Survivors

Chapter 18: Jada

Chapter 18: Jada

          I haven’t seen Xain hardly all this week. Ever since people found out that Xain and Abi were helping me, everyone from trainers, weapons specialists, stylists, and fighters have been coming up to me. I guess I’m the next big thing.

          Katya and Abi have been training me all week. They say that it’s best to stay focused on staying alive, but all the while, I want to be with Xain. It seems like I’m more concentrated when I’m close to him. The only link I have to him is Melissa, who has been hanging out with him most. I can’t believe how close she’s gotten to him, they’re practically good friends. The only other boy she talks to is Clay, but that’s probably just because he’s always hanging around her and flirting. He’s more of an annoying lost puppy than she is. When he’s not with her, he’s hanging around me, but I use him as a practice dummy for hand and hand combat.

          I’ve been going into town with Katya a lot. She usually has merchandise to sell whenever she goes. We usually go through the antique store, using the same coded message—she’s here a lot, I don’t see why the owner doesn’t just let her through—and entering the black market, but this time we went through a butcher shop. This owner was a big man who kind of smelled of raw sausages. He seemed to have had a shorter code: “I would like a desert trout.” It took me a while to figure out that a desert trout doesn’t exist. The butcher sent us into a hidden door in the meat locker. It was small, but once you got through, it was just a ladder leading down to a tunnel. We walked a few feet before coming to another ladder leading to a trap door behind a building in the black market.

          “There are multiple ways to get down here,” Katya explains to me, “They each require a different message to throw off intruders and officers.”

          “Do you know all of them?” I ask.

          “No,” Katya shakes her head as we begin walking, “I only know three more, but for sake of security, I’ll wait to tell you those.”

          “What happens if I suddenly started using these codes?” I want to make sure nothing bad will happen.

          “They don’t know you, so nothing,” Katya responded, “You have to be introduced by someone on the inside and trusted by the specific ‘Keys’ you’re going through. Are all of these questions leading to you wanting to be a part of this operation?”

          I think for a moment. “Am I going to have to ‘lift’ things?”

          Katya laughs at my words. At first, I think she’s making fun of me, but then she says, “Just bring medical supplies or other things that they need or could melt down. You won’t need to steal anything like I do. I just like the thrill and challenge of it.”

          “Let me think about it?” I don’t know why I put it in the form of a question.

          “Sure,” Katya trades in a knife and a bottle of some fluid, “it’s your decision.”

          We walk for a little while before heading back up to town and back through the gate. I’m thinking about what Katya told me about just taking things they need or could melt down. She mentioned medical supplies. Does she mean that she...

          “Do you take supplies from the infirmary?” I question Katya.

          “Melissa caught me one time,” Katya answers while still walking, “She usually has a mini care package for me to take. She says that there’s so much here that a few supplies gone won’t be noticed. Just ask her if you can take some, I’m sure she won’t mind from you.”