Miscellaneous

“Come on. We gotta go!”

“Wait, dude. Lemme get those—”

“No time! Come on! Go go go!”

“Alright, alright. Chill dude.”

The loud and high pitched drones suddenly rang through the air. The two wasted no time as they bolted out the back door. Duffel bags tossed in, they lunged headfirst into their getaway pod through the pre-opened windows. The pod hurtled away before they can even fully get their whole body in. Two pairs of legs were just dangling around, seemingly comical. 

As soon as the windows were sealed, their facemasks came off. They just looked like a normal group of friends that were hanging out. Trying to blend in as much as they could, they slowed down to a normal pace once they reached the main airspace. It wasn’t that hard to camouflage themselves with every other pod also being white.

The crew of three threw high fives around as they successfully pulled off their third heist of the month.

“How much do you think we got?” Fynn looked back at the two bags full of bucks.

“I don’t know, four k, give or take,” Kenji replied. Slightly kicking the bag near his feet.

“And we would’ve gotten five k if you didn’t fuck up the timing.”

“Well, I didn’t fucking know they’d started deploying drones in every district, Auryn,” Fynn snapped back and stared fiercely at Auryn.

Refusing to let him win, she stared right back with her sharp blue eyes. It was like a wild scuffle to gain territory. Both of them, being stubborn assholes, had never lost a fight in their lives, and neither intended to start now. It was always Kenji that stopped these two animals from clawing each other’s eyes out.

“Knock it off you two,” Kenji was getting tired of this bullshit, “And for the record, Auryn, we would’ve gotten caught if we didn’t leave.”

Fynn smirked at her.

“Fuck you,” But Auryn knew he was right, somewhat. Still not completely accepting defeat, she frowned and looked out through the tinted windows.

They were far enough from the crime scene that there was no trail for authorities to follow. Fynn unplugged his signal scattering device and shifted gear to self-drive. Their destination was 0100 hours away, so Fynn swung his chair around and faced the other two.

“Did you disable tracking?”

“No shit I did,” Fynn knew Kenji was just being cautious but his delusional ass was getting to him. He’d never fucked up before… until today, he had to admit he cut it too close today. He should’ve been more careful. Those two could’ve been killed, and he would’ve been the one responsible. And god knows what Auryn’s dad would do to him.

Auryn was sick of this shit, “Jesus fucking Christ, you two have more trust issues than the people with the fucking government.”

“Speak for yourself, rich girl.”

“Shut your trap, Fynn.”

“Knock it off you two psychos,” Kenji shook his head. He should be used to this distrusting group of miscellaneous. Their senseless arguments still annoyed him to hell either way.

Despite the routine always being the same after every heist, Kenji liked going over it with his crew. It kept him calm, knowing exactly what’s going to happen. And it agitates the other two, which was always a bonus.

As he started to talk, the other two instantly shut the fuck up and let him went on. Messing with him never ended well for any of them. He was always right.

The sound of the patrol bell suddenly rang through the car.

“Fuck.”

Patrols were checking all the pods passing through. Motherfucker. They were really fucking fucked. Their pod was now on auto-lock until they get checked.

“…at the Neuman Bank on H Avenue today about 0010 minutes ago. Authorities are now sweeping the 10-mile radius. Suspects are two males, white, early twenties. There is suspected to be a third fugitive…”

“Shit, fuck. Fuck,” Auryn swore loudly, “What the fuck do we do?”

Kenji looked at Fynn. Fynn shook his head. It was government system, air-tight. Nobody’s ever hacked into it in 50 years. There were about 20 pods in front of them, each getting their credentials checked. Fynn suddenly plugged his device into their pod again and started furiously tapping on his pad.

“What?” Kenji looked at him. But Fynn was dead focus, not even an airstrike could snap him out of it.

They were getting real close to the checking point now. All of them were holding their breaths, stoned-faces. The only sound in the pod was the clicking of Fynn’s keyboard. With one hand still, he pulled his facemask on. Going with his lead, the two of them followed suit.

“Fynn, what—” Audryn started, but she never got to finish.

The pod door on one side snapped open, and a wave of mucky air rushed in. Patrols were busy searching the pods. With only five pods in front of them, they didn’t have much time.

“You two, get out,” Fynn demanded.

“No.”

“No?” Fynn had stopped typing now. Kenji was now staring at him.

“I’m the one making decisions here. So you listen to me. I’m getting out, no one else. You two go on like normal. Outstate warehouse, 0200 hours, tonight. You hear me?” Kenji sounded like a General commanding his team. No one dared challenge him as he leapt out the pod and landed 15 feet below on the ground with the two bags breaking his fall.

Through their peripheral vision, the Patrols seemed to had finally noticed something out of the ordinary, because the SPO team was rushing towards their direction, guns raised.

Fynn pulled the emergency shut down button in the pod. Shit, it’s broken.

“JUMP!” Auryn shouted at Fynn. Fuck Kenji and fuck staying incognito. They’ll be fucking shot down.

“Shit, it’s high,” Fynn looked down. 15 feet seemed more like 15,000. He swallowed hard and looked at Auryn, “I can’t do it. You go. At least one of us should live.”

“Pussy,” Auryn looked back and gave Fynn two middle fingers as she dropped down.

“Oh hell no,” Fynn muttered to himself. His pride was not going to let her live this down. Taking a deep breath, he shook his head and took a leap of faith.

The landing came faster than he thought.

I’m gonna die being called a pussy.

Slowly, he opened one of his eyes. He wasn’t dead.

His senses were coming back to him though, and the putrid smell made him immediately jump down from the dump. Meanwhile, Auryn was already standing and laughing at him.

“Come on man. Let’s fucking go. Assholes from SPO’s gonna find us.”

Still grumbling about being called a pussy, Fynn ran after her. SPO had launched their drones. They needed to find shelter, fast. Rattling the chains on every building, they finally found a loose one. Yanking the door open with a creak, they dashed in and shut it as quietly as possible.

They paused and listened to the drones surrounding them. They were going away, but it wouldn’t take them long until they circled back around.

“That was fun!”

“Fun? You’re a piece of shit, you know,” Fynn shot back, “How the fuck are we getting outstate now, huh? Did you think of that?”

They looked around the room. Tall ceiling, marble floor, giant columns scattered around. This used to be a lobby for luxury apartments. Why it’s abandoned, nobody knew. Auryn walked over to a worn-out couch and flopped onto it. They still had 0400 hours before they had to get to the warehouse. 0400 hours they can get caught in.

Resting for a while, they knew they couldn’t stay long. Sooner or later, SPO would figure out they’re here and hunt them down. They listened for any noise in the air and sneaked back out onto the streets.

It was quiet. Too quiet. It felt like something, or someone was going to pounce out at them any second now. Keeping to the shadows of the buildings, they entered what used to be the main street. What was once the most crowded place on Friday evenings only had a street sign that said “Min sret” left.

A flash of light had them pressing close to the wall of a building.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Multiple pods were shining lights all over the area. Auryn and Fynn were surrounded. There’s no escape. If they even flinched, they’re dead.

“Fuck!” Auryn mouthed at Fynn.

“Put your hands above your head and step out, slowly. There’s nowhere to run.”

This was life or death, they had to accept defeat this time. There was no more escape. No more tricks up any of their sleeves.

Reluctantly, they put their hands behind their heads and stepped out. An SPO team was already on the ground in a trained formation. Two soldiers from behind comprehended them and pushed them down onto the concrete floor, cuffing them. Auryn looked at Fynn and Fynn looked at Auryn. They knew what to do. With 10 guns aimed at both of them, they had no choice but to trail onto the pod.

At the complex, they were placed in separate rooms, restraints were taken off. An interrogator got into the room and started questioning Auryn. She kept her mouth shut, nobody can break her. They didn’t have jackshit on her and it’s gonna stay this way.

As the government minion continued to try and threaten her, there was a loud knock on the door. He opened it and Auryn bit her tongue, trying to keep her laughter in.

“Major Sock, she’s to be released,” the man at the door with the twinkling blue eyes said.

“But Lieutenant—”

“Orders from upstairs. You really wanna try?” he looked up from the file he’s mindlessly flipping.

Auryn stood up and followed the man. He put a firm hand on her shoulder and steered her to the elevator that led to the underground garage.

Fynn was already there. Eyes sparkling as he took in the magnificent cars around him. He had never seen a car in real life before, and these, these looked even better in person.

“Thanks, dad,” Auryn said.

Fynn choked and spluttered, “He... He’s your… your dad?”

He looked closer this time. Their hair looked different, but their faces did resemble each other. The same blue eyes, the same nose, the same smirk. Standing next to each other, Auryn looked just like the female version of her dad. How did he not see that before?

“Come on, man. We gotta fucking move. We won’t make it otherwise,” Auryn caught the keys her dad tossed at her with one hand.

Still in shock, Fynn shuffled into the passenger seat in the car.

“I’ll leave you two to it then,” Auryn’s dad waved and got back into the elevator, “Don’t fuck it up.”

As Auryn got into the car, she saw the clothes her dad had laid out in the back seat. Always the over preparer.

Auryn, having only driven twice in her life, kept swerving around, giving both of them a kind of carsickness that neither had experienced before. After 0100 hours, she miraculously brought them to the border without a scratch. It was 0030 hours before they had to meet Kenji.

At the border, the guard was so used to Auryn and her dad passing through that he didn’t even ask to check her credentials.

“Who’s that with you?” he gestured at Fynn.

“Just a friend,” she put on a smile and glanced over at him, “We’re going on a road trip.”

Inside the guard’s stand, the TV was playing, “…fugitives still haven’t been caught yet. If you suspect…”

“Assholes, aren’t they? Why can’t they just work their goddamn 9 to 9, huh? Stealing our shit like that, they should be fucking executed,” the guard says as the finished checking the trunk.

“Yeah. Yeah, they should,” Auryn’s smile was still frozen on her face.

“Alright, you’re good to go,” he said and tapped the hood of the car.

“Be careful sir, your 9 to 9 sure can’t pay for this shit,” Auryn snapped.

The guy stuttered and tried to apologise, but by then, the assholes had successfully escaped.