Thomas surveyed the boat from the safety of the trees. There was a clearing at least twenty feet long between him and it, with nothing but darkness to keep him hidden. A pang of guilt went through him, though he pushed it down. It wasn’t like he was doing anything wrong. It wasn’t fair that the staff never let him off the island. Sure, if his dad found him that would be beyond bad, but what were the chances that would happen? Focus on the task at hand. He would either have to drive himself across the river or sneak on during the weekly trip to the city, avoiding fifty kids and at least ten faculty. Either way, it wouldn’t be easy.
The other option was to swim across the river, which would be equally difficult. Not only was it at least a fourth of a mile swim, leaving him soaked and tired by the time he reached the other side. Plus, he wouldn’t be able to bring anything.
He hadn’t even seen the city yet, and already he was faced with an impassable roadblock, and he had no idea how he was going to get there from the dock. So much for that idea.
The sound of cracking branches sent him to the ground, and he glanced around, searching for the intruder.
“You sure this is a good idea, because you know if we get caught, we might end up spending the rest of our lives in a holding cell rather than—”
“Shh!” another voice said, and Thomas heard the crushing of leaves as the person set something down. He didn’t dare turn around to see what was up. At least he was wearing camouflage.
“Do you ever get the feeling you’re being watched, ‘cause I do and I’m kind of getting—”
“You want to get off this island or not?” The girl’s voice was quiet so he almost couldn’t make it out. No telling who it was.
“Alright. Geez. I just talk when I’m stressed. And I do think—”
“You talk no matter what. Now zip it!” The girl’s voice was still quiet, but it held an air of authority.
By some miracle, the boy stayed quiet, and Thomas heard the typing of keys. Whatever they were doing, they’d better hurry. His legs were starting to cramp from crouching. Finally, when he thought his legs might burst into flame, he heard a laptop close.
“Done,” the girl said just as the roar of a motor filled the air. “Now let’s go!”
He didn’t know how, but the girl seemed to shout without actually raising her voice. Thomas counted down the seconds as the footsteps disappeared into the roar, then he turned around, watching as the silhouette of a tall boy and a drastically shorter girl disappeared onto the boat. His heart leapt into his throat. Now was his chance!
Without even waiting to think it through, he crept through the woods, then made a break for the boat, which was already pulling away. 20 yards… 10… 5… The space between him and the pier seemed to disappear, and suddenly, he was leaping for the boat, calculating the distance to it, gauging the time to tuck into a roll. Now. He tucked his head in and landed on his shoulder, then rolled to his feet to face the dark brown boy standing at least a foot taller than him, staring down at him.
“Think I should push him off or zip-tie him to a chair,” The tall boy’s eyes lit up. “Or both!”
“Nicolau,” The girl stepped out from behind the boy, and surprisingly, she seemed almost shy. “Why did you jump on our boat?”
“Why did you steal the boat?” Thomas shot back. “And how?”
“Oh, well that’s easy. The answer to both those questions is none of your business.”
“You do know who this is, right?” Nico-something asked.
“Yeah, someone we can’t trust.”
“No, it’s the Thomas Wolfe,” Nico said, not even trying to hide his awe. “We were just boarded by the one and only Thomas Wolfe.”
Thomas felt his mouth twist into a grin.
“You mean the guy who deserts his team without a second thought and only cares about himself?”
His grin faltered a bit.
“Dude?! He’s right here!” Nico retorted. “I’m sorry,” he said, turning to Thomas. “She’s always like this. Once you get to know her—”
“Ah ah ah—What?!” The girl sputtered, her face reddening to a shade of red Thomas hadn’t known was possible. “He is not going to get to know us! You know what, you’re right. Go and get the zip ties.”
“Hey, I don’t take orders from you.” Nico crossed his arms, and surprisingly, the girl didn’t put up a fight. In fact, she seemed to shrink into herself. Nico sighed. “Sorry, Emma, I…” He trailed off as Emma’s eyes widened, and her face turned red again, “just told him your name.”
“Zip ties,” Emma growled out.
“Fine.” Nico disappeared to the front of the ship, leaving Thomas alone with this unstable fiery whirlwind.
“Let’s see, what should we do with you?” She considered him, and Thomas got the impression she was a cat waiting to pounce. “You think it’s better to lock you up in the cabin or toss you overboard?”
Normally, Thomas wasn’t scared by girls half his size, but he had to make an exception for this one. “How about you just let me off at the dock and you’ll never see me again?”
“Got them,” Nico said as he rejoined Emma, reluctantly handing her the ties. “Not that they’ll be much good against Thomas Wolfe.”
“I have a better idea.” She put the zip ties in her pocket, then turned to Thomas. “Here’s the deal. You help us, and I’ll let you off anywhere you want.”
“Wait, you’re going to let Thomas help us?! This is going to be epic!” Nico pumped his fist into the air, and Emma looked ready to punch him.
“That’s assuming I even want to help,” Thomas interjected just as a thought came to him. “And if you’re here, who’s driving the boat?”
“No one.” Nico leaned against the railing, then straightened as the boat hit a wave.
“Not ‘no one’,” Emma grumbled. “The boat is controlled by a GPS tracking interface combined with a neural-network object avoidance algorithm. It’s the only thing at the academy that’s actually up to date on technology. I simply had to modify an existing program to send us straight to the city.”
“Okay, I’m not even going to pretend I know what you just said,” Nico grumbled, and Emma just rolled her eyes.
“Back to the point. Are you helping us, or do you want a one-way ticket back to the academy?”
“What exactly would I be helping with?”
Emma just stared at him.
“Alright, alright, I’ll help.”
“Great. There’s an extra coms pin for you. All you have to do is follow the simple directions I give you.”
“You’re not going to give them to me now?” What had he just walked into?
“I’ll give them to you when you need them.”
“And what exactly are you planning?”
“Oh, we’re just going to—” Nico started, and Emma cut him off with an icy stare “do something that doesn’t involve… You know what, nevermind. I’ll be below if you need me.” Turning, he disappeared into the cabin.
“I’m going after him. Don’t. Touch. Anything.” She spun and headed after the giant, and Thomas was left alone.
Okay, so not exactly the best way he could have gotten to the city, but also not the worst. The idea of stuffing himself in a suitcase for half-an-hour wasn’t exactly a pleasant one. Now he just had to wait.
He hadn’t realized how long he’d been lost in thought, imagining different scenarios for when they docked, until a voice spoke from behind him.
“Alright, put these in,” Emma hissed.
Thomas turned and was met with a hand inches from his face holding out the earpieces. Grudgingly, he took them and put them in his ears, wondering what the girl had planned.
“Thomas, do you copy?”
Great. All he needed was the short girl’s voice inside his head.
“Yeah, I copy. Now, how about in—”
“Alright, follow us and don’t do anything without instructions.”
“You do know he has to breathe, right?” Nico’s voice came through the coms. “Not to mention swallow and walk, and—”
“Nicolau?”
“Sorry,” came the hasty reply.
“Alright. The boat will swing by the dock. When I say, jump.”
The door to the cabin burst open, and Nico stepped out dressed like a hobo, complete with a tattered coat and baggy pants.
“Three…”
Thomas turned to look off the side of the boat, where a rocky beach was whipping past at least twenty feet away. “Uhh, guys?”
“Two…”
“Guys, not questioning you or anything, but—”
“One…”
“Isn’t there supposed to be a—”
“Jump!”
Thomas had no idea why he did it, but he found himself blindly leaping into what he was sure was a certain soaking. Tucking his body, he prepared himself for the collision. A second later, the air was knocked out of his lungs, and he found himself rolling on concrete. Springing to his feet, it took a second for everything to stop spinning and his lungs to fill back up. Once he could focus again, he blinked, looking around him. He had expected skyscrapers and busy streets and maybe a few helicopters, but all that greeted him was the faint outline of a rundown warehouse.
“This is the city?” He asked, skeptical. He turned to where he thought the other two were. They weren’t there. “uhh… guys?”
“Alley to your left. Hurry! You’re just standing out in the open.”
Thomas made a bee-line for the building to his left where the other two crouched by the corner, surveying a railyard with workers and machines bustling about behind a huge wire fence.
“So, what now?”
“How good are you at train-hopping?”
“What?” Thomas asked a bit too loudly.
“Hey. No raising your voice. Coms, remember?” Of course the dufus didn’t remember. Sure, he might be good at athletics, but when it came to remembering, well, his test scores said otherwise.
“With one of you dressed as a hobo?” Thomas remarked, eyeing Nicolau.
“Yes. Who do you think would look more suspicious? A teenager or an old hobo? Come on.” Emma glanced around before breaking into a brisk walk. She had to check behind her to make sure Thomas was following, since he didn’t make a sound as he walked. Like a cat waiting to pounce. She’d have to watch her back.
She stopped in front of the ten-foot tall wire fence topped with barbed wire that separated them from the tracks.
She unstrapped the ipad from its hollister, pulling up the map of the city. There, right in the center was the golden rose. It still sent a shiver of hate down her spine whenever she saw it. Ignoring it the best she could, she scrolled down to the little coffee shop a few blocks away, then traced the tracks to the yard in front of them. Sure, she had triple checked the route before, but one could never be too careful.
“Alright, Nicolua, on my mark.” She navigated to her own personal hacking app and started scanning the nearby networks. There, “gate3.” tapping on it, her program went to work hacking the encryption. A second later, she was in. Just two buttons appeared, “lower” and “raise.”
“Get set…” she pressed the raise button, then looked around, trying to locate the gate. Across the railyard, one of the gates started to lift, though none of the workers were paying attention to it. She started pressing both buttons, making the gate look like a giant mechanical hand waving. Finally, one of the workers noticed it, and he started pointing, and calling out to the others. In a matter of seconds, all the workers had stopped working to gape at the gate.
“Now.”
“I don’t really think this is a good idea. I mean—”
Emma glared at him, and he cleared his throat, pulling a pair of wire clippers from his pocket. He seemed to take forever cutting through the thick wires of the fence, but finally, he had a hole large enough to crawl through.
“This way. Don’t fall behind.” Glancing at the workers still distracted, she dashed across the yard, ducking behind a pile of old rails and pipes.
“There it is,” Nicolau said, coming up beside her and pointing toward the long train of oil tankers waiting to be hauled away at exactly 9:10.
“I have eyes,” she growled, already scanning the area for workers. Other than the crowd now gathered around the gate, the yard was dark and empty. “And they’re telling me to go.” Without waiting for a response, she made a break for the train, feeling her shirt collar snag on something a split second later.
Spinning around, she found herself face-to-face with Thomas
“Tell me you didn’t,” Emma growled.
“Tell me you saw that worker.” Thomas jerked his head in the direction of the train, and Emma spun to see another worker illuminated by a work light, checking the wheels.
Stupid. She had almost gotten them all caught. What had she been thinking to go on this mission? She couldn’t do anything right.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, and Nicolau sighed.
“You couldn’t have seen him. I mean, he is wearing a vest specifically—”
“He’s right,” Thomas said, cutting him off. “That’s why you brought me, right?”
“I seem to remember you jumping on our boat,” Emma growled, trying to hide her uncertainness.
“How about we wait till the train’s moving before jumping,” Nikolau suggested, “That way, even if they spot us we’ll be long gone. Remind me why we’re taking a train instead of a taxi?”
“Because we are.” She checked her tablet. Two minutes left. Great. What would they do for two whole minutes?
“Alright, how about while we’re waiting we introduce ourselves?” Nikolau suggested.
Emma shot him a glare.
“Okay, let’s not introduce ourselves. We could always sit and stare at the train while a nice comfy taxi is waiting for ‘normal’ kids because we just can’t do anything ‘normal.’ Our normal is jumping on trains to get to clandestine locations so we can do… something.” He glanced cautiously at Emma, who shrugged.
“You didn’t spill our secrets. Personally I’ve stopped trying to stop you from talking. Plus, it passes the time.” She grinned as Nicolau’s face turned a dark shade of red. Thankfully, he didn’t say any more.
The sound of screeching wheels and clanking metal brought Emma’s attention back to the train, which was now imperceptibly moving.
“Wait for it….” She held out her hand, signaling the boys to stay. The train started picking up speed, and Thomas inched forward. “Go!” Emma hissed, and the three of them shot forward.
Thomas reached the train first, grabbing a railing and pulling himself onto the small ledge. He turned to Emma, and she sent a glare his way, grabbing the rail and pulling herself up. Nico was last, puffing as he squeezed in next to them.
“Alright, we’ll arrive at the destination in sixty three seconds,” Emma said, glancing at her tablet to see the blue dot getting closer to the cafe.
“On my mark, we jump. Once we clear the tracks, We’ll split up. The boat will swing by the same spot it dropped us at exactly nine-forty-five.” The blue dot slowed down as they neared the destination: a curve in the track. Almost… “Ready?” The silence seemed to make the clacking of the tracks louder, or was the train moving faster? What if she miscalculated? No. She couldn’t think like that. Almost…. Almost…. “Now!” Closing her eyes, she leaped.
Thomas hit the ground running, only stopping once he was clear of the gravel alongside the tracks. If anyone had asked him how he thought his day would go, his answer certainly wouldn’t have been that he would jump on a boat and follow some random students on a train only to jump off again.
“Alright, follow me,” Emma said as she made her way through the trees that surrounded them. After a short moment, they burst out onto a small road lined with houses and a few scattered restaurants, one of which it looked like they were heading straight towards.
Just as they reached the sidewalk, Emma turned to him, her face a mask. “Wait here.” She turned back and headed around the building, disappearing around the corner.
Thomas waited only a few seconds before following her. Wherever she had planned, he had to find out. Crouching low to the ground, he peeked around the side of the building just as the back door of the restaurant swung shut. It would be too obvious if he just walked in after her. He had to find another way in.
Footsteps came from behind him, and from the heavy footfalls, it had to be Nico.
“Thomass, take out your earpiece,” A barely audible voice whispered in his ear. He turned around to find Nico just inches from his face. Confused, he did as the boy said, and Nico opened a bag and slid them inside.
“Alright, now what do you think you’re doing? She said not to follow her!” He whispered a little louder.
“Yeah, and you know I never follow the rules. You must know what she’s doing.”
Nico just shrugged. “That’s not my job.”
“So you’re just blindly following this girl?”
“Keep it down. I don’t know what she does on these outings, and that’s the deal. I don’t ask her, she doesn’t ask me.”
“So what do you do?” Thomas asked before realizing the boy had just said he didn’t want to be asked.
“What’s your plan for this mission? I mean, people don’t just jump on boats for no reason.” Nico changed the subject, speaking even lower.
“It’s… private,” Thomas decided after a few seconds of silence.
Nico shrugged. “You don’t ask what we do. We won’t ask what you do.”
“Alright, fine.” Thomas took a breath, then let it out. “I don’t actually know what I’m doing here. I just felt a pull to go, and then you guys showed up. I want to help people, to be a light in the darkness. I just don’t know what that means yet.”
Nico looked torn for a second, then he shook his head. “Don’t expect me to tell you my plan just because you told me yours. Because that’s definitely not happening.” He paused for a second, biting his lip, and Thomas couldn’t help a small smile from forming.
“Come on,” Nico whispered, turning and heading off into the dark street, Thomas one step behind. They passed rows and rows of brightly colored condos, which gradually shifted into flat-roofed one-story houses. By the time they had covered about a mile, the houses had turned into old cinder-brick businesses with graffiti lining the walls. For a moment, Thomas’s heart ached knowing all the hard work the Children of Light had put into removing and painting over the graffiti had been pointless.
Nico turned down a dark alley, and Thomas followed, and he narrowly avoided stepping on a man dressed the same as Nico was. As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he could count at least ten or twenty people, some wearing rags, others looking like they had just come out of a clothing store, all staring at him.
Suddenly self-conscious, he looked at his own clothes, a tan collared cargo t-shirt and black cargo-pants. He wasn’t sure what a gangster looked like, but he might have fit the description.
“They’ll get used to you. They’re just weary of newcomers. Sit down.”
“What?” Thomas asked, eying the filthy concrete under his feet.
“It helps them not see you as a threat.”
Hesitantly, he lowered himself to the ground, squatting on his knees to avoid any more of his pants being coated in— whatever was on the ground. He watched as Nico reached into a backpack and pulled out a container, then another, only stopping when he had twenty containers in front of him and an empty backpack. Thomas had only assumed he had supplies for whatever mission they were going on.
One by one, he passed them out to eager hands. Even the burly man who had fixed him with a dirty stare was now accepting food from this stranger, or apparently not a stranger to them. Still, he was surprised to see not one of them touch their food. They seemed to be waiting for some sort of signal.
“Dear Lord, we all thank you for this food we’re so blessed to have.”
Thomas closed his eyes as some of the people lifted their hands and others got on their knees with their faces to the ground.
“Please let it give strength to our bodies and revive our souls. Thank you for keeping us safe today, and please keep us safe for another day. And we ask that you stay with Martha and her kids as they try to find their way…”
He continued on for what felt like at least half-an-hour, asking God to protect or guide people Thomas didn’t even remember the names of. As he was praying, Thomas found himself sending up a silent prayer of his own. Lord, If this is where you want me, then this is what I’ll do. Thank you for guiding my steps and showing me the way.
It was a while before Nico finally got up and said they had to go. Silently, Thomas followed, his knees creaking from sitting in the same position for so long. The homeless people seemed to be warming up to him.
“You know you can’t continue to come with me, right?” Nico asked, and Thomas blinked, turning to him. “This is my thing. It’s what God called me to do, to feed, clothe, and take care of the ones who are neglected by the rest of the world. You said you wanted to help people, but you’re going to have to find out how to do that in your own way.”
Thomas swallowed, biting back a rebuttal. “So how do I know what I should do then?”
“You know, at first I didn’t know what to do either, but then I talked with the pastor, and you know what he said? He said that I should use the gift God gave me, because that was why God had given it to me in the first place. My gift, if you couldn’t tell, is talking.”
“I kind of got that.” Thomas grinned, turning his gaze to the ground. “But it doesn’t help me. I’m pretty much good at everything except for school.”
“Woah woah, I didn’t say something you’re good at, I said a gift, something that God made you with. I’m good at video games, but obviously that’s not going to help others, unless…” He shook his head. “But the gift God gave me was talking. I didn’t learn to talk like this, I was just born with it. What’s something you were born with that sets you apart from everyone else?”
A weird family was the first thing that crossed his mind, but he knew that wasn’t what Nico meant.
“You don’t have to answer that question now. You’ll have plenty of time to think about it, I mean, if you want to—before—God’ll wait for you. Now, we’ve got a boat to catch.”
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