Chapter 9 - The Cat and The Mouse
The familiar building that is my apartment building shines like a beacon in the distance, with every step I get closer and closer to the home I have not returned to since that night. I’m shoving people out of my way and knocking things over as I run, and I finally make it to my front door. I stare at the knob, again I am reminded of the last time I saw it, when I got home that night, when everything was average and nothing interesting was happening in my life, I still desire to go back to that life, but as I turn the knob to enter my apartment I know that that is completely impossible.
It is weird looking into my apartment, completely unchanged from that night, my half empty beer cans, the recliner, even the window was still open from that night. My fridge with all the beer still remains at the front door, just like back then I find it irresistible as I open it up and grab a can of beer. I crack it open and the sound of the seal being broken, and the carbonation being rapidly released from the can fill my ears, and gives me a satisfaction I craved for a while now. I take a huge gulp of the beer, ignoring the burning sensation in my mouth and throat. There is no time to fully enjoy the beer, I grab my duffel bag I kept stored away in the closet by my front door and start shoving all my stuff into it, including the pistol I snuck back with me from The War, even stuffing a few beers alongside all my essentials. Just when I thought I was on track to get out of my apartment unnoticed, the sound of a bunch of cars can be heard on the street below, the tires screeching and the doors opening up and closing rapidly, then a bunch of boots stomping all around. I can hear the static and clamoring of the speaker phone that police tend to use, and then a voice.
“Ahem…” a man clears his voice before speaking, “Zebedee Levin, you have been named as a suspect in the kidnapping of Princess Angela, and also as an accomplice of the plot against our royal family, you are far outnumbered so please come out without a fight so all these people can get back home to their families.” The man on the speaker says calmly.
I peek out of my window to see the situation down there only to see just how outnumbered I really am, dozens of police vehicles, and double, maybe triple the amount of officers per car flooding the street below. The man on the speaker seemed to have spotted me peeking at them as he speaks again.
“I can see you in there Lieutenant, it’s me Garen, your old Sargent, now the new police chief of the Capital City. Come on out and make this easy, son.” The man says while looking directly at me.
Sargent Garen was in fact my Sargent, but it’s more than that, as he was my instructor in the Early Development program, he trained me in every form of combat that I know. I haven’t seen him since the war, and I wanted to keep it that way, but I never knew he became the police chief. I guess in a time where war is no longer commonplace, people in power just shift to other occupations where they can keep their power and sense of superiority over others..
“Fucking shit.” I say while slapping my knees in frustration.
I chug the rest of my beer and start to look around my room for any kind of escape. I can’t leave through the hall, or any window, that only leaves one way out, going up. There is an unusually large vent on my ceiling. I yank it open, stripping the screw holes that held it in place. The vent obviously leads to the whole ventilation system, going throughout the rooms, and if I’m lucky, a big ol exit on the rooftop. I jump into the vent while hauling my duffel bag with me, and as I crawl through the vents I can see into all the other rooms, which mostly are dark or unoccupied. As I crawl I see into a room with all the lights on, a couple peek out of their window, seemingly concerned about all the police on the street.
“What the hell is going on?” The man in the room says in confusion.
“Just when we were gonna end the dry spell too.” The woman says, causing the both of the to sorrowfully giggle.
“Yikes.” I say under my breath.
I crawl past that room and up ahead there seems to be an exit vent. I kick it open and crawl out onto the rooftop. The roof of my apartment building is connected to another building and that building is connected to another, creating a row of buildings that all connect to each other. Garen is still calling out to me on the speaker. I take a peek over the ledge and am instantly knocked backwards as a stinging pain engulfs the left side of my head, and warm, thick blood starts to rapidly leak down my face.
“Ah ah ah, not so fast Lieutenant, if you’re not gonna surrender then we’ll have to take you by force, dead or alive.” He says in a calm voice over the speaker.
“Kick fucking rocks old man!” I yell in response almost out of instinct.
Sargent Garen taught us to insult our enemies, he practically drilled it into our psyche, and it reflected in the way our units were perceived by Artenian Forces, we were seen as foul mouthed and dishonorable, but it was a way to get into the minds of our enemies and I instinctively tried the tactic on the man that taught it to me over the course of a few years.
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Sargent Garen burst out laughing at my remark, and he continued to laugh as I grappled over the ledge leading onto the next rooftop, before I could get so far before the only door on the roof top burst open and two regular looking police officers rushed onto the rooftop.
“Zebedee Levin, you are under arrest!” The taller of the two officers says as he charges at me.
“Whoops! I don’t think so!” I say as I dodge him and make a break for the next rooftop.
The second officer grabs my shirt and with the force of me running, it partially tears my sleeve, but he still gets a grip on me and halts my sprint.
“There's nowhere to run! Just stop and face justice!” The shorter cop says while struggling to keep hold of me.
“Justice?” I scoff.
Suddenly my vision goes white and a stinging pain engulfs my entire face, but mainly my nose. I look up towards the two officers and it is clear that the taller one struck me in the face with a baton. An attack that I would never get caught by during the war, it is clear that all this discourse in my life and mind have made me… weaker. At the very best, I can stand one on one with almost anyone, but besides the moments where I black out like at the bar, I keep getting caught by things that would never catch me just a couple years ago.
“Like I said, you are under arrest!” The tall officer starts to grab his cuffs.
“This isn’t fucking justice!” I say as I lunge towards the tall officer.
“Watch out!” The short officer screams in an attempt to warn the tall officer.
The tall officer lets out a yelp as he realizes almost instantly that I overpower him, I start to punch him, and he raises his arms to protect his face so I punch his ribs, he coughs as the air leaves his lungs.
“H-help m-me!” The tall officer struggles to call out to his partner who is just standing still, completely shocked.
He drops his hands as the pain in his ribcage sets in, so I start to wail on his face, and I can see his consciousness fade with every blow, and blood begins to pour from his nose and mouth and splatters all over my fists. The shorter officer seems to have snapped out of his shock as he grabs my arm and cuffs me to himself. He attempts to swallow the key; a valiant attempt to make my escape impossible, but I grab his neck with my hand that was cuffed to his own.
“Ah ah ah, Not so fast.” I say plainly.
I attempt to pry his jaw open to no avail. So I start to punch him in the nose, and as he yelps in pain I reach into his throat with my free hand, and pull the key out by force. With my chances of escape all but guaranteed, I no longer need to cause him any unnecessary pain, so I strike him in the jaw with my full force, knocking him out. As his body falls I am yanked downward by my cuffed wrist.
“Sorry friend, I know you’re only doing your job.” I say as I unlock the cuff, freeing my wrist.
“You’ll never escape. You are a traitor, you'll never make it out of this.” The tall officer says, barely conscious.
The officer that stood tall and proud now lies bloodied and barely conscious, and though he is committing an injustice against me, he has been brainwashed by this damn country to think that I am a traitor, that is to say that he is utterly ignorant. To an extent I feel relieved, because I don’t feel an urge to end his life, despite the annoyance of being accused of treason, at the very least I know that I can draw a line subconsciously, and the pit that is my urges is not completely bottomless. Still, the annoyance remains.
“Well, I ain’t a damn traitor, and you know what? I’ll get out of here with your help.” I say as an idea pops into my head.
The tall officer tries to resist me, and it isn’t his fault that we are around the same height, but his uniform is the perfect disguise for my escape, he tries to claw at me, not just to stop me from stealing his uniform, but also because he has to have realized that I have a chance to escape, so he is trying with all his might to stop me. It becomes more annoying as valuable time goes to waste. I strike his jaw and put him to sleep in an instant, and in another moment, I am walking through the door that they burst through not five minutes ago, while also wearing one of their uniforms.
“H-hello? Zebedee? Did those two get him or did they fuck up?” Sargent Garen says, unintentionally talking into the speaker and allowing me to hear.
“I think we would have known if they succeeded sir…” A faint voice can be heard through the speaker.
“Fuck! So much for former special forces!” Sargent Garen yells.
“Special forces? They hardly put up a fight.” I say under my breath as I walk right by Sargent Garen and all the officers now scrambling on the street in an attempt to locate me.
Escape successful.
The chaos serves as great camouflage so I blend in with all the officers and escape into an alleyway. The alley is familiar but I can’t put my finger on it.
“Oh right.” I say
This is the same alley that I followed Angela and her two servants into all those nights ago, it’s crazy how a few weeks can feel like so long ago. My situation seems to have hit me again, somehow I am Eccacia’s most wanted when I only meant to reunite with my old friend a few weeks ago. Even now I wonder… I wonder what exactly I did to deserve persecution from my own country, what I did to get caught in the middle of a coup and ultimately a mass assaination attempt. In just one day I was forced to reawaken something within me that lay dormant for some time, and now I have to struggle daily. I have no idea what I am, or what I will be capable of with these urges and feelings that have no place outside of a war. Even then these confusing topics surrounding myself are trumped by those that surround my old friend, Angela. What has become of her? Still, at this very moment in this alleyway where I finally got to see her again, where she called my name once more, still I wonder if she is really capable of ordering the death of family and friends that were with her this whole time that we were apart, and probably before we ever even met. I wonder if she is responsible, how she feels about the idea of those people dying bloody, and I also wonder if she knows now what her actions have caused. I wonder if she knows how I am suffering at this very moment.
In what I would have considered treason to my values during The War, I can only think of one thing towards the one person who I relied on this whole time, and the one person that all this horrible shit points to. Of course that person is Angela, and all I can think towards her is “Damn you”, not just for leaving me in the void all these years, but for putting me in this situation, truly in this moment I damn you, Angela.