Authors: Claire Jolliff
It took them a while
,
but they eventually made it to the roof of the building with their prize. The roof was flat, a waist high
,
raised lip running around the edge of it. It was ideal for what Leci had planned.
They kept low, i
t was unlikely
that they woul
d be seen this high up, doubtful that anyone below would be studying the roofline all too carefully
,
but it made sense to be cautious.
If they were seen then the whole thing was a waste of time.
They dragged the body to the wall and Leci peeked over the edge. Amato had been right, the street was just as busy at night time as it had been during the day. The only difference
was that they now had the bonus of the cover of darkness.
He had unwrapped the body.
‘This is gonna be the hard part
, Leci, k
eeping her in place and making damn sure you don’t get seen.’
She nodded, had bee
n anticipating that this would not be easy, b
ut then, she had expected to struggle with killing the woman and she’d found she had no problems at all there, so maybe this would all go smoothly too.
‘Give me a hand
,
will you?’
Between the two of them they managed to manoeuvre the corpse, lifting and positioning her until she was sat on the edge of the wall, her legs hanging over the side of the building. By the time they had finished they had both worked up a good sweat. The woman’s hands hung limply at her sides and Leci placed them in her lap. Her head lolled, her chin resting against her chest.
‘Shit. She kinda looks dead, doesn’t she?’ Leci frowned, not sure how they could overcome that.
Amato simply shrugged.
‘Gotta just do the best we can with what we’ve got.’ He looked at Leci and grinned.
‘Ready
, b
aby?’
The two of them were crouched behind the wall, out of sight. Amato was reaching up, his arms underneath the woman’s jacket, holding her in place. Leci stood for a moment and quickly tried to position the head. The best she could manage was to
have it leaning against the shoulder. It looked a little better.
She squatted back down beside him and nodded.
‘Ready.’
‘Showtime then.’ He gave her a quick kiss on the lips and then concentrated on keeping the hooker’s carcass in place while Leci put her plan into action.
Chapter 31
‘I need an Official!’ She yelled loudly.
She had found a small crack that ran up the wall and at one point it become wide enough for her to see through. She pressed her face to it and watched the town.
When she called out
,
the people milling around paused, some of them looked around, confused, not sure where the voice had come from and then one of them looked up, saw the woman sitting on the ledge. He point and called out ‘Up there!’ and suddenly Leci was the focus of everyone’s attention.
‘I need an Official, Now!’ She repeated.
Two men stepped forwards
, separating themselves from the crowd
. One of them held a hand at his hip, ready and waiting to pull out the pistol that was
undoubtedly
concealed beneath his coat.
The both wore long duster jackets and Stetson type hats. They both had rifles across their backs.
They were both
had ‘Official’ written all over them, rolling off them in waves like some kind of bad smell.
‘You got one Lady.’ The taller of the two, the one with his hand on his gun, called out. ‘What can we do for you?’
‘My name is Alecia Walker.’ That probably meant nothing to them, she didn’t know if they had even known her name back
at the prison. The Officials gave no sign that they recognised it.
‘I escaped from a maximum security Official Prison about six, maybe seven days ago.’ Ok,
now
she had their attention.
The civilians in the growing crowd were looking confused, muttering amongst themselves. The two Officials exchanged glances, one pulled a radio from his pocket and began speaking into it quietly.
‘I escaped with two Clones...’ She paused and waited for the noise to die down as the people below reacted with a mixture of shock and disbelief. A woman claiming that Clones really existed? Not possible. Not in their tiny worlds
, Clones were nothing more than make-believe
.
‘And an ex guard who was also imprisoned, Amato Benelli.’
She watched the two Officials carefully. The one with the radio nodded to the other who pulled out his pistol and aimed it at her. Instantly she sent a wave of heat through the weapon and the man dropped it with a cry as his hands blistered.
‘I’m a mutant.’ She called out.
People had fallen silent, she had their full attention.
‘I can set fires with my mind. If anyone even tries to come up onto this roof I’ll set them alight, got it?’
The Official with the radio nodded and took over the
discourse from his friend
,
who was making pathetic mewling sounds and looking at his hands as if they didn’t belong to him and he couldn’t figure out how they’d become attached to the ends of his arms.
‘We got it
,
Sugar.’ Watching his partner’s hands get burned had been enough of a warning, enough proof
,
and he wasn’t going to do anything to piss her off. ‘Now why don’t you tell us what you’re doing up there?’
Leci glanced to Amato. He looked strained from holding up the weight but he smiled encouragingly, not complaining.
‘I killed them.’ She confessed.
‘Killed who?’ Asked the Official.
‘Th
e Clones, and Amato. I mean... t
he Clones came back, y’know? Can’t get rid of those fuckers, but I killed them all, it was an accident. I don’t have full control over the fire. I’m dangerous and I don’t mean to be. The Clones, they sent me away, said that I’m too dangerous to be around, and Amato, he didn’t come back... I... He’s dead.’ She let her voice break slightly, injecting emotion into her practised speech.
The men looked at one another, probably asking themselves why they’d had the bad luck to be here when the crazy bitch decided to give herself up.
‘So I can’t do it anymore. I can’t carry on hurtin’ people
. I don’t mean to do bad things,
I just can’t stop it.’ Whining now, she felt it added a believable touch.
‘So I just wanted to let you guys know that I’m done. I’m not runnin’ no more. You don’t gotta carry on lookin’ for me.’
She looked to Amato again and nodded. He pulled his arms down from the woman and then gave her a good push, sending her off the edge of the roof and plummeting down to the ground below.
Leci was quick; before the body hit the concrete she engulfed it in flames. The crowd scattered in all directions to avoid the falling ball of fire, screams erupting into the night.
The Official with the radio was shouting into it frantically
,
but she couldn’t hear him over the rest of the commotion. She felt herself grinning.
Had it really worked? Was it over?
Before she had time to congratulate herself she felt hands grabbing at her. Amato was pulling her away.
‘No time to stick around
,
Princess, we gotta get out of here.
Fast
.’
They race
d to the ladder, climbed down it
with as little noise as possible and swung through the open space in the wall, back into the room.
Leci blew out the candle, snatched it up and slung it into her pack, glancing around the room to make sure they had left nothing else. The place was empty. She made sure that her
cap was pulled down low over her eyes and
then
the two of them left the apartment building carefully.
They needn’t have put so much effort into trying to be inconspicuous, everyone outside was occupied with the flaming remains of the
dead prostitute
.
The Official with the burned hands was nowhere to be seen but the other was trying to gain some sort of control over the crowd. People were milling, drawn by the morbid sense of curiosity that drives most of us to want to get our enjoyment feasting on the sights of other people’s misery.
There were a lot more
of them
now than there had been a few minutes ago
,
and already the story was passing from person to person, spreading like wildfire.
Leci was tempted to stick around and witness some of the aftermath but Amato wouldn’t allow it
, n
ow was the safest time to get out of town and staying around unnecessarily was dangerous.
Not for the first time, she felt glad that he was here. If she had been alone she wouldn’t have been able to fight the urge and would probably have drawn attention to herself somehow.
He led her around the back of the building and the
y
headed out of town and into the surrounding land. Amato moved quickly towards a small patch of trees and when they got close enough she saw his horse, secured to a branch, waiting nice
and patiently.
He lifted her up into the saddle and she scooted as far forwards as she could. He mounted behind her, his arms loose around her waist as he took hold of the reins.
‘So, where are we headed?’ He asked.
Leci looked back to the town they would be leaving. She had paid careful attention to the crowds while they had been milling and she hadn’t seen any of the men she was looking for. A sight like that had likely brought out everyone who was currently staying there.
There was no reason to stay here even if they had been able to, what she was looking for was somewhere else.
The question, of course, was where?
She shrugged slowly in response.
‘I have no idea. I don’t have a clue where to start. I’m about as lost now as I was way back then. All I have to go on is that they’re a bunch of lowlife drunks and when we do find ‘em in whatever town they’re in, it’ll be propping up a bar.’
‘Ok. And they’re definitely travelling?’
She shrugged again. The question had never seemed valid to her, she’d never known anyone other than people with businesses to stay in one place any longer than they needed to.
‘Isn’t everyone?’
‘No...’ She could tell by the tone of his voice that he
was frowning and she twisted around in the saddle to look at him.
‘No?’
‘No, of course not everyone travels. Most people, yeah, most traders aswell
,
but then you got your merchants or your bar owners or guys like our friendly
apartment owner back there... n
o, not everyone.’
‘Well yeah, but everyone without ties to a place.’
He sighed, clearly getting frustrated with her.
‘Fine, Leci, it’s not really a relevant argument is it? I just wanted to make sure the ones we’re looking for are on the move, that you checked back there and they were gone.’
She fidgeted uncomfortably. His frown deepened.