Psion Beta (2 page)

Sammy swore and spat a piece of dust out of his mouth. “What if you’d been caught? They catch you and we all go straight back to the Grinder! You know how lucky it is we even found this place?”

“
Don’t be a hypocrite!” Gunner shouted, but then Feet stepped between Sammy and the boys with pizzas. “No, Feet. For real. Whenever Sammy’s the one who’s starving, it’s fine to steal, but––”

“
Chill,” Feet interrupted. He turned to Sammy. “Brains, come on, we need the food. Honk, Gunner, you really should have run it by all of us before you did it. Don’t be nutty, man.”

“
Chuckles told us to go get it after he took us out of the game.” Gunner complained.

Sammy could not ignore the rumblings in his stomach. This was not the first time he had eaten something he should have paid for; it likely wouldn’t be the last, either. Besides, how could he ask for more than a piping hot pizza when his last four meals had come from cold, smelly dumpsters?

The fresh food raised everyone’s spirits, Sammy’s especially. The night was cool and young, and his belly was almost filled. All thoughts of the falling incident were forgotten when Gunner challenged Chuckles to see who could eat more slices. When Chuckles won on the ninth slice, the boys needed something else to do. That was the problem with life as fugitives: getting bored happened too often, and sooner or later one or more of the boys left to steal whatever they could get their hands on.

“
Now what?” Fro-yo asked.

“
Manhunt?” Sammy said. He loved playing games. It was easy to lose himself in the competition. The bad memories went away.

“
Come on, we just played a game,” Honker said, wiping his large, chronically dripping nose.

“
I’m down with a run of flags,” Gunner said.

“
Sure, flags,” Sammy said, finalizing the decision.

“
How long will the game be?” Watch asked as he set the timer on his favorite digital watch. “There’s a late movie tonight me and Honk are gonna sneak into. It sounds like there’s a lot of boobies.”

“
Two– two and half hours?” Sammy suggested. Anything to keep his friends off the street for a little longer.

“
That’s too long,” Chuckles said. “Last time we played for only an hour and a half, and both teams stole the flag almost a dozen times each.”

“
Just because you have trouble counting above ten with your shoes on,” Sammy said, and several others laughed.

“
Very funny,” Chuckles said, taking a meaty swipe at Sammy’s arm, but missing badly. “Me, Brains, Honk, and Gunner against Fro-yo, Watch, and Feet,” he said, counting off. “Two hour time limit. Watch, make sure you’re honest on the time. Everyone has to go to the customer service counter and touch––did you hear that Fro?––
touch
the register before you can throw a ball after you’ve been hit.”

“
Sounds great,” Sammy said. “Who’s got my balls?”

They all laughed again.

“
I do,” Honk said, swaggering. Gunner gave Honk a push, and Honk handed green-glowing tennis balls to Sammy, Chuckles, and Gunner, and blue-glowing racquet balls to the others.

Sammy led his three teammates to their side of the store where they set up their first flag. The store was so dark now that the flag could not be seen from a distance of more than a few meters. Sammy turned to his teammates and asked quietly, “Who’s guarding the base?”

Honk whispered, “I’m on that.”

“
All right, just don’t get ambushed. And make sure you muffle your sneezes. Remember the last time you had sneezing fits? You sounded like a flock of peahens.”

“
A flock of what?” Honk asked.

Sammy ignored his question. “Everyone else just play offense, got it?”

“
Don’t you think we should have some kind of a team strategy this time, Brains?” Chuckles muttered.

“
Hmm, yeah, let’s think.” Sammy tapped his chin in a mocking gesture. “Strategy . . . strategy . . . how about get more flags than the other team?”

Chuckles blew a raspberry and muttered something that sounded like “one-man show.” A retort was on the tip of Sammy’s tongue when a shrill whistle sounded.

“
They’re coming,” Gunner said.

“
We’re gonna get slaughtered,” Chuckles said as he crept away.

Sammy repressed the urge to throw his ball into the back of Chuckles’ head. Instead, he snuck off in the opposite direction, jamming the green-glowing tennis ball into the pocket of his sweatshirt. He stalked up the main row, looking for a blue light and listening for the sound of footsteps.

He heard the double doors in the back of the store swing open and shut again.

“
Hey! Out of bounds,” Sammy called. “That’s a point for the other team.”

As soon as he shouted, footsteps came toward him. He dashed into an aisle and hid on the floor under a low shelf. He waited there until the footsteps moved past him. More came, but this time he heard them in the aisle just ahead.

Chuckles’s voice taunted in the same vicinity, “I see you.”

Then Sammy heard something unexpected: the sound of compressed air being discharged from the standard-issue electroshock weapon only police were allowed to carry.

Chuckles gasped, and Sammy heard his friend’s heavy body hit the floor hard.

More footsteps. Footsteps all around!

He knew what was going on: the pizzas.

“
Shocks!” he screamed. “The Shocks! RUN! Get out!”

Two beams of light pierced the dark. Combined with Sammy’s adrenaline rush, the store now seemed much brighter. His ears picked up every noise as he ran down the aisle to find Feet, and hoping the Shocks wouldn’t find him first.

Another voice rang out, this time an older man’s: “Attention children. You are all under arrest for theft and trespassing. Officers have surrounded the vicinity. You are ordered to give yourselves up.”

Sammy snickered despite his situation. None of them would “give themselves up.” The weight of the pact the gang had made before escaping the Grinder was stronger than their fear of the Shocks. Even still, his desperation grew as he hurried into another aisle to find his friend. He turned the corner and ran straight into him. Sammy’s jaw smacked Feet’s forehead, and both friends hit the ground.

Feet got up first and helped Sammy, asking in a whisper, “Do you know where anyone else is?”

“
No.”

“
Do the Shocks know where we are?”

“
I don’t think so.”

They heard footsteps approaching quietly from behind. It was only Fro-yo and Gunner.

“
They got Honk and Watch,” Fro said.

“
And Chuckles,” Sammy added.

Feet swore under his breath. “Get us out of here, Brains.”

Sammy’s brain gathered and assembled the data like a machine.
Six to twelve Shocks. All armed
.
Four of us
––
unarmed. Need cover, weapons. Two Shocks came in from back door. Front doors, side doors still being watched. Best chance
…
what’s our best chance?

“
We’re agreed that we’re not going down without a fight?” he asked in a whisper.

All three gave him affirmative answers. His friends upheld the oath. That was what he wanted to hear. Sammy calculated more factors into consideration.
The shopping carts are only six
––
no, seven meters away.
Need to distract Shocks.

He took out the ball in his pocket and threw it as far from the carts as he could. It bounced on the top of a shelf. “Over here,” a Shock said.

Sammy heard them running to the noise. “Okay, quiet. Follow me.”

Sammy led them to the front of the store and motioned for them to each grab a shopping cart. “Go,” he whispered to them. “Go and don’t stop.”

The wheels of the cart squealed loudly on the floor as the four boys sprinted to the back of the store through the narrow rows. Sammy was slow next to Feet, but by no means a turtle. A bright light shined down their aisle, right into Sammy’s eyes.

“
Stop right there!” a voice ordered them ahead. But instead of obeying, they ran harder and tilted the front of the carts up to shield themselves.

The Shocks fired at them, but the puffs of air were followed by the sound of metal bouncing off metal. Jolts ricocheted off the carts and electric blue sparks created tiny fireworks in all directions. The heat of the sparks on Sammy’s face made him giddy with fear and the insanity of the moment. The Shocks shouted again for them to stop, realizing too late that they could not intimidate the boys.

Sammy and Feet rammed them, sending them sprawling out onto the dusty floor. Sammy picked up the shocker that clattered on the ground. Fro-yo and Gunner were first to reach the double doors in the back of the store and pushed through them with their carts. Feet continued pushing his cart while Sammy ran behind, holding the weapon ready to fire.

“
Give it to Gunner,” Feet said, reaching for the weapon.

Sammy pulled it out of his friend’s reach and asked, “Why?”

“
He shoots better.”

“
No, he doesn’t.”

They ran for the main exit in the rear of the store that loomed ahead. A Shock stepped out from behind a garbage compressor. His beam pointed square at Sammy’s chest. “Drop it! NOW!”

Sammy threw himself behind the cover of Feet’s cart and fired at the Shock first. His hands trembled so badly that he missed all three shots. The Shock stood his ground and returned fire. Feet snatched the weapon from Sammy, let go of the cart, and fired off three more jolts.

A shiny triangle formed by three metal darts hit the Shock in his neck. Just as the man reached up to pull the jolt out of his skin, it activated, dropping him to his knees in convulsions and finally rendering him unconscious.

Feet cursed badly, then crossed himself and said, “I’ve just nailed a Shock. I’m so dead if we get caught.”

Fro-yo and Gunner abandoned their carts while Feet picked up the second shocker and tossed it to Gunner. They burst through the back door into the cool night, still running.

The back of the store opened into an alley with two exits. They went left. Halfway to the main street, they heard the door behind them slam open again. Sammy turned to see the other two Shocks coming out of the store, one yelling into his com as he ran, “Four juveniles, two black, two Caucasian, headed west through the alley onto Market Street. Armed and dangerous, shoot on sight.”

Sammy released a long stream of curses and checked behind them again.

“
Where to now?” Fro-yo asked as he followed Sammy at a run.

“
Joubert Park.”

“
Regroup?” Feet said. “No, that’s nutty.”

“
There’s always the chance,” Sammy insisted between breaths.

“
There’s no chance,” Gunner said.

“
Look at us. We got out,” Sammy said finding it more and more difficult to speak while running. “How long does a jolt take a person out for, Gunner?”

“
Just a few minutes,” was the answer, “but I don’t think--”

“
Then we go,” Sammy decided. “We picked the park as a group.”

The others stopped arguing, probably to save their breath. As they headed north in the direction of the park, a black car with flashing lights turned onto the same road about a hundred meters behind them.

“
Do they see us?” Fro-yo asked.

“
Does it matter?” Sammy shot back. “Just run!”

They crossed the length of another building and turned a corner, out of view of any Shocks or passing patrols. Sammy glanced back and spotted a car with flashing lights pulling to a stop in front of the alley they had just left.

“
Now what?” Fro-yo asked.

“
Still going to the park,” Sammy said.

“
C’mon, Brains,” said Gunner. “We got to go and not look back. I’m tired.”

“
Hey, who busted us out of the Grinder?” Sammy yelled. “Me. They didn’t find us because we were in the store, Gunner. They found us because you were stupid and ripped off those pizzas. You brought them to us. You did.”

“
This is different, Brains,” Fro-yo said. “We get caught now––after busting out once, we’re going away for a long time. When they realize who we are––”

Sammy did not bother letting Fro-yo finish. He started running again. Someone cursed at him, but they all followed. Sammy led them under the shadows of buildings until they emerged three blocks east of the black car. He stopped behind a dumpster to make sure they would not be seen when they went into the open.

“
Is it clear?” he asked Fro-yo.

“
Brains,” Feet started to say, but Sammy ignored him. “Brains, this is bad trouble––they’ll get us.”

“
So what would you do?” Sammy asked, but Feet did not have time to answer. Fro-yo, whose head had been poking around the side of the dumpster, fell straight back into Feet. Sammy saw the jolt protruding from his friend’s thin black tee shirt.

“
You dirty mother––!” Gunner shouted, but his voice was cut off with a jolt to the right shoulder.