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Zeia skidded around the corner, the sliplocks on her boots glowing to life just in time to keep her from being thrown into a dumpster. She grinned; she would have to do some tune-ups on those when she got back to Forinth. She could still hear her pursuers behind her, not really gaining any ground, but damn, were there enough of them or what?

She jumped onto one of the trashcans lining the alley just long enough to gain the momentum to leap to the overhanging ladder of a fire escape above her. Grabbing it with one hand, she used her feet to run up the brick wall near the metal construct and flip her body onto the first level of the steel stairway.

As she sprinted up the stairs, she heard voices yelling in the alley below her, exclaiming as to her whereabouts. She sighed. Did she have to do everything herself? As soon as she had climbed to the top of the steps, she walked over to the edge of the roof and screamed down at them.

"Hey!" Immediately ten flashlights were trained on her and assault rifle rounds streaked toward her perch. She spun away from the edge as the shells zipped past her, running once again toward the opposite side of the roof, grinning from ear to ear. God, this was fun.

She heard several clanks as grapple hooks magnetically clamped onto the steel trim of the roof. Again she sighed, disappointed; they never had any imagination...

She made it to the edge of the skyscraper and looked down. But, instead of another alley below her, there was road. Six lanes of busy traffic zipped by down there. There was absolutely no way she'd survive that fall. I mean, she was sixty-eight stories up. On top of that, each of those vehicles was flying by at or above the speed limit of 260 miles per hour. If she fell, it'd be like blending a smoothie.

She turned to come face to face with one of the gasmask-like helmets of the Power Over the People officers. She looked down. There was a pistol at the middle of her chest.

"Don't move, citizen, and any unnecessary injuries may be avoided." Zeia slowly brought her gloved hands up to her head. Then...

She saw the officer's fist twitch, and one of the others in her peripheral raised an assault rifle and trained it on her. She saw where this was going.

In seconds she had put two of the POTP on the ground, probably unconscious, and was sprinting back to the opposite of the roof, bullets whizzing past her. She got to the edge and rolled sideways, turned, and began to speed back the way she came. Towards the bewildered police.

Adrenaline pumped through her system. She was crazy. She gritted her teeth. There was no way. Somehow, she hadn't been shot yet. The armor on her pants and arms glowed behind the speed as she poured it on. She was gonna die.

She barreled through the clustered group of law-men, did a single-handed stand on the ledge, swung her booted feet down to the wall of the building, and pushed off with all her might.

The shock threw her adversaries to the ground, leaving a crater in the side of the building. She put her arms out in front of her and stretched as far as she could. Faintly, she could hear the police laughing behind her, waiting eagerly to witness her demise. They thought that was it, huh? Grinning, she pulled the ace from her sleeve and tapped a button on her gloved hand, draining the power in her armor to give her another jump from thin air. Time crawled as her destination grew closer, inch by inch, and doubt clouded her mind for just a moment...

...Before she made contact with the other building, hard. But the impact shocked her for mere seconds before she understood the gravity of the situation, and began sliding down the bricked siding and scattered windows. Her clawed fingers squealed as they scratched the glass, her boots skidded and bounced off outcrops and ledges, too small for even her. She closed her eyes. This was it.

There was a crash above her as one of the windows broke and something leapt out and ran down the side of the building after her. She opened her eyes and smiled as she saw her best friend and run-mate zipping down the scraper, a line trailing behind. Waiting for the perfect moment, she pushed off the uneven surface and threw her arm above her head, where it was quickly grasped in a vice-like hold.

"Sera..."

"Save it! Get ready!"

Zeia swung her other hand up to grab Sera's and waited.

There was a pop as the cord went taut, the harness snapped tight with Sera's ribs, and Zeia just about slid out of her grip. But she didn't. Sera shifted her body so she could pull Zeia up and get her into something of an embrace for the ride back up the building. The POTP would be coming, and they needed to hurry. Still, before they began the breakneck and dangerous sprint back home, Zeia managed a quick bear hug and a whispered "thank you". Then the fire escape door was kicked open, and they ran again.

________________________________________

She couldn't sleep, no matter how hard she tried. Grunting at the snoring coming from the bunk above her, Zeia squirmed, trying to find a position that was at least semi-comfortable in her lumpy mattress. This had been going on for the past 4 hours, and she was getting very flustered about it. Something was gnawing at her, but as many times as she had gone over all her thoughts, she still hadn't been able to put her finger on it.

She had just started to drift off when Sera let out a loud, guttural cough-snore, probably caused by some adventurous insect finding her drooling mouth and thinking, "My! What a nice, dark, cool place this is!" Zeia swore, kicked the underside of Sera's mattress as hard as she could, and rolled out of bed.

Muttering several very creative profanities to herself, she grabbed her sweats off the chair (the only other piece of furniture in the room), stepped into her sneakers, slid the deadbolt from across the door, and stormed out into the tunnel. She lit a cigarette and began to wander through the gloom.

Forinth was situated along a 3-mile stretch of the dilapidated subway that had run under Old Town. Rather than being all bunched together and easily smoked out, Zeia's brothers and sisters spread themselves throughout these tunnels and made their homes in the various control rooms and maintenance closets along it. On the off-chance that anyone that meant them harm did happen upon them, the mutants knew their way around well enough that they were able to easily hide themselves. And so it had been for fifty-plus years.

Zeia's smoke was just starting fizzle out when she noticed an organic light dancing along the walls around the bend. Shortening her pace a bit to investigate, she came upon a small can-fire, tended by a misshapen, cloaked figure. It acknowledged her approach.

"Hey Ze-zeia. How are you this-is even-ing?" came the slow, stuttering greeting.

She grabbed one of the cups resting on a workbench near the fire, although it was really just half a soda can. "Fine. Can't sleep."

The creature nodded. "S-s-," he visibly composed himself, taking a rasping breath and offering her some coffee. It smelled like old motor oil. "Sera giving you tr-trouble?"

Zeia took the can from him. "Yeah," she muttered wearily, followed by a string of expletives that her company cringed at.

"W-well, she did s-save your ass t-t-today. I im-magine she's p-pre-pretty t-tired."

She choked as the foul black liquid met her tongue, "Fuck!"

"T-too hot?"

She spat it out, looked down at it. Then she chuckled a little, "That's probably the worst batch you've ever made, Cor. Congratulations."

He smiled, "Ran out of gr-grounds. W-went a lit-t-tle heavy on the b-beer and had t-to improvise."

She held up a hand, "Don't tell me, I really don't want to know. Anyway, how's it been tonight?"

Cor coughed, spraying some luminescent green ooze onto his leathery hand that he politely tried to hide. "F-fairly quiet. Some s-s-soldiers were s-stomping around b-by access thirt-teen a while ago, but no misch-chief as far as I c-can tell."

"Good." Cor's hands trembled a bit, and he gingerly coddled them over the fire. "And how are you feeling?"

"S-same as ever," he replied. "Not well." He pulled the cloak around his head tighter, shivering. "W-wish I c-could get a lit-t-tle warmer."

Zeia smiled a little, although it looked pained. "I think I'm going to go for a walk. Care to join me?"

The other mutant grinned back, showing off rows of mismatched teeth. "N-n-no. I think I'll j-just k-keep k-keeping watch."

Zeia nodded her approval and set the can back on the workbench. She laid a hand on his shoulder before she moved off. "Thanks for the coffee."

The tunnel stretched out before her, lights flickering every few dozen feet. The mutants had managed to smuggle a few generators down into Forinth a few years ago, and every couple of days, several runner teams would do a raid for more gasoline and a little food. It was a relatively easy errand, and generally the youngest of them would take care of it for practice.

She lit another cigarette... she really needed to quit. It served its purpose though, focused her mind on something- well, something else for a few minutes. And she reveled in that tiny bubble of freedom. Climbing over some of the rubble that served as a barricade between districts, she finally spotted her destination: access 19, her favorite spot. She grabbed the wrench from the rack next to the ladder as she climbed up and slid the manhole cover aside before pulling herself out of the labyrinth.

It was snowing, but not loudly as it had been lately on the outskirts. The air was still, and the giant flakes fell softly onto her head and shoulders. She shivered a little, and although her fur kept her warmer than most, she still regretted not bringing her jacket.

Down in the valley below her, Hibiscus loomed. The walls around it were imposing, yes, but the city itself was a beautiful mess of neon and steel that glinted in the pale moonlight. She loved the peace of this place, far beyond the sounds of sirens and booming clubs, beyond the prying eyes of curious, miserable people. The life of constant running, of danger, disease, and excruciating pain was left behind at the last rung of that access ladder, and, if even just for a moment, she was really and truly free.

She flicked her cigarette out into the snow, peered up into the sky, and sighed. It would be morning soon, and the walk had done her as much good as it could- she was drained by her thoughts. Slowly, keeping that calm in her mind, she stood, brushed the snow from her shoulders, and disappeared back into the depths, closing the manhole behind her.