33 Reek

Today is the first day of how the rest of our lives in Citadel is going to play out. Wake up at 5 in the morning. Miro was very specific about that. He woke us all up at once with a loud bell that sent us out of sleeping piles to the mess hall, grumbling all the way. Then breakfast which was probably the best part of the morning. The food the Earth Kingdom had brought in: bread, cereal, canned soup, the like, all made for great breakfast. At round 6, an Earth Kingdom soldier comes in. I don't know where he comes from, but probably somewhere very close outside the city. Maybe the woods that are nearby. I don't know. The man comes in, hands a paper to Miro, then leaves.

Miro lets us go about our own ways for half an hour until he summons us individually. First, he asked for Janick and Mouse. They left through the sewer tunnel closest to Arsenal street. Next, he asked for Mu and Sarik who left through the "rich people" sewer exit.

Then it was my turn. He called me and Lean. He was skinny. That's all there was to him. He was practically devoid of personality. All he had was the name. There was nobody more boring in all of Citadel and I dreaded having to spend the day with him, but in all honesty, I probably wouldn't even notice he was there.

I sat down at a table with Miro on the other side who remained quiet until Lean dragged himself out of whatever padded room he was previously occupying and sat down.

"The Earth Kingdom wants us to steal some Fire Nation weapons that are being kept in a warehouse in the slums." Miro handed me a paper that showed a crude map of arsenal street and a small building deep in the slums with a red X marked on the building that I assumed to be the warehouse. On the other side of the paper was what looked like a grocery list. It was small. When I asked Miro what the words read, he told me simply enough. It was "just enough weapons that could be smuggled on a 2 persons in pockets, underneath shirts, etc."

"3 Knives/Daggers

8 iron arrows

1 stick of dynamite

2 knapsacks of gunpowder "

"And don't make it obvious. Grab whatever isn't in plain site so it doesn't look obvious."

I nodded and proceeded to ask "Why are they keeping it in the slums?"

"Miro shrugged. Earth Kingdom didn't tell me. Maybe because its closer to the street. Or maybe it's a stash for emergencies. I don't know."

"How did the Earth Kingdom know about this. We didn't tell them, right?"

"Not that I know of. I guess the Fire Nation aren't the only ones with spies everywhere. So . You good to go?"

I nodded and Miro looked to Lean who gave a curt nod and went stiff again shortly after, looking down at his thumbs below the table.

"Good. Be careful.

We left. The sewers beneath Citadel were a confusing matter. The Fire Nation had tried to seal them out of fear of Earth Kingdom soldiers being able to get in through here. They sealed most of it by pouring down something called concrete. It was a liquid stone that got hard after a while. It sounded strange, but I saw it myself before I had even joined Miro. I saw the soldiers pour barrels of it down the sewers, but the thing is that the Fire Nation had missed some of the sewer grates. They didn't have enough of this "concrete" for the entire city so they just did it randomly which was good for us because now, as long as we avoided the sealed places, we could go almost anywhere in the whole city without being seen,

The exit closest to arsenal street brought us under one of the older buildings in Citadel that still had wooden supports. We had to crawl out, trying to avoid hitting our head on the underside of the home, and crawl our way out. It was probably one of the more concealed sewer entrances/exits in Citadel. We crawled out from under the building to find an older man asleep, head resting on a dog just as skinny as the man himself who wasn't exactly in the best of shape.

I pulled out the map and saw the circle that markers the sewer exit in relation to the warehouse. It was close. Very close. We didn't even have to cross the street. It was on the side where we were, but closer to the wall. We made our way there.

This early in the morning, hardly anybody was awake. The Fire Nation only had around 5 guards watching the entire inner wall which was pretty big meaning we wouldn't have much trouble getting what we needed.

The warehouse was unguarded and even from the wall, the Fire Nation wouldn't be able to get a look at us unless they looked straight down. The warehouse was literally touching the steel wall.

I tried the door. Obviously enough it was locked. There were no windows on the first floor, but upon looking up, there were some on the 2nd story.

"Lean." I said. "Give me a boost up." He crouched down obediently as though a mute dog and help his hands out for me to step on, but I used his shoulders instead. I would have to go higher than what his hands could get me up to. He stood up quickly enough that I nearly fell over.

I looked through the window. The dust covering it made nigh impossible for even light to penetrate. I looked for where the hinge was and tried pushing, then pulling, but neither would work on the first go. It was only after batting my shoulder against it that the window broke free of it hinges and I fell right through the window inside.

I went into a free fall and landed straight down on the hard concrete floor of the warehouse. I could barely breathe and when I tried, only dust entered and I sneezed. It was only after around 5 failed attempts that I managed to catch my breath. I looked around the warehouse, but the pitch darkness making even seeing hard.

I tried to find the door, but that air tight son of a bitch was a pain to find in itself. I stood up and tried finding the wall with my hands until I stabbed myself against some kind of blade mounted on the wall. I tried again, more slowly this time, moving left along the wall until I found the hard wood door. By now, my eyes were more adjusted and I could find the handle on the door. I gave it a push and a pull before I remembered that it was locked. It was dead bolted and barred. The dead bolt went first, but when I tried uncaring it, it wouldn't budge until I wedged myself beneath it and the floor and stood up that it released itself and fell onto the ground with a hard clunk.

The door finally opened and the room was finally lit. The sun had risen, but still wouldn't shine in thanks to the dust covered windows, but finding wha we needed was easy enough. Lean willingly enough took the burden of the load, carrying the entirety of the contents of the "grocery list." As per Miro's, and more importantly, the Earth Kingdom's instruction, we took the contents that wouldn't be seen as missing upon first site.

Before I closed the door, I saw something. Another door on the opposite wall as the first door. This wall, metal. I knew where it led. There was only one place it could lead. Miro would want to hear I found a way out of the slums.