YEAR 2030 - EUROPA - LONDON
Wake up, Jake. They're here.
Max's words rang like an alarm in Jake's head, waking him from slumber.
We need to move. Now.
The exhausted teenager prised open his caramel eyes momentarily to check he was not dreaming. Max his beautifully muscled, and compact American Staffordshire Terrier gazed back at him from the window, his fawn colourings illuminated by the searchlights and activity glimmering outside. This was no dream.
'What's going on?' Jake enquired wiping the crusty sleep from his eyes, pulling himself up from the makeshift bed in the corner of this building under refurbishment in which they had taken refuge.
I think they have found us. Drones are patrolling outside. Foot soldiers can't be far behind.
Jake and Max had been united when he was just a young boy, a gift from his father on his sixth birthday. That was twelve years ago and so much had happened since then. Max was meant to soften the devastating loss of his mother. It had worked to some extent, over time. Little had either of them known that Max would need to fill the void left by his father's mysterious passing a couple of years later. Their bond was unique, special. Somehow they had developed the ability to communicate telepathically over the years. Neither cared how this had come to be, but it had served them very well since the Empire had taken over.
For goodness sake boy! Get your butt in gear, we need to get out of here!
Max was not renowned for his diplomacy skills, but given the emergence of two armed drones at the window, Jake figured there would be a more pertinent time to address such trivial matters later.
Jake jumped to his feet, scrabbling to pull his well-worn shirt and hooded jumper over his athletic frame and brown locks.
The drones circled the windows of the derelict building whilst flashlights pierced through the old hypermarket near their position. Movements of the oncoming foot patrol began to echo down the road closing in on them. They had clearly been detected. Being captured was not a possibility that they could allow if they were to complete their mission.
'Looks like we better get running then boy' Jake said still trying to finish dressing and gather his scant belongings. 'I'll send a message to Frank and see if he can meet us at the rendezvous point'.
And then? Max interrupted having jumped down from the window and headed for the door.
Jake smiled. 'Then it really starts my friend. Everything we set out to do gets under way'.
The flashlights from the patrolling drones swept through the room that they had taken refuge in. The two of them escaping through the door moments before being caught in its glare into the body of the disused dry cleaners and into the night sky.
Jake peered around the corner of the exit before sweeping the area outside for activity. The drones could be heard circling overhead to the rear of the property and any signs of foot patrols were as yet not on scene.
Are we just going to stand here and wait for them to come and ask us out to play, or are we going to make a move? Max's voice snarled in Jake's head.
Jake pulled what appeared to be a mobile device from his pocket and began furiously pushing buttons. It was an antiquated device some twenty or so years out of date and no longer in general use.
'Just sending a message to Frank, we are likely to need his help to get out of here' he replied, putting the finishing touches on the message. 'You take a quick peek down the road to the left and then if it's clear we'll head that way'.
Max darted past him and bounded thirty yards down the dark road, the streets as was the norm were eerily quiet and empty. Since the Empire had taken over, streets in these heavily militarised cities and towns often operated a curfew. Citizens were protected from the ghettos outside but were often treated like prisoners within the confines of the Empire's authoritarian regime. Getting in was said to be impossible, even though Jake and Max had done so in many cities throughout Europa, a now unified state. Getting out was no less difficult and Jake knew that with their presence somehow having been detected they may need some help.
RUN!
Max's warning distracted Jake briefly from composing the message. As he lifted his head to identify the commotion, Max was sprinting past him with a clutch of foot soldiers gathered at the bottom of the road.
RUN YOU BLOODY FOOL!
Max hurtled past him heading in the opposite direction. Jake's reactions were a little slow at first, he put it down to not being fully awake, but the sight of the foot patrol charging towards him sparked his legs into action. The bolt of combined thunder and lightning that exploded against the bricks above his head from a recently discharged weapon of his pursuers was a secondary motivator.
Jake was soon sprinting at full speed behind his faithful companion who was just a few yards ahead of him. Jake snatched a quick glance over his shoulder every few steps. He made out that there were approximately five foot soldiers behind them. The blasts from their powerful weapons cannoned off of the buildings right and left of him throwing debris in his path and forcing him to deviate from his chosen path. The whirring engines of the drones could now be heard suffocating the silence of the night sky, having pinpointed his location and sweeping their scorching, bright lights to identify him.
Trouble ahead. Max's voice echoed.
Up in front of him, Jake could see that a swarm of foot soldiers had emerged forming a road block. Max was in danger of being captured. From a side road, another drone emerged in the night sky and its searchlight now crept along the floor closer towards Jake who now had spotlights trying to lock on his front and back. He kept running and darting and dodging the shots being fired at him. The weapons of choice of the Empire were run on nuclear energy, vaporising victims on contact. This made them an effective and efficient weapon, but Jake was more wary of the drones above. If they locked on his position then it would be game over, given their artillery was even more impressive than the ones used by the foot soldiers.
'Freeze you are surrounded' echoed the omniscient voice from above, clearly amplifying the voice of some drone operative back in the command centre.
Jake ignored the command and was now feverishly trying to look for an alternative route given the one ahead was blocked and the soldiers were readying their weapons to fire. With his pursuers closing in behind and the drones overhead casting their searchlights ever closer to his person, he knew it was a matter of time before the game was up. As if matters were not already well out of control, the screeching sound of two militarised vehicles swinging around the corner near to Max's position elevated the situation to a whole new level. Both vehicles were occupied by the Empire's foot soldiers, four in each, with one man in each vehicle in control of a robust laser cannon.
Max was still ahead but had slowed his pace when the vehicles emerged. There was a tiny side street to the left and little other option available in terms of escape. The soldiers ahead had their guns locked upon him, one vehicle had stopped just in front of them with the cannon fixed upon him some fifty yards away. Another drone had now stopped above them in the night sky and locked the spotlight upon him. Max had come to a stop, light fixed upon him, weapons locked and loaded and pointing at him. He began to walk in circles looking for any escape. The road to the left was the only option. He could see Jake running towards him with the second vehicle accelerating close behind, soldiers were crowding beyond and a number of drones loomed ominously overhead.
We have got no option here kid. There is a road up here on the left and nothing else.
What's the plan then? Jake replied telepathically.
You take the left road and I'll cause a distraction. Asserted Max in reply.
The second vehicle had now screeched and skidded sideways to a halt the cannon now fixed upon Jake who continued to run headlong towards it.
'We now have you totally surrounded. Give yourselves up or be neutralised' came the drone operator's voice overhead.
Neither option was worthy of consideration. If they gave themselves up, they knew they would be subject to torture, imprisonment in the Outlands and rumour had it, live experimentation. To be vaporised and go down fighting was easily the better option.
A distraction sounds great my friend, but what about this mobile cannon ahead of me? Enquired Jake, now just thirty yards or so away from the second vehicle.
'Don't move mutt, we only really need the boy' echoed the voice from the drone.
Max had now turned his back on the first vehicle, and the wall of soldiers ahead of him and had bowed into attack stance, teeth gritted and snarling like a rabid wolverine.
Just keep running for that road and stay left.
Jake began to bank towards the left, still running. The cannon followed his path. The soldier operating it asking for permission to fire.
Upon Max's sturdy shoulders and back sat a tightly fitted black backpack. The front of it now opened, revealing four rocket heads firmly fixed on the vehicle.
Just keep running and I'll meet you at the rendezvous point. He assured.
He let out an almighty roar into the cacophony of the scene, a sound of an enraged beast untranslatable to human ears, the smile on Jake's face suggested that it may have been for the best. Two of the rockets launched and within seconds exploded into the vehicle, eviscerating the inhabitants and sending a huge explosion into the night sky, temporarily knocking the drones behind Jake off course.
'Shots fired. Neutralise them' screeched the voice of the drone operator.
Max had already spun on his heels and unleashed the other two rockets at the second vehicle. The fearful look on the cannon operator's face was a picture before the explosions rose up into the night sky knocking the final drone into a tailspin. The on looking soldiers could have sworn that the canine winked at them at that point, some may have even reported the glint of a smile. Just before they began to unload their nuclear-powered weapons on his position whilst the targeted boy blazed a trail to the only area where the troops had failed to secure, something more unexpected occurred. The canine was now charging straight for them, teeth bared and muscles tightening with every stride.
'The boy is getting away' one of them screamed amidst the firing.
Max leapt high into the air over the flaming vehicle. Drawing their fire to the right. They pursued him briefly until he leapt towards the wall of an empty building and catapulted himself from it into three of them. He recovered quickly and began bounding towards a clutch of others, darting away from their fire and sweeping ever closer like a tiger stalking a herd of discombobulated bison. The soldiers kept on firing, each shot missing by the tiniest amount, hitting the road, the buildings and on the odd occasion a fellow soldier.
The carnage in the once sleepy city was building with fires breaking out all around the scene and fallen foot soldiers frazzling and electrified, melting away revealing the circuits and metal of their robotic forms. The Empire's main soldiers had always been manufactured and imported in, the leadership not trusting humans to protect its interests. Humans had consciousness, robots, on the other hand, did as their masters told and programmed them to.
Jake had now passed the road block where Max had created the diversion. He trusted his old friend to manage that little situation, as he had proven himself capable in many other skirmishes they had encountered on their travels in the past. He continued down the tight and tiny road to the left, but he was not totally in the clear, the foot soldiers who had been chasing him all this time continued in pursuit and all five seemed to still be intact and full of running. The two drones that had been hit following the explosion of the first vehicle had now split up one had followed behind the troops into the alley, but Jake had not seen where the other had gone.
He continued to run down the dark street, which was now becoming darker and narrower as he headed towards the glint of light right at the base of what was becoming an increasingly evident blind alley. He cursed Max, under his breath, a knot now forming in his stomach and his instinct telling him that the end of the alley did not augur well.
Back in the main street, Max had managed to overpower and maim many of the soldiers with his quick movements which had resulted in them firing at each other. He had seen Jake disappear down the left alley as he had advised. He was going to abandon his plan to meet at the secret point and to follow him down there, given the pursuing forces, but his attention was now drawn to his own predicament.
Three soldiers had now picked themselves up, having only been knocked down by debris in the ensuing skirmish and began to fire at him again. It would have been child's play for him to finish them off as he had their fellow squadron members, but as he was about to leap into action a train of motorised armoured vehicles and a new squadron of foot soldiers were emerging from the right-hand street. Max looked left to where Jake had gone and then ahead along the long street he had been able to clear of the soldier blockade.
You really are on your own this time, kid. He warned Jake.
Reluctantly, he headed straight down the road past the strewn and fallen robot soldiers to draw attention away from his master and friend. Despite Jake being the apparent target, the newly emerged forces followed him.
No sooner had Jake received Max's message than he found himself nearing the end of the blind alley. The drone's searchlight lit up the path he had just passed. The alley was no wider than the distance between a couple holding hands and the high rise buildings all along made it nearly impossible to see a thing. There were no back doors or windows down the back of this alley, just a long high rising wall of solid brick. The only way out was ahead given that the bright lights from the drone above highlighted the chasing troop behind rendering the thought of turning back a suicide mission.
Jake continued ahead towards the tiny glimmer at the exit of the alley hopeful for a friendly beacon to be waiting for him. No such luck. As the exit was upon him and the wide road emerged with normal street level light both left and right, Jake realised that he had stumbled into a trap.
The second drone had now drifted down into his path hovering just a few feet above him. Rockets locked upon him. He had now emerged from the mouth of the alley onto a street very familiar to him with apparent escape left or right. The time of planning his great escape and next move disappeared within an instant. A squadron of soldiers, around twenty or so parted and surrounded him from both sides, guns raised and pointing at him less than a step or two away. There was nowhere to go. A fleeting thought passed quickly through his mind to turn and run back down the alley, but the chasing soldiers had now emerged, guns raised and directed at him, the pursuing drone coming overhead. He was going nowhere.
'Hello Jake' came a familiar voice from the drone in front of him. 'It seems you have been looking for me. I have been looking for you too'.
The voice sent a chill down his spine. This was not how this was supposed to go down. The soldiers in the alley now shoved Jake out into the middle of the road, the soldiers keeping a safe distance away from him guns locked and loaded. The two drones facing each other, either side of him, lights blaring brightly almost blinding him.
'You are entirely surrounded, young man' chimed the hauntingly familiar voice from the drone. 'Now I suggest that you come quietly, we wouldn't want you falling to the same fate as your father now would we?'
Maniacal laughter trailed off into the background. Jake's hands tightened into fists, his brown eyes sharpening and darkening with rage, and his jaw clenched with the realisation that he could sense that Max was not close by. This time he was really on his own.