The halting of the float was the cue.
From the weak paper depiction of the former White House on the float, which was meant to burn during the dedication of the parade, a figure burst out, launching high into the air, holding a bright red flag while another banner was tied to his waist and shoulders.
“Mykail Devenchy: Level 8 Weapon of the Commission of the People.”
He flew high into the air, his powerful wings pushing him higher into the overcast sky so he could circle the area and allow everyone to get a good look at him. My heart was in my throat.
Right on cue, Becca screamed, pointing at Mykail. That was the sound that caused panic. As soon as Becca made Mykail something that warranted screaming, the police officers removed their guns and took aim at Mykail. One shot rang loudly and mass panic ensued.
Commish Kids at their barriers pushed forward, knocking the guards off-balance and collapsing the barrier, causing panicked people to flood into the streets. I fell forward with the force of everyone hurriedly trying to flee. Several people yelled to “seize them” though I was not sure who was trying to capture whom. I ran into the street, glancing up to see Mykail unharmed and circling. The experiments began with their other duty, throwing smoke bombs in the street to add to the confusion and help us escape. No more shots were fired in the chaos of people scattering, some trying to grab at the experiments, who were ditching their signs and slipping into the crowd, acting as frightened and surprised as the spectators. Others were trying to get away from the weapons, causing more panic when they would briefly catch sight of one among the crowd and run the other direction, creating a chaotic situation in the street.
Following the scattering groups, I went in the direction I was supposed to.
I was disoriented and worried about Mykail, who was swooping lower to keep the crowd riled up and frightened. He was buying us time, keeping the confusion strong as we fled. I ran in the direction of the park, where people were darting to their parked cars, dragging their children with them. After the parking lot, the panicking crowd thinned and I ran with a few other familiar faces to the parking garage of a law firm. Slipping through the thick wires of the barrier between the levels, I fell heavily into the basement level and ran toward the mechanical room after the others, leaping in and closing the door just as I heard the clank of metal.
“Come on!” Cody hissed, grabbing my hand. I followed his lead, crouching to feel the edge of the opening, putting my feet in first and finding the bottom of the narrow passage. I lowered myself to crawl on my elbows through the small duct toward the faint light reflected off the damp wall. Trying to keep myself from bumping my head on the pipes on the side of the tiny passageway, I turned the corner, shimmying myself into the narrow space and clamoring toward the open grate. I carefully extracted myself from the duct, using my upper body strength to guide my feet to the wet cement ground in the other small passage where more wires had been piped to heat the parking garage. I saw Hope in front of me, her back pressed against the smooth wall as she approached the maintenance door. I heard Jenny and Park arguing about someone stepping on someone’s foot as Cody replaced the grate behind us.
Hope opened the door and peered out before running the short distance across the alley to the open drain pipe cover, quickly dropping to her belly and sliding into the dark tunnels below the street.
After checking to be sure that no one was looking, I also darted the same short distance, reaching my hands out for what I knew would be there.
Two hands wrapped around my wrists and guided me down, carefully setting me on my feet. After I caught my balance, I saw Josh smiling at me brightly as he reached up to help Jenny. Smiling myself, I felt Hope jump on me, squeezing me tightly.
“It was fucking perfect!” she hissed, her voice squealing as she jumped.
“Okay, but we’ll celebrate when we get back to the fort,” I said, motioning her quiet as Jenny joined us, also smiling. She gave me a high-five, as did Park. Cody was the last one into the drain pipe. When we were below the street, Josh grabbed the grate and recovered the square hole, locking the metal back into place.
Too excited and adrenaline-filled to do otherwise, we began running to the fort. As we got further under the streets and to the point where we could move a little more freely in the large storm drains, we began whooping as quietly as we could manage.
We met up with three other groups that were taking the same pipe back to the fort. They were just as excited. I was nervous about Mykail. He was the one in the most danger. He was easy to spot and very difficult to hide. Mark had been in charge of recovering him safely, and while I trusted Mark, I could not stop worrying.
But the high energy of everyone else caused me to feel elated and drunk off the experience. I was dizzy, thrilled that we had pulled everything off.
We part-ran, part-walked, part-celebrated our way to the fort, bursting through the door and running into the main bunker to join the other successful groups who were whooping and cheering.
I was surrounded by people cheering and clapping me on the back, yelling “we did it!” from all directions. I laughed and joined in the cheering, jumping around and hugging people tightly, celebrating our first strike loudly.
More groups continued to file in, joining the thunderous celebration. The humans who had not been involved were told everything, though no one was able to tell the story sequentially, too excited.
The Eight Group members, who had helped by assisting in the getaways, were just as excited as everyone else. I laughed as they jumped on one another like teenagers celebrating a win at a football game, cheering.
When I saw the boy with wings enter the main bunker, I ran forward and threw my arms around him, kissing him deeply, thrilled he was safe and eager to celebrate our victory with him. He lifted me off my feet, returning my kiss enthusiastically, spinning until we both were stumbling to reclaim our balance.
I stroked his face, looking into his bright blue eyes, feeling the room fade, leaving only us in existence on the whole planet.
“Thank you…” I breathed.
He took my hands in his and kissed my fingertips.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I whispered.
Reality came crashing back when the humans and experiments began gawking and leering at us. I laughed and shook my head, feeling embarrassed as I confronted their smiling faces, seeing that most people in the bunker had turned to us.
“Oh, shut up…” I teased back.
“Is everyone back?” Tori called.
Josh counted all the people responsible for bringing their parties back safely and nodded.
“Everyone’s here!”
Another booming cheer resonated through the domed roof of the bunker.
Ichiro began clapping slower, yelling out something in his native tongue that Josh quickly seconded. Both of them clapping, they began singing a cheer no one else knew. Minsoo, Hiroki, and Keiko started clapping, singing the happy chant, even sharing a primitive dance. Mark’s younger sister also joined in the revelry. I laughed at the display and while no one else knew the dance or chant, they began clapping, turning to watch the experiments continue their revelry. Mark, smiling broadly, added more volume to the clapping.
The others singing went quiet and Josh began chanting a few lines, dancing around happily in a silly manner that had us all laughing and cheering with him. Minsoo also said a few lines when Josh went quiet, picking up the obviously well-known chant.
Everyone who was singing turned to Mark, pointing at him, continuing to clap.
I looked at Mark, realizing that this would have been his part in their tribal celebration dance. His smile turned sad and ashamed as he dropped his head.
Josh smiled broadly, running over and grabbing Mark, yanking him into their circle and standing behind him, taking his wrists and moving his hands as he dropped his voice deeper, imitating Mark’s part.
Mark was smiling so much his eyes were closed and h
e doubled over, embarrassed, but also extremely happy. The others of the Eight Group played along and pretended it was really Mark singing and dancing his part, even while Josh made a show of dancing goofily while trying to be puppeteer to the embarrassed Mark.
It was a sad realization for me that the only thing I knew about Mark’s voice was that it was deep, thanks to Josh’s imitation.
After releasing Mark, Josh got everyone to begin singing and dancing to the clapping, though they did not know the words. It was an expression of celebration for our victory, our successful attempt at declaring war against the Commission of the People.
Even though it should have seemed inappropriate, considering the gravity of the situation, the dancing and singing seemed to be the best thing to do. So, I joined in.
* *** *
I wanted to stay longer, but I knew that I had very little time before it would be obvious that I was missing completely. My parents would be worried about the parade incident, which I was sure they saw on television, so I needed to get back as soon as possible.
The most difficult part about it was saying goodbye to Mykail.
Now that he was exposed, there was no way for him to come home. He would have to remain in the bunker.
Mark drove me home, but dropped Clark off first, which was part of our plan. It was supposed to look like Mark had found Clark and then gone back to look for me. So, Mark drove close to downtown to lend as much credibility to our story as he could.
When we got to my house, I prepared myself to act.
I got out of the car after nodding to Mark and ran to the door, quickly unlocking it as Mark got out of the car and followed me at a much slower pace.
“Mom! Dad!” I called loudly as I stumbled in the house, breathing hard and looking frantically around.
“Lily!”
My mother darted into the foyer, her arms opening to hug me. I hugged her back, but quickly pulled away.
“Did you see it?!”
“We did, are you alright?” my mother gasped, looking me over worriedly.
“I’m fine,” I assured frantically. “What—”
I stopped as I was hugged by my father.
“Who got your phone? We called and someone else answered…”
“Thankfully, it was one of my school mates. I have it now,” I said, pulling it out of my pocket to show them, trying not to smile as I recalled Ben talking to my parents briefly about finding the phone on the ground. “But, enough about that! We have a problem!”
“We most certainly do,” another voice murmured in the archway to the kitchen. I turned to see Dana leaning against the arch.
“Dana…” I breathed, genuinely surprised to see him there so fast.
“We were worried about you, Little Lily,” Dana said. The tone of his voice made me shiver. It was cold, airy, almost otherworldly as his eyes looked me over. After a few moments of intense eye lock, Dana looked at Mark, who was standing in the still-open front door, his eyes covered with his glasses and his hands folded in front of him.
“Mark, come out of the cold,” my mother said, quickly motioning him inside. He stepped nervously forward and closed the door behind him. My mother moved to him. “Thank you for finding my little girl. I really appreciate it. I was so worried.”
As my father rubbed my shoulder, comforting me, my mother stared at Mark, who seemed confused.
Damn, what an actor… was the only thing I could think.
“Be simpler with him, Karen,” Dana advised, finally standing straight and walking toward Mark. “He’s probably the only one in the Eight Group I ever praise, so he knows a few of those words. Good job, Mark,” he said to him, clearly enunciating.
Mark turned to Dana and bowed fully at the waist, remaining in the position for a few seconds before straightening, though his head remained down, his hands in front of him politely.
Dana smiled.
“They amuse me so much,” he chuckled. “Sean.”
I was thrilled to see Sean step into the large dining room where we were standing. He walked to Dana, who jerked his thumb to Mark. “Tell him he did a good job. He’s been working hard lately.”
Sean stepped over to Mark and placed a hand on his shoulder, causing the experiment to look up quickly. Sean smiled and patted him twice on the shoulder.
“You did a good job,” he told him. “Thank you.”
Mark turned to him fully and bowed deeply again.
“Dana, we should give him tomorrow to rest,” Sean suggested. “He may not need eight hours a night, but we’ve really been running him ragged.”
“He’s one of the best, we have to keep him around as often as possible,” Dana said. He exchanged glances with Sean and then sighed. “Not tomorrow, it’s a meeting day. He can have Sunday off.”
Sean turned back to Mark, who was waiting for order.
“Sunday,” Sean said strongly. He lifted his arms to cross them in an X. “You rest.”
Mark opened his mouth slightly, feigning shock, and looked briefly between Dana and Sean, as though not sure of the order.
“Rest on Sunday. Stay home,” Sean said.
Mark turned to Sean and then bowed again. As I thought about Mark resting, I was beginning to wonder if he got tired in the same way humans did. While I knew he had been busy helping me plan for the parade, I did not know what he did during the day while Clark and I were at school. I knew that Dana sometimes called him back to work as Commission security, but I did not know how often he was working for Dana as opposed to watching Clark and me like a bodyguard. I was suddenly very worried that he did need rest and I had been blind to his exhaustion.
“Go home, now,” Sean nodded.
Bowing once again, Mark left.
“He seems to be quite the asset,” my mother noted. “He’s pretty attached to Lily.”
“He’s faithful, that’s what matters,” Dana said with a shrug. “I will admit, it was one of the hardest things for me to give him to the Markus family. But they are my advisors, and they need protection. I was also worried that if I kept him around the Commission with no one owning his contract, someone would steal him.” Dana turned back to the kitchen. “Come on, we have more important things to discuss than the chink.”
I glanced briefly at my father, who squeezed me in a sideways hug and guided me into the kitchen. Sean followed us. I saw Dana sitting at the head of the table, waiting for us to take a seat. It felt extremely invasive and unsettling to see Dana sitting in my father’s seat, but I had to keep calm and keep my wits about me, about to spend the rest of the afternoon lying to Dana Christianson’s face.
The leader of the Commission looked at us, drumming his fingernails on the wood of the table.
“I know I don’t need to tell you about the immense implications of what happened this morning,” he said seriously. “This puts me in a very delicate position.”
“I assure you, we had no knowledge of this movement,” my mother started. “Of course, we got the emails, but that was it.”
“And I believe you,” Dana nodded, “mostly.” His eyes slid to me. I blinked and straightened.
“Me?”
“You already know that I don’t believe you are not involved in this movement,” Dana stated, his eyebrow raising.
“That is a very heavy accusation, Dana,” my father said, though it was obvious that he had already heard Dana’s opinion.
“This was a heavy crime,” Dana reminded him. “This has gone from an anti-Central group who were only engaging in relatively minor crime to a legitimate threat. Their appearance today at the Liberation Parade ended in shots being fired and people being trampled. Not only that, but the Commission has been openly challenged in its dealings with criminals.”
“You can always say that it was a scare tactic from a domestic terrorist group,” my mother suggested.
“When I first saw them on the news, that was my intention,” Dana said. “And then Mykail showed up, and that means I have to get creative.”<
br />
“How did he get out?” I asked.
“The screws on his windows had been filed through, so the bars on his windows swung outward,” Dana explained. “What I want to know is why he did not have the cuffs on his wings.”
Dana looked at me seriously, but before I needed to defend myself, my mother spoke up.
“I am to blame for that,” she admitted. “I have not put the cuffs on after bathing him for many weeks. He seemed not to need them…”
“Well, that has been proven incorrect,” Dana said sharply. “I told you explicitly to keep those on.” He leaned back in his seat. He fell silent for a few long moments before he spoke again. “The other question that remains is how no one else around here saw him. I called the Central Security Board and they are sending me all public tapes from the security cameras in the city, which is going to cost a lot of hours and manpower to sort through…”
Dana glanced at me again.
“Where were you when this happened?”
“At the parade?” I asked. “I was at Main and Delaware. I was filming the parade.”
“With what?”
“My phone.”
Dana extended his hand, flexing his fingers. After a brief hesitation, I pulled out my phone, handing it to him. He unlocked it without me telling him my password—that didn’t surprise me—and went to look at my saved videos.
As the video played and the grainy sounds of the parade washed over the table, I glanced at my parents while Dana and Sean watched the video.
My father looked at me and smiled thinly, extending his hand over the table. I met him, allowing him to take my fingers and squeeze them reassuringly. It wasn’t much, but it did remind me to take a deep breath. I had to remember who I was trying to deceive.
“Are you alright?” my father whispered. I nodded, turning back to Dana as I heard the screaming when Mykail flew into the air. Dana watched with a stoic expression, even as the gunshots sounded. Sean looked on worriedly over Dana’s shoulder.
Inside, Pt. 2 Page 43