“That’s ambitious,” I say.
Lavish nods in agreement. “Extremely.”
…
“So, what—we’re revolutionaries now?” I ask, leaning back on my chair and crossing my arms tightly over my chest.
“If that’s what you want to call it, I’m in. Revolutionaries sounds badass,” Lavish jokes. He turns back to the TV. “In any case, your dad was able to compile a lot of information on the rebel groups in Artip. I mean, it’s been ten years since then, so who knows how valid any of it still is… but it wouldn’t hurt to investigate for ourselves.”
I try to imagine Dad pouring over secret dossiers of rebel organizations and developing a highly advanced code to use while devising his master plans for overthrowing the Ruthless. I won’t lie—it takes a pretty big stretch of my imagination. I adored my father growing up, of course, but looking back, he always seemed so… normal. He was the type to crack corny jokes and do sudoku puzzles and complain if his morning coffee wasn’t strong enough. He wasn’t the kind of person who organized revolutionary coups.
At least, that’s what I thought.
I chew on the inside of my cheek, trying to take all of this new information in. “Our dads hid a lot from us, didn’t they?” I ask.
Lavish nods, pressing his lips together. He verbalizes what I’m thinking: “Sometimes, I feel like I didn’t really know my parents at all.”
“Yeah.”
“Anyways,” Lavish says, bringing us both back to the task at hand, “As you can see—Artip is one of the few districts without any physical border security. It’s got a few Low-Lifes that guard the major entrances, but other than that—defense is sparse.”
“Okay, so what if we found a blind spot between their guard stations?”
“That’s what I thought at first, too. But then I found this.” Lavish swipes his finger across the tablet screen to reveal a map of Artip. It’s not like any map I’ve ever seen before—brightly colored crisscrossing lines have been marked in place of any landmarks or roads.
“What is it?”
“This, my friend, is a sewer system. It’s kind of like the waste management pipes we have here in the Bunker—except about a hundred times bigger. These pipes stretch all the way through Artip, and they even extend a couple of miles beyond the border.”
“What about thermal scans?” I ask.
“We’ll have to move fast,” Lavish admits. “I had Susan collect some data for us—they run a thermal scanner over the perimeter of the city every hour on the hour. That gives us a pretty big window to sneak in, since our target should only be a thirty-minute walk from our entrance point.”
“And where’s our target?” I ask.
Lavish points to a spot on the map, close to the southernmost border of Artip. “Here. It’s an alleyway behind a pretty major hospital. And that’s where your new cloaking devices will come in.”
“Won’t the R-Zombs be able to smell us?” I ask.
“Not exactly. By my calculations, Artip is populated by over 3 million humans.”
I catch on quickly. “Our scents will be masked by all the other people.”
“Exactly. It’s perfect.” Lavish nods. “Anyways, what I’m really after in the hospital is this.” He pulls up another photo—this time, it’s of a metal facemask. “These are oxygen converters. I’ve got no idea how the technology works, but according to SUSAN, most humans above ground wear them to protect their lungs from the air. They were invented after our parents escaped to the Bunker, which is why we don’t have any down here.”
Instantly, my mind begins to race with possibilities. The gas masks we have are clunky and pretty inefficient for long periods of time. I installed a filtering fan into one of them, but it’s noisy—so, not the best choice for a reconnaissance mission.
“I need to get my hands on one of those,” I say.
“I thought you’d be interested.” Lavish grins. “From there, I think our best bet is to travel around the city for a bit. You know, sightsee.”
“Are we checking out the historical monuments?” I ask jokingly.
“Not quite. We’ll be looking for a symbol, though. One that’ll tip us off to any rebel groups that might be hiding in plain sight.”
“Do we even know what the symbol will look like?”
Lavish swipes to the next graphic in his presentation. It’s a drawing of a box with three lines slashed vertically through it.
“This is all we’ve got to go on,” Lavish says. “I wish we had more, but…”
“We’ll make it work,” I promise him. I stand up, and approach him, resting my hand on his shoulder. “You did a good job, man. This stuff… it makes me feel like we’ve actually got a chance to make it out alive today. Your dad would be proud.”
“I know,” Lavish says.
There’s a silence between us for a moment. I’m not sure what it means to Lavish, but for me, it’s a silent promise: we’re in this together, for better or for worse. And if Lavish goes down, I’m going down with him.
“Let’s do this,” I say. Immediately, I walk back to my chair and grab my bag of tech. “SUSAN,” I call. “Enable the main gate’s automatic system.”
“AUTOMATION FOR THE MAIN GATE HAS BEEN ACTIVATED.”
The main gate’s automatic system is something that I happened to install a few months back. It allows entry through the main gates from outside—but only for me and Lavish. It’s a little less secure than the manual system, but that’s a risk we’re going to have to take.
Lavish reaches into his own GRAVITY X and passes me a gasmask. “Here’s your gasmask, man. Try not to break this one.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I roll my eyes, quickly hooking the mask over my face.
We march to the main gate like soldiers, where we’re met with our cruiser—a small electric vehicle that Lavish and I built together. I take the driver’s seat while Lavish hops into the passenger’s side.
“SUSAN,” I call, “Open the main gates for twenty-five seconds.”
“OPENING MAIN GATES. PLEASE STAND CLEAR.”
The main gates slowly slide open, and as SUSAN begins the countdown to shut them again, I ease the cruiser outside. The feeling of wind on my skin makes me shiver.
And for the first time since I was thirteen, I feel the sun on my face.
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