-The Banditos-

-Chapter Two-

It's close to midnight. Me and Chloe walk down the dark, empty streets of DEMA on our way to the factory district. The grey, stone buildings tower around us and only a few lights shine through the windows.

I have my yellow bandana pulled over my face, only revealing my eyes and a black beanie. I wear a thick, green jacket to protect me from the harsh cold. I can see my breath as I exhale, only for it to disappear into the air. Yellow tape is wrapped around the top of my arm and a cross of tape over my heart. Whilst it's important to not get caught, it's also important to show the people of DEMA that the Banditos are still here and still fighting.

"June?" Chloe says quietly, walking beside me. I hum to show I've acknowledged her, "You know my sister?"

"Vaguely." I don't really know much about anyone's family. I think they try to keep their family separate from what we're doing in case any of the Bishops were to get them involved.

"I'm worried about her." Chloe continues, "I think her and her girlfriend want to join the Banditos."

"And? You're one of them."

"I know but I don't want her to be in danger. She could get hurt." If there's anything I've learnt about Chloe, it's that she loves her sister to death and would do anything for her. Her sister is the only remaining family she has left in DEMA. She never told me about what happened to her parents but I don't want to ask her. Anytime someone mentions their parents, she gets sad and irritated, "She's all I've got, June. I don't want to risk loosing her."

"But at the same time maybe that's how she feels about you in all this." I say, "Either way I don't think you can stop her."

"I just want her to be safe."

"Understandable."

I don't understand families. I don't really have one and I don't know what happened to them. I'm alone. The only people I have are Chloe and the other Banditos. However, they feel like family to me.

We reach the factory district and already see the guards patrolling it. It's cordoned off by a blockade and guards stand by it.

"How do we get in?" Chloe asks. The only logical way in which would be the safest is the rooftops, but for all I know there could be guards up there too. I guess it's worth the risk. There'll be less up there than down here, and I'm sure me and Chloe could take them. I scan the surrounding for a way up and spot a fire escape which leads up to the roof of a nearby building.

"The rooftops. It'd be safer and give us a better view." I tell Chloe. We both run over and jump up to the ladder to climb it. We clamber up it, trying to make as little noise as possible. We stop just below the top of the roof. I peek over to the roof top to see if there is security and luckily there isn't.

"That was easier than expected." Chloe says, following me up onto the actual roof.

"But how much longer is it going to be easy." I reply, scanning around us to be safe. Luckily, most of the building in DEMA are connected so it should be fairly easy to navigate around the rooftops, "Jemma said something about a statue by the door."

"I'm pretty sure there's a statue by the Center of the district of the founder of DEMA or something?" Chloe states, peering over the edge and backing away, shivering.

"I can't believe they wasted all that marble on making a statue of an asshole." I say sarcastically, "Where abouts is it?"

"Um..." Chloe points to a building across from us, "Behind there I think but I'm just going off what I remember from the map of DEMA."

"That things outdated as hell."

"Exactly, but it's unlikely they've moved an entire statue, June."

"Fair enough. But how do we get over there?"

"All these houses are connect some way or another. There's an overpass over there." She points further down from the house we're stood on and sure enough there's an overpass that stands over the path below. A few lights are on top of it and I see one or two security guards on it, "It's probably risky thought. Seth told us not to get into any fights unless necessary."

"This seems pretty necessary to me."

"June, no." But it's too late. I'm already heading in that direction. She's probably right, it's definitely risky and if we don't take them down quick enough it'll give away that we're here. However, it's also the quickest way across. What's the fun in taking the safe way anyway?

Chloe and I sneak down over to it, hiding behind chimneys and vents to ensure we stay hidden. We climb over a few small walls that split the houses up with little trouble and noise. Eventually, we reach the overpass and hide behind a concrete chimney. I peak out from beside it to see how many guards there are. They're at each side of the overpass and stand on the edge facing the ground below.

"There's two of them. It won't be too hard." I tell Chloe.

"Yeah. I mean, they have guns and we're completely unarmed, what could go wrong?" I roll my eyes.

"You take the one closest, I'll take the one furthest." I sneak around to one of the small walls parting the houses so I can slip past the guard and get to the other. I look over at Chloe and nod to tell her that I'm ready to go.

"You're really bad at forming plans." She says silently.

"I know, right?" I grab a stone and throw near Chloe so the first guard goes over to see what it is. He walks over cautiously with his gun raised. He looks like any other person around here, except his hands and neck are a dark, charcoal black. His eyes have a small hint of red. He disappears around the corner of the chimney and I hear a grunt and a gun hit the ground. Chloe looks back over at me and puts her thumb up. Honestly, it's lucky that somehow she's managed to go along with the plan with little to no detail at all. The other guard looks over after hearing the commotion and starts to walk over. I wait till he's reached this side of the overpass and jump over the wall. I silently sneak behind him. Just before he reaches the chimney I jump up and put my hand over his nose and mouth. He struggles against me but eventually passes out and falls to the ground.

Chloe comes out from around the chimney and picks up one of the guns.

"I'm taking this in case one of your horrific plans backfires." She says, strapping it over her shoulder.

"It worked, didn't it?"

"Surprisingly. I had about one sentence to go off."

We cross over and crouch down at the end of the rooftop. On the ground the statue is there, holding a red cloth and about four guards stand around a metal door.

"Damn, they really put more funding into security, huh?" Chloe mutters, looking unnerved at the amount of guards on the ground. I don't know why. She has a gun and when she gets her hand on one of them she's unstoppable.

"What do we do now?" I question, taking note of how many guards there are like Seth asked to.

"Report back to Seth presumably." Chloe answers. I'm about to turn around to start heading back when I hear a click.

"Crap..." I whisper, slowly turning around. Two guards stand there with their gun aimed at me and Chloe, "Hi."

"You shouldn't be here." One says, shoving her gun into Chloe's face.

"Really? I kinda live here." I say, trying to talk my way out of the situation.

"Pass?" The one with his gun aimed at me asks.

"Excuse me?" I reply.

"If you live here you have a pass. We have to avoid intruders." He explains.

"Oh...that pass." I slowly stand up to face him, "Well, uh, you see...I kinda lost my pass." Chloe stands up beside me, pushing the gun in her face away and giving the guard a dirty look.

"If you've lost your pass you should report to the DEMA council for a replacement." His voice sounds almost robotic. It's unnerving.

There are two options here. Apologise and hope they let us leave without a consequence or knock them out and make a run for it. They don't know who we are anyway.

Again, what's the fun in taking the safe way?