LOCKED (20 page)

The U.S.P.L. HQ was in sight
again. This time, we marched towards it with blazing passion; it was the kind a
person feels when they’re certain of their cleverness, so certain that that
were about to challenge their opponent’s mind, making it sulk and wonder “Why
hadn’t I thought of that?” Every footprint we made was a milestone instead of a
tombstone. Eddy was outside of the HQ, guiding soldiers and ordering materials
around. We snuck up on him.

“EDDY!” We shouted into both
his ears. He jumped up in shock, and gave us wide eyes, speechless.

“I’ll reconsider your offer
if you hear mine.” I punctually delivered in a straight-to-the-point manner.
Without giving him a second to respond, Danni took over.

“You guys want him as a lab rat,
don’t you? Alright, fair enough. I guess I can’t blame you
that
much.
But not me, as far as I know. Am I just too average for you guys to keep
around, what with having a photographic memory that, quite frankly, is the only
reason you found Miller in the first place? Did you also forget that it was
my
memory that managed to save Leo in the tower, giving him a chance to take
on Miller? If we’re keeping score, I think I’ve helped save this place more
than once.” Danni let out a short huff by the time she was done. Eddy simply
stared at the both of us for a moment before a wide, toothy grin spread across
his face.

“That... now that
oughtta
be good enough for everyone else. If it’s not,
screw ‘
em
. I can’t see anyone not saying that was
damn good. I’m
gonna
have a few guys I’ll need to
talk with in a bit, but for now... welcome aboard, and welcome back!” he
laughed out loud in his booming voice. He threw his long arms around us, and we
quickly squirmed out. We watched the U.S.P.L. HQ being repaired, rising up from
the ashes.

“We’ve got a lot more we’ve
gotta
clean up, but,
y’know
…it’s
comin
’ along.” Eddy detailed as we walked back into the
facility. The rows upon rows of lights that once stared us in the face were
gone. Many had been shattered in the fighting.

“Yep, you should’ve seen
those bastards…thought it was bad fighting them the way you did? You should’ve
seen it in the dark. Scary as hell, I honestly didn’t know if I was
gonna
get out.” Eddy gulped. We entered the area which was
once the busy factory. Little bots ran to and fro, cleaning up the mess in a
hurry. They held bolts, they fixed lights, they tested machines. They were part
of an organism that was half-destroyed, and building itself from the inside out
once more. Its body had been shattered, but with the help of millions of cells,
it would soon be one again.

“Look, I’ve
gotta
get going to work on some things on an upper level,
I’ll see you again soon, alright? One more time though…good to have you back.”
He gave us that familiar toothy grin and a vigorous handshake. We simply stood
in the middle of the floor until he was out of sight. I had no clue what was
next, but in all honestly, it didn’t really matter. Danni and I had a new
family now. That isn’t to say that we forgot our old ones by any means, though!
They would always be in our hearts. Their memories would always guide us
onward, just as we traveled in the direction that our future memories would
guide us in. Speaking of precious memories, old and new, I knew there was one
last place that needed to be visited before getting into the swing of things
with U.S.P.L. I turned to look at Danni, and she smirked.

“Way ahead of you.”

Subliminally, Danni and I
both knew there was one spot in
Burybury
that we
still needed to cover. We couldn’t get there quick enough, sprinting the entire
time. We were panting before we were even halfway there, our muscles begging us
to stop, but there was no time for that. The place on our minds was too
important to let temporary afflictions stop us. It was an area that held deep
meaning, somewhere that we both knew from the inside-out.

The Wall.

Once we were in the city, we
crossed the roads, jumped over the debris, and reached its meticulous paintings
once more. It was still intact! We ran our hands over it just to make sure it
wasn't ready to fall underneath our hands; it didn't cough up an ounce of dust.
We went back and forth, all around The Wall, seeing all of the graffiti we
remembered. That childish teasing was back. The colors were slightly faded in
places, but after wiping away some of the dirt, some were just as vibrant as
ever. The characters that crawled out of the minds of many teens still bounced
around, the profanity that came from disgruntled men still stuck around, but
most importantly, the immortal words and images of a town that wasn’t afraid to
live still presented themselves proudly.

"Leo,
lookit
this!" Danni called out. I went over, and
couldn't be happier at what I saw: Miller's old "graffiti" had been
defaced! It showed a crudely drawn snake eating a man in a suit, and all of
Miller's words had black spray paint all over them so that they were illegible.

As I was looking this over,
proud to be part of a generation that was bold enough to pull such a stunt,
Danni tapped my shoulder.

“
Lookit
what else I found!” she grinned cheerfully, showing me a spray can! She shook
it and tested it on the pavement. There was still plenty of blue paint left in
it!

“What do you want to put
up?” I asked, looking over the can.

“It’s
gotta
be something good, something symbolic. I
dunno
how
much paint is in here…” she bit her lip, thinking over what could sum up
everything that we needed to say, something that could spill our thoughts to
future generations that will learn from our mistakes.

“I’ve got it!” she
proclaimed.

“Go ahead then!” I laughed,
anxiously waiting to see what she had in mind.

“Well…here, put your hand on
the can. It sounds dumb, but I don’t want you to miss out on helping me make
this.” she stuck her tongue out. She shook the can one more time, and I placed
my hand right by hers. The resulting drawing was far from ideal considering the
antics that came about from our collaboration, but it spoke for itself. The
lines were slanted, distorted, but the image didn’t mind. It was proud to be
easily understood, it appreciated the simplicity of its message, and it was
happy to be alive.

I held Danni close to me.
Smiles refused to leave our faces, and the laughter was endless. Our creation was
a door with light filtering in through the keyhole. It fearlessly told the
viewer that something great may be on the other side. The obstacle may be
intimidating, but you would never know what the reward was until you went
through. The door may be locked, it may try so hard to hide what it may, to
defy you, to challenge you every step of the way, but for every lock, there is
a key…