The Insurrection

Part One: Fight (Prologue)

"I don't believe that if you do good, good things will happen. Everything is completely accidental and random. Sometimes bad things happen to very good people and sometimes good things happen to bad people. But at least if you try to do good things, then you're spending your time doing something worthwhile." ~ Helen Mirren

Run, run, run, keep your legs moving, faster, faster, faster.

"Stop him!"

The rough voices will haunt me and star in my nightmares like they always do, but I have no choice. People are starting to stare, hurry, run faster. At least I think people are staring, it is better than thinking nobody cares about the boy being chased down by WorldKeepers or that it is something normal. Except it is normal, and nobody cares.

Run, run, run, you cannot let them catch you, faster, faster, faster.

I pull my battered baseball cap lower over my face. Running past the old shabby buildings, my feet aching from the too-small shoes, I spot the alley I made Alex wait in for me.

Only I do not see Alex.

Catching my breath, panic swirls heavily in my chest, where could he have gone when I specifically told him not to go anywhere. I turn around to back out of the alley when I see it. A slight movement that nobody would have noticed, but years of being forced to be cautious and aware of my surroundings made me notice. Slowly, I turn around, and tucked into the furthest corner, swallowed by the shadows, is a girl only a couple of years younger than me, about sixteen or fifteen years old. I cannot make much of her out except for her face, pale skin, and eyes that have seen more than a sixteen-year-old should see, but that was not what caught my attention; her expression did. It was one I see too often on Alex's young and innocent face. One that I may have mirrored too many times. She looked frightened. Not necessarily of me but of not knowing what is going to happen next, of uncertainty. We stared at each other for what seemed like forever, but it was just a couple of seconds before she broke the silence and spoke softly,

"You too?"

Me too? Me too, what? What did she know? Instinctively, I took a step back. Seeming to sense my discomfort, she quickly adds,

"Do not worry, I do not know anything. Hell, I don't even know you, but you looked like you were running from someone or something."

"And what are you running from?" I finally say.

Once the words came out of my mouth, her eyes turned distant and cold, and I cannot help but wonder what she went through to cause that. There were a couple of seconds where we were back to staring at each other until I remembered Alex. Panic starts setting in again.

"I'm Taika Virtanen" I hear the girl say, ignoring my question. The robot in my ear starts up and I have not heard it in so long I almost forgot it was there.

Taika Virtanen. 17 years old. Finland, Speaks Finnish. Specialty in medicine.

I look back at her, "Taika, have you seen a boy, eight years old, about four feet tall, and wearing a worn-out gray shirt?"

"I have! Are you Alan?"

Ignoring her question, "Did he tell you where he was going?"

She shakes her head, "No, he did not say anything, just that he would be back."

Pacing back and forth, I think of where Alex would have gone. I was beyond livid, we promised to tell the other if we were going anywhere or doing any-

"Alan!"

Whipping around at the sound of my brother's voice, I see him at the end of the alley.