The Five Unnecessaries

Chapter 26 Part 2

The number blinked, mocking my heart, which could stop beating at any moment. The single letter "P" held all of Patterson's worst anger and urgency.

I tore the phone battery out and threw it twenty feet down the alley. The phone went into a nearby dumpster. I took off my shoes. It felt like any other reflex, thanks to hours in training. I took a breath, suddenly realizing I'd been holding it.

I turned to my Unnecessary, now wishing with all my might we had never come back into the borders. Such an innocent mistake with such a tragic outcome.

"Sweetie, I need you to go. Now. They might be following me. I don't know. They won't follow you. You need to get out of here..."

"But I'm with you now. I'm safe." She looked as if she might cry. I closed my eyes and tried to detach enough to say what I needed to say.

Which was... what? Would she die because they'd be tracking me? She couldn't survive without me.

But she could. I threw off my pack and handed her the MCU from the front pouch. I said, "Breaker," which was the code word to delete all intel files without disabling all functions.

"There is enough in here to make your way back. Read the positioning intel on the MCU. Go three miles north, three miles west, toward the Territory, and then three miles south. I'll find you there. You can map it all out on the MCU, do you see that? Meal bars are in the bag. If I'm not there in fifteen hours, go without me."

She looked frightened, but with each instruction, she nodded until she was breathing slower.

I'm glad I could at least give her some sense of peace; I wasn't feeling it at all.

I took a breath before I spoke to her again. "You know those woods, and they know you. You were meant to know what to do in the woods to help you escape. So do it." I swallowed. "You were always meant to do this."

She hugged me, awkwardly all the same, then walked down the alleyway, looking in several directions.

I ran as fast as I could in the opposite direction. My head was spinning. I needed a story, but there was no point. The character I was didn't have a chance. There was no dress to hide behind this time. They would stop every person in this area to check for ID.

The sirens rang a moment later. I jumped up an old fire escape and crunched into a ball under a tarp. I hoped my black outfit was enough to hide me temporarily.

They'd be looking for someone running to escape, and the first group would set up a perimeter. My hope was that they would pass me. I waited, which was more painful than running. Minutes later, the first squad ran down the alley without looking up. I wondered how many of them there would be, until I heard the distant shuttles.

It was the optimal time to make my move. If the unit had just gone by, they would be given directions to set up a perimeter. It would be full of holes at first, but the other unit wouldn't come back up the alley. I had to move.

I jumped down the fire escape, curling up at the last minute to roll out of the fall. I could barely believe that it worked. The sound of a shuttle got closer. I would have to bust open a door and find a better cover. There were only seconds before someone would hear me.

I ran for a worn door, made of wood or metal, something old that looked familiar—like home. It was locked. I went to the next door. Locked. The sirens became louder. I tried to kick it in. The third kick finally moved it slightly. The sirens stopped. I kicked again and fell to the ground, the gravel sending a shot of pain through my knee.

At the end of the alley, there were two blurs of white. The shuttles had flown past.

I stood up but didn't run. My whole body was shaking, but I couldn't walk a step. My lungs were burning as if I were drowning, even though I was taking heaving breaths. I stared at the corner of the alley, listening to the shuttle door open.