Year E3029

Ocea

The sun was down for the night as the dark shadows took over the alleyways. I crept myself down the old building. Clinging onto the siding, I felt the wood panels falling apart. I looked over my shoulder while my fingers ached from holding myself up. The jump was still too high, causing me to look around for leverage to put my feet on solid ground.

The peeling green paint on the building showed the old white color underneath. My eyes glanced around to see a little lip sticking out. I reached for the edge of the lip, hoping not to fall flat on my ass. My fingers stretched, but I was not close enough.

Maneuvering in a better position, I reached for it again. Only my fingertips brushed the org material. I bit my cheek, glancing up at the path I climbed down from. An orange cloud shined in the dark sky while one moon lit up behind it.

"Hey!" a man's voice from below had me jumping slightly, causing my left foot to slip. I looked below me with wide eyes toward a familiar smile.

"What the duck, Stopper!" I yelled back at him. "You scared the crap out of me."

He pointed up, making me look above my head to the roof to see Dylan peeking his head over the edge of the building. He was trying to scale the wall down to the ground as well.

Dylan pointed over to the other building across the alley. "I'm going to jump to the storage unit and use that side," he said right before he jumped and flew over me, landing with a slide.

"Crap," I said, realizing Dylan was sharper than me.

I glared down at Stopper while he laughed like a hyena. His bright green hair bounced, and his matching green eyes looked at me. "Here, I'll catch you," he said with his arms out.

Stopper was by far one of the most attractive safforian I've seen. His tan skin had tattoos up his arms, with a defined jawline that made every female in all species look his way. He wasn't always the most attractive, but growing up helped him.

Now, I look back on the first time I met Stopper. I'm surprised we are friends. His group of Saviors was the worst. They were the first to help me, or more like scare me.

"You better not drop me!" I yelled back at him.

"No promises," he replied.

I took a deep breath before glancing at Dylan, effortlessly climbing down the other side of the alley. I kicked myself for not seeing how old this building was and how I crawled into this trap.

Dylan swung around, landed gracefully on a windowsill, and then beamed at me. His dark brown skin matched his deep brown eyes. He dyed his short hair red, but the black was growing underneath it. Dylan had a thing for safforians and their colors. Since a young age, he's been changing his hair to match his uniqueness.

"Jump before I change my mind!" Stopper yelled at me from the ground.

"Shut up, Stop!" I yelled back. "We all know you are enjoying this."

Stopper wiggled his eyebrows. "Yes, this view of your ass is by far the sexiest thing."

With that, I angrily jumped from the side of the building, landing on Stopper. We both fell to the ground, with me on top of him. He coughed out, choking on the surrounding dust. Dylan walked over with his hand out for me.

"Thank you," I said to Dylan, standing up.

Stopper sat up, brushing off his black shirt. "What?" He glared at me. "No, thank you to me."

I rolled my eyes. "Thank you, Stopper," I said with sarcasm.

"Now that doesn't sound like a pleasant thank you," he said, standing up. "It's okay. You can make up for it later tonight, in my bed."

Stopper knew what he said was going to start a fight. He held his hands before his face as I smacked him along his cheek.

I waved my hands for him to come at me. "Here, if you can pin me to the ground. I'll visit you tonight."

Stop smirked at me and stepped closer. "Can't pass that one up."

"Oh god, here we go again," Dylan said while finding a place to sit. He sat on a stack of tires, watching Stop and me wrestle.

"Oh, come on, Dylan. You know you want part of this action," Stop said with a side smirk, encouraging him to join us.

"No, I'll enjoy the show even more from the side." Dylan crossed his legs, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Okay, bring it," I said toward Stop.

Stopper wasn't a terrible fighter, but I knew him way too well. He never approached me with his maximum strength, which was his downfall, and I took advantage of it. He stomped toward me, swinging his arm around as I dodged it. But that wasn't his only trick as he kicked at my legs, making me stumble.

One of my favorite things about the guys I hung out with was they didn't care about kicking me over when we fought. I needed to know how to take a punch or swing to stay on the streets, helping the Saviors.

I took the stumbling to my advantage and made it look like I was falling. Stop quickly saw that, and ran at me fast. I spun around just in time for Stopper to run by me. I kicked him in the back, sending him flying to the ground. Stopper grunted from the ground, eating gravel.

I walked over to the side of him, crouching down. "Maybe one day you won't take it easy on me," I said as he laughed, shaking his head.

Dylan stood up. "And the winner goes to—" he said, but Stopper's arm swung around, knocking me to the ground. "Oh, wait." Dylan sat back down.

The gravel went up my nose as Stopper jumped on my back, pulling at my arm. "Tap out," he said.

"Never!" I yelled back at him.

He pulled up more while pain grew in my shoulder, waiting for it to pop out of place. "Tap out," he said through his teeth, not wanting to dislocate my shoulder, but I was almost asking for it.

Stopper's grip loosened as the taste of mud filled my mouth, and the sting in my shoulder only fueled me more. I kicked my leg back, twisting my body to wrap it around his torso. With one smooth motion, I was now on top of Stopper.

"Tap out," I said, pressing my knee to his spine.

The sound of scratching metal had all three of us looking at a sewer drain. The lid slid off as someone in a navy spray-painted gas mask poked their head out, showing us their familiar brown eyes. Wyatt pulled off the disguise to reveal his shaved head.

"You guys ready?" Wyatt asked, while giving a confused look to Stopper and me.

Wyatt's newly shaved head still made me do a double-take. He usually sported a mohawk, but last week, he lost a bet with Stopper when they were drunk.

"Yep," Dylan responded, jumping off the tires and heading to the sewer drain.

I placed my hand on the back of Stopper's head, pushing his face into the gravel. "So close," I whispered with my face close to his.

"Oh, I'll get you next—" he said, but I pushed his face deeper into the ground, causing him to eat dirt.

I jumped up, brushing my hand over my dirty pants. The dust flew around, then settled neatly to the surface.

"What took you so long?" Dylan asked Wyatt, as he followed him into the sewer drain.

Stopper laughed from the ground before following me down the hole into a dark tunnel. Wyatt tossed all of us a flashlight and then answered Dylan's question. "Ocea set off the bomb later than the arranged time, so I ran into a few stiffs."

"Yeah, what happened, Ocea?" Stop asked. "It kinda messed with my task as well."

I huffed out. "Sorry," I said, taking the lead down the tunnel. "I ended up running into someone I used to know before the Men Of Suits took over."

"Really?" Dylan asked.

"Yeah." I stopped to look at all of them.

These three guys are my best friends, but my life before the takeover was still a little secret to them. I rarely talked about my life before everything. They barely talked about it to me. I guess we all had an understanding that discussing the past brought sadness we couldn't change.

"The weird part was—" I looked down at the slow-running water pooled near my old tennis shoes. "They remembered me." I glanced back at them.

Wyatt scrunched his eyebrows together. "Not chipped?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No, they chipped him."

"Him?" Stop asked.

"Yes, him. His name is Thomas, and he was my neighbor across the street." I waved my arms around. "He knew me, but didn't know me. Like I was a memory that wasn't clear enough."

"Wait," Stopper said, tilting his head at me. "Is this the kid you were with when—"

"Yes," I replied.

Wyatt and Dylan glanced at each other, confused, not knowing what Stopper and I were talking about to each other.

Wyatt walked by me, taking the lead back to our bunker. "Well, maybe you should tell my father," he said, ignoring what Stopper said and getting back to the main point of our conversation.

"You think?" I asked, not sure.

"Yeah, maybe Thomas could be our answer to bringing back everyone's memories," Dylan said from behind me.

"He seems like competition to me," Stopper laughed, still not on the same brainwave as us.

"Oh, shut it, man." Dylan shoved Stopper.

I rolled my eyes at Stop's comment. In the end, he would never actually follow through with his words. He's always flirting with me, but there wasn't a woman he wouldn't flirt with here. Stopper was smart about it and only went for the human species, knowing he couldn't get them pregnant. He'd never want to take the chance with a safforian. I felt my face smirk slowly, thinking he would shit his pants if he knew that his chances of getting a human pregnant were there. I mean, I'm living proof.

Wyatt shined his flashlight up a ladder that led to a trapdoor. "I'm going to bring my dad the map. Why not follow me?" he asked me while climbing up to the door.

"You know—" I said, following him. "I will."

Wyatt knocked on the old wooden trap door to a rhythm. Within seconds, a guard opened the door with a gun pointing at us. Once they realized who was on the other side, they set the guns down, letting us climb up.

Wyatt maneuvered up the ladder, taking off his backpack when he reached the top. He shoved the bag through the hole, knowing both would not fit simultaneously.

Once he was up, Wyatt grabbed my hand, helping me. "My dad's in the surveillance room. We can look up videos of Thomas. See if we can trust him."

I pointed at Wyatt with a gigantic smile. "Good idea."

"I'm down. I want to see if Thomas is cute." Dylan wiggled his eyebrows.

I glared over at Dylan. "Hands off," I said, feeling protective over my teenage crush.

Dylan put his hands in the air. "Hey, you never know." He smiled. "He might be into guys."

"No, no, buddy, you are supposed to be winning Jackson back," I said, patting him on the shoulder.

Dylan frowned, stepping away from me. "We will see." He scrunched his nose up. "He's not speaking to me."

My heart dropped. "Shit, Dylan, I'm sorry."

Stop wrapped his arm around Dylan's shoulders. "Just keep trying, my man."

He shrugged his shoulders, trying to force a smile. "Now let's go see this Thomas guy," Dylan said while walking away.

Stopper grabbed my shoulders, pulling me into him as we followed Dylan and Wyatt to the surveillance office. His green eyes glanced at me, and for a second, I saw the young kid from ten years ago. I pushed off him, laughing in the dark tunnels of the Savior's bunker.

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