Not So Different

Chapter 8

After Jet's father called her at three in the morning, I found that sleep, for the second night in a row, eluded me.  I kept running the possibilities of this  group after Jet, and subsequently me now, over and over in my head.  Jet seemed to have no idea who may want her dead, other than the government, or how her father could have caused any of it.  As for her father, I had no idea, but I had a guess on the origins of this hat and sunglasses wearing group.  I had only a rumor I'd heard to base my guesses on and I prayed that the rumor was only just that.  If these people after Jet and her father, were who I thought they were, I feared that the threat of the government was the least of our problems. 

An hour without sleep after the phone call I was staring up at the ceiling of my little room, when I heard foot steps in the hallway of the floor bellow us.  Doors were being opened and shut methodically and men were talking to one another in urgent voices.  Laying on the floor, I put my ear to the carpet and strained my feline like hearing to try and catch what was being said. 

"Two teens.... boy.... dark hair.... mutant.... bonde girl.... lethal force... only if necessary." 

"C**p," I said jumping up from the floor.  I ran over to the door that linked Jet and my rooms and threw it open.  The sudden noise caused a now-awake Jet to lurch upright in her borrowed bed.

"What the..?" She asked in drowsy voice.  "Chris, what's wrong?"

"The government, they're here and they're searching the rooms for us," I replied urgently but in a forced calm tone. 

"What?!" Jet cried and jumped out from under the covers without waiting for and answer.  As she slipped on her shoes (she was still dressed in the clothes she had worn the previous day) I dashed into my room and snagged the duffel bag. 

"Ready?" I asked and Jet nodded.  Slowly I opened her door and peered out, making sure the coast was clear.  When I was sure no one was hiding in the shadows I snuck out with Jet in tow.  It took only a few paces to get to the steps.  I heard that the government workers were making their way farther down the second floor, away from the staircase.  Glancing down the stairwell, I saw a guard posted halfway up the stairs, making sure no one went up or down. 

"Wait here a second," I told Jet in a whisper then, before she could protest, I jumped down the stair case and landed directly behind the guard.  I snatched his gun away and put him in a choke hold I'd learned from having it used on me by a long pasted foster brother.  The guard struggled to get free but quickly stopped flailing when he ran out of air.  Making sure to make no noise, I layed him down and pulled off his bullet proof vest then checked his pulse.  His pulse was still going strong and I knew he'd be fine when he woke up.  Government agent or not, I didn't want to have killed him.

I hurried up the stairs and handed the vest to Jet.  "Put this on," I told her.

"But you already got shot once.  You should wear this so it doesn't happen again," She replied stubbornly, shoving the vest back at me.

"No," I replied, pushing the vest back at her, "I have better reflexes and agility and therefore less of a chance of getting shot."

"Then why are you the one with a gunshot wound and not me?"  She asked with an eyebrow cocked and I knew I would not win the argument. 

I sighed angrily. "Fine, but when if the government people see us, run and stay in front of me so you don't get shot.  Okay?"

"Mhm," Jet answered with a smirk for winning the argument despite the fact that we were in grave danger.