So I woke up this morning in the middle of another story writing itself out in my head. This time, a group of 8-9 kids (of various ages from about eleven to fifteen) were running from the authorities for some reason. One of kids also had a father in hiding that he had just found. Suddenly the authorities were swooping down and the kids scattered to the winds. In the dream, only Cali had a name (something weird like Calios).
This is the scene that was writing itself in my head as I woke up (first draft warning). Forgive the lack of identifiers for most of the group. They’re still creating themselves.
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The busy downtown streets afforded them one protection, it hid them in the crowd.
“We need to find some place to hole up.”
“But where? Every place we go, they track us down.”
“Here!” Toby said.
The kids nearly piled up on each other beside the reflective glass-walled building, staring inside as neon bright lights from the ground level businesses reflected back at them.
The elevator sat at the ground floor.
“Quick. Inside.”
“Penthouse?”
“Just get inside!”
“What about the pig?” Two of the kids asked. They had ridden the pig during their escape and it hadn’t let them down. Running with all it had, along paths that the adults and the cars could not follow, the pig had brought them back to the rest of the group. Now they could not abandon it after all it had done.
“I’ll worry about the pig on the second trip. Just get inside!”
Half of the group piled inside the open elevator door. One of them pulling the dog inside with them.
The door closed behind them. Molly hit a button and the elevator took them up several floors. They emptied out into the furnished but dark lobby and sat on the floor, waiting for the rest of the group. When the others arrived, they gathered in a tight knot.
“What now?” someone asked, glancing at Toby in the gathering twilight.
“We should have gone for the penthouse,” another groused. “It will have room for all of us. We won’t get separated by walls.”
“They’d find us easier.”
“How do you know they won’t find us now?”
“Cali, tell us about this building.”
“It was finished right before the construction bust. Everything above level two was meant to be condos. Garage is in the basement. Ground floor is the business level, groceries, restaurants, department stores. Level two was the fitness center, building offices, security…”
“Security? Damn, girl! That means we were probably recorded coming into the building.”
Cali shook her head. “Finished right before the bust, remember? None of the condos were bought. Even the second floor isn’t really used or equipped save for the building office, which manages the few businesses that opened up on street level. The construction company went under. It couldn’t afford to maintain the equipment on the upper floors and not all of it got installed. The only things monitored are the garage and bottom two levels. And Molly can hack that feed and erase the image of us walking into the lobby.”
Thunder filled the room. The glass shook. The footstep boom drew their attention to the side walls.
“Colossus,” someone breathed.
Someone else whimpered in panic.
Just three blocks down, the bright red coat and high white hate of the five-story high security mecha took another block-devouring step toward the condo building. Like a toy soldier on the march, its blocky head swiveled back and forth, its gaze raking along the car-packed streets and the downtown buildings.
“We’re doomed!”
“Hush! Flatten yourselves against the floor. Don’t move. Don’t talk. If we can stay still as it passes, it probably won’t register us as anything but furniture,” Molly cautioned.
The kids lay down where they sat, each trying desperately to become a piece of the floor. Someone reached over and held down the dog’s slow thumping tail. The dog whined, so someone else reached over and gently shut his muzzle.
The glass walls rattled again. The chandlers shook.
Cali gritted her teeth and chanced a whisper. “Toby, what about the pig?”
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Seriously, this made total sense in my head when it happened. Now I just need to figure out where it fits.
