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“Sure. But I can’t do it on my own. I don’t know what the real world is like. I don’t know what is going to be waiting out there for me. I know if I go out there as I am, I’m going to be eaten alive. But if I have an ally, someone who knows the streets, I might just make it.”
This is the last thing I expected to be confronted with, but it’s also an opportunity. I can agree to take this Elite kid with me, and then I can kill him if he’s a liability. But maybe he won’t be. He seems serious, and there’s something about him I like. He’s reckless, but prepared.
“Alright,” I say. “You know this could mean dying, right? There’s no safety net out there. Once you’re outside the law, you’re disposable to the authorities. They kill for fun, when they think they can get away with it, and on the other side of that wall they can always get away with it. You’re asking me to get you killed.”
“I’m asking you to let me come with you and have the life a real man should have. Adventure. Danger. I want those things. I’m not going to get them here. I’m going to get to run the box factory. I don’t want that life, and I’m not going to get another chance to meet you. So. Now or never, right?”
I like his energy. “Fine,” I say. “Get me out of here in one piece and I’ll take you with me.”
“Awesome,” he grins.
* * *
It takes a couple hours for the patrols to die down. Malik uses that time to get his gear sorted. He can only take what he can carry, so he’s got to leave a lot of stuff behind. He gives me some of it, including a brand-new set of leather armor. Says he was given it as a present but it’s too big for him. It fits me perfectly.
“Where are you going, Malik?”
A young female voice pipes up just as we’re leaving the property. We both turn around to see a short girl staring at us with a scowl on her features. She has her arms crossed over her chest and she is not at all happy. She can’t be any older than fourteen, but she’s got a shrewd look in her eye. I heard younger siblings are like that. I wouldn’t know.
“Go home, Zeki.” Malik tries to shoo her away.
“No. I’m coming with you. I heard you talking. I packed a bag. I’m ready to go.”
“Zeki.” Malik rounds on her aggressively. “You have to go home, you could get hurt out here. We’re going to be criminals, Shah and I. You know what that means?”
“Means I’m going to be a criminal too,” Zeki says. “You have to take me with you, or I’ll tell on you.”
Malik looks at me. I shake my head emphatically. “It’s not safe for you. It’s not safe for her, either.”
The kid looks at me. “I’m not letting my brother go without me. And I’m not staying behind at home. You know how angry they’re going to be. They’re going to take it out on me. You have to take me with you.”
Malik turns to me with a sigh. “I’m sorry. Can we take her?”
“Once you guys leave this place, there’s no coming back for birthday money, or food, or a comfortable bed, or a hug from Mom or Dad…”
They laugh at that. Guess there’s not a lot of hugs in this house.
“Fine. I don’t give a fuck,” I say. “But we’re going. Now.”
Present day…
“So that’s how I met Malik and Zeki,” I tell Dreamy. “That’s how all this started, just a bunch of runaway kids trying to make a life for themselves.”
“You’ve made an incredible life,” she says, her eyes wide. She’s either impressed or shocked. Maybe a little of both. “Look at everything you’ve built. It’s like a whole city, no, a whole civilization. And everybody plays by your rules.”
“Not everybody. Not all the time, but if they know what’s good for them, they do,” I agree.
She giggles a little. “So you must have come back to the Colony more than once, like that time you met me?”
“The Colony will always be home, in a way. My mom still works there. She doesn’t really remember me now, but you never forget where you were raised. We do a lot of business there. Unofficially, of course.”
Dreamy nods a little. “I don’t remember my family. I got taken when I was five to be raised as a worker. I wasn’t ever meant to be anybody. I’m still nobody, so I guess I manifested my destiny as well.”
I smack her ass, making her yelp and squirm against me. I love the way she moves. I love the way she feels. She’s a delicious little treat, and she’s all mine.
“You’re someone, Dreamy. You broke your programming. That’s rare. That’s really, really rare. Malik wanted to come with me because he thought it sounded fun. You helped me with nothing to gain, and everything to lose. You’re a good person.”
“I feel like…” She pauses. I feel more like a shell of a person, like someone who maybe would have been someone? Now I am just what I have to be.”
