I landed on something soft and wet, and as lights started to light up, showing wires running all throughout the tunnel, I realized why the mice hadn’t thought to fly through the sewers. It seems that the assassins had at least caught onto this one tunnel and had rigged it with explosives!

I had about 10 seconds to run before the last trigger was lit up and the explosive mechanism was triggered, so I sprinted, stomping on the thick cables that were covering the sewer floor and had cushioned my descent earlier.

Just in time, I saw a clear passage and dove into a dip in the wall, barely escaping the blast that was set off a second later.

As brick and debris flew past me, I realized that, ironically, the assassins had helped me seal off the entrance. I coughed, dust particles thick in the air, and once I was sure I didn’t hear any more crackles or hisses from the direction of the blast, I pulled my collar up and over my mouth, and made my way down the corridor in the opposite direction, hopping to come to an area that I recognized.

As I kept walking, I noticed familiar markings. When the sewer system was first built, there were markings to help workers figure out where they were in the labyrinth of tunnels, and most markings, which had an arrow and a badly carved image of a tower, meant that the direction was towards the town square, where the clock tower was.

I looked at the town square sign and opened a secret compartment in my gloves, which concealed a compass. There was a little star and a number 4 in the center, which meant East, and if I wanted to get to the Bakery, I had to head East-West from the Town Square, so as I looked around me, I saw that there was a service door which usually connected passages to other passages, which was in the right direction of the bakery, based on town lines.

I smirked to myself and put away the compass; all those classes spent on map reading were finally paying off! I pushed open the service door, and to my relief, the dust had not seeped in so I could bring down my shirt collar and walk normally.

The service passages were narrow and full of pipes that were still used and ran all around the city, supplying water and oil to various houses. As I walked briskly down the narrow corridor, I began to pick up hints of the smell of flour and the delicious wafting smell of baked bread. I was heading in the right direction.

As the smell of baked goods increased in intensity, the corridor branched off, and this time I used my nose to pick which direction to go in. Before long, the corridor opened up into a control room, which was covered in dust as no one came down there anymore. I checked the map that was hanging on the wall, and sure enough, two blocks over was the bakery, which had been around since the establishment of this town, as one of the oldest food and beverage supplement posts for this town since the Great Collision.

I pushed open the service door and stepped out into a blast of the scent of baked goods. It didn’t take long for me to locate the ladder that would take me up to the secret hatch that opened up into the Bakery’s cellar, and as I ascended the rungs, I took care to listen and see if there were any disturbances before I opened the trap door. Unlike the other doors which had been in outhouses where people rarely go, this was a Bakery’s Cellar, where people walk in and out of it all the time, so I had to be extra careful.

Nothing unusual stood out to me, such as footsteps or voices, so I pushed up the trap door and, to my surprise, found myself staring right into the bright glistening eyes of Sam, the High Breaker I was here to check on.

I pushed the trap door all the way and Sam scooted back, but there was only so far he could go as his captors had tied him up, legs and hands bound to an old barrel full of fruit preserves, and had gagged him, so all he could do was wiggle around and stare wildly at me as he tried to free himself.

To my horror, they had even placed bags of flour on his tail to keep him from using his extra appendage to assist in his escape, pinning him down effectively in the worst possible way.

I rolled my eyes, pulled myself up, and walked over to him. This is exactly why, despite how well treated we were, how nicely brought up they say we were, or how much was promised to us, many of us choose every year to High Break. The stifling, controlling behaviour of all our foster parents was unprecedented, and if they couldn’t be stopped, we had to fight back for the sake of our freedom.

Sam looked up at me as I approached him, shivering, and I realized I had forgotten to introduce myself.

He curled up his legs close to his body, and I felt so bad as I had a rough idea of just how badly he had been manhandled, as it was the norm for me every day.

Instead of immediately going over to release his bonds, I knelt down on one knee, took out his flying device, and put it between us, pointing at it so that he sees it and gets distracted from his fear of assassins by a little bit of curiosity, to break the tension.

“I am High Breaker - GHB2010, real name Alaina. I am from the Winter Knight family, which is locally known as one of the top assassin families on the known earth, and I want to be a Bard,” I said, looking cautiously at Sam to see if he heard.

Thankfully it seems like he did as he stopped squirming and quickly glanced down at the device on the floor, and then back up at me.

“Apple, and Admin from the High Breaker website has given me these flight devices for flightless High Breakers. All you must do is click the red button at the back and it will activate the device. This one is yours,” I explained gently and pushed it over so that it slid just within reach of his feet.

Sam pushed off one of his shoes and, with a clawed foot, picked up the device, threw it up, and caught it in a bound hand. With reflexes like these, no wonder they put bags of flour bags on his tail, he would have been long out of these bounds if they had not!

“Mmmm?” I heard him say muffled by the gag, and instead of trying to interpret that, I placed my hand over my heart and continued.

“I don’t have much time, I have two more people to check on. Will you let me cut through the rope? Then I’ll be on my way” I explained.

Sam nodded, and I pulled out a dagger from my chest pocket and went over to him, making quick work of the ropes and kicking off the bags of flour from his tail.

Sam pulled off the gag and shook himself, cracking joints and stretching to ease all the joint pain that came from being bound up in such an awkward position for so long.

“Wow, I’m glad you came along; I thought I was done for! Sorry, I freaked out a bit. When I saw your uniform, I misunderstood; I thought your people were back to beat me up some more”, Sam said, smiling brightly as he stretched low to the ground as if he were preparing to sprint.

“Yeah, it’s the very reason why I want to leave this awful place. I don’t want to become like them,” I sighed as I pulled open the trap door and started to climb down.

“Why a Bard? It’s not exactly a job which pays…how are you going to make a living, take on ad hoc assassin jobs on the side?” Sam as he looked over the flying device.

“Urgh, I’ve no idea, I haven’t really thought about that. I just want to get to the job fair in one piece” I groaned, hating that question. Everyone kept asking me that online when I was sharing what I wanted to apply for, was being a Bard that terrible?

“Here catch,” Sam said and tossed something at me.

I caught it and opened my palm to find a small metal disk with funny inscriptions on it.

“It’s a collapsable kettle. Why not minor in Food and Beverage? Being a chef isn’t all that bad, as long as you aren’t tied up in the cellar of your family’s Bakery” Sam grinned “ Plus, everyone needs a chef on their squad, you’d be able to make an honest living while practicing singing to the trees,” Sam laughed and scurried up the same pillar he had been tied to.

I scowled at him but pocketed the gift anyway.

“Hey, don’t look down on other people’s dreams. We’re all just trying our best out here. No wonder they gagged you; you seem to like getting under people’s skin,” I remarked moodily,“ Also what about me looks like I can cook. You’re advising a fish to walk on land”

Sam shrugged “Anyone can bowl water. Add an instant packet of noodles, and out there on the barren waste, everyone is your best friend. Also, you can use that to distill water if you can’t get near a drinking water source and sterilize bandages if a teammate has a wound and needs treatment. I might be a joker, but my thanks are genuine – thank you for freeing me.” Sam smiled, and gave me a cheerful thumbs up, “You rock!”.

I placed a hand over my heart in surprise. “Wow, where in the world did you get such an amazing device? Are you sure you want to give it to me?” I asked.

Sam chuckled “I invented it! That is prototype 73! If we ever meet again, let me know if it exploded after three uses as the last 72 ones did, and I’ll give you a replacement free of charge, as long as I make it through all the galactic engineering courses!” Sam said and before I could blink, squeezed himself through the beams across the ceiling, heading to a far corner of the roof.

“Hey! Are you saying you’re dumping a ticking time bomb on me?!” I exclaimed.

“Well, I only have one pocket, and I need to keep the flying device somewhere, so the electronic mess tin slash water distillation prototype needed to get dumped; enjoy!” Sam said as he pushed open what looked to be a false stone in the ceiling, and disappeared into the street above.

“Sam!” I exclaimed but that slippery lizard was already long gone.

I immediately regretted shouting so loud as footsteps could be heard in the distance, approaching the cellar door in a hurry.

I sighed and jumped down, letting the trap door slam shut, and then I took another concealed dagger and jammed it into the wooden surface of the trap door.

Using a bit of rope I had grabbed just as the door was coming closed, I quickly threaded it through the little hole in the hilt of the dagger and then tied the rope to the first rung of the ladder. It wouldn’t hold, but it would slow anyone who chose to follow down a little, and a few extra seconds was all I needed to get away.