Keeping The Peace

The alley lay dead still. This part of the city was mostly deserted at this time of night, once businesses had closed for the day but the bars and seedy joints hadn’t opened yet. The sound of occasional screams in the distance and echoing gunshots are a constant drone as the rain dripped down in a steady drizzle making small puddles between the trash. The clouded sky was lit from below with a mixture of multicolored neon and the flickering glow of fire.

The sound of an explosion boomed in the distance. Gunshots and distorted voices followed. Footsteps echoed from a few roads away. Heavy breath and muffled voices edged ever closer. The alleyway was deserted but for a few of the usual four-legged inhabitants. A last heavy breath went out as two men sprang around the corner.

The first, a tall, slim man with a rough face and even rougher stubble glanced up the alley, searching desperately. He reached behind and grabbed the other, shorter man, pulling him from his path and into the shadow.

‘In here.’ He whispered with ragged breath as the two crashed behind a dumpster, boxes and discarded household items providing a temporary shelter. Their chests rose and fell rapidly as they tried to quiet their breathing, the shorter man holding his hand to his mouth to muffle the sound.

‘Shh, they’re coming.’

A second group of footsteps grew rapidly, heavier and less frantic. Three pairs of sturdy military-grade boots rounded the corner, stopping at the crossroads. The figures, heavily clad in armor and helmets, scanned the alley and the road ahead for signs of movement, hunting their prey, their weapons raised in anticipation of the slightest movement. The figures took slow, steady breaths which crackled distorted through speakers in their helmets, a single red light shining from where eyes should be.

They began to spread out. One of the figures, the closest, slowly moved a few steps into the alley, weapon raised, helmet expressionless, edging closer and closer to the dumpster. Using its boot, the figure knocked a tall box aside, checking behind with trained purpose. The two men hiding held their breath as silent as they could. Their hearts beat quickly in their chest. The small man shut his eyes tight, hoping to hide himself completely from the world.

‘No sign of activity here, they must have continued on this way. With me.’ A distorted voice crackled from one of the other helmets behind, causing the other two to lower their weapons and turn back to the road before setting off in a sprint. Their steady breathing faded along with the echoes of their boots until only the drone of the city and dripping rain remained again.

The two behind the dumpster let out a collectively held breath before the smaller of the men slowly edged out from behind the boxes.

‘That was way too close.’ He stood, using the wall to steady himself before cautiously heading to the road to peer around the corner, his hand on his heart. His eyes searched the road where the figures had gone before calling back, ‘I don’t know if I can do this, Jak. Maybe we should just turn back now, give ourselves in before they catch us.’

‘Woah woah, what do you mean, turn back?’ Jak stood quickly, his face red from the run, sweat beading along his forehead. ‘We can’t turn back, Kell. There is no going back for us now, it’s too late.’

‘You don’t know that. Maybe they’ll be lenient.’ Kell turned back to Jak, his face full of worry and fear, then looked at the floor.

‘Yes. Yes I do.’ He quickly looked around, then made his way over to Kell, grabbing his shoulders firmly and spoke in a raised whisper, ‘What do you think will happen? We’ll just be allowed to wander back home and just carry on as we did before? Like nothing happened? They’re hunting us down, Kell, you saw those weapons.’ 

‘They’re peacekeepers, they carry them all the time.’ His voice showed even he didn’t believe what he was saying.

‘Kell, you saw what they did to Len. You saw what they did to Alesha. Everything is changing now they’re here. We can’t just bury our heads in the sand and hope it’ll pass like we did before. There is no going back for us now, not after this.’

Kell’s face turned to the ground, his shoulders slumped as the weight of it all washed over him, his voice suddenly weak. ‘What do we do, Jak? I don’t know if I can keep running.’

‘We’ve got to. We can’t…’

‘They’re gonna catch us, Jak.’ His voice raised, his eyes wet with tears. ‘What can we do, we can’t run from them forever, they’re everywhere.’

‘Hey, hey.’ Jak pulled him in close, took a deep breath and steadied his voice. ‘We’ll figure this out, okay? Dae and Lexi made it out, right? There’s people on the other side waiting for us.’ He pulled away and leveled his face with Kell’s, ‘Hell, even Little Pete made it out. If that idiot can make it surely we can, right?’ He forced a weak smile on his face.

Kell smiled weakly back, sniffling his tears back as he wiped his eyes. He took another look around the alley then back to Jak. ‘Yeah. Yeah, I guess you’re right.’

‘Listen, we’ve just gotta get clear of the Helotech building on the edge of town, once we’re passed that then it’s just the industrial district. We lay low, stick to the shadows and before you know it we’ll be clear of this wretched city. Peacekeepers barely go to that part of town anyway.’

Kell tilted his head up to the neon-lit sky, blinking fast to clear his eyes, his breathing slowly steadying. He rubbed his hands to his face, smearing dirt with his sweat. 

Jak turned and began to search the alley, lifting the dumpster lid, shifting boxes and papers aside. Using his boot he kicked on an old wooden crate. He bent down and shifted through the pieces, then stood clutching a short length of wood.

He tested its weight in his hands, took a deep breath and gave Kell a cold stare. ‘Listen, I can’t stay here. We can’t stay here. There’s no future for us here with these Corpo bastards. We’ve both seen too often what they are willing to do to have their way. To “keep the peace”. I can’t stand by anymore. I won’t. I’d rather die trying to get out of here than live under their rule. Are you coming or not?’, Without waiting for an answer he turned and began to run further down the alley, his boots splashing in puddles.

Kell stood for a moment, lingering at the corner staring back down the road where the peacekeepers went. He closed his eyes tight one last time, took a deep breath and began to follow Jak. Their footsteps rang out for a minute or two until eventually they rounded a different corner and were gone.

The alley stood still once again, rain drizzling down, gunshots echoing from streets away.