Terranovus

The thing with Jack was that he liked to be spontaneous with a hint of recklessness. One time he accidentally kicked his favourite soccer ball down the drain and instead of cutting his losses and being normal, he decided to break into the sewage system of district 6th of Sector F18 to retrieve it. Did he retrieve the ball? Definitely not. Did he instead become infected with a virus that almost killed him? Yes, he did.

So when we strolled through the markets and Simon jokingly dared Jack to shoot a Toff with his new gun, it didn’t really come as a surprise that Jack thought it was a brilliant idea.

“Jack! Are you crazy? I was joking!” hissed Simon. Jack grinned and his eyes were wide with delight.

“Come on! It’ll be fun!” insisted Jack. We all groaned and rolled our eyes. Oh yeah, and Jack was as persistent and stubborn as the devil himself. Why we were friends with him, I did not know.

“You could get arrested,” stated Tommy. I nodded, agreeing.

“You’ll be sent to jail, perhaps even executed,” I added. Jack laughed.

“Executed? I ain’t killing a Toff, just shooting ’em with a tiny weeny metal stud,” he retorted.

“Nah,” I said, “I saw it in the news last week. A drunk guy punched a Toff and he was executed. Jail isn’t a thing anymore. They’re a waste of space.”

Jack paused, for perhaps a millisecond, then shook his head and grinned, “pfft! Except I won’t be caught.”

We all groaned again and watched Jack skip away in search for a Toff. Tommy shook his head.

“He’s mental,” he said.

“We should follow him,” stated Simon.

“Are you crazy?” I said. “I don’t want to be arrested.” Nonetheless, I followed them down the markets and groaned as I saw Jack kneeling behind a rack of clothes and eyeing a Toff patrolling the street perhaps six metres away.

“Oh, not Old Nick!” groaned Simon. I peered through the crowd and cursed, it was Old Nick indeed. Old Nick was one of the oldest Toffs on the street. Made a Junior Army Cadet when he was eighteen, Old Nick had failed to move up the ranks any further. The reason why was rumoured it was because he had repeatedly failed the fitness test ... and that was believable. Weighing in at over 400 pounds, Old Nick’s uniform was custom made to fit his large figure. Of course with his salary package, he could afford to buy the luxuries sweets and savoury food, which is why patrolling the markets was his favourite and preferred shift.

“Just look at him,” said Tommy, his facial expression showing utter disgust. “Does he ever stop eating?” Currently, Old Nick was gorging himself on a chocolate pastry of some sort. I glanced around the market and saw a few hungry eyes watching Old Nick with envy. Obesity was a sign of wealth, of an ugly wealth. My dad was on the same salary as Old Nick but Mum only kept what we really needed and gave all the rest away every month.

“Jack!” I hissed quietly across the street. Jack turned and grinned. He gestured at Old Nick with his head then winked at us as he pulled his shotgun out of his pocket and begun to aim.

“He’s out of his nut!” exclaimed Simon.

“Let’s get out of here before he causes trouble,” warned Tommy. I nodded agreeing and went to take a step back just as Jack pressed the trigger and fired. The round bullet flew through the air and made direct contact with Old Nick’s could-not-miss buttocks the size of a small elephant. Old Nick roared with fury and spun round clutching his behind. He accidentally dropped his pastry in rage and shrieked when he trotted on it. He spun around, his eyes alive with anger and Jack quickly ducked out of sight. Sensing danger, I took another step back when-

“You!” old Nick spat between his clenched teeth, pointing a fat finger at Tommy, Simon and I.

“Run!” screamed Tommy.

Without a second to think, we spun around on the balls of our feet and pelted away from Old Nick as fast as we could. Poor Old Nick, too overweight and knowing he didn’t stand a chance, pulled out his Ingo and screamed into it:

“Three children running east through the markets of district 6th. They just used a weapon and harmed me!”

“It wasn’t us!” screamed Simon behind his shoulder as we dashed through the markets.

“Bloody Jack, I’m going to kill him!” yelled Tommy.

We forced our legs to run at full speed and pushed through the crowds.

“Move!” screamed Tommy as he shoved his way through a group of small children playing handball. I quickly shouted sorry to them as we flew by and almost ran into an old man pushing a cart full of socks. I skipped around him and followed Tommy and Simon down the street and around an intersection. It was only when we were confident we had put enough distance between us and Old Nick, did we slow to a stop and I clutched my side breathing heavily. I forgot how much I hated running. We turned to each other with a small smile of success on our faces but froze as we saw an Army hover car turn the corner and head towards us. It stopped at the side of the road and the vehicle’s doors opened to reveal two more Toffs. The soldiers talked into their radios and scanned the crowd. Tommy swore under his breath.

“We’re screwed, we’re buggered, we’re doomed,” cried Simon.

“Quickly, walk over to that alleyway there,” said Tommy. I saw the alleyway he was referring to and went to walk forward when-

“Stop where you are!” called out the soldiers.

“Go! Go! Go!” screamed Tommy and we set off down the alleyway at a sprint. The sound of the soldiers’ feet slapping the concrete followed us and I forced more speed into my little legs.

“Faster! Faster!” cried Simon. I tried my best, and as my heart sped faster and my lungs felt as though they were going to burst, panic hit me. If I were caught my hopes of going to university would be gone. I looked ahead and saw the alleyway was about to open up onto a main busy street.

“Which way?” I yelled.

“Left!” screamed Tommy. With a burst of speed, he pelted past me and led the way forward.

“Excuse me! Sorry! Move!” yelled Tommy as we crashed and shoved people out of our way. I risked a glance behind me and almost yelped in fear. The Toffs were almost at our heels. I saw Simon by my side sweating profusely. He looked like he wanted to murder Jack.

“Stop where you are!” screamed one of the Toffs behind us. Like hell we were going to.

I saw a tram making its way down the street towards us and strangely Tommy was running full speed towards it.

“What are you doing?” I screamed at him.

“Trust me!” he yelled and grabbed my hand.

Simon crossed the tracks first, the tram just a mere four metres away. It blasted its horn and the annoyed driver shouted at us refusing to break. Together, Tommy and I leapt over the tracks just in time as the tram swooped past us a second later at full speed. The Toffs, trapped on the other side of the tram, yelled at the driver to stop.

“Quick, this way,” said Tommy and led us to another tram moving in the opposite direction. We jumped on board and quickly ducked out of sight as the Toffs finally cleared the track and scratched their heads confused.

Laughing, we slumped on the floor of the dirty tram and looked at each other in disbelief. We paused for a moment, to take everything of what just happened in, then burst out laughing.

“I’m going to kill Jack next time I see him,” said Simon breathless. I nodded, agreeing.

“Me too,” I said and looked down at my hand to see it was still holding Tommy’s hand. I gasped and quickly withdrew from his hold, ignoring the blush that was spreading across my cheeks.

“I second that too,” said Tommy. I laughed and closed my eyes; thank goodness for the invention of trams.