Part of Chapter 1

 Leaping a pile of moldy cardboard boxes, she ran through the remains of her people’s past. Her pursuers hadn’t lost sight of her and Jesse was beginning to panic. She blindly fired shots from one of her guns, missing the soldiers, they returned fire, getting closer. Her breath became ragged with realization and fear that she was going to get caught, she stumbled as she lost coordination in her state of terror. She pushed herself to run faster and zig zag around corners. Passing an alley, she could feel tears of desperation prick her eyes, suddenly firm grip clasped around her arm and mouth, preventing her shocked scream.

The filthy hands pulled her down to the crumbling concrete and pinned her arms and in legs together into a crouch with their own limbs. Panicking in this new situation she struggled against the attacker, but the bind was too strong. Before she was about to try something harsh she heard the patrolmen whizz by, not realizing she had been pulled into the dark alley behind a dented dumpster. When the humming of engines disappeared she attempted to get up but the figure wouldn’t let her, he seemed to be listening intently but Jesse couldn’t hear anything at all. She began to get frustrated but realized getting emotional wouldn’t help her. This was all very strange she thought, who was this guy and where did he come from? Then as soon as the figure felt it was okay to relax, Jesse jumped up and in one smooth motion pointed her gun at the man who saved her.

“Who the hell are you?”

The man immediately lifted his hands in surrender. Getting shot in the head was not the thanks he was hoping to get, so he stayed silent and waited for what she’d do next. He could hear her rapid breath in the quiet city, she was exhausted from her chase with the gunmen, maybe he should have pulled her out sooner, and if she was going to shoot him, he shouldn’t have at all. She was squinting at him; it was getting late, light was barely shining through the smog sky so she couldn’t see his face clearly. He could tell she needed to be somewhere and soon, her movements said the fading light was making her antsy, but he didn’t want to move to leave in risk of getting shot. He would let her make the first move.