Chapter 2
The scream outside didn't fade. It was swallowed by another, and then a chorus of them, a rising wave of panic that finally shattered the district's unnatural stillness.
While Finn stood paralyzed, Cypher moved. There was no wasted motion, no hesitation. The shock that had frozen him moments before now pushed him into a state of cold, sharp clarity. He spun from the window, his lithe frame moving with a practiced grace.
He grabbed a worn, canvas satchel from a hook on the wall and began sweeping items from his workbench into it. A multi-tool with a dozen attachments. A high-lumen mag-torch. Two spare power cells, heavy and dense. A small, flat roll of conductive tape. He bypassed the complex diagnostic tools, grabbing only what was essential, what could fix, break, or bypass.
"Cypher, what are you doing?" Finn's voice was barely above a whisper. "Stop. Just… just stop and think for a second. This is a mistake. A test. They wouldn't… they can't just kill us all. The Authority wouldn't…"
"They can though," Cypher said without looking up. His hands continued their work, snatching a compact water purifier from a shelf and shoving it deep into the bag. "And in case you forgot the announcement, it's already happening."
"But two hundred… it's not possible! It's a lie to cause panic!"
Cypher finally stopped. He slung the satchel over his shoulder and walked to the window, his boots silent on the floor. He was not as tall as Finn, not was he as huge as his friend. Cypher was more on the skimmer side with a swimmers body but he had an aura about him. One so intense sometimes that people stopped to stare.
His dark hair was perpetually messy, falling over eyes that were a startlingly pale grey, eyes that seemed to dissect everything they saw into parts. His hands, though stained with grease and marked with the small white scars of a thousand cuts and burns, were steady.
He stared down into the street. "Look." he said to Finn.
The alley below, usually home to little more than scurrying vermin and the occasional underhanded deal, was now a flowing river of human bodies. Everypne faced one direction; north. Towards the demarcation gate.
People scrambled over each other, their faces filled with determination. A man in a yellow leather jacket stumbled, disappearing under the crush of feet without a sound. Further down, two men were locked in a brutal fight, fists hammering against each other not for any prize, but purely out of the frenzied need to get past one another.
The air, once thick with the smell of rust and damp, was now charged with the scent of sweat, and fear. Fear for survival. There was a roar of shouts and screams and the sickening thud of bodies hitting walls and pavement.
"The Central Terminus is a three-day walk to the gate," Cypher said, his voice low and even, cutting through the chaos outside. "That's if you're moving fast and the way is clear. We're six hours from the Terminus on a good day."
The Central Terminus was the closest thing District 13 had to a landmark. A massive, derelict transport station where, years ago, a few crews would board armored carriers for maintenance work in the lower strata of District 14. It was the district's official starting line. And they were miles behind it.
"Everyone out there," Cypher continued, his gaze fixed on the violent stampede, "is fighting for a chance at a life where they don't have to wonder if the air they're breathing is slowly killing them. They want to live in a place where the water is clean and their kids don't have to learn how to pick a lock before they learn how to write their own name. They want what's on the other side of that demarcation gate."
He turned, his pale eyes pinning Finn in place. "Every second we stand here debating whether the knife at our throat is real is a second that someone else gets closer to the gate. I'm not dying in this room because I was too scared to believe it."
Finn, whose softer features and broader frame made him seem like a buffer against the world's sharp edges, finally moved. He stumbled towards the window, his knuckles white as he gripped the sill. He peered down, and a choked gasp escaped his lips.
He could not believe what he was seeing. The sheer scale of the panic, the bodies being stumbled upon even though they were lifeless. A distance away, a child cried, calling for her mother who was trying to get to her. Everything was chaos.
He winced, flinching back from the window as if the violence could reach through the glass. His face, already pale, seemed to crumble. He couldn't deny it any longer. This was reality
He nodded, a single, shaky motion. "Okay."
The word was all Cypher needed. He moved to the corner of the room where a dog-sized automaton sat powered down. Its four legs were created for speed and stability, its head a cluster of optical sensors behind a reinforced casing. Cypher flipped a switch at the base of its neck.
With a low whir of servos and the click of internal mechanisms engaging, the machine came to life. Blue lights flickered on in its optical sensors. It rose to its feet, its metal tail giving a single, inquisitive wag.
"Glitch. Online," Cypher said. "Active protocol: Guardian."
The dog's posture shifted subtly, its sensors scanning the room before focusing on Finn, then back to Cypher.
Cypher then grabbed a battered comm-link from his workbench. He thumbed the activation switch, the static hissing to life before he keyed in a short, encrypted frequency. It connected on the first ring.
"Don't you dare tell me you're still sitting in that box, boy!" The voice that erupted from the speaker was a low, furious growl, laced with static but losing none of its raw power. It was the voice of Corbin, Cypher's uncle.
"We just heard," Cypher said into the comm, his voice steady. "We're in the unit."
"The unit?" Corbin's voice was incredulous. "The whole district is tearing itself apart and you're having a damned tea party? This is it, Cypher! This is the only chance you're ever gonna get! The one I told you might come!"
"Where are you?"
"The Terminus! My workshop! I'm welding the door shut, but that won't hold forever. The whole city is trying to get through here. You get your ass over here, now! You hear me? Don't get trampled, don't get stabbed, and don't stop for anyone. I'll be waiting. But I won't wait forever. Hurry!"
The line went dead with a sharp click.
The roar from the streets outside seemed to swell, filling the sudden silence in the room. Cypher lowered the comm-link, his grey eyes locking onto Finn's terrified ones. He held up the satchel of supplies. The choice was made, the path was clear, but it had to be walked.
"Well?" Cypher asked, his voice hard as the steel on his workbench. "What's it gonna be?"
People remaining: 299,899
Accepted residents: 0