System

Chapter 1 - Zac

"I never thought I'd find you here, James," I said. James was leaning against the outside of an apartment building. His blond/white hair stood out against his black hoodie.

"I heard you've been causing some trouble," he said. 

"And I heard someone leaked information about a secret organisation here in the US." James shrugged.

"Wasn't too hard. Unfortunately not enough information to shut them down. It was all nonsense really," he said. I'd figured out that he was the leaker as soon as it was on the news. He'd always been good with computers.

"They catch you?" 

"Yeah." He looks down at his ankle around which he wrapped layers of thick material. "They got an ankle monitor on me." After a few moments of silence, he says,

"So why are you here anyway?" 

"I need a favour."

I cracked open my eyes. Black dots danced in my vision and I had to blink a few times to see. The world was upside down. I was lying amongst a few bags scattered on the ground, while the seats seemed to be hanging off the roof. I wanted to move my arm but realize that it is caught in a strap.

Suddenly, my back was on fire. The train blurred in front of my eyes in rhythm with the pulsing pain. I didn't manage to stop the scream in my throat. 

"Shit!" 

I sucked in air through my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut again. I wanted to twist away from the pain but every movement was hell. I was laying in something wet and sticky. I wasn't able to tell where I was anymore. After a few shaky breaths, I opened my eyes again.

It was hard to concentrate on my surroundings. The bits of jagged metal and crushed glass didn't make any sense. The pain chased away most of my thoughts. I tried to get up, but something was pinning me to the ground. I groaned in agony.

Then I saw her. The girl lay in a heap on the ground, her head covered in blood. Her face was turned towards me. Her lips were parted and the blood stuck her hair to her. She looked dead. 

I looked at the ground beneath me and realized what the wet and sticky stuff was. Blood. I tried to turn my head to see what was pinning me down, but my back flared up in pain. I felt my back with my hand and let out another scream. I lay beneath a metal panel and a bent corner of it was stuck in my back. The panel seemed light enough for me to push it off me.

I sucked in a few deep breaths, and then pushed it off me, pulling the corner out of my back. I let out a long groan and allowed myself a few seconds to rest. I had to stop my bleeding.

I ripped off a long strip of my shirt and wrapped it tightly around the wound. It took twice as long as it normally would since I had to take breaks from the pain.

Then, I crawled over to the girl and felt her pulse. It was weak, but she was alive. I looked at her head and sucked in a breath. It was bad. I opened her eyes and checked her pupils. They were uneven in size.

I knew I wouldn't be able to fix it, she would have to be found by police fast. I found a flat metal panel. I took it and carefully lifted her onto it. My back was screaming. Metre by metre, I pulled her out of the car and to a clear place. Then I turned and began the endless crawl to a safe place to hide.

AN:

Sorry, this is a very short one! Thanks for coming this far. 

What do you think will happen next? Why did he save her?

-Image from Pixabay

Larissa Marr