Traitor

3

February 28, 2032 (3 hours before the purge)

We pull up in front of an abandoned building a few hours away from the city.

This doesn’t look right…

I double-check, then triple-check if we were in the right place.

“KK, wake up, we’re here,” I say as I shake Kate awake.

She wakes up immediately, blinking her eyes. 

Kate looks around, then asks, “Are you sure we’re in the right place?”

“Yeah I’m super sure, I triple-checked if we were,”

We get out of the car and walk towards the abandoned building. On the second floor, Kate and I play around pretending to be models on the runway. Once we both are at the end of the runway, we stop and pretend to pose for the cameras. Clapping echoes throughout the concrete walls around us. I turn to see two guys on the side where the stairs are, one clapping and one staring… at me?! They both stand at about 6’2, while KK and I are at 5’8. The one clapping has sandy blond hair and striking green eyes with a lean, jock body, whereas his friend has dark brown hair with ice-blue eyes and a slightly more muscular body. 

“Done admiring the view ladies?” the blond one says smirking.

I snap out of my trance to see Kate at my side almost drooling. I quickly kick her shin to warn her.

“OW! F**k Syd!” she complains. 

The guys start walking towards us, stopping her whining; they stop a few feet away.

“The name’s Zach m’lady,” he says, bending down to Kate and I’s height.

I put my hands around his face and brought it closer to mine.

“My name is… don’t make fun of our height,” I say, then flicking his forehead away.

“Owww… way to lead someone on” he whines, rubbing his forehead.

Kate butts in, “Her name is Sydney but you can call her Syd! And my name is Kate-”

I glare at her before interrupting, “-but you can’t call her KK because that’s my thing.”

“Got it?!” I glare at both of them.

“Well Sydney, I’m Mason and I apologize for my idiotic excuse for a friend,” says the brown-haired one with a smirk on his face, but I knew he wasn’t mocking me because I saw the glint of amusement in his eyes. At least he has the respect to call me by my full name. 

“So, where to,  ladies?” Zach asks with a grin. 

“We don’t know, our plan ended with us meeting you,” I shrug.

“Why don’t we go to our safe house?” Kate suggests.

“WE HAVE A SAFEHOUSE?!” I turn my head so fast, I’m surprised it didn’t fall off.

“Yeah, of course, we do!” she chirped.

“How come no one told me about this?” I say angrily.

“I thought it wasn’t necessary because we’re spending the purge there anyway,” she shrugs.

Zach interrupts, “Wait a minute, you’re making it seem like this ‘safehouse’ of yours is impenetrable.” 

“That’s because it is. It was built to withstand the force of a magnitude 9.5 earthquake, and includes top-notch security details,” she replies jutting her chin up, daring him to go on.

“As much as I’d hate to ruin your plans, Katie, none of us are going to that safe house,” Zach declares.

“And why not Zach, enlighten me,” I demand.

“‘Cause, we’re going to be robbing the biggest bank in America.” Zach states.

“W-what did you say?” Kate asks slowly backing away with me.

“He said,” Mason replies. “We’re robbing a bank, and you’re both coming with us.”

The two warm, light blue pools of water that once held amusement, now were replaced with cold, hard pieces of ice. They moved quickly, both grabbing each of us and covering our mouths with their hands. Kate thrashed and struggled against Zach as I did the same with Mason. If they thought we wouldn’t resist, they would be extremely disappointed because both Kate and I were talented in martial arts. But, of course, that would be too much even for Kate and me, so we chose the simple way out. I stopped struggling to lock eyes with Kate. Ever since we were kids, it’s like we can read each other’s minds. On the count of three, 1… 2… 3! I stomp on Mason’s foot as hard as I can; as his arms loosen around me from the pain, I grab them and flip his body onto the ground. Dusting myself off, I look to the side to see Kate doing the same thing. 

“I told you we shouldn’t have even entered our names into the stupid GSP-” 

She cuts me off, rolling her eyes at me, “Woah, hold it, Syd. How was I supposed to know we’d be paired with smoking hot criminals?” 

“We wouldn’t be here in the first place if we didn’t enter our names!”

“Less talking, more getting out of here,” she says snapping her fingers. “We didn’t knock them out, unfortunately, so we gotta move quickly.”

“We can’t just leave them here KK!”

Zach groans clutching his stomach.

“You want to take them with us?”

“No, why would I want to be in the same car with the people who tried to kidnap us? ”