42 Twilight: 04

- Are you afraid of heights? - before I could get a response, the robotic figure jumped in cutting us off.

- Use the smoke as cover. I'll meet you later. Now go!

As I climbed the balcony to get to the fire escape ladder, over the stairs I saw someone trying to run. Before moving forward all I could see was them being captured by the neck with a claw cable and dragged back to the lower floor.

I looked down at Louise. Immobile with one hand holding the steel bar, she was looking at the same direction as I was.

- Louise… - I whispered barely hearing myself under the horrible sound of voices begging just to be silenced by an even more petrifying sound. Shots.

Eyes closed she looked away and jumped to the stairs.

Ahead there was nothing besides a white immensity. I kept a steady pace. The higher we got the stronger the sound of drones got. A few steps behind Louise had a closed stern expression as if she stopped for just a moment she wouldn't be able to continue. What worried me the most was those buzzing machines all equipped with heat sensors. Not all the smoke in the world would hide us from that.

- Sato, come in. - a short signal connected to my screen. We were a couple meters away from the top.

- Those drones won't let us pass. - I stopped, signaling Louise to do the same. One of them was flying over the roof. If it detected us we would be shot at sight.

- Hold your position.

In between my fingers I squeezed the metal bar until my nails were white. The gunshots coming from the apartments were maddening. Standing there cowardly in a run and accepting the help of the enemy was beyond my processing capability. My innocence and negligence on bringing Louise into that mess when he promised he would come after us. I had to get her out of there. No matter the cost.

- It's clear. Proceed now. - her gasping voice pushed me off my mental rant. Above us the deadly buzzing was no longer audible. - Wait for me at the top of the last building.

Without another word she cut off the signal. Left alone in my head I looked down at Louise. She was holding on to the bars just as hard as me. With a nod she let me know she was ready. I could see even though she was frightened she trusted me. And I had to trust officer Sun.

At the top nothing could be seen within a 3 meters radius. From my pocket I pulled out my headset. It was the only thing that I could grab along with the jammer I tried to use against the invader.

- Stay close. - I knew those roofs way too well. Spent nights walking around, taking pictures to test out the camera. During heat waves that would come unannounced me and Jk would climb up to try and catch a breeze. He would always fall asleep on my lap while I worked. I would never have guessed that those moments would be so far off our lives.

Put over the gaps by the residents loose metal slabs were the bridges. Gazing down, at naked eye there was nothing besides smoke, in opposition, with my heat sensor I could see battalion after battalion moving past the alleys. Louise seemed not to hear the sound of the marching troupes, it was either that or we were both pretending for each other's sake.

-Where are we going? - on the roof of a building across from us I saw tiny dots that would disappear behind something every couple of meters.

Rebels.

-Louise! - I whispered, waving my hand for her to get down.

They were going to do something stupid. Staying low, I approached the edge. The distance between us was about ten meters and two battalions were passing in the middle. As I tried to figure out how many of them there were someone raised their left hand.

It was a signal. The Mask rebels used it to identify one another. Three fingers up while the index touched the thumb, forming a circle. Jk had taught me that when we first met.

At least they were minimally equipped. However the Force had significantly more resources than a couple of kids with expensive gear. More than once me and Jk argued because of that. He insisted that equipment didn't matter when I said it was the difference between life and death.

Automatically, as the thought was formed, I called him. Scared since I opened that curtain, I was numbed inside. The freezing chills had taken over my entire body detaining me from feeling anything else.

- Is that you?! - the second the call connected I barked out. A chuckle was the first thing I heard.

- Once a camper, always a camper. - I hated his snarky voice. How condescending he sounded when talking about the rebellion always made me want to punch him in the face.

- Jk, this is not another fucking protest! - even though I tried to keep my voice down I couldn't help it. My wish was to jump over and drag him out of there by the dreads and lock him up in a cage. - They are attacking us.

-They have always done that.

He was so calm while I boiled inside with rage but mostly guilt. I lowered my head until my forehead began to sink into the stone of the parapet.

- You can't win this, Jk. - transporting myself to his side, I could imagine him perfectly. Hair up and tied with a dread. He had been growing it since before we met. It was down to his waist.

- Yeah…

During his pause I heard the sound of metal tinkling. I stood up to see a slim red figure holding something low in heat. I wished I could see his face.

- But one day others will.

Gently he dropped what was on his hand. Free of the weight, he waved. I watched trapped in time. Stuck on the opposite side my legs started shaking. I was thrown against the concrete floor. I didn't know if it was real or just my mind playing tricks on me