Metal Man

Chapter 10: I meet the Boss

It wasn't there.

Jade marched around impatiently. It had to be here. She had thoroughly combed all of the spots, and more. This was the last spot. It had to be here. She swiveled around, looking for a sign of the last one. Maybe the Boss moved it. No, that was impossible. You can't move an elevator that quickly.

Jade scoured the deserted street again, looking behind every bush and tree. She even knocked on all the doors to no avail. She sat down and drew a circle in the dirt, making five lines extending from it, and drew a circle at the end of each line. Each circle excluding the center one represented a hospital and sixteen children, thought Jade. I've found five. Subconsciously, she crossed out the five outer circles. 

So where's the sixth?

Jade angrily scuffed out the diagram with her foot so there was only a faint outline of it. She was about to erase it for good, but then she noticed. The center circle. That's where it was! Jade took a small hop of joy, and then steeled herself. She had to stay focused.

She peered at her map and drew a few lines. It should be there. Jade made a small circle with a pencil she had pick pocketed from an older man. Right in the center of Venice. She stared at the dot. The last one to close. That was it. Then she'd go down and help Rosemarie. 

"Seems like a plan." she said aloud to herself. She was amazed she had gotten this far in it. Months of planning had led to one route that was the most possible of the hundreds that she had tried. But it was still an extremely small chance it'd actually work

Think positive. Jade, she told herself. She reached up, out of pure habit, to push her non-existing glasses up her nose. She thought she had broken the habit from six and a half months, but apparently, it was still there, from when her mother and father had gotten glasses after she had drawn a green blur in art class and said that was a tree. Old habits die hard, Jade told herself. It isn't anything else, like a sign. You cannot believe in signs now, Jade.

Jade decided to take the long way to her destination, thinking to herself that since the last elevator was the most heavily guarded, she might as well enjoy pretty scenery while she was still alive. Then she ripped apart the thought, telling herself she can't think negative. But she still went to see the river. Just in case.

Jade had never felt a real connection to water, but at the moment, she thought the river was one of the most beautiful things she'd ever seen. It flowed down slowly, not very blue, but alive. Jade wondered how many fish were in there, if there were any fish in there.

Her thoughts trailed back to her mother and father. She wondered what they were doing now-

And her thoughts were thrown back to earth in a sudden jolt. A scream had come from the river. Jade stared at the river. A little girl's head bobbed in it. Her mother, on the other side screamed in distress.

"I can't swim, and neither can Tiffany!" she screamed. "Help!"

What am I thinking? Jade thought, but jumped in the river all the same. It was lukewarm, and she swam without thinking. The little girl's head was up again, spewing water, before it drifted down again. Jade paddled as fast as she could towards her.

She wrapped an arm around the little girl's waist and hoped she could swim with their combined weights. She took one slow kick, and kept going, but couldn't keep it up. She began to sink underwater. Slowly, but surely.