The First Escape, Julie Steimle [fiction book recommendations txt] 📗

group would walk in the shadows down the hall so they could cross in different parts of the Surface Gate, and more quickly. Often when that person was in the open his heart pounded in his chest, and he glanced up occasionally at his father to see if he was ready to go. It seemed an eternity, waiting in the shadows along the dark wall—too much time to feel unsafe.

His father suddenly handed him to an auburn haired woman standing near by. “Go with her. It will look less suspicious.”

Making a face at him, Jafarr made grabbed the woman’s arm. She nodded at him and immediately led him across the street. It was difficult to look casual when it was so late. It didn’t feel natural. He wondered as he crossed—was it three now? Four? He glanced at the woman’s wristwatch and tried to make out the glowing numbers. It was a quarter after four. He bit his lip and continued to walk. It was not so irregular for people to be out then. Some people started work at the Surface Gate that early taking in merchandise and stocking their shelves.

When they reached the other side, the woman led Jafarr to a narrow panel in a dark corner. She opened it and slipped inside. Jafarr glanced over at his father across the street.

“Come one in,” the woman whispered.

“But—” Jafarr started, nearly pointed back at his father.

The woman shook her head. “He’ll come. Jamenth is pretty good at keeping quiet.”

Jafarr looked back again and then followed the woman through the small door. It was nearly completely dark within the hollow space, that and tight. He could barely see the woman slip off to his right. She quietly beckoned him to follow her and he did, having nowhere else to go. They squeezed in and out the strangest places, some with a slight red light emanating from a machine that rumbled lowly, others were speckled with multicolored lights that came from panel rooms that repairmen used to check on the grav-machines. Most were pitch black. Jafarr only knew where to go by the occasional call from the lady. They traveled in silence for what seemed to be an hour, but Jafarr knew from the occasional peek at the woman’s lit watch face that it was only four thirty.

Then the woman spoke, breaking the silence. “We get out here. Keep quiet.”

He nodded though it was unlikely the woman saw it since it was inky black in the space between walls.

The woman pulled back a panel. It let in a very dim light. She peered out into the grayish space then carefully, she stepped out and waved Jafarr to come through the hole. When he climbed out completely, sliding down the recognizable slanted green wall of the Surface Patrol transit corridor, she quietly nudged him aside to reattach the panel. She looked to her left and then to her right. Silently, she crept down the hall, Jafarr at her heels. He did not say a word though he started to worry again. It was only he and she inside that passage. If a flight scooter came by they would be spotted easily.

After only a few minutes, walking just a handful of yards down the corridor, the woman opened another wall panel and climbed inside. Peering around and taking a breath of air, Jafarr squeezed inside the small gap within the wall. The woman reattached the panel from inside and they continued again through the spaces between the large machinery. Her watch glowed four forty-five.

The woman slipped faster between the cracks, barely giving Jafarr chance to keep up. It seemed as if she almost lost him when in front of him the space opened up where one large gravmachine was missing from its place. Instead, there stood a handful of people, including the middle-aged man and his children. The woman that Jafarr came with was peeking through a glowing crack in the wall paneling. A small stream of light shone into the room from that crack, illuminating the room just enough to see except when people moved over to the hole to look out. No one talked except for the few who were leading the group. Jafarr folded his arms, frowning as he peered back at the darker gaps in between the machinery. He did not see any sign of his father.

“We need to go now before the first patrol comes in,” Jafarr overheard one man say.      

Where were they? Jafarr wondered. He could barely make out their conversation, but he knew that everyone was also straining to hear what the few people at the hole were saying.

“I know we promised to wait for him but we’re running out of time,” that same person said over the hum of the machinery.

Jafarr’s father slipped into the room. That moment the entire room sighed in relief. Looking about the darkness and shadows, Jamenth Zeldar searched for his son. Jafarr stepped up immediately, placing his hand on his dad’s arm. Setting his hand on Jafarr’s, Jamenth smiled, breathing more easily. He led his son to the front of the room near the hole.

“Ready?” Jamenth asked the others quietly.

The three up front nodded. One of the men, who Jafarr realized to be one of his father’s old friends after his eyes adjusted to the light, opened the metal panel and cautiously climbed out. The woman that had led him through the tunnels slipped over the panel edge to the outside just after the man. Jafarr’s father then motioned for him to go through the hole, lending him a hand so he could climb out of the hiding space. Taking it, Jafarr, leaned into the open room.

 

The Way Out

The room was spacious, lit by only half the lights making it rather dim. It looked like a docking bay, like one he might have seen in the Surface Patrol Alpha district tour. Jafarr stepped lightly from the hole onto the hefty steel grid floor, taking care not to let his footfalls echo. Ahead, he saw the other two slide along the wall to his left towards some parked shuttles that had a shape he recognized. It was a docking bay.

Gazing at the shuttles, Jafarr’s eyes caught on the recognizable Surface Patrol insignia on the nearest ship and he stifled a gasp. He lifted his eyes to the other ships, blinking at their clear markings as each one had the same insignia. Inside his stomach seemed to sink lower with an ill feeling that he was somewhere he should not be. He nearly climbed back into the hole in the wall, but his father and two other people had already climbed out and they were urging him to go on.

       So, taking another breath, Jafarr slid against the far wall as quietly as possible, knowing now there was no going back. As he did, he could see the hall open up to his view. They had climbed out from a back wall panel to the cavern where ships and shuttles were stored. A number of flight scooters were also there. Beyond them was the source of the light in the room. It was at the entrance.

As he continued to slide quietly along the wall, watching everything with wide-open eyes, he soon reached half way where he had a clear view of the first two escapees sneaking near the shuttle closest to the bay door. The couple worked to unlock the hatch to the shuttle, sliding a stolen coded key card into the slot. Inching closer, Jafarr watched them punch in the code breaker then wait for the lock to respond. As they did, he glanced back at illuminated entranceway where the light was coming from.

His stomach tightened even more. They were not alone at all.

A handful of Surface Patrol officers, mostly cadets and first year Avers, were standing at attention for a tall blonde man that Jafarr recognized on sight. Covering his mouth to mask his breath, his eyes fixed on the head of the Alpha district as he paced in front of the small group with his hands behind his back. The fair-haired leader didn’t even notice the movement in the shadows, the other escapees slipping out one by one along the wall, waving for Jafarr to continue on. 

Jafarr closed his eyes and held his breath. He tried more carefully to sneak past the ships knowing that if Alea Arden saw him, it would be all over, but it seemed to him that every squeak his shoes and jacket made was amplified in the open hall. Nervous sweat started to drip down his back. He had to get to the shuttle fast.

The door to the shuttle clicked.

Jafarr and the two near the ship stood alert for a moment, all looking at the head Alea who had now been joined by two other Aleas and three Anzers in the doorway. Jafarr’s eyes followed them but then flickered to a small curly blond head among the cadets that turned slightly, lifting up as if listening to the sounds in the room. The blonde was dressed in an Aver’s uniform.

No, thought Jafarr. Don’t turn around.

The shuttle door clicked again, hissing air just slightly.

The small blond head turned around completely this time, revealing a young feminine profile behind all those curls.

“Alea Arden! The ships!” Her girlish voice cried out as she pointed at the shuttle.

The two rebellion members next to the shuttle immediately bolted for the open panel.

“Go back!” his father yelled to the people coming out of the hole a he dived into it himself.

In an instant, everyone scattered. The Surface Patrol officers whipped around then darted after the escaping rebels they could see, the others pulling out their weapons as the rebels in the hole gave their group cover.

Jafarr hid behind a wheel of one of the ships, looking desperately at the hole as they ducked under fire. His father was pulling people back inside, his eyes searching wildly for his son, but there was no way to run just yet. From his hiding spot, Jafarr could see the Aleas and Anzers grab several of their people—the woman and the man first, pinning them hard on the ground before binding them with cuffs. Only three had managed to get back into the hole. The others were tackled in seconds.

Trying to control his rapid breathing, as he was incapable of doing anything except hide, Jafarr peered over at the hole again. There just was not an opportunity for him to run for the open panel, and he knew they would have to close it soon.

“Where is my son?” Jafarr heard his father cry out over the din of laser fire and shouts.

Jafarr shut his eyes, hoping this was just a nightmare and that he would wake up safely in his bed. But then something clamped on his right arm.

He jerked his eyes open. An Alea stared down at him. “I got another one!”

With a jolt of terror that filled him, Jafarr flung the Alea into the shuttle wall and thrust his elbow into his face. He bolted directly for the open panel hearing other voices call out: “Stop that boy!” “Catch that one!” 

One man grabbed for his legs, but Jafarr leapt out like he would have if he were running