“Do you have any idea what you’re doing? Are you really prepared to make an enemy of Nova City’s Enforcers Unit?” Hadley scolded Marco, her stance unmoving. Nole was surprised to hear her fighting back while being held at gunpoint. Apparently, she wasn’t easily discouraged.

“Hadley,” Maddox warned.

“Yeah woman, don’t poke the bear, ‘cause this bear’s got a gun to your head!” Marco sneered. Nole was at a loss for words. What’s he doing here? Why is he pointing a gun at Hadley?

“What are you doing Captain?” Hadley asked. “Take the shot.” Although she was previously urging Maddox not to shoot Nole, she seemed to have no reservations about attacking her captor.

“Shut up!” Marco snapped. He seemed to have pushed the pistol against the back of her skull, because her entire body shifted forward. The entire room grew quiet.

“So are you another one of his accomplices?” Maddox questioned. “Are you aware of what he’s done?” It felt strange to have people talking about him as if he weren’t there, but Nole was curious about Marco’s motives, so he didn’t mind.

“I don’t care about any of that. Just lower your weapon or you’ll be looking for a new partner.”

Begrudgingly, the Captain placed his weapon on the floor and kept the flashlight down by his side. A look of anguish crossed Hadley’s face. Nole imagined her feeling defeated, just as he had a moment ago. She looked down at the floor, unable to meet her partner’s eyes. “Hey chico,” Marco called. “Get on your feet. You’re coming with me.” Nole unfroze from his position as he steadily lowered his hands from his head. Marco was clearly a sketchy guy, and had attacked Nole and Olivia in the alley earlier that day, so Nole wasn’t dumb enough to trust him. “Grab the Captain’s gun and bring it here while you’re at it.”

In his peripheral vision, he could see Maddox turning his head down toward him. Nole could only see half of his face, but it was enough to see the venomous expression. The beam from his downcast flashlight was directly on the gun, as if on purpose.

It felt like being at a crossroads. On the one hand, he wanted to take the gun and escape, even if it was with another enemy, but on the other hand, he didn’t want to give the Enforcers any more reason to want his head. Their reasons for assuming his guilt had all been false up until that point, but if he picked up the gun, a line in the sand would be drawn.

Still beside the pane of glass, he was sure Caden was watching him. His brother truly believed Nole was a murderer. The verdict had already passed in Caden’s mind, but Nole was going to change that, if not tonight, some day soon. He was determined to get his brother back and reunite his broken family, and if that meant being Nova City’s most wanted criminal, it was well worth it.

He lifted the loaded gun off of the tile floor and rose to his feet, ignoring Maddox’s dirty look all the while. If looks could kill, he thought, approaching Marco’s side of the hallway.

“I don’t know what you expect from me, but don’t expect me to trust you,” Nole murmured to Marco, who let out a chuckle.

“I won’t hold my breath, hombre.” He snatched Hadley’s gun and holstered it on the backside of his jean waistband. He then grabbed her flashlight with his free hand, instructing her to raise her arms and walk toward Maddox. Pointing the flashlight at her like a spotlight on a tightrope walker, he watched as she followed instructions.

When she reached her partner, she turned to face them. “It’s a shame, chica. I don’t have a problem shooting your pal, but you’re a real thing of beauty.”  Hadley scoffed at Marco’s words. “Unfortunately, we can’t have any loose ends.” He pulled down the gun’s hammer just as Maddox had done to Nole minutes before.

Nole wasn’t sure what prompted him to intervene; maybe he didn’t want Caden to witness another brutal murder, or maybe he couldn’t stomach the idea of watching Murphy’s family shot before his eyes. Regardless, he shoved the hand Marco was holding the gun with down before the shot was fired.

“What are you doing?” Nole asked. “Listen, I appreciate your help, but this is too much.”

“Outta my way. This part has nothin’ to do with you,” Marco spat. He tried to lift his arm, but Nole held it down. Marco let out a sadistic laugh before speaking again. “These guys have seen my face, and I can’t have that. It’s real cute how you’re trying to play the hero. We were ordered to bring you back alive, but don’t think I won’t shoot you in the knee cap if that’s what it takes.”

Surprised by the blunt threat, Nole almost released his grip on Marco’s hand, but re-steadied himself; now standing directly between Marco’s gun and the Enforcers. Nole turned his gaze to the targets. Both Maddox and Hadley stared straight on with stoic expressions. Neither of them faltered in response to his defending them.

“Sorry, but I won’t let you shoot.” Marco didn’t move; he didn’t even flinch. “See that door right there? My brother’s standing on the other side of it. He’s probably watching us right now. I suppose he’s a loose end too.”

A smirk spread across Marco’s face, and the creepy feeling that came made him compare Marco to Zane. Keeping his arms up, he turned his head toward Nole. The angled flashlight accentuated the contours of his face. Although he was only an inch or two taller than Nole, he was years older. Nole guessed he was about nineteen, maybe twenty. 

The smirk disappeared when Nole didn’t waver.

“Fine,” he hissed, lowering the gun, “but if this comes back to bite us, it’s on you.” Keeping an eye on the Enforcers, Marco approached the next door down from the quarters and banged on it twice. “Ty! Let’s go!”

When Tyrone’s massive body emerged from the door, Nole finally connected the dots; the figure he’d seen rummaging around in the room had been Tyrone. Marco, he decided he could deal with, but Tyrone was a whole different story. Just seeing him reminded Nole of his sore back.

“You’re leaving them alive?” Tyrone asked, noticing the disarmed Enforcers.

Marco threw Nole a dirty look before responding. “Yeah, don’t worry about it.”

“And he’s coming willingly?”

“Yes. I can handle these things unlike you.”

“Coming from the guy that got owned by little girl,” Tyrone taunted.

“Shut up already. I told you, she caught me off guard. Let’s just get out of here already,” he said. “Chico, I hope this goes without saying, but you’re coming with us.”

Seeing as that Marco didn’t phrase the order as a question, Nole didn’t feel the need to respond. Tyrone extended an open hand and motioned for the gun. His common sense told him to keep the gun, but his instinct told him to obey. Nole knew he wouldn’t be a match for both men, even if he were armed. That, and he didn’t want to bring Marco’s threat to fruition.

After being handed the gun, Tyrone instructed Nole to follow him in their escape. Nole kept an eye on Marco just in case he was having second thoughts on sparing Maddox and Hadley, but saw him retreating as well. Once they reached the end of the corridor, Tyrone told Marco to head to the door with Nole while he made sure Maddox and Hadley stayed put.

Escaping with his enemies-turned-allies wasn’t at all what Nole had imagined to happen. At the very least, he’d expected to be apprehended. If not for Marco, Captain Maddox would have arrested him, or worse. Since Marco had prevented Maddox from taking further action, Nole felt it was safe to assume that they didn’t want him dead. In fact, when he thought back to their encounter earlier that day, they weren’t armed with guns, and although they were looking for Nole, they hadn’t exactly stated their purpose for wanting to find him. If anything, they’re intentions were a complete mystery.

At the front door, Nole was able to hear the noise of the storm louder than before. He imagined the chaos of the civilians amongst the noise beyond the building.

Marco called out to Tyrone before kicking the door open. He shouted at Nole to follow him and tossed in a threat about not running off, but Nole was in awe of the hordes of people scurrying around the street. There were so many civilians in front of him; he couldn’t even see the pavement of the streets. Most of them held containers for catching rainwater, and very few held nothing as they tilted their faces upward to swallow any bit of fresh rainwater they could.

“We can’t get through,” Nole pointed out.

“Yes we can,” Tyrone replied, gasping for breath after running the short distance. He lifted his gun and shot a round into the air. Clearly the sound wasn’t confused for thunder, because dozens of screams erupted from the crowd as the entire mass scampered away from the source of the noise. “What?” Tyrone defended once he noticed Nole’s glare.

“Whatever! Come on!” Marco roared over the pouring rain.

With Tyrone leading the way, the three were able to penetrate the crowd and moved as a group. Marco kept one hand on Nole’s back as they brought up the rear. Somehow, they managed to go several blocks in the same formation without being separated by the unceasing, desperate mob.

Although he was focused on following Tyrone, Nole couldn’t help but replay his encounter with Caden back in his mind. While the relentless rain pelted him from above, he badgered himself about how their meeting should have gone and all the things he should have said. Even though he didn’t say it, Caden needed an older brother he could rely on, and Nole had fallen short. He was untrustworthy in his little brother’s eyes. I should have tried harder, not just at the station, but also before then. Whenever Caden would ignore me, or avoid me, I would just give up. I should have pressed him to open up. This is all my fault.

The buzzing thoughts distracted him so much that he didn’t even realize just how far they’d gotten from Central Station. In fact, he was completely unaware of where they were. As the mass of people around them dwindled, Nole became more and more worried about his predicament. Sure Marco and Tyrone had saved his life, but for what purpose? If they hadn’t wanted to turn him in and collect the reward money, what good was he to them?

An hour had passed by the time they became completely separated from the crowded panic. The rain was still falling, but not as intensely as it had been before. The eeriness of the quiet was getting to Nole. Maybe Marco wanted to have the pleasure of killing me himself? But why drag me out this far? What do they want? Just as Nole mustered the nerve to speak up, Tyrone cut him off.

“Here we are,” he announced.

The little moonlight peeking behind the then-dispersing storm clouds provided very little light, but Nole could make out the sign of the building before him: Northeast Water Plant.The venue only made Nole question the situation more.

All four of Nova City’s water plants were shut down after the sewer quarantine due to speculation of the City’s water supply being rooted from the sewage system. Of course the mayor closed down the suspected water plants to appease the public and Chief Caswell, but it left the population with very little choice in the drinkable water market. This caused the price of bottled water to skyrocket, which in turn created more civilian violence. The fight for water became a game of survival of the fittest.

Despite the ensued chaos, the fountain’s water supply was continuously replenished. When the media dug into the water goldmine being used for the fountain, the mayor contended that the Chief was in charge of all fountain affairs. Chief Caswell kept reporters at arm’s length, but when questioned about the fountain, he would always say the same thing: that the fountain’s water came from a river outside of Nova City’s outskirts. Although many desired to seek out the outside water source, they were all too afraid of approaching the gang-ridden city borders. Thus, the matter was put to rest.

“What are we doing at this abandoned place?” Nole asked suspiciously. Neither of the two men bothered responding, which worried him more. He imagined Olivia’s map and all of the symbols representing the gang hideouts, and although he didn’t remember the Northeast Water Plant being one of them, he knew he could easily be mistaken.

Without a word, Tyrone pushed through the piles of clutter surrounding the perimeter of the huge building. Nole contemplated making a break for it. Even though both Tyrone and Marco didn’t appear to mean him any harm, they were both equipped to do so. The last thing he wanted to do was to escape and have it be for nothing.

The metallic exterior was rusted a mahogany color and chipped paint gave the walls some texture. The clearing clouds gave the building its own spotlight with the moon’s radiance. As soon as their path was clear by the massive Tyrone, they entered the main doors and entered the large, open main room.

To his surprise, the facility was fully operational. Not only was the entire place lit up, but the sound of running machinery echoed throughout the building. In the area they were in, Nole couldn’t see any equipment, so there was no way to confirm his guess. All he cared about at that point was why they were there, and more importantly, what they were moving toward.

The humming of machinery became so monotonous that it droned into the background, his thoughts overshadowing it. He imagined it to be around three or four in the morning. Suri would be asleep, safe and sound at Betty’s complex. Caden was probably being interviewed about his encounter with Nole. Betty and the others were probably discussing Taro’s sudden appearance. Although Nole was displeased with how they had chosen to protect Taro over proving his innocence, a part of him admired the loyalty they had to their former colleague.

They entered several doors until they eventually stopped moving. Neither Tyrone nor Marco said a word as they stood by in silence, which further agitated Nole. Maybe it was the accumulated stress of that day’s events or the constant silent treatment, but he felt the need to lash out. “Are you going to clue me in on why we’re here? I appreciate your help back there, but I don’t have time for any of this. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re in an abandoned factory doing nothing but walking, so what have you got planned?”

“Keep quiet already,” Marco ordered passively. He seemed just as tired as Nole.

“How long are you going to just stand there with your mouth shut? Just because I agreed to come with you, doesn’t mean I’m going to play your games. Why did you come after me earlier today? Why were you at Center Station tonight?” Nole was being relentless.

“You’re a straight-to-the-point kind of guy,” a droning, machine-like voice echoed in response. Due to the enclosed space and the static undertone of the question, Nole deduced that they were speaking over some radio transmitting device or PA system. “You shouldn’t be so rude to the people who just saved your skin.”

“Last time I checked, one was holding a gun to my head,” Nole retorted under his breath. Marco gave him a dirty look, but said nothing.

The virtual voice guffawed at the response.

“You really stick to your guns, don’t you? Sorry about all the trouble, you see, we weren’t exactly sure of how cooperative you’d be, but just so you know, we have no intention of harming you.”

Nole’s eyes wandered about the room. Despite the expansive space, there wasn’t really anything in it besides the three of them. The anonymous converser was nowhere to be seen. He’d let the echoed whirring of the distant machines fall into the background as he concentrated on the current situation. It irritated him that he couldn’t see to whom he was speaking with. Obviously the mistrust wasn’t one sided.

“What is it you want from me then?” Nole asked.

“Oh, they didn’t tell you?” the voice responded innocently.

“See boss? We follow orders,” Marco chimed in.

“Does that mean we can finally become members?” Tyrone asked, joining the conversation.

Members? Don’t tell me… this is a gang hideout. Why did they save me? Are they trying to get information out of me? Maybe that’s why Tyrone was ruffling around the room at Central Station. That would explain why they saved my life, but what do they want to know that they couldn’t find there?

“We can discuss that later,” the voice replied. “For now, you two can go.”

The fact that the supposed boss sent out their men made Nole rethink his position. The perception of his situation transformed from being a hostage to a guest. As soon as Marco and Tyrone wordlessly followed the order, the voice began again. “Sorry if they caused you any trouble.”

“Well, they did help me out, so I can overlook the gun thing I guess. Why am I here?”

“First, I think it’s appropriate for some introductions.”

“I think you know who I am,” Nole retorted. “Besides, wouldn’t this be better in person?”

“Is that what you’d prefer?” Surprised by the offer, Nole didn’t know how to reply. The voice spoke up for him. “Very well, I will come to you.”

Thank you Rysalix for the phenomenally designed cover in the multimedia section! I love how you incorporated the different gang symbols around Nole. It definitely suits this chapter perfectly!