She smiled broadly at me, stepped back, took a small device out of her pocket that I recognized as a communicator and spoke some words into it.
A buzz came over the speakers and a voice boomed, "You may cease your search, 37 of the third Legion has come out victorious."
Thanks for reading :)
