Hunger

Chapter 2:1: The City Beyond Limits - Randall Arkline

"Ugh! No one can take me alive", he whispered, while he was limping.

He stopped a while along an alley. While he was putting a pressure on his wound, he brought out his clean towel to tie his right thigh up. He sat down on a cardboard box near the dumpster, and rested for a minute.

His name’s Randall Arkline. He worked stealthily at the Halford Industries Inc., as a chief retriever. He had been working at one of the most influential institutions for almost five years. Ten years ago to be exact, he used to work as a police officer at Rushford Police Department, together with his brother.

It was truly a grief for him when he got kicked out of the force. He couldn’t forget the time when his brother took him as his shield to protect him from all sorts of accusations, like what happened when they were put on the case about an unknown syndicate, involving Halford Inc. He exposed him as a material of the crime, yet they swore each other not to tell anybody about it, but everything between them had become a history.

He didn’t make the wrong choice when Halford started to mold him as a true "opportunity", and as a true man who deserved to live as a whole. He didn’t trust anyone, except the Halford and himself.

". . . Arkline, this is Halford. Report your status", a voiceover emitted from his radio.

". . . Sir Halford, this is Arkline. The samples are retrieved. I’m going to return now", he reported.

". . . Good Arkline. Return now, before someone suspects you."

". . . Yes Sir."

He opened up the briefcase to see if everything was still in order.

"No! No! It cannot be! I lost a sample!” he was surprised to see that a sample shattered into a mess inside the briefcase.

He hurriedly grabbed a pair of gloves and another towel from his pocket. He wiped the greenish mess inside the case and on the remaining samples. After that, he disposed of the soiled gloves and towel.

Suddenly . . .

"Freeze! Freeze! Don’t move!” shouted by a police officer, as he pointed his gun at Randall.

". . . Alpha, this is Unit 2. We got him", reported by another police officer.

"We got you now! There is no way out! Surrender with your hands up, now!"

Randall looked on both sides, but they were already barricaded. Apparently, he spotted a fire exit sticking out of a building.

"You got it all wrong, officers. Bye - bye", he teasingly said.

They began shooting at him, as he climbed up the fire exit as fast as he could, up to the rooftop.

"Like I said, bye-bye!” he shouted, while he cocked his gun. He shot at them both, dropping them down.

Unfortunately, Randall saw a group of police cars chasing after him. He moved very fast by running and jumping over the gaps of buildings. The team of policemen started to take him down with their rifles, but he still kept on running.

"Oops! I can do this", he said, as he ended up at the end of the building cautiously.

"Wait. I still have another towel."

He brought out his last towel, and used it as a hanger to slide down the electric wire from there to the rooftop of the nearest rooftop of a restaurant. At about a very huge height from the ground, he successfully ended up at the site, to escape the chase further.