A Chase Only Ends One Way

Beaumonde, New Peking, 2511

Blake Taylor sprinted down the back alley, his rucksack pounding against his back. He cursed himself again for being so careless. Blake chanced a look over his shoulder; his pursuers were still there. He should have heard the Purplebellies coming a long way off. Careless slips like this could land him right back in the Slam. This time it wouldn’t be a month stint like last time. For ‘Solicitation of Dissentious Activities’ they would give him years in the Slam. Understandably that wasn’t in his life plan. He was proud to be able to spread the word about the atrocities the Alliance had been committing in the name of Unity; it was what happened if you got caught doing it that bothered him. Part of him was glad he hadn’t tried to find a weapon for tonight. If he was caught and he had the leaflets and a gun on him that would add years to his sentence.

But the word had to be spread. That’s why he was out here in the dark and the cold, slipping newspapers under peoples doors. He and the others who wrote for the underground paper 24 Letters understood the risks. They lived with them every waking moment. Especially Kyal Dirnt the man had started the paper, the man barely left his house anymore. Kyal had told Blake just why they were doing what they were and the young engineering student had been drawn in by the other mans strong sense of right and wrong and commitment to the truth. The name of the paper itself was an irony; Kyal said it meant that the Alliance hid so much that they would have everyone believe there was 24 letters in the alphabet rather than 26. Whatever the case, anyone working for 24 Letters was a high priority on the Alliance hit list. If Blake was caught here, he knew that he could tear down the whole group. So that wasn’t an option. A terrible possibility began to rise in his mind. He thrust it away at first, as he sprinted around a group of rubbish dumpsters. But then he realised that it was the only way he was going to get out of this