PROXIMITY

ADEN ROSE (flashback chapter)

          October 12th, 3040

          9:42PM

         Chicago, Illinois

       14 years old.

                        I quickly turn to the corner, sprinting my way down the alley. As I sprint I turn my head to see if she was following me.

"Ai come on! Hurry up!"

I pant, taking another turn. I then see a ladder, and begin climbing it grabbing its rusty handles. Ai stopped running, and I hear clanking noises and screws loosing as more weight adjourns the ladder.

"You OK?" I reach out my hand to help her climb. She politely refuses shaking her head making her shaggy baseball cap bob.

"No. It's OK." She replies in a soft tone. "I am fully able to pull myself up a ladder. Even though I'm only two years younger than you. I'm not a child."

My eyes don't widen to this act anymore. Ever since our parents died from a virus, we were taken captive into Root B for orphans normally transported from Britain. She began to act like this, as if she was responsible for their death.

I quietly nod at her, giving her a cheeky smile and lift my head up examining the city of Chicago. I notice patrols beating a black man.

Damn.

As Ai finally got on top of the roof I take a look around to see if anyone followed us.

"Good. Those bloody bastards didn't trail us." I sneer looking down the ladder.

Ai then takes out a notepad from her Jasper bag and begins to write something down. I never really know what she writes in there, probably to release stress or random thoughts. Once I tried to look through her bag to see if there was a flashlight one time, she took a metal bar and whacked me. Probably just a girl thing.

"Do you think that they followed us Aden?" She asks, concentrating on what she is writing.

"I don't really know actually. But for now, I believe we have lost them."

Ai does not reply, she only nods. Sometimes I wonder what she is really thinking on the inside.

A few minutes pass by. I notice a hole in the building covered with a pile of wood all scattered around. In a hurry, Ai and I walk towards the covered hole and open it up. We decide to enter the building. I signal Ai to go find a camping spot within the building. As she takes her stuff to go find a place to settle, I quietly move through the broken glass and wood. I jump over fallen shelves and land on the floor sending a cloud of dust  from the cold floor. I take another check around the building seeing if it's OK. I quickly, but quietly, sprint back to the entrance seeing a small dirty blonde short haired girl, writing something down. I smile.

"Yo." I say waving.

Ai glances at me, and returns back to her notebook.

"Did you find anything useful here?" she says in a soft tone that I could barley hear her. I bend down to look into her eyes.

Has her eyes always looked this lifeless? Have these two pearl pale blue eyes always looked this sad?

Ai studies me, tilting her head like she normally does as if she were trying to read my mind. When I escape my thoughts, my face explodes into 50 shades of red. I quickly put my hand over my mouth and look away, embarrassed about what just happened. As I turn around walking away. I hear Ai chuckle.