Runaway Lover // Andy Leo

Prologue

A/N - Just some ground rules here; This is losely based off of the album The Resistance: The Rise of the Runaways, but I really do mean losely. Don't shoot me if i change the name of something, it'll be for the story. Also, Bones is not a character in this story.

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There are three rules to living under the roof of the Empire. Rule number one; If you see a Runaway, report them immediately and take any measures necessary to detain them. Rule number two; If you are not with the Empire, you are against them. And finally, rule number three; The freedom to do as you wish is not permitted. You cannot differentiate yourself from others by anything other than name or natural appearance. You cannot voice an individual opinion unless it agrees with the authorities. You cannot be your own person.

These are the rules that are punished with death. There are other rules, of course, like us not being allowed near fences that result in public beatings. The funny thing about these punishments, however, is that neither result in us leaving the borders of the fences because of what lies outside.
The Runaways. The infected. The diseased. The free.

Only people with years of training are allowed past the fences- and even then people say that it doesn't prepare you for them. The stories say that they're rash. Unpredictable. They do what they want, when they want.

The Empire believes no act is bad enough to deem banishment. They say that what the Runaways would do to you would be a worse fate than death- even though it would end in it.

There's been talk in the towns lately. Talk of the Runaways being close to the borders. I have to keep reminding myself that curiosity is forbidden or, at least, hidden from the Empire.
It had taken me all of three days to figure out how I was going to get close enough to the fences without being caught. Guards line the fences and patrol most of the buildings that are still standing. Everyone makes the assumption that wherever the guards are in abundance is the place the Runaways are expected to attack next. However when this happens, other areas are left wide open; Something I've taken advantage of.

I can see the whole compound from the top of the building I'm in. The guards swarming around the north perimeter of the fence, leaving the south open for the taking. My hands are shaking - I have never done anything even remotely rebellious in my entire life; We aren't allowed to be rebellious. Even now I don't really know what I'm doing up here and what I think I could possibly get from breaking this many rules at once. I almost turn and go back down to the ground. Almost. Just as the thought crosses my mind something moves in the corner of my vision. My brain immediately thinks Runaway, and I can't stop myself from stepping closer to the edge of the building.

Whatever it was had moved somewhere to the south-east side of the fence where there was a good three mile stretch of rubble from the wars between the Black and White Empires 100 years ago. That's where they say the Runaways hide.

I look over the edge of the building and guess that there's a good 10 feet between where I am and the fence that I am now above. I could jump over if I wanted to - there were plenty of buildings that I'd like to wager my getting safely to.

"Hey!" A voice shouts from behind me. My face drains white. "Show me your hands, citizen, and we won't shoot."

My hands shake more as I raise them, and I turn slowly.

Three guards stand in front of me blocking the stairs back down. Two of them are holding guns that I can only presumed are aimed at either my heart of head.

"Why are you up here?" The one without the gun walks forward as he speaks. "We have had reason to believe that there has been a citizen of the Empire communicating with the Rebels. Speak wisely."

I freeze. My heart is pounding hard against my chest, and I struggle to reply.

"I - I was..." I trail off, realising that I don't have an answer that won't either get me killed or badly beaten. My state of panic must be apparent, as the guards readjust their hold of their guns and step closer.

"Were you communicating with the Rebels?" He demands.

"What? No. No - I wasn't! I was..." I stammer. I try to figure out if there was any way for me to run past them and down the stairs without getting shot, and take my chances as slim. Even If I did manage to get away they can track my face with their cameras.

I only have one option. I quickly glace over my shoulder before I start to run to the edge of the building.

As soon as I turn shouting comes from behind me. Gunshots fire off to my right, narrowly missing their mark. My heart pounds in my chest as I realise what I have just condemned myself to.

Two steps. One. I leap off of the edge of the building, praying that I'll be able to make it to one on the other side rather than dropping a good 50 foot to the ground.

The feeling of weightlessness was soon over as my chest connected with one of the buildings on the other side of the fence. It knocks the wind out of me, but I'm quickly scrambling to get up onto its roof. I hear the gunshots echo and hit off of various objects around me and I use it at motivation to pull myself up off of the buildings edge. I race to my feet and run for cover.

Another gunshot echoes off and I feel a burning pain drill its way into my thigh. I cry out in pain and clutch the back of my leg as I continue running.

It takes a good ten minutes after I find cover in some rubble for the guards to stop shooting at anything that moves, amd another half an hour of me running before i can even feel remotely safe.

Not that I could ever feel safe. I'm in the Runaways territory now.