Runaway Lover // Andy Leo

Chapter Two

I wake up, immediately noticing the dull ache in my leg that had reduced from the pain that it was. I groan and roll over, recalling the events of yesterday.

The Runaways.

I bolt upright on high alert. How could I have passed out? More importantly, why am I not dead? I look around me in confusion.

I'm sat on one of six makeshift beds in a the only piece of floor in the room that isnt covered in rubble. I'm still in my grubby white clothes. I can't see anyone else around, and for a second I think about running again.

I look down at my leg and see that the bloody piece of cloth that had been tied around my leg previously has been replaced with a clean white bandage.

"Hello?" My voice is hoarse as I call out. I cough and try again.

"Nice to see you're awake." I jump at the voice, which was coming from my left. I look over to see the guy from yesterday - Andy, I think his name was - standing about ten meters away. Unlike yesterday, though, the cloth that covered his face was nowhere to be seen.

I know it's rude to say this, but I was amazed that he looked like a normal person. I don't know what I expected - I only had what my mind had created based on all of the stories I had been told about them.

"Don't you like showing up unexpectedly?" I say sarcastically, noticing how this makes him laugh. "What's so funny?" I glare at him.

"Nothing. It's just always funny to see how people act after in comparison to before their chips were removed. I did not have you pegged as sarcastic." He laughs.

I squint at him, "Chips?" 

He pats the back of his neck. "The Empire install them when you're born." I grab at the back of my neck, feeling another bandage there, "You wouldn't have known it was there. They repress certain emotions and traits to make sure everyone stays nice and obedient." He crosses his arms and walks closer. "Yours, however, was faulty to begin with - and it's my bet that that's what got you shot." He smiles. "Am I right?"

I nod slowly, trying to process this information. The Empire stick electronic chips into the back of our necks to turn us into drones? "So...If everyone under the Empire is being brainwashed-"

"Not everyone. Only the general population. Officers aren't chipped."

"Okay, fine, If the 'general population' under the Empire is chipped, why are they so afraid of you lot? I mean, no offence or anything, but if they had physical computers in everyone why don't they just stick them in you too?" I ask.

"Well for starts, they can only be implanted in babies. They do have an adaptation for adults, but they aren't half as effective."He leans back against the wall, "Second, even the original models don't affect some of us. And third, we all know how to remove them. We'd just keep taking them out."

"Fair enough."I purse my lips and stare in front of me, wondering just how the Empire managed to pull a stunt like that. A few minutes of silence follows, with me staring at the wall and Andy staring at me. 

"You hungry?" Megan pops her head out from what I presume to be a corridor of some sorts. She smiles at Andy at first, and when she sees me sitting she directs it at me. "You're awake! Awesome. You must be hungry then. Uh..." She looks around the room, spies something and rushes over to it. "Here. Just shove these on. I'll go get you some food for when you're ready." She places the clothes on the edge of my bed and goes back the way she came. 

"I'll wait outside." Andy goes and stands just inside the doorway that Megan went through. I wait until he's out of sight before reaching for the black pile that the end of the bed.

"You don't own anything... less black, do you?" I ask as I examine the pile. 

"Nope, sorry. We wear dark, Empire wears white."He laughs. I go back to the pile, finding a pair of black shorts, a dark grey vest and a pair of black boots. 

"You dress like you're in the army or something." He mumbles something that I can't make out in reply. When I eventually manage to shuffle my way into the clothes I let out a sigh of a mixture of frustration and anticipation. 

"You ready?" Andy looks back around and smiles. "You suit dark colours." He laughs at my look of disgust and leads me down the corridor. We turn into a room at the bottom of it, where Megan is sat with the other two from yesterday. 

"Hey! You look good." She gestures to the two seats next to her. "Sit down. Get some food. You must be starving." 

I sit next to Megan, liking my chances of not being punched more with her than the one with stretched ears who is sat next to the other seat. I try not to dive right into the plate of food in front of me - I don't want to accidentally get punched either. Andy sits down next to me, nodding at stretched ears as he does so. 

We all sit and eat in silence. Not that I mind, I honestly have no idea what might come out of my mouth next, and what might earn me another hole in my leg. 

"So what are we doing with this one?" Stretched ears nods toward me as he addresses Andy. 

"Thats a good question!" He turns to me, "What are we going to do with you? I take it you don't fancy going back to the Empire." I shake my head. "Then why don't you join our little team?" He smiles widely.

"Andy, she's been brought up on horror stories. She's not just going to -"

"I'll do it." I say with a lot more force than intended. I get confused and shocked looks from everyone apart from Andy, who just laughs.

"Great. In which case This is Megan, Brandon and David," (Turns out Brandon is the one sitting creepily close to Megan, and stretched ears is David), "And I'm Andy."

I smile at them all, trying to not be phased by Brandon and David's blank faces. "I'm Sam." 

"Well, Sam, welcome to the Resistance."