by Isamu Fukui
“You’re getting old,” Umasi told himself. “Old, complacent, sentimental, and tired.”
A roar of engines as armored vehicles passed by. More soldiers on patrol. Umasi decided to move deeper into the alley. He was being a bit unfair to himself, Umasi decided as he crept along. Iris had more resources and more strategic prowess than the Mayor or his crony Rothenberg had when they were the ones hunting Umasi.
Umasi sighed as he crouched down in his new hiding place behind a garbage dump. He missed his brother, he missed Zyid—and not for the usual reasons. With Zyid’s help he was certain that they would be able to overcome Iris. As things stood now, he felt like half of a solution. It didn’t feel right or fair that he was the only one left to face their enemy.
Umasi laughed quietly. At age nineteen he really was getting old, allowing the memory of the Truancy’s founder to become inflated in his mind. He knew better than anyone that Zyid was a human with more flaws than most. And so was Iris. And so was he.
With that sobering thought, Umasi looked up at the sky. The sun would be setting soon. It was time to move. With a swish of his windbreaker, he stood up and began walking deeper into the heart of the City.
Behind him, hammers fell and walls rose.
The soldiers were building something.
* * *
Floe stood in the entrance hallway of the school as another group of students went out the doors and into the evening air. Her rifle was slung loosely over her shoulder, her posture relaxed, though in truth she was very carefully watching the two soldiers stationed outside. Cross had agreed that too many students in the hall would arouse suspicion, and so Floe had volunteered for the lonely work. If something went wrong, she was the first line of defense.
So far everything had gone smoothly. Hundreds of students had left already in small groups at random intervals. A few stopped to chat with the soldiers outside. The soldiers were friendly, and so were the students. Floe was even starting to wonder if they might all get out before the Government suspected anything.
There was a movement behind her, and Floe turned to see the nameless girl leaning against the wall, her eyes shut as though listening to soundless music. Floe ignored her. Another group went out the door. The girl didn’t move. Floe frowned, then against her better judgment approached the albino.
“Hey,” she said. “Mind if I ask why you’re not leaving with the others?”
The albino opened her eyes and gestured at the open doorway, where the sun was only just beginning to set, sending ruby streaks through the azure sky.
“Too much light,” she explained. “It hurts my skin and it’s not easy to get around in. Zen and I tend to stick out. We’ll be hiding somewhere safe when the action starts.”
“I see,” Floe said, pausing for a moment. “What exactly is your interest in Cross?”
Floe had meant to unnerve the other girl with that question. The albino, however, merely rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
“Curiosity, more than anything. He’s in a very precarious state, and I’d like to help him.” She glanced at Floe. “Don’t worry. My affections are reserved for someone else. You shouldn’t consider me competition.”
Now Floe was the one who was unnerved. “I … I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she sputtered.
“You’re a poor liar, girl.” The albino smiled. “You know, if you want something you should go ahead and reach for it. Boys can be clueless. If you wait for him to catch on, you might wait forever.”
Speechless, Floe felt her cheeks redden. A voice issued forth below her.
“I’m not noticing!”
Floe looked down, and her embarrassment doubled. Zen was standing there, pointing up at her face. Like his mother, the boy seemed capable of being unusually quiet when he wanted to. Floe hadn’t noticed his approach at all.
Completely unabashed, Zen walked over to his mother, who placed a firm hand on his head.
“Zen,” she said, crouching down. “Pretending not to notice something means acting like it’s not there.”
“Oh,” Zen said, turning around. “Sorry, Floe!”
“That’s better,” the albino smiled. “Now, was there something you wanted?”
“I wanna leave too,” Zen said, pointing at a pair of students going out the door. “I don’t like it here.”
“Really? But Cross is staying,” the albino crouched down. “You know, it’ll be easier to move at night. Maybe we should leave then.”
Floe shook her head and turned away from the conversation between mother and child. The latest pair of students were almost out of sight. Floe noticed that something was wrong. The soldiers were watching their every step. Floe did not change her demeanor, but inside she felt uncomfortable. Sure enough, one of the soldiers approached her.
“Hey, you,” the soldier said to Floe, “where’s your leader?”
“Why, is something wrong?”
“There’ve been an awful lot of students going out today,” the man said. “But I haven’t seen any coming back.”
Floe cursed silently. Why hadn’t they thought of that? They should have sent some of the defenders out temporarily so that they could make a show of returning. Now it was too late.
“Everyone just wants to enjoy their last days off,” Floe said innocently. “I mean, wouldn’t you?”
The soldier seemed to consider that. He didn’t appear satisfied.
“I think it’d be best to stop the sightseeing for today,” he said. “It’s getting dark.”
“Oh, come on, sir, it’s not curfew yet,” Floe said. “Why make a big deal out of nothing?”
The man hesitated. As if sensing what was about to happen, the albino and her son quietly vanished down a nearby hallway.
“I’ll ask my superior.” The soldier reached for his radio. “Hold on a second.”
In a flash Floe drew a silenced pistol. She fired once, killing the man before he knew what hit him. The other soldier spun around. She fired again, and the second soldier dropped as well. Floe felt a twinge of guilt—the men had been nice enough, and it felt wrong to take them by surprise.
“Sorry guys.” Floe muttered, then turned to yell down the hallway. “Cross, we’ve got trouble!”
Cross was already running towards her at the head of a large number of students in plain clothes. These were the rest of the students who were evacuating, all of them armed despite their lack of uniform.
“I heard!” Cross said, catching up to her. “Let’s do this part right, if nothing else. Ring the alarm!”
As planned, the remaining evacuating students stormed out the front doors en masse. The two Government sentries had been killed quietly, but if the fleeing students ran into trouble there were enough to fight their way out. The school bell began ringing shrilly as the last of them went out the door.
Cross and Floe shut the doors and then barred them with metal poles. Other students came carrying tools and materials from the metalworking shop, along with bookshelves, desks, and other heavy objects to pile in front of the door.
“Forget the Truancy, forget the Militia,” Cross said as he heaved a bench into place. “This will be the real Student Rebellion.”
15
THE MUTINY
Iris switched the lights on as she entered the room. It was large, had two beds, with neatly stacked toys and belongings that teenage boys might be expected to own. There was a dartboard on one wall, alongside a largely empty desk. On the other side of the room there was a second desk, piled with study materials. A large dresser seemed to divide the room in half. Next to the door were several jacket pegs.
Iris stepped over a fallen baseball bat as she continued to look around. There was a layer of dust over everything—clearly the maids had been forbidden to enter this particular room. It was as if the place had been frozen in time, a perfect snapshot of how things were before its inhabitants left.
Iris tapped her shoulder with her staff. So this, then, had been the room used by her bro
thers. The two clearly had different personalities. She suspected that they’d eventually gone separate ways, but without one to balance the other how did that turn out? She shook her head and left the room, shutting the door behind her. Such speculation was irrelevant—at least one of them was still out there, and she had to track him down.
So far there wasn’t much new on that front. Days had already gone by since Iris had ordered the sweep of the City. The search had turned up nothing but an abandoned dwelling in District 19. Iris frowned at that. Could the boy have slipped by the search parties? Probably. After all, he did know the City better than her men. She would have to divert resources to a more thorough effort, occupying every district and offering incentives for local cooperation.
Iris walked upstairs and pushed open a large mahogany door. City Hall, a massive building with little privacy, was fine for a command post. But for her personal headquarters, Iris preferred the Mayoral Mansion. As she stepped into what had once been the Mayor’s study, she decided that for all the man’s faults, he had a decent sense of décor.
Iris sat down at the meticulously clean desk, surrounded by monitors. Behind her, military maps and charts had been pinned up on a bulletin board. On one screen was a progress report about the camp construction. The camps were an unfortunate measure, she’d decided, but necessary to prove that the system could be made to work again. It was her policy to never doubt and never regret what was necessary.
Just then, a red light began flashing on one of the monitors. Iris’ eyes narrowed as she studied the data. Some of her soldiers were firing their weapons in District 2; more than a dozen. That was strange. A false reading? Had some Truancy remnants attacked? Or was it—
Right on cue, there was a knock on the door. Iris smiled. Twenty-three seconds. Impressive response time.
“Enter,” she said.
A slightly breathless officer burst into the room and saluted. “General, we’ve just got word from District 2. Apparently significant elements of the Student Militia have mutinied. They’ve barricaded their headquarters, and some have been spotted on the streets, probably trying to escape.”
Iris rubbed her knuckles against her forehead.
“Well. That is unexpected,” she said. “I wouldn’t have thought that their leader had the inclination or the initiative to start a revolt by himself. I must remember not to count on capricious figureheads like that.”
The officer coughed. “Orders, General?”
“Quarantine District 2. See if we can catch most of them before they escape.” The orders came like clockwork. “Put out a general alert to arrest any children found walking the street, even if they’re students—especially if they’re students. Investigate the other student bases, though I suspect that those have been evacuated by now.”
“And the students barricaded in the District 2 school?”
“Probably a distraction. Is it a problem?”
“Word is they’re holed up pretty tightly in there, ma’am,” the man said. “The Mayor had that building fortified when they started using it as headquarters. Short of blasting it with artillery or calling in an airstrike, breaking in might take awhile.”
“Those are our last resorts,” Iris said, standing up. “I want that building intact and I want most of our resources devoted to catching the escapees. Get me a vehicle. I’ll handle the holdouts.”
The officer blinked. “General, are you sure that—”
“I did not anticipate this move,” Iris interrupted. “I made a mistake. I will correct that mistake personally.”
* * *
Floe adjusted the crosshairs on her sniper rifle and pulled the trigger. A couple hundred yards away, a dark figure stumbled but did not fall. Floe cursed under her breath and ejected the spent casing.
“Did you get one?” Sepp called.
“I think I winged one,” Floe responded. “This is supposed to be your job. You should be having a field day.”
The two of them ducked as retaliatory fire came whizzing through the shattered windows and clanging off the bars. The District 2 School had bars on the windows even before the Militia started to use it as headquarters, and afterwards the Mayor had ordered the building reinforced with an extra layer of metal and concrete. So far the extra protection was holding up against everything the Government had thrown at it.
“Why are they holding back?” Floe wondered as she took aim again. “Shouldn’t they be dropping bombs on our heads or something by now?”
“Don’t sound too eager,” Sepp advised, pulling the trigger on his own rifle. “Hey, I think I got one! Let the field day begin.”
Before Floe could congratulate him, a return shot flew through the window and caught Sepp in the shoulder. He let out a yelp of surprise and fell to the floor. Worried, Floe dropped her weapon and rushed over to him.
“I’m okay,” Sepp insisted. “Just grazed my shoulder, nothing serious.”
Sighing in relief, Floe removed a roll of gauze and some cotton from her hip sack and staunched the bleeding.
“Where are they even shooting from?” Floe said. “It’s not the soldiers on the ground, and it’s too dark to see farther than that. Where are they hiding?”
Sepp glanced up at the window as Floe finished treating his wound. The sky was indeed a very dark blue, matching their uniforms. The Government had cut the power awhile ago, and everything inside the school was shrouded in darkness.
“Maybe they have a way of seeing in the dark,” Sepp suggested. “Maybe they have better guns than us. And maybe us being here isn’t such a good idea anymore.”
As if to punctuate the point, the snarl of endless, automatic fire issued forth from outside, and a hail of bullets clanged off the bars and into the room. Floe hauled Sepp to his feet and the two of them ran for it. They were on the fourth floor—their job had been to keep the soldiers at a distance and off the front doors. Now it was just survival.
The bars over the windows cast eerie shadows that seemed to dance as Sepp and Floe ran for the stairway. On the second floor they found Cross coordinating the bulk of the defenders. If the wounded and dead lying in the hallways were any indication, they weren’t having much better luck either.
“What’s wrong?” Cross asked as they approached.
“Their snipers are better than ours, and Sepp thinks they can see in the dark,” Floe said. “They started to hit our windows with machine guns, so we got out of there.”
“Hey Cross, what’re those?” Sepp asked, his attention fixed on a bunch of large tubes the students were now pointing through the bars.
“Stuff we set up in the science labs,” Cross said. “Do you remember how we learned to launch bottles? Well, we’re about to launch a few bottles.”
Floe frowned. “What do you mea—”
There were a series of loud whump noises, and a barrage of bottle rockets shot out from the windows, trailing white foam. At the end of each rocket was a flaming container. The contents soon ignited, bursting and sending liquid fire raining down on the soldiers outside.
A cheer went up from the students, but Floe did not join in. She had a bad feeling that they had just bitten off more than they could chew. As if in response, there was a loud noise from outside. An explosion burst through the window, ripping the bars from their frame, its sheer force sending Cross, Sepp, and Floe tumbling backwards. The students who had been closer to the window were not so lucky.
Head spinning, Floe forced herself to sit up. She wasn’t sure what the Government had hit them with, but it proved that they could crush the students with brute force on a whim. She couldn’t imagine why they were holding back.
Cross rose to his feet and reached for a rocket launcher that the Student Militia had captured from the Truancy. With the bars gone from the windows, Cross took aim and fired. As the rocket’s ignition illuminated Cross’ face, Floe thought that his face was grimmer, less eager than he normally looked in combat. Then the rocket slammed into one of the Government’s armored veh
icles outside, and Cross was moving again.
Cross seized Sepp and Floe by the arms and pulled them deeper into the building. A moment later, another shell flew in through the gaping window and exploded, demolishing a good chunk of the hallway and collapsing the ceiling.
“We can’t buy much more time like this,” Floe said, staring at the destruction. “They could wipe us out in an instant if they wanted to.”
“Well, they haven’t yet,” Cross said, pausing to load another rocket. “I consider that a good sign. They probably want to take us alive.”
“There’s a happy thought,” Sepp said. “What do we do next, boss?”
“Trying to shoot at them is getting us killed.” Cross turned to look out into the dusk. “But unless they’re willing to collapse the first floor, they can’t get inside. We’ve got a stalemate for now. It’s their move.”
* * *
“Cease fire.”
The soldiers spun around to see who had given the order. Stepping out of an armored vehicle, dressed in full combat gear, Iris marched towards the soldiers amassed two blocks away from the District 2 School, completely unfazed as a rocket shot from the school and blew up an armored vehicle nearby.
“General Iris, ma’am,” one of the soldiers saluted. “What are—”
“I’m here to take charge,” Iris said, reaching their position behind a building. “First things first: no heavy ordnance. I want that building in as few pieces as possible, it could contain valuable intel. Someone get me a speakerphone.”
A speakerphone was quickly produced, and Iris brought it to her mouth. Her amplified voice boomed through the streets.
“This is General Iris,” she announced. “The Government is willing to accept your surrender. Lay down your weapons immediately and you will not be killed.”
There was a moment of silence. Then, in response, another rocket shot from the school. Iris and the other soldiers ducked to avoid the blast as Government snipers in the surrounding buildings returned fire.
“How tedious.” Iris sighed, rising to her feet and dusting herself off. “Looks like we’ll have to do this the hard way.”