Angel - Part 2: Found

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FOUND:

Not far from our selected shelter there is an overgrown field where we scavenge for food. It is surrounded by crumbling buildings laid out in a circular pattern. Surrounding the overgrown garden is a broken, rusty metal fence. A cracked and faded metal sign riddled with bullet holes hangs off a jagged, rusted post and reads "Community Garden", or it would if all the letters were legible. I spot a some narrow string beans, half flowered and make quick work of snapping them off the vines and stuffing them in the sack I carry for this purpose.

From a distance I hear a vehicle approaching while I dig in the soil without success, looking for wild root vegetables. I'm hoping the vehicle will not come near where I now crouch among the overgrown weeds of the garden, my heart thumping as I look for the source of the noise.

The traction of heavy tires crunches over piles of crushed cement and dirt covered fields of shattered glass. The growl of the engine increases as the vehicle comes rolling around the nearest corner. I grab my mother's elbow and pull her down beside me. The Humvee drives towards where we are trying to stay hidden with a trio of soldiers visible. I feel waves of panic spike from my mother. We are essentially in the open with no place to hide quickly other than the weeds that now mask us. The faded light of the early dawn is no deterrent for the Enhanced as eyes sweep from side to side, searching for anything that looks out of place, like two women crouching low in the weeds.

"Enhanced" - the title  means exactly what it sounds like

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"Enhanced" - the title means exactly what it sounds like. These soldiers are created with genetic and technological enhancements to have better senses, to be faster, stronger, and smarter than regulars. They are able to resist illness, heal quickly and don't seem to have any emotions. The men and women bred and designed to be these elite military soldiers spend their entire lives from cradle to grave training to fight, track, capture and kill by any means possible. They are war machines hidden inside human skin, but devoid of human emotion. They are designed to obey orders.

It is all too obvious the moment we have been spotted. There is a flash of red light from the infrared scope binoculars one of the soldiers uses, then a shout, accompanied by finger pointing in our direction. The military Humvee easily maneuvers over the garden with its towering weeds, including the rusted fence. The four foot high stretch of chain link in no deterrent for the vehicles, falling down under the tires as easily as the weeds. Moving together in perfect sync Lexi and I find ourselves in the midst of a panicked dash, scrambling for cover, for escape, for safety as we snake through the weeds of the garden. As soon as we are flushed out we try to weave between buildings and leap over obstacles, looking for any narrow openings too small for a vehicle to fit.

The soldiers in their vehicle are too fast to be outrun. The Humvees are designed to ride over any low obstacles including the debris strewn across the lumpy mess of what was once a grid of streets, so they bounce along after us mercilessly gaining. There are two vehicles and they split in different directions, trying to herd us between them and cut off our escape through alleys and in and out of derelict buildings. There are few secure hiding places in this ravaged town and at this point even if we found a good one the senses on the soldiers would target us. They can track a person by scent as surely as a bloodhound.

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