CODE IV: ESCAPE FROM HELL

walked out of my home, and breathed the night air in. My hand felt heavy with the bag, heavier than it should have felt.

The whole block was silent. It wasn't surprising, as it was already past midnight.

From the twelve hours we had to escape, only five remained.

Erika stepped out behind me and closed the door.

"What's the point in closing the door?"-I asked, watching her as she locked it.

"I don't know...........I guess old habits die hard."-she shrugged as the door finally got locked.

I looked at her, and felt sad. She only had moved here, and now she had to run for her life.

"Where will we go?"-Erika asked, her voice shaking.

I instantly remembered the warning from the mail: "DO NOT take Faith with you."

But I decided not to say anything, not right now.

"We'll hide in the nearby park and use the CCTV cameras to survey the area around the house for the next five hours."

"Then?"

"If the C.I.A really comes, we'll get away from here. And if not, well, then the problem is solved, right?"

Erika nodded hopefully, but her lips were still shaking.

We walked towards the park, and sat down behind the bushes.

Both of us brought out our laptops, and started breaking into the watch system. In a few moments, we could control all of the cameras around our house. Comparing to the U.S.A Military Facility, it was nothing.

We kept watching by turns. Erika took the first turn, and watched the area for two and a half hours. After that, she pulled me up from sleep, and went back to sleep herself.

I kept watching the visual fields, and for the first two hours, nothing came up.

I was about to drift off to sleep, when two black cars suddenly stopped in front of the house. About a dozen people came down from them, and stormed into our house.

I couldn't see what was happening inside, but before I could make a decision, another pair of cars came into the view.

Another dozen people came down, and rushed towards the house.

Then, all hell broke loose.

The sound of gunshots filled the air, accompanied by the yell and shouting of two dozen people.

The whole area turned into a mess. People started waking up and shouting in fear, and sirens started ringing.

I grabbed Erika's hand, and ran towards the opposite direction.

I didn't know where I was going, but I definitely didn't want to stay here.

We ran and ran until the sounds were distant.

"We...........need....a......car......"-Erika said, panting.

"Yeah."-I replied. I was exhausted.

We searched around the area we were in, and eventually found a garage.

Nowadays, all of these road-side garages were controlled and managed by A.Is to make sure the vehicles were safe from robbers and thieves. Though they didn't consider the possibility of being hacked.

We accessed the terminal, and Erika brought down the security in moments.

We entered the garage. The whole place was empty, except for only one hovercraft.

Though it wasn't much, it was at least better than nothing.

"Erika, you drive. Take me to the nearest seaport."-I said to her while getting myself comfortable in the passenger seat.

"What about you?"-she asked, fastening her seatbelt.

"I'm going to make sure that the owner of this craft doesn't cause a scene."-I smiled, and she smiled back, understanding me.

I was going to crack the Ministry of Transportation website to change the ownership of the vehicle.

I wasn't going to need it after we reached the port, but Erika did. Not that she knew about my plan, though.

The remaining path passed in silence. None of us took the responsibility to start a conversation, and besides, we weren't in the mood of small talks.

Finally, the hovercraft reached the port.

Erika parked it near an unused old back gate, and I got down.

Just at the moment, she was going to follow me, I grabbed her shoulder, and put her back in her seat. She seemed confused.

"What?"-she asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

"Listen. I can NOT let you come with me."

The words were too shocking for her.

She remained silent for a whole minute and just kept looking at me with wide eyes.

"Y-you serious?"-she finally asked, gasping.

"Yeah. Listen. I am a fugitive now. It seems not just C.I.A, but another organization is after me now. And even if they are gone by now, we can't be sure that they won't come back. Besides, they used our, no, my house for target practice. This will turn into a mess."-I tried to smile, but what I did wasn't a smile at all.

Erika waited silently for my next words.

"B-but they don't know about you. And they are not after you. You don't need to come with me and destroy your life."

"As far as I remember, both of us are equally guilty for this. I don't see a reason for us to go separate ways."-Erika suddenly spoke up, angry.

"Listen. Even if I took you with me, there will be problems, and....both of us may fall in danger."-I softly said to her, in a voice so low that it sounded like a whisper.

"Did the mails tell you that?"-she asked, looking me in the eyes.

I averted my gaze, and kept silent. It was all the answer she needed.

"Huh. I get it now."-she said, with an emotionless voice.

I thought she would be angry, but to my surprise, she embraced me, harder than I could imagine.

I couldn't react. I couldn't say anything. I just wanted to treasure this moment between us.

Finally, she started whispering. Her soft lips were almost touching my ear, and the warmth of her body was spreading to me.

"Just.....just promise me that you'll come back. That we'll meet again. That you'll be safe."

I put one of my hand on her arm, and replied in a soft tone.

"I promise."

"And......remember me."-she said, and broke the embrace.

She quietly walked to the hovercraft, and started its engine.

In a few moments, she was in the sky. She turned the hovercraft and went away, without looking back. She was probably hurt, a lot.

"Now what?"-Len's voice shocked me. He was silent for about a few hours, and I almost forgot about his existence.

"Where were you?"-I asked him, inside my mind.

"Calculating our way outta here. Anyhow, figured your next move?"

"We need.....a weapon."

"Just take a pipe or something."

"No, something effective. Our opponents will be hunting us down using guns, you know."

"What about that?"

"What's 'that'?"

"You forgot? You made it for the last year's science assignment."

"The high-pressure bullet?"

"EXACTLY."

Thermoniam was a great source of power. In the last science assignment, I used 0.1 m.g. Thermoniam (from my bio-organ core, it had plenty to spare) and some empty pencil battery shells to create a special type of bullet.

I used water instead of gunpowder. The heat of Thermoniam would turn it into high-pressure steam, causing it to explode.

Thermoniam was used inside the shotguns and handguns issued by the government for the police and military.

These weapons had a safety module, which kept the Thermoniam in check. By removing that, one could use the full power of the radioactive metal. Of course, without some kind of cooling system, the core would explode.

For that, I invented a new type of gun, which had a paste cooling system in it, instead of a safety module.

I never got to try my bullets though, as before I could do that, the police took away my project.

But I was sure that it would work, so I made another gun(of course behind the eyes of the police) and kept it close. I also brought it along with me here.

I opened the bag and brought out the gun.

I didn't have any bullets, so I decided to search around.

In a few moments, I found a packet of used batteries inside a nearby dustbin.

I cracked the shells open carefully, and dropped the Manganese and other chemicals from it.

Then I replaced them with water from my bottle. I used half of the batteries for these bullets.

"Hey, Len."

"Hmm?"

"Don't you think it would be.....fatal for the people who get shot by this bullet?"

"Yeah. They will probably die or be crippled."

"What about using small rocks inside of the shells instead of water?"

"Then.....they will probably be hurt. But not seriously."

I smiled and started making bullets using small rocks. I didn't want to kill anyone until I had to.

After half an hour, the work was done. I stuffed the bullets into my jacket. I kept the high-pressure ones in one pocket, and the others in another.

"Weapon done. You said you calculated the path. Show the way then, Len."

"Of course. Go to the left side of the port. You'll see this ship."

Len showed me a photo of a ship. It had a name. HMS Cardigan.

"Then?"

"The ship is heading for India. I'll tell you what to do when we reach there. Hurry up, or you'll miss it. It'll leave the port at 7:00 A.M."

I shrugged. Len always shared his pieces of information part by part, according to the situation.

I checked my watch. It was about four.

The sun was already rising, and I needed to be fast if I wanted to sneak into that ship.

I started moving towards the ship, crouched and hiding behind the cargo boxes.

I was about a hundred meters from my goal when a number of footsteps threw me off guard.

I looked back and saw several people running towards me, guns and tasers in their hands.

Panicked, I ran towards another direction, hoping to lose my pursuers.

But the footsteps kept coming. And hearing the sound of a buzzing sound over my head, I finally understood how they were doing that.

A hover-jet was flying over my head, giving them my accurate position.

"Mashiro! The high-pressure bullets! Use them!"-Len's voice and panic burst inside my head.

I took out my gun and aimed at the engines of the jet. My bio-eye helped me to aim perfectly, and Len's electromagnetic pulses kept my panic in check.

I fired two quick shots, one after another. Both of them hit home and blasted. The high-pressure steam caused an explosion. It wasn't powerful enough to destroy the engine, but it disabled it, forcing the jet to land.

The footsteps became faster. Losing their pointer, the men became desperate.

I stood up, and ran in a circle around the cargo boxes, and turned towards the ship.

"Change ammo! They will catch you before you can reach the ship!"-Len shouted again, this time, sounding more ferocious and afraid than ever.

I hurriedly pulled out two bullets from my jacket and tried to open the gun's magazine. In my hurry, a few bullets fell down, but I didn't bother to pick them up.

I loaded the cartridges and turned around. Five men were coming for me.

I took aim and shot two of them in the thigh. The shells exploded, causing the rocks inside to collide with their thighs.

It worked like splinters from grenades and pierced their legs.

They fell down, shouting in pain.

I saw blood pooling beneath them. The other three instantly went undercover.

I ran towards the ship. Just about I was going to climb the plank, a man stopped me. He looked at my face for a moment and gestured inside.

I just looked at him, confused.

"Probably Erika. Just go inside. I'll check the database later."-Len hissed from inside.

I nodded at the man and ran up.

I heard the men shouting, but none of them came after me. They were already in enough trouble, for the shooting at my house.

I sat on the deck, panting. Suddenly, an old man in uniform came up to me.

"Lad, what're you doing here?"

"Huh?"-I asked; looking tired and exhausted.

"What? Don't recognize me? I am the captain of this ship, Harmes Wilson."

"Oh, sorry captain!"-I stood up, and saluted him.

He laughed, surprising me.

"Saluting has turned old, lad. But glad that somebody still knows it."

Then he pointed towards the men in the harbor.

"Been through a lot, eh boy?"-he asked, raising an eyebrow.

I nodded, and he smiled.

"Well, don't worry. You are safe here. Don't know what they were chasing you for, but as long as you help us out, you're one of us. And we'll keep your secret safe."-he winked, and I smiled in gratitude.

Then suddenly a shoved a broom in my hands.

"So, start working!"-he said in a commanding tone.

I started brooming the deck, and saw the ship leaving the port.

I looked at the vast ocean, and wondered what my life would become now.

But one thing was certain, my old boring life was over.

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