Inside The Wall, Caleb VanSteenwyk [little bear else holmelund minarik TXT] 📗

that someone bumped into him. The Noble wouldn’t be happy about me running into him either, though, and I could expect to be yelled at.
I picked up my pace to meet the Noble in front of me, and bumped into him with my side, making him stumble. I pushed up on his pocket, and the wallet came out, and I quickly slipped it into my pocket, all in one motion. I had done this again and again for the past six years.
“Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t watch where I was going.” I apologized to the Noble, but he wouldn’t take it.
The Noble regained his balance and looked me in the eye. Out of respect, I looked away from his eyes like I was supposed to, so he would be convinced there was no funny business. “Go to Hell. And your family, too. “ The Noble retorted, spitting on the ground near me. Then, the bad thing happened. The Nobles may be told to check their wallets after every encounter. This one knew to, and checked his pocket. As he did this, I started walking away, trying to get out of his sight before he realized his money was gone.
“Stop!” The Noble yelled, and I did. If I didn’t, he would send the guards here. Each of the Nobles were monitored, and could directly link themselves to the guard’s database, sending them in whenever they feel necessary. If I kept running, he would send more than if I just obeyed him.
“You dirty son of a bitch.” The Noble started.
“I could say the same thing about you.” I replied.
“Funny. I’m getting the guards over here. And when they get here, you and your whole family will rot in a cell like you deserve. In fact, you might ev-“ The Noble wasn’t able to finish his sentence. Out of nowhere, Clyde smashed into the Noble, knocking him to the earth, a twisted expression of rage and hate imprinted on his face.
“Shut up!” Clyde screamed, and threw a punch at the Noble’s face, without holding back. “You think you’re so special! You kill us to make your life better!” Clyde threw another punch.
“Get off me you little bastard!” The Noble yelled, trying to knock Clyde off of him.
“You’re a low life animal who take everything from us, and takes everything in return. You’re no better than anyone else in this city!” Clyde punched him again, and this time there was a crunch sound, and the Noble’s nose started bleeding. He screamed. “You’re the lowest animal known to man, and you deserve to die right here!” Clyde punched the Noble over and over, even after he stopped moving.
“Clyde?” I asked, softly, but he didn’t reply. He was done punching now, and just sat there on top of the dead Noble. “Clyde, are you okay?” There was a long silence, with no reply. I looked around for the first time to see that everyone had backed up, but was watching us with interest. They all seem to think that Clyde had done the right thing. I tried putting my hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off and stood up.
“They killed my mother.” Clyde said, and started running. He seemed to have to destination in mind, but he ran. There were bags under his eyes again.
“Clyde! Where are you going?” I screamed. “Clyde!” Clyde seemed not to hear me, and kept running. I could now hear the monotonous marching, the key sound and warning of the inevitable danger. And Clyde was running straight for it. Realizing that he planned to attack the guards, that he was out of control with rage, I ran after him. I could faintly hear Clyde mumbling to himself as he ran. He was about twenty yards ahead of me. Even though I was bigger and stronger, I couldn’t gain any ground on him. The marching was loud, and the guards could be there at any moment, and they would not hold back simply because Clyde was a kid.
“Clyde, stop!” Clyde would not listen. When the guards appeared, they were advancing in a line, spread out in front of us.
“Hey, that’s the kid that was saved earlier!” One of the guards screamed, right before Clyde smashed into him. The rest of the guards shot, and in no time at all, there was a thick cloud of gunsmoke surrounding the guards, blinding me from what was happening. Without question, I ran into the smoke in the hope of saving Clyde. I would not abandon him like I did my brother. There was gunfire lighting up the outermost edges of the smoke clouds, making it look like one bit fireworks display.
I ran everywhere in the smoke, and visibility was only a couple feet, if that. I flailed my arms, trying to grab hold of something, and hoping it would be Clyde.
“Clyde!” I yelled, in hope that he would come near my voice, like some deadly version of Marco – Polo. “Clyde! Where are you?” I screamed. A couple of times while I was running through the smoke, I could feel a bullet flying past me. Any of them could hit me, but I was more worried about them hitting Clyde. Finally, my arm slammed into something, but by the metallic sound and the pain that hit my arm, I knew it wasn’t Clyde. I had run into a guard, and he turned his faintly glowing visor towards me. I couldn’t see his face behind it, but I could see words and symbols flashing across the screen, sending commands to the guard’s body. No matter how hard I looked, I could not see the face of the captured Peasant behind the visor.
“The kid has a friend! He’s on the wanted list as well!” The guard yelled, notifying the other guards of my presence. I tried to turn and run, but the guard grabbed me by the arm. The faintly green glow on the visor turned to a red glow, and the guard screamed. “Kill them both on sight!” It yelled.
In desperation, I kicked his knee. All that came out of that was a hollow metal thud, and pain in my leg. He was completely guarded by armor. No one knew what the guard’s suits were made of exactly, but everyone knew it was extremely tough and hard to penetrate. I’m dead! I thought, and the guard raised his weapon with the arm that didn’t have a death grip on me, it was a thick black pistol that I recognized as the Mustang Tyson had showed me earlier.
Before he could fire a fatal shot, I saw my opportunity for escape. His shoulder piece had been penetrated by a bullet, probably another guard’s. I took out the Trident that Tyson had given me, and knocked away the gun from the guards hands simultaneously. Off his guard, the gun flew from the guard’s hands and hit the ground. A bullet flew from the guard’s gun, but hid the floor. I had knocked the gun away just in time. The guard swore, then attempted to get his weapon back. While he did this, I fired three quick shots at his shoulder. The guard’s arm went limp, now uncontrolled, and free from his grip, I ran back into the chaotic smoke.
“The helper’s armed!” The disabled guard screamed. With his good arm, the guard attempted to fire three shots at me, but they were all blind shots. He was unsure where I had gone, thanks to the smoke. I continued to run around, hoping that by some miracle, I would run into Clyde. I was extremely short of breath, and I figured that Clyde could be suffocating by now. He had been in the smoke longer than I had, and it was getting thicker.
It wasn’t long this time, before I ran into someone else. I raised my gun, prepared for another guard, but I had run into Clyde.
“Clyde!” I whispered urgently, making sure the guard’s couldn’t hear me. “Thank God! We need to leave now!” But Clyde didn’t move. “Clyde! We need to go!” I urged, and tried to pull him to his feet. But then I saw why he wasn’t moving. His left leg was covered in blood. He had been hit by a bullet.
“Oh, God!” I said, and lifted him up over my shoulder. I ran in one blind direction, hoping it was closer to the rebel base, although I had no idea where we were. The thick smoke was very disorienting. I was lucky again, and it was the right direction. When I had emerged from the smoke, I took a huge breathe of air, and was slowly regaining my breathe. My body begged for me to just lie down, but I had to run. They would realize we were gone any time now, and I wanted to be far away from them when they did.
I found a building where the roof had caved down, and climbed onto the rooftop. It was much more difficult than normal, with me short of breathe, and Clyde on my back. He still hadn’t spoken, and his body felt limp. I prayed to God that he was unconscious, not dead.
Finally, the loud sound of gunfire stopped, and the world seemed to be silent. They had realized that we had escaped. I picked up my pace, using all my momentum to leap between buildings. It was difficult finding short enough gaps for me to leap, with Clyde on my back weighing me down. But if I went on the ground, the guards would find me in no time. The base wasn’t far away, but remembering how fast they got to me and my brother, I wasn’t taking any chances. If they got here this time, both Clyde and me would be captured or killed. I heard the guards shouting, and they ran in their creepy, synchronized footsteps. They had seen me. Luckily, I was very close to the base, and I jumped down. I entered the building, pulled down the railing, and pressed on the opening panel of the door, making sure I raised the stairs when I opened the door. I was again met by Tyson and the rest of his crew with guns pointed at me. When they saw it was just me and Clyde, they lowered their weapons. Tyson screamed for a medic, and I gave them Clyde, hoping they could heal him.
“What happened?” Tyson asked.
I was gasping for breath, the taste of smoke still in my mouth. “I stole from a Noble…” I took a deep breathe. “He caught me… Clyde killed him…” I started.
“Clyde killed him? Why?” Tyson asked.
“I don’t know… He ran away after that… Ran into some guards… I had to carry him back…”
“Did the guards follow you back?” Tyson asked, suddenly even more interested.
“Yeah… Why?” I asked.
“Did they see where you hid?” Tyson asked, and I realized my mistake. The guards would see where I went, and would search the building. If they got into the base, a war would break out and they would know the location of it.
“Damn it!” I yelled.
“Yeah. We need to get everyone ready in case they break in. Those stairs won’t stall them forever.”