I felt hands dragging my arm, urging me to move. "Come on! We have to get out of here," Tanner called to me, his brows furled in worry.

For a while, I simply followed him, my hand still gripping the phone against my ear. I listened for any sign of Jesta but there was just noise. Once we finally got out, after letting ourselves be herded by a pack of scared shoppers, I grabbed Tanner's shirt and brought him away from the people.

"Jesta. She's there near the shooting," I told Tanner, my words came out so fast I could barely understand them myself. Tanner seemed to understand me, though. His eyes widened and then he turned to look at the phone in my hand.

"She called you? What did she say?" I nodded and shook my head to his questions. "Are you still connected to her?"

I furrowed my brows, not getting the question. With an impatience that I have never seen him show before, he took the phone away from me, making me scream a little complaint. When he saw the already disconnected call, he clicked his tongue. He then rummaged through his bag with his other arm and produced a tablet. I didn't exactly know what he was doing, but before long, he had given me back my phone and told me to run with him.

We didn't go back inside the mall, but instead travelled around it, bumping against some panicking people on the way.

"What are you doing? Where are we going?" I panted. I never was too athletic, but I have always thought that I would be a better runner than Tanner, who was skinny and incredibly timid. He was easily outrunning me now, though.

"To Jesta. We have to see what happened," he answered, his breath uneven, yet still quite steady.

Now that I think about it, Tanner was significantly taller and bigger than me. I've always assumed the boy to be smaller because of his always crouching figure. There was no timidity in him now as he ran. He was holding the tablet on one hand, where I could make out some aerial view of the mall and several buildings around it. A green dot was blinking a few ways away from the mall.

"Did you get Jesta's location?" I asked in wonder. He only nodded once.

When we had crossed the parking area of the mall and jumped over a low wall, we found ourselves in the dark residential areas of Central City. There was no such thing as the "slums" in our highly developed country, but these parts of our city might as well be. Dark alleyways and too cramped housing. The Serenity Foundation has been steadily turning these areas into a high-end community with shopping malls and customizable apartment buildings. The Serenity Mall was one of their earlier projects.

Now, however, we were in a world quite opposite from the bright and elegant features of the Serenity Mall. Smelly and mazelike, it was almost as though we had entered a new world. My face contorted in disgust almost immediately and I wondered if Tanner had led us into the wrong place. When I saw him though, instead of the fear or discomfort which I expected to see, I instead saw anger on his face.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Come on, we have to hurry," he told me, still facing forward. We started to run yet again. When we lost our ways, we would follow the sound of the occasional gunshot and the screaming of angry men. We were near, I knew. But I still felt incredibly nervous.

We passed through house after dilapidated house, their windows closed and barred out. Sometimes, I would find curious eyes peeping towards us, like the red-eyed rats lurking underneath the mouse holes in my old room back at the orphanage.

I let Tanner guide me as my skin went cold. We wasted too much time running around in circles. A tablet with her location can do little help in this mazelike hell hole.

'Was she still here? She seemed like she was running,' I thought.

A small voice whispered eerily in my mind, 'Was she even still alive?'

I felt my vision growing darker as we ran on. I almost ran into the scene, if it weren't for Tanner's strong grip on my arms. I found myself being pulled down into a crouch against the moist wall, right behind a garbage dump. My mouth was covered by his hand.

In alarm, I found Tanner with wide eyes, his other hand brought up with a finger on his lips, signing to silence me. His eyes darted away from me and stared somewhere else. I followed his line of sight. And I nearly whimpered.

She was lying on the ground, still grasping her pink tape-covered phone. Her head was turned away, but I knew it was her if not for her phone but her bright colored hair. Her hair that was dyed red with blood. Three men in police uniforms stood over her still body.

One of the men took a gun from his side holster and clicked the safety. "Bitch. Get up." He seemed to be calling to Jesta's lying form.

"Bitch!" With a kick, he woke my bloodied friend up. I looked helplessly as she turned her wounded head towards the men ever so slowly.

"We aren't done, you cunt." The officer spat. "I know you were one of those freaking hero wannabes. Tell me who told you to do those things."

When she didn't say a thing, one of the police officers grabbed a handful of her hair and brought her face up higher. He screamed into her face, "We already found the spray paint in your bag, you piece of shit. Tell us who you work for NOW!"

I saw how pale she was and stared at the large puddle of blood on the ground and the red stains on her clothes. I wondered how she can still stay conscious. But her eyes were still very much alive. Fury. The kind of intense anger I saw in glimpses in the past whenever she talked about the government and the bourgeoisie. It was there for me to see in all its glory. With a start, I realized that Jesta, my headstrong friend, was being tortured in front of me.

'What am I doing?' I suddenly thought, angry at myself for being scared.

I was about to stand up and run towards them when I felt Tanner's hold on me growing stronger. I struggled against him, glaring at him with all my might. I tried to call out for her but his grasp on me was too tight. The man now raised the gun and pressed it against Jesta's forehead. He quietly asked her the same question once again.

"Just tell him! Tell him!" I wanted to scream, but I couldn't. I struggled against his hold, but he was too strong. Tanner, who I thought was a simple, weak boy who needed to be protected, was now overpowering me like I was a child.

I probably made a sound in my struggle because for one moment, Jesta looked in our direction. I don't care how small the gaping hole between the wall and the garbage dump was, but I knew that our eyes connected for the slightest of moments. She smiled a brilliant smile and turned her eyes back to the officer.

"Go to hell," she said. A hand covered my eyes. Then the sound of the gun was all I heard as I cried a silent scream.