On a sparrow's wings

Chapter 16 - The prisoner

  Anastasia woke up next to the ashes of what used to be the campfire. She looked around all confused remembering how she fell asleep behind the counter and not here. She noticed Michael standing at the window, peering through it, trying not to look at her. Anastasia quickly gathered her things and went to him, she decided not to make Michael uncomfortable and ask. They moved the bookshelf that barricaded the door and went outside without saying as much as a word to each other.

  The sun was shining high in the sky over Chicago. But Anastasia could feel the chill of autumn setting in around her. The cold winds swept over the city, whistling when they went through the holes of windows and in the silence of the city left the noise stick around all around her. Michael and Anastasia set off into the city once again.

  They finally made it to Jefferson Park and to the Red Fist base. It was situated within a mall. There were guards circling the building, going on patrols but most of them weren’t paying any attention. They were too confident in their security. Michael pulled her aside and they got inside one of the buildings that were closer to it. They climbed to the third floor and surveyed the building, watching for guard changes and patterns in their patrol routes.

  Anastasia stuck near to Michael as he looked through the window for about two hours before she got bored and laid against the wall. She pulled out the violet book and began to read it again. Michael didn’t seem to mind at all, he was fine with doing it alone. She read about three-fourths of it when she came to a passage that troubled her. Abby finally managed to get a boyfriend, but she feels like something is wrong. They start kissing and Abby says that something’s wrong and she leaves. Then she kisses her friend Maya. Why would she kiss a girl? She got the guy why did she stop?

  The book explained it by saying that she is gay, whatever that meant.

“Hey, what does gay mean?‘, Anastasia lifted her head from the book and asked Michael.

“What?”, Michael still looked at the guards through the window.

“Like when you are a gay person, what does that mean?”

“You don’t know?”

“No, should I? I mean I was nine when all this started. And I haven’t had much time to catch up on things.”

“Right.”, that seemed to make Michael uncomfortable, “Being gay means liking the same gender as you.”

“Like if a girl likes another girl she is gay.”

“Lesbian.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s the term for a gay woman.”

  “Lesbian.”, Anastasia repeated to herself, “And is that wrong?”

“No, no of course not!”, Michael quickly blurted out those words, “Where did you hear that?”

“In my book the main character is gay and her mom says that it’s wrong and unnatural.”

Michael sighed, “Some people refuse to accept things they don’t like.”

“Just like that? They hear something they don’t like and refuse to accept it as a reality.”

“Yes.”

That was that, with that short answer Michael had effectively put a stop to the conversation. The answer didn’t satisfy her though, she would have to talk to someone else about it because Michael wouldn’t be of much help here.

  Anastasia had been reading for a couple hours when the night set in. They had managed to gather that there were at least forty guards inside that building. There were patrols that went in the front of the building about every twenty minutes. Two guards guarded the front entrance and new guards came in to replace them every two hours and it took them two minutes to so, that was their window of opportunity to get in.

  They climbed down the building and went behind the corner of as the patrol went by. They had to wait ten minutes for the guards to switch and wait patiently they did, or at least Michael did. Anastasia stood behind the corner quietly passing around.

“Stop that.”, whispered Michael, “You are going to get us killed.”

Anastasia stopped in one place and waited behind Michael’s back. The ten minutes went by and the guards entered the building. Anastasia quickly followed and sneaked through the door and quickly hid behind the pillars that were next to the entrance. The other guards went by and exited the building.

  Once they were gone Anastasia and Michael came out of their hiding place and Anastasia saw the ground floor of the mall. Tiles were missing or were shattered along the entire floor, the plants in the large vases had grown enormous and were beginning to take over the floor of the mall. Water was dripping into them through the roof and at a few other places, buckets were placed under some holes to catch the water and on other it was left to form into puddles on the ground. Small flowers sprouted from the vases all different colors, shapes and sizes like colorful dots in the darkness of the mall. Moss went from wall to wall damp and sticky, like a wet rug. It smelt of liquor and cigarette smoke. The air was filled with the booming voices of men and women who were obviously drunk. They were sitting on crates and on mall furniture around blazing fires. They faces were carefree as Anastasia saw them enlighten by the fire. Anastasia spied an opening in the guards’ eyesight, if they were to follow the to the back of the floor they could get to the stairwell of the mall. It was dark in the mall and the guards were too far away and too drunk to notice if they stuck close to the shadows.

  She pointed out to Michael and they hugged the wall staying well in the shadows and making their way to the stairwell. They make good progress, staying unnoticed. A man walked back right in front of Anastasia. She got a little startled but kept calm and collected. If she were to make sound she would die. The man stumbled a bit, let out a loud burp and went to the corner, he couldn’t see them in the darkness. He pissed as he sang a song to himself. Anastasia and Michael went by him and into the stairwell.

  They climbed the dark stairwell, barely managing to keep themselves from not tripping. But they didn’t dare to use their flashlights or the guards would notice them. When they reached the upper most floor they find more guards covering it, but this time there is no gap in their eyesight. They looked for an alternate path and Anastasia saw it. A beam above them, ivy went across the wall and up to it. Not heights again.

  “We could use the beam to cross. If there isn’t another way that is. I am not the biggest fan of heights.”, Anastasia nervously rubbed her shoulder.

“I’ve noticed.”, Michael went over to the ivy and grabbed to test its strength.

“There could be another way across.”

“There isn’t. You could stay here.”

Anastasia looked around at all the fire lit drunk faces once again. I am doing this for Ethan. An idea appeared in her head, “Hey didn’t you get a rope?”

“Yeah, why?”

“We could tie each other together and then climb. You know so I don’t fall and die in a very painful way.”

Michael pulled the rope out of his backpack and they tied each other around the waist.

  They climbed the ivy. Michael was way faster at it than Anastasia. He quickly grabbed and pulled himself up, confident in the placement of his hands and feet. Anastasia struggled to find a safe enough place to put her hand on and a strong enough one to hold her weight. Michael got to the beam when Anastasia was half way up the wall. He got impatient and pulled her with the rope to save time. Anastasia didn’t comment on it neither did Michael but he did give her a stern look as she stepped on the beam.

  Anastasia took her first steps carefully as she tried her best to balance herself with her arms and keeping her head as high as she could, she feared that if she looked at the ground she would fall. Michael confidently stomped on the beam and went halfway across when Anastasia lost her balance. She fell but the rope caught her. Her eyes opened to the ground below, it took her all she had not to scream. Michael pulled and pulled and she finally got back to the beam.

  But when she tried to move, she found herself frozen in place. Michael tugged at her with the rope but she couldn’t help but stare down and stand still. If I don’t move I won’t fall. If I don’t move I won’t fall. If I don’t move I won’t fall. She repeated in her head. She felt a touch on her shoulder.

“What’s wrong?”, Michael’s voice was softer than usual, he wasn’t rumbling as per usual.

“I can’t move”, Anastasia managed to mutter out.

When he heard that Michael grabbed her head and lifted her eyes, “Hey, hey look at me.”, Anastasia turned her gaze to him, “Look at me and we’ll get through this, okay?”

Anastasia nodded. Michael kept close to her as they slowly made their way across the beam and found their way at the other end of the floor. Crossing was a lot easier with Michael to help her.

  Anastasia and Michael swiftly snuck through the door and Michael quietly found something to block the door with. When they turned around the only light part of the room had a table in it and a woman standing over it. To their luck the woman was standing with her back to them. Michael swiftly snuck behind her. His rose when the woman turned around a gun in hand. Michael managed to swiftly get it out of her hands and put his knife against her throat.

  Anastasia got closer and saw the woman’s face. She had sharp features, everything from her nose to jaw was sharp and she had a large scar on the right part of her jaw. She had hazel eyes that stared concentrated at Michael. She was taller than Anastasia but not quite as Michael. She had a slim figure, but her arms and legs looked strong. Her pink lips were formed into a small frown on her face.

  Michael moved to her back, keeping his knife at her throat, and turned her to face Anastasia. He nodded at Anastasia.

Anastasia took another step closer, “Where is Ethan?”

“Who the f**k is Ethan?”, her voice was still soft even though she tried her to sound tough.

Michael pressed his knife tighter to her throat, a few small drops blood fell from it, “The new runner. Where are they?”, Michael’s rumbling voice was back.

“You just missed them.”

“Well that ends this then.”, Michael’s knife was about to dig deep into her throat when Anastasia stopped him.

“Wait! She can still be useful!”, Anastasia’s hand reached and grabbed Michael’s.

“Kid this-”

“She can show us to the base!”, that was the best Anastasia could think to stop Michael from killing her.

“There aren’t many places they send runners, we can find it on our own.”, Michael’s knife was about to dig in again when Anastasia stopped him again.

“No! We can… uh… we can ransom her! We can ransom her for Ethan! And if we have a prisoner they won’t try to kill us.”, she wasn’t sure about the last part.

Michael gave her a long look before he sighed and moved his knife from the woman’s throat, it leaving a red mark where it stood.

  “Thanks for the save kid.”, the woman’s voice sound better when she wasn’t trying to sound tough, “Ava.”

“Anastasia and he is Michael.”

“Don’t make friends with our prisoner.”, Michael grumbled as he used to roped to tie her hands, “And you are not saved yet.”

“Come on there is a back door we can take.”, Ava went off on her own.

Michael and Anastasia ran after her and when they finally caught up to her she was standing next to a door, waiting.

“If you run off again like that I don’t care what the kid wants I will kill you.”, Michael threatened Ava.

“Okay big guy cool it.”, she turned to Anastasia, “Is he always like this?”

“You get used to it.”, Anastasia and Ava get outside followed by Michael.