The Few

The Last Hit

The edge of the river was like any other night. The two sat on the river bank as if it was any other night they just had or just about to tag a building or 'hit' a building as it was known on the under-net. Jet had a cigarette in his fingers almost twitching with anticipation. Abi sat with the tablet in her hands tapping away looking for a lead, earbud in one ear listening through the channels. "Anything?" He said impatiently. She shook her head. "f**k!" He said anxiously. "Its 9 now." He said looking at the new watch on his wrist. "What if they don't come out until a lot later? When we're already switched on?" He said finishing the cigarette and throwing it in the fire a group of homeless people had set up to keep them warm. She stopped dead and looked blankly at the water. "What? Have you found something?"

"No." She said simply. 

"s**t, Abs don't do that to me!" 

"No, I found nothing." She said almost happily. 

"That's what I mean I thought you have found something important!"

"No listen to me you d**k! I found nothing. Look..." She showed him the screen, "Here." She pointed to the screen to a point on a map. "There is no radio signal at all in this area. Limited WiFi and a closed loop."

"Okay? Why does that make me a d**k?" He asked. 

"Why would they be on a hackable radio system that the Alliance could hack and find where they are? Why would they do that?"

"They wouldn't." He said simply. "And the Few have some of the best hackers in the country." 

"Exactly." She said excited, "they wouldn't, so the best way to not get caught would be to block the signal completely. Then they could come in on their own channels that are much harder to hack, its a cover."

"So you can't get in?" He said disheartened. 

"No you asshole, we go to where the radio silence is. That's where they are going to be!" She said pulling her earbud out and slipping the tablet into her bag.

"You're a f*****g genius!" He said standing. She fake bowed as he picked up his heavy bag, and pulled it on his back. "How far away is it?" 

"If we run? 10 minuets." She said looking at the watch on his wrist. "Lets go and now." The two of them ran, and ran fast. After just over 10 minuets they had go to the blackout zone. She checked the tablet. "This is the place, where do you wanna do this." The two of them looked around. In a moment Jet patted her on the side of her shoulder. "What?" He pointed to a building.

"You've got to be f*****g kidding me J?" He was pointing to a building. A government building, the propaganda building where their father worked. "Are people in there?" He nodded. "Then how?" He just smiled.

"You trust me right?" He said taking her hand. She sighed heavily and nodded. "Come on." He took her hand and nearly dragged her towards the building. They hid in the shadows next to the building looking in through the glass. "If we can sneak in past the front desk we can get straight in the elevator right up to the top." She sighed. 

"Do you need me to distract them while you go up?" Abi asked.

"I need you up there." He said simply.

"Can you see a phone at the front desk?" She asked. He stood up to his full height and looked in. 

"No, why?"

"So its in the back." She said pulling out her tablet and a small box from in her bag. She slipped a small sim card into the tablet and started typing. She pressed her gloved finger to her lips as she pressed a button. She braced not knowing if the phone signal would also be down. But the tablet started ringing. The lady at the front desk stood and walked to the back and when she was gone into the back room the two of them ran into the building hood up and scarfs over their face. They got to the elevator and pressed the up arrow. The two of them stood anxiously hoping that they wouldn't be seen. Thankfully the door opened and no one was in it. They both sighed heavily as they ran in. He pressed the button to the top floor whilst holding the close door button so it would go right up without stopping. When safely in the elevator Abi ended the call. "We have come this far." She said leaning her head on his shoulder. He nodded.

"I don't know how we are going to get back out because when this thing up the cops will be here in minuets." He said. "We really are risking everything in doing this." Abi nodded.

"Then lets make it count. We either find the Few, get arrested or get out and our switches are turned on at midnight. If we don't find them at least we go out legends." She said.

"You know what?" He said, she could tell he was smiling under his skeleton scarf, "when you put it like that way it doesn't seem too bad." He said winking down at her as the door opened. "Lets do this." The doors opened on a large empty office. "We need to get higher." He said, "the roof." He said looking to the left and right. "Stairs!" He ran fast towards the stairs that were locked by a small gate. He just vaulted over the gate and helped Abi over. The two of them ran up the stairs as fast as they could and they came to a door. He shoulder barged the door open and they were out on the roof. They were high up. He looked over the edge and down towards the flood. "This building is bigger than I planned but it will work." He said holding the railings along the top of the brick work. He pulled the bag off his back and unzipped it. "We have to do this fast."

"We?" Abi replied. He just nodded. He pulled out three bricks and string he firmly tied the bricks to one end of the string. "In the bag in the bed sheet pull it out and lay it flat." She nodded her head and did what he said. He had used a sowing machine to stitch the four sheets together into a large rectangle. She spread it out on the floor and smoothed it out. It was stunning. It was beyond anything he had ever done and spoke when she saw it. Painted onto the sheet was the art. "Abs, take the other end of the rope and tie it to the metal rod that is sown into the back of the bottom of the sheet can you do that?" She nodded. "Really tight, one brick each side and one in the middle." She didn't reply just did as he asked. She started to understand what he was doing it was smart. There was no way he could get out on a building like this an tag it. It wasn't safe, it would take a long time to paint something this size on a wall and they would most defiantly get caught. This may save them time. When he had attached the bricks he stood. "This is where I will need your help Abs."

"What do you need J?" She said looking off the edge. He took six lengths of the thick string and threw three to her. He pointed to the top of the sheet. There was a metal rod stitched into the top like the bottom. He started attaching them tightly and she followed. When all six were on he stood. "Now what?"

He took the three bricks and handed them to her, "look this is going to be heavy." That was an understatement. "But I will be taking the weight soon trust me." She nodded, he took the 6 ends of the strings in his hands wrapping them around his hand so they would stay safe. "Okay lets hope no windows get smashed." He said simply, "Throw each brick off the edge." He said. She exhaled taking a step towards the edge and slowly dropped each brick and with each brick the sheet became tort. He then slowly walked to the edge taking the whole weight of the three bricks and the metal edged sheet. "Okay?" He said.

"Now what?" She asked. 

"I need you to take the string furthest to the left and tie it really tightly to the railing can you do that?" She nodded and took it from his hand and as quickly and as safely as she could did as he asked. "Now the exact same on the far right." He said nodding to the right. When she did he lacked some of the pressure he was holding. He handed her one of the two middle strings and took the other middle one in his and both started attaching them to the railing. They then without talking both knew to attach the last two strings. Until all 6 were attached. He zipped up the bag and flung it back over his back. "We need to go now." He said almost pushing her towards the door to the stair case down.

"Wait!" She said. "Fire escape all the way down to the street." She said pointing down from the back of the roof. "Its closer to the river too." She said. 

As they were climbing down the fire escape they didn't talk at all. Silence as the air started to become a buzz. When they finally hit the floor with their feet they started to run towards an alley way and hid there where they could see the art. The large sheet blew out over the city. It was not as big as Jet would have liked but it could still clearly be seen. A huge painting of New Zealand in the background with the waves wrapping around it. In the middle were two huge black bird wings. Detailed wings where each feather was perfectly outlined. Then painted across the top and the bottom was written, 'Who get's to choose what we get to choose? Who gets to think what we get to think?" Each letter was made to look like the maps of the countries involved in the Alliance. Down the spine of the wings was simply the word 'Freedom' painted in flame patterns. "Its amazing J, I can not believe you did that!" Abi said. 

"We will remember this forever sis." He said wrapping his arm around her shoulder. She watched at the fire and police officers started to arrive on the scene. "We just need it to stay up long enough for them to see it." He said. 

"Oh we did," A voice said from behind them. There was a shot of electricity and it all went black.