Kaden

Chapter Five

I arrive at the warehouse. It's flooded with soldiers in their black and grey striped uniforms. All of my instincts tell me to sprint in the opposite direction, but I sneak forwards. There's no possible way to get inside. The only entrance has at least fifty soldiers guarding it, all armed. If I had a dust bomb, maybe. But it's not possible for me to get in like this.

Suddenly, I spot a straggler near me.

Nobody is looking at him. I sneak up behind him, clonk him on the head, and help him fall behind a rock. I put on his jacket, pants, hat, and belt on over mine. I take the gun out of the holster, and I begin to walk towards the clump of soldiers. They don't seem to notice me as I slip into the building, retracing my steps from yesterday. Soon I get to the main chamber. There are a hundred guards at the base of the missile, where the controls are, and at least a hundred more in the balconies facing the missile. I wince as I realize how impossible this is.

I wasn't able to even change the location that the missile is going to. It's completely locked. I have to try, I remind myself, and I descend the stairs, slowly but surely reaching the bottom. I glance at the timer on the missile.

09:07:43 UNTIL LAUNCH

If I do anything to the controls, the missile will launch. If I try to destroy the controls the missile will launch. If I try to change the location, at this point, it will sound an alarm and I will be killed. If I touch the controls, I will be killed. I still reach forwards to try and hit the abort button... it's password locked, of course, but at least it'll delay them. As soon as I touch it, an alarm sounds and red lights flash. I sprint out, climbing up the balconies one by one instead of taking the stairs. My arms shake from the effort of lifting myself up over and over. Bullet shoot at me, but none hit me. I sprint out and down the hallways, shooting back down the hallway. I hit three soldiers, all of the shots purposefully not kill shots.

Sprinting out of the building, I make a run for it and try to outlast them. They get into cars, and five of them are suddenly surrounding me. They're generic police cars, with the grey and black stripes, and the two wheels in front and one in the back. I force myself to go faster, but I can't. I leap into the water, the icy cold washing over me. Confused, the cars stop. I keep my whole body under the water, even when my lungs begin to scream for oxygen.

"Search the whole beach," I hear one of them say. "She's gotta resurface somewhere."

I swim silently along the beach for a while, until I'm sure that it's safe. I let my oxygen-deprived lungs have a break as I pull myself from the icy, murky depths of water. I'm shaking with cold, and I can't stop myself. Everything I'm wearing is soaked, and the frigid wind doesn't help anything.

I begin to run, hoping that it will warm me up, but it just exhausts me. My efforts prove futile when it begins to rain icy drops of water, soaking me even more. All of my clothes are ruined. The gun fell off during my descent into the water, so I'm unarmed and helpless. I finally get near the camp, and just before I reach it, I collapse.

Footsteps hurry towards me, and I feel a warmth as arms pick me up. I struggle to get closer to it, barely conscious. Panicked voices ring in my ears as I slowly begin to drift off...

I force myself back into consciousness only seconds later. "Kaden, what happened?" Willow's voice asks. I open my eyes, still shaking from the cold. Her body is shielding me from the rain.

"I... tried to... missile..." I struggle to breathe. "I tried to disarm the missile... they... soldiers... hundreds of them, they... they're searching the beach, we have to leave..." I cough up water.

"C'mon," she says. I hear them hurriedly packing up camp, and then I hear screams.

It's too late. They found us.