HangYourSecrets

In Bloom: The Reunion

Name: Jackson Robert Pennie

Nicknames: Known by his middle name, Robert, but more specifically, Rob.

Age: 34

Favorite Song: Ocean Song - Daughters

Appearance:



Description: Over the years, Rob has continued to remain fit and take care of himself; but middle age is slowly approaching, and with it have come a few new changes. His hair has begun to recede--so he typically keeps a hat or a hoodie nearby when he knows cameras are near. A skiing accident during his honeymoon also resulted in a compound fracture to his left leg. As a result, his typically technical drumming style has changed into a heavier, less complex approach, which is reflected in his taste in music as well as the bands he gigs out for.

Hobbies: Running, fishing, drinking, smoking (old habits), and multi-day solo hikes.

History: In many ways, the rapid success and sudden implosion of In Bloom came to define Rob's adult years.
After the experience, Rob turned to several odd jobs before eventually settling into the Orange County music scene. The connections he built, specifically with those in Vicarious, led him to become a modestly successful touring and gig musician. He soon began touring with MAE--a mononymic local alt-pop act who quickly topped the charts and released a platinum album in a whirlwind success story.

For a brief time, during Mae's first (and only) headline tour, Rob was able to play at every venue he had ever dreamed of playing--and remain mostly anonymous while doing so. Somewhere in the depths of Madison Square Garden, his and Mae's name are carved in exposed steel.

The experience would similarly sweep him into a whirlwind marriage with her, and by 26, he relocated out of California for the first time in his life and settled down in a Seattle suburb near Mae's extended family.

His then-wife continued a successful touring and singing career for another year before retiring early--embracing the label of "one-hit-wonder" as a badge of honor. The couple had one daughter, Elle, before tensions in the home separated the two within another year. As it turned out, they had only worked as a couple when they were touring.

Still, the divorce was as amicable as any divorce could be, and Rob chose to remain in Seattle to share custody of Elle. For the past several years, he has continued to tour whenever possible--focusing on fall and spring tours to stay local for Elle's summer breaks from school.

Rob remains a modest financial success--gigging out for national and international acts whenever a tour stops in Seattle, and going on the occasional tour or working as a session musician otherwise. His downtown apartment and its panoramic view are always a hit with Elle and her friends whenever they visit, but more recently, the isolation of the rainy Pacific Northwest has been getting to him.

Finding out of In Bloom's overnight success was initially an exciting prospect--but as the sales skyrocketed and the first big royalty check came in, he couldn't help but feel a tinge of fear for the phone call he knew was coming.

And when it finally did come--summoning him and anyone who wished to rejoin In Bloom's original lineup to a two-week retreat and songwriting period--he felt a pang of guilt that hung like a millstone for days.

Because he hadn't spoken to any of his former bandmates in nearly 10 years.

Who would come? Could they even write music together anymore?

How was Jane?

In Bloom: The Reunion

@megatrash

APEX

Kieran watched as Aura rose, unsure of what came next.

What would come next?

The question bounced around in his mind without much of an end. There was little they could bring—as the more they carried on their backs, the more they brought undue attention upon themselves. They would need to travel quick and light—moving in the hopes that the old retrograde homes that sprawled between here and the mountains would provide some brief respite.

Then there was the issue of the massive lake that lie between them and the mountains. The only way he knew how to cross were the tunnels that he and Aura had used to meet up. But accessing those tunnels meant traversing back towards the Maw, and talking with the Apex guards who may or may not be willing to hear him out.

How long did he have again? Kieran considered how Honeyman had phrased it. He figured by midday, it would be common knowledge that both he and Aura were fugitives.

His goal would be to make it out of the city before that word got passed to the guards that blocked his path.

“I think—” Kieran managed to croak out, until he felt Aura press against him.

Immediately, his cheeks flushed a bright red—and he found himself thankful Aura had pressed her face into his chest so that she wouldn’t be able to nice.

’She’s so small,’ He thought to himself. He didn’t mean to think it—but the thought crossed his mind the moment he wrapped an arm around the small of her waist. Whether it be from malnourishment or statue, he suddenly recognized the size difference between them both.

His mind raced to the first night they had spent together—with her towering over him as he lay prone on the ground, a boot digging into his side—and now, as he embraced her in her home.

Two souls eastward bound, to god knows where.

Perhaps it was the isolation of his life, or perhaps it was just how he was raised, but he found himself more and more unsure the closer he became to Aura. And he was close to her—make no mistake. He had chosen to leave the only home he knew with her.

But as Kieran fumbled through his feelings, and as he held Aura close to him, he began to act more instinctually. The last of his racing mind faded out into the air around them. He leaned into the gray, the unknown—both of what was to come of the future, and what was to come of them.

And without a second thought, his right arm raised. His palm found its way to the nape of Aura’s neck, and his fingers brushed their way into her freshly cut hair. He held her head softly and lowered his chin to rest upon Aura.

She pulled away soon after, and Kieran found himself briefly holding on, before letting her slip from him. As he released, he felt something odd and fresh between her shoulder blades. He thought briefly to ask further, but thought perhaps now wasn’t the time.

“I, um, I’m gonna get ready, I –“

“Of course,” Kieran said in response. An automatic reply. He turned from her as she from him, moving towards a smaller bag that could slip comfortably under his long black coat.

He had luckily spent many nights away from his home on mission, and was able to quickly assemble a bugout bag. Rations, rope, twine, fresh socks, knives—there was a lot packed into a very small space. He make sure to snag a few water filtration tablets, as well as a small fuel canister, a lighter, and handheld gas stove. Looking over his shoulder to see Aura prepping, he opened the bag and continued loading as much as he could inside for two.

It was hard to know what should be taken—particularly when considering he would likely never see this place again. He wasn’t a man of much sentimentality, but there was one thing he wanted to take.

He reached below his bed and pulled out a box. Brushing aside papers and objects he had collected, at the very bottom, he found what he had been looking for.

A small vile, corked at the top and filled to the brim with white-gray sand. Sand from the beaches of his childhood. From the last and only place he knew much peace.

He slipped it into his bag in a smaller compartment he knew wouldn’t take a hit.

Once he had prepared, he waited on the bed—deliberately sitting in a spot where much of his home wasn’t visible, as to give Aura space to change. Once she had finished and returned, he rose before she could even close the gap between them.

“I know why you did it,” Kieran said. “Returning the laptop, I mean. I get it. Gregor and the rest…they didn’t sound like easy people to have an out from.”

He couldn’t say he wasn’t entirely over the issue of the laptop, but what did it really matter now?

“My thinking is if we can get to the tunnels and cross the river by midday, no one should be after us and I can still use my Runner credentials to get us access. A friend—” Kieran stopped himself suddenly. The thought of Honeyman and the crane last night flashed into his mind. He brushed it aside. Now wasn’t the time. “My old boss told me last night we’d have hours at best if he went missing before all of Apex would know to find us. So…we have hours.”

He stood and moved to the door. “I’d love to hear more on the way,” he said, bringing out a smile. He felt a little better now; knowing he had an objective he wanted to go towards.

Or rather, a reason to live.

“I like the haircut, by the way,” he said, half-teasingly. “For a midnight rush job, you did a pretty damn good job.”

He cracked the door open. From here on out, they would be on the run.

APEX

Kieran floated in liminality for some time—not quite asleep, and not quite awake. The alcohol swirled through his veins, giving him no sleep. He could not remember the last time he had allowed himself to become as drunk as this.

His mind raced—images of Aura, the evening, the face of the man he had killed, all mixed together. One amorphous being. And behind it, behind it all, the jagged mountains. Those that loomed light shadows upon Apex. So close, and so far.

He had read their names in a book one. Cascadia. An impassable region. Where once any family could easily cross in a few hours.

Now? It was suicide. Dense, thick forests. Glacial planes. It would be a journey without a way back no matter if they crossed over or died in the brutal cold.

Kieran’s eyes shot open and his body out of bed. He panted in his cold sweat for just a moment, before his eyes looked down.

And saw the empty makeshift bed, and knew exactly what had happened.

The laptop, the plan…all gone. Gone with Aura.

And funny enough?

He didn’t feel the least bit angry.

** **

Kieran took a few moments getting ready to head out.

He splashed his face was cold water, and pulled on a typical dark, long coat for him. He laced his boots and pushed his worn body through the door.

He moved automatically—without knowing where he was going or what he was doing.

As he turned to close the door, his hands clasped around strands of hair. He jumped at first, dropping the bundle in the dark to the ground. But as he bent down to pick it up, he knew exactly what he held.

And couldn’t help but laugh. Quietly at first, but then, so loud he could feel the echo bounce from shipping container to shipping container. Throughout the muck of Port Apex.

“A meeting with the gods,” he muttered to himself.

After this, he pocketed the bundle and moved towards the only source of comfort he had on in this wretched place.

A crane—one of only a few—still standing beyond what had ended the old world. Its bending metal upon its base showed that its days were numbered, but he couldn’t help but climb it again and again as a kid.

Up here, ages ago, he had met Honeyman for the first time. He received his first mission here and had even shared his first kiss right at the top.

As he climbed the rusted staircase and rose higher and higher into the night sky, he couldn’t shake the overwhelming feeling that he was climbing it for the last time.

And truthfully, he was.

As he reached the top—some two hundred feet into the air—he turned to see the Apex skyline.

It was a funny thing, really. A mix of antiquated buildings and wretched amalgamations that Apex Authority had attempted to construct. But without the technology of the old world, the best they could make were abominations—writhing from the ground level of Apex and standing alongside towers crumbling and bent with the wind.

He wondered what this place used to be like. His mom had told him the name once when he was young. On the night he was sent off to this place. He had tried to remember it as he drank with Aura earlier that evening, but it came clearly now to him.

Seattle. That was it. He wondered what it had meant.

Whatever it was, of course, it wasn’t much these days. But maybe that could change. Maybe he was venture off to the east and one day hear stories about what came of Apex.

But all these thoughts faded into the howling wind as he heard a gun click, and cold end of a pistol touch his temple.

“They told me to go right to your home,” Honeyman said, his voice cracking. “But I knew I’d be dead before I got the door open. So I waited. I would have shot the girl too, if I had better confidence in my aim.”

Kieran quelled the tension in his gut and turned to face his former mentor.

Honeyman looked the same as he did just a few days prior when they had last spoken. His floppy hair seemed to whistle in the wind. Nothing looked different but his eyes. Red and puffy, they avoided Kieran’s gaze and shot daggers into the metal scaffolding below them.

“You’re going away with her?”

Kieran thought for a moment, then:

“Yes.”

“I figured as such. With the way she sliced her hair off. You don’t do that unless you’re dead either way.”

“Why are we still talking?” Kieran asked. He spoke calmer than he thought he could. “Do what you’ve got to do.”

“K, please,” Honeyman shot back. “We both know only one of us is climbing down those steps. The least we can do is talk.”

Kieran kept searching for his eyes, but Honeyman hid them—holding his pistol high to his face, making Kieran stare down the barrel. The gun shivered in his hands, and his fingers dripped with sweat.

“Let’s take a walk then, huh?” Honeyman offered. Without awaiting his response, he gestured with his pistol out to the scaffolding that lined the top spine of the crane. As he complied and paced out towards the ocean, he felt Honeyman’s heavy footfalls pace behind him, almost in synchronicity.

Together they walked out over the black, lapping waters two hundred feet below. To the edge of the crane that dangled over oblivion.

Kieran placed a hand on the ice-cold guardrail at the end of the line. He turned again to face the barrel.

“What gave us away?” he asked.

“Only two people know your password for the black seal. You, and me. I have to say, you got sloppy. I trained you better than that.”

“Circumstances changed quickly,” Kieran replied.

“So did alliances, I assume,” shot back Honeyman.

A moment of silence between the two of them passed.

“So is this your ticket into A?” Kieran asked. “Turning me in?”

“Turning you in, yes,” Honeyman. “Killing you gets me to B. I’ll settle for B.”

Kieran couldn’t help but laugh. And funny enough, Honeyman joined in.

“How did you let it go this far?” he then asked, his tone suddenly, sharply dark.

And to be honest, Kieran didn’t have much of an answer for that. A short time ago he had a system, a plan. The means to survive.

But as he looked past the barrel of the gun, past Honeyman, and the crane, and the city skyline…towards the distant mountains and their apexes illuminated by the night sky, he realized something.

Should Aura come back, and should they make it out alive, he wouldn’t have the means to survive.

He’d had a reason to hope.

And as he looked back to Honeyman, the man between him and the mountains, they locked eyes once again.

And suddenly, Kieran understood.

His chest panged, and before he knew it, he was crying.

“Hey now,” Honeyman said. “No reason to cry, K. They’ll treat you well before your execution.”

“I’m sure,” he eked out. His voice cracked and moaned with the crane. “And you’ll like A. Pretentious lot they are. You’ll fit right in.”

The wind howled again at them. Honeyman’s pistol was shaking even stronger. Kieran watched as he placed his finger on the trigger. Then Kieran widened his stance.

“How much time will I have?” Kieran asked.

“Hours, at best,” Honeyman replied. “Aim to be out by noon. That’s when they’ll be ready for you.”

Kieran’s face burned with a white-hot rage. “Is that all you’re worth to them?” he asked. “Hours?”

“Nevermind it, boy,” Honeyman nearly whispered. “It doesn’t matter now.”

The two men swayed. And for eternity the world stood still.

“K…do it.”

And so he did.

A shot rang out just past Kieran’s left ear as he pushed the pistol out of his way. And in one foul motion, Honeyman was tossed into oblivion.

The sounds of the wind and waves hid his crash into the sea.

And one man descended the scaffolding with a pistol in his hand, alone.

** **

Kieran returned home and feigned sleep a while longer—still in his clothes underneath the covers. He awaited for Aura’s return, and couldn’t help but feel relief as the door opened and Aura returned to bed.

He waited another twenty minutes before sitting up.

As he searched with his eyes towards her side of the room, he could see Aura’s sleeping form resting on the floorboards, beneath the sheets. Sharp-edged yellow hairs stuck out from the sleeping form. Absentmindedly, he twirled the black strands still is his pocket as he watched.

He rose silently and began to gather a few things—rations he had stolen from armed men. Tablets designed to purify water until they arrived at glacier-fed rivers. Things light enough not to cause suspicion but good enough to use until they could find items to survive on the other end of town.

There was a whole city between them and the mountains, he thought to himself.

He did make one exception, however. He opened a small drawer by his bed, and moved a few belongings aside.

Underneath it all was a handful of chocolates.

If we survive to next week, he thought to himself, at least she’ll have some chocolates.

** **

He waited as long as he could until the sun began to shine into the room, before opening a wayward curtain and shining the right directly upon Aura.

He waited until she moved, then rose, and finally, made eye contact with him.

It was apparent that both of them had had what was possibly the worst night of their lives. Her eyes shone from recent grief, just as his did.

“Good morning,” he said. He didn’t wait for a response.

“You probably already know this, but…” he trailed off, thinking for a nice way of phrasing it.

But then again, there wasn’t really a good way to phrase it, was there?

“I think it’s time we left Apex. For good.”

APEX

Kieran laughed slightly at Aura’s intoxicated apology, but in many ways, he was glad she had cut the tension. He had been comfortable bearing his soul to her for a minute, but any longer and he knew he’d likely shut back down.

Still—with the alcohol burning in his veins and burning at his cheeks—he found it hard to dwell on much at this particular moment.

Kieran felt a trust as well—something he had not felt in a long, long time.

Trust was a hard thing to come by in Apex. A harder thing for Kieran as well. Should she keep to her word, and he to his, he could easily see an eastward journey going well. And he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t, in this moment at least, looking forward to such a trip. As Aura spoke, his mind struggled to focus on her words and the thoughts that rang through his head. The idea of collecting materials, cashing in debts, and getting them, finally, away from here.

And who knows? Maybe at the other end of his journey would be some sort of familial solace.

“Yeah,” he muttered, intending to nod instead. A live-in servant in A…he wondered if there was something he could do to help her mother out of that. In this moment, with someone he was actually comfortable drinking this heavily with, he could probably have been coerced into a lot of things.

Was he always this bad at holding his booze? Or had he drank far too much and the day been far too long? It has hard to know for certain at this point.

Twenty-five, he thought to himself. She likes chocolate, I could get some pretty easily. Not sure what kind to get, maybe just a few different types?

He felt like he was a port boy again. Back when he would occasionally head to The Square and try to make friends with the butcher’s daughter on 4th street. It was innocent then (as innocent as it could have been at ten), and he remembered racking his brain over what to get her and what sort of object would convince her he’d make a good friend.

Funny enough, it had been about that long since he felt like he actually had a friend to talk to.

As she gathered herself to sleep on the ground, he nearly jumped from the bed.

“Strong drink, yea?” he said aloud, as he passed her and finished his drink in one fell swoop, before setting his and her cups on a nearby counter. “Here, I gotta thing that’d help.”

He was really slurring his words at this point. He opened a cabinet and produced two pillows, before setting them down by her and nearly falling back into the bed.

As he did, he remembered that a few moments ago Aura had said something about The Cause. Perhaps he should’ve noted that…what did she say? A meeting in a field, in a few days?

Nevermind it, he thought at he slipped into the bed, positioning himself and quickly feeling his body relax. He’d ask her before he went to get chocolates and see what the laptop had in it.

“A runner forever?” He asked and repeated. “No, never. I mean, you rarely see runners make it to 40, anyway.”

He thought for a moment, trying to find words as sleep tried to take him.

“I want a family. But not here. There’s too much…shit…I guess, around here…but…. yeah.” He finally settled on a definitive answer.

The room was spinning, and the last of his filter left him.

“I’ll go east…sometime, and have a family. I’ll have a family, and I won’t…leave. If only this place would let me.”

The room spun and spun.

And then it was dark.

APEX

Kieran listened as intently as he could, but like Aura, the drink in his hand was bad. He could feel himself warming and loosening as she talked. Over the past two days, there hadn’t been a whole lot of time to eat, and he was certainly paying the price for it this evening.

Well, either paying reparations or enjoying the silver lining. That much was yet to be seen.

The history of Unity and the history of Apex itself had been intertwined—as least as far as Kieran had known—but the extent to which that history had been mixed was shocking. The names Aura mentioned—Morgan, Jefferson, Hutchins—were all names he knew. Terms scratched into the walls of transit, murmured in bars, or even on street signs in certain places. To know Apex’s tight control over these settlers and just about everyone post-blight, however, wasn’t much of a surprise.

Kieran was an apolitical person—by nature and by survival instinct. Apex had served as a valuable employer for many years, but in many ways, his culpability within that system had been a true coping mechanism for the things he had born witness to. There were many stories yet untold—betrayals and massacres he had seen from his time with them that kept him up at night and would surely betray the nascent trust he and Aura were building.

Here he was again—rattling off thoughts as he listened, always planning, always theorizing. But there was little left to theorize.

Apex was cruel, malevolent, and oppressive. It was true. Everyone knew it from the top of their leadership down to Honeyman and to himself as well. But for so long, he viewed Apex much how he imagined an insect views a human. What was the point in hating something so powerful and beyond your control? It was best to focus on survival, and if the sky came falling down and the towering force decided to crush you, well, there was little you could do about it. No point in the worry, really.

But what fascinated Kieran most—as Aura finished her story—was the idea of the radio chatter. The voices on the outside. Were they too ruled by their own Apexes, or had they found a different means of survival? Or did they exist at all?

Kieran often avoided such thoughts, but not for long. The distant mountains to the east loomed over Apex on a sunny day. They showed him his past. How his parents had gone.

He pushed the thoughts aside as the discussion turned to the future, and Aura’s solution to what came next.

“I think if we get into the computer, figure out what Gregor really needed, we can stop whatever attack they’re planning next.”

She had a point. They could sort out Unity’s plan, and with that information, tip Apex off to put an end to the whole affair.

It would be another massacre.

Apex always wins rang through his mind as some perverted mantra. It had been something Honeyman told him when he still worked with Kieran. ”Apex always wins, K. Either you stand with them or you pray they aim straight the first time.”

How recently had it been since he saw Honeyman last? A week? A month? So much was different now.

“I’m not great with computers,” he admitted. He thought to the handful of times he had used them—mostly to see what would come of it. They were a luxury even the richest in A could hardly affound. “But I know someone who is. I can take a lesson with them and come back to see what’s in this laptop. And I could touch base with Apex and see what they know.”

He would need to tell them he lost the laptop, certainly. In fact, he’d likely need to tell them Aura took it. It was a dangerous move to talk directly to Apex now, but he had little choice. If he didn’t show his face, Apex would likely come to the port and look for him.

And find Aura.

It had to be done.

Kieran rose after Aura had poured him another drink, but found himself tipping forward ever so slightly, and with a brief stumble, settled on his feet.

He trusted her, certainly. More than most. Perhaps more than any. But transparency wasn’t his strong suit. The drink would help with that.

“I don’t know, I quite like the sound of Mystery Man,” he mused, leaning against a wall a few feet back. The more the drank, the more he liked to be on his feet. “It’s been fun hearing that.”

He paused, thought, then continued:

“But I’m not that interesting. I was dumped at this port when I was young. I was raised by vagrants and ship hands, mostly. A sort of fucked-up foster care, I suppose. But eventually some fatass by the name of Honeyman came by and said I looked fit enough to run, and soon enough, I was the Runner for the port.”

He looked down to his drink and swished the contents around in a circular motion. Then, smoothly, he knocked it down. “I don’t have a lot of friends. You can’t, when you’re me. I tried. But then someone wants double rations, and someone else’s grandma needs a new doorframe, and eventually, you’re not a friend. You’re another fucking client.”

He had a little more distain in his tone with that last part than he was expecting. The sting of being a teenaged Runner was still on his mind. Boys that wanted him to deliver love notes. Women that had gotten close to him only to make some grand request about moving her family up a subsection. At a certain point, the agoraphobia kicked in.

“It gets old,” he said, looking off instead of at Aura. “Being everyone else’s ticket to success. Someone’s fucking big break to get out of a bad situation. So, I stopped talking after a while.”

He looked back to Aura. “I became Mystery Man,” he said, half-jokingly. “I’ve talked more to you these past few days than I have to most anyone else in years.”

There was some sting on his voice. Kieran because acutely aware of how open he was being, but he wasn’t sure he could close that box again. Not with Aura.

“Parents? I don’t know,” he muddled out. “They were good people. Or, bad people with good parenting skills. Like I said, I was dumped here. About ten years ago I traced down our old place, but the only thing I learned was they went east, over the mountains, and never came back.”

A pang of pain, a pause, and then:

“So, there we go,” he said with a finality and a facetious flick of his hand. “Mystery no more. But I’ve love to know more about my hilarious and beautiful partner if we’re going to be off to god-knows-where. Any bounty hunters planning on hunting you down when we go? Aside from Apex of course.”

He found himself comfortably discussing leaving—leaving with Aura for that matter—without a tinge of fear. Perhaps it had been their evening, or perhaps everything that had happened so far, but he found himself a little more comfortable each moment with the idea of leaving it all behind.

It wasn’t like anything out there could possibly be worse than this.

APEX

Aura’s bemusement shone clear on her face as he got up to find ice and clean clothes. It was an almost surreal feeling—being more comfortable and at home at Loor’s party, with enemies left and right than here, in his home, with Aura.

”A change of clothes sounds lovely.”

He tried to swallow his anxiety as he found some thick cloth and luckily had a few bits of ice still in his freezer, which he wrapped up. He also found some clean clothes and placed both beside Aura before sitting back down.

As she tried to recount her experience with Loor, Kieran quickly quelled his immediate feelings of rage. How terrible that must have been. What he must have said or done to have placed her in such a position. But this was no time to mention his own thoughts.

Instead, he waited—listened—and nodded his agreement when she suggested they don’t discuss it.

“What matters is he’s dead,” he said briefly, nearly to himself. A complication, sure, but of what use was hindsight now?

“This is my jurisdiction,” Kieran said briefly as Aura made mention of a paid runner. “They’ll be hesitant to come directly here. I have a bit of a reputation for protecting it.”

Kieran thought briefly to a time a subsection B runner came to the docks to try to make a deal with some of the Port Boys. Of course, they told him, and Kieran met up with the runner in a bar about a week later. The poor runner couldn’t see his sucker punch coming from a mile away. Kieran must have knocked out four teeth that night when he was only going for a broken nose.

’His fault,’ he thought to himself. ’Should have seen it coming.’

“I’ll need to hash out my cover story with AA,” Kieran mentioned after Aura spoke of getting some stuff from Del. “After that, I might be able to sort something out with Del and your things.”

Kieran’s somewhat austere face softened somewhat as Aura mentioned their deal. He had almost forgotten about it, given tonight, but the mere mention of alcohol gave him an excuse to calm his nerves a bit. Even if it meant being more honest than he wanted to be.

Although, what was the goal now? With Loor dead and the laptop stolen, and with Aura separated from the rebellion, he had few opportunities to get connected enough to take them down from the inside. Whatever Aura shared now, even if it did take out the rebellion, did he really want to live in subsection A? What was the point of that lifestyle?

Kieran briefly thought of the others living in town. The whispers he had heard about going against the grain when it came to Apex Authority. He had often wondered—when the last leader fell, and the flags came down—who would run Apex then?

He knew that the retrograde name of the city had been something with an “S.” Seaborn? Settler? Perhaps that town would rise again.

Or, perhaps the entire city crumbled. And Kieran would need to go wherever his parents did. South, north, or over the mountains to the east. To whatever was beyond Apex.

But all of that could wait. All of that lay outside the walls of his home. In here, was Aura. And his things.

And a lot of ale.

“Well, if you’re as good as dead to them,” he said, rising from the floor and taking her empty cup, “I suppose it’s time to talk.”

He pulled a second cup from a shelf and filled them both to the brim with a barrel of ale that had been fermenting so long it may have been whisky. The stuff tasted foul, but it did its job nicely. It should serve them well tonight.

He returned and handed her the cup back. He sat, thinking back to the first time they attempted to chat over drinks. If he remembered correctly, Aura had little interest in playing drinking games then.

How much had changed in a few short days.

He drank from his cup—several large glugs of the stuff, enough to burn in his nostrils and bring wetness to his eyes—before lowering it once more. “Let’s not waste any time then,” he said through a choked throat, of his drink and the conversation alike. He cleared his throat, then continued.

“Whatever gets us out of here.”

He thought for a moment after his statement. Did he mean to get them out of the situation with the rebellion? Or Apex itself?

Not even he knew the answer to that one. But he leaned forward and listened anyway.

APEX

Kieran tried his best to keep his eyes from bulging out of his head once he realized what Aura was trying to suggest.

’You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,’ he thought to himself. His mind raced to think of how he could best sneak her into Port Apex, and the very thought gave him sharp pangs of anxiety. He’d had to get past the Port Boys, which was going to be an issue all on its own with how shitty the men of the port could be, but even beyond that, beyond paying off anyone who saw them, he couldn’t help but feel embarrassed.

His home was terrible. An amalgamation of whatever he could find within a few containers. Nothing even close to creature comforts.

But...he knew they had to do it.

After the party, “Sada” was going to be public enemy number #1. And he knew that he would need to contact AA before they tracked him down themselves, endangering them both. Tonight and tomorrow he would spend the time sorting out a cover story and next steps.

But for now, there was a more pressing problem. He needed to get them out of here, and quickly.

He watched as Aura turned to hurl over the boat and wrap herself up. He tried not to watch too closely. It was uncomfortable, watching someone unravel. But he knew he would have done the same had he been in her position. She was now a fugitive, and he needed to do what he could to protect her.

So, instead of watching, he occupied himself with the engine block. Taking the jumpers and making a few adjustments, he pulled hard on the pull cord, once, then twice, then--

WHIRRRRRRRRRR

The engine roared fiercely into the night, before settling to idle at a lower speed. He could feel the boast jostle beneath them--a good sign--and knew that the engine was moving the propeller.

They were mobile.

“So, what do you say? It’d only be for a few days.”

He turned away from the engine block and back to her.

“Until we know what the fallout is from this, I agree. You need to lay low. Let's get moving."

--

Kieran occupied himself with the rudder as the boat buoyed and bounced its way through the choppy waters of the sound. Above them, moonlight reflected several-fold. As Kieran took a wide berth away from the shores of Apex, the light meant that the two could see all of Apex in this one, simple light.

The city looked more dead than alive out here. The towering retrograde buildings in the heart of downtown had half-fallen--leaving jagged peaks and imposing pikes to rise from the earth. Even still, behind the city, he could see the distant peaks of a more natural kind.

The mountains that surrounded and seemed to consume Apex. Cutting it off from...whatever it may be beyond.

“My Dad told me once that our family had come from the other side of those mountains,” he thought aloud. “I wonder what’s there now...”

He glanced to Aura before quickly realizing those thoughts had been said aloud and turned away to avoid discussing it further.

Luckily, the port was quickly approaching, and it was time to get ashore.

Once a few hundred feet from shore, Kieran killed the engine and let the ship slowly float towards one of the many deserted docks on the north end of Port Apex. He knew that in the shadows, many of the Port Boys and others would likely be watching. Tomorrow, he’d have to venture out to see who knew what, who and told whom.

Once the ship docked, he helped Aura off of the boat and onto the rocky shoreline. As he did, he could see her injured foot--and it wasn’t looking great.

“Here,” he said, moving to her opposite side, “don’t put much weight on it.” He slipped an arm around her and helped her cross the short walk to his home a few hundred feet down the shore.

He opened the door to reveal the same home he had known for years--spacious enough, given it was four shipping containers connected together, yet still small enough to where the entire space could fit in a single field of vision.

He helped Aura to the bed--a rather large tarp over makeshift betting and some blankets pawned off from a client--and moved to the furnace.

“Sorry for the mess,” he said quietly, Why did he feel so embarrassed? He quickly started a fire and warmed up the cold space, before moving to his water tank and pulling together two pints of water. He brought one over to Aura.

“It’s not much of a place, but I made it myself,” he continued. “It may not be all that grand, but it’s home.”

He sat down on the floor a few feet away--a comfortable conversing distance, plus, he had no real seating in here other than the bed--and finally, took a deep breath.

They were safe, for now.

“We should get something for that foot,” he noted. Kieran was quickly beginning to realize he had a good deal of anxiety brewing in his chest. Strangers came and went--and he was very comfortable conversing with a whole host of them throughout a day. But Aura was much more than that at this point.

And he hadn’t spoken with anyone he actually cared about in years, and now, suddenly, he and Aura were bound together. It had happened so quickly he hadn't realized how quickly he had come to trust her.

He suddenly felt aware of the fact and tried not to think on it too much.

“And I’ll see what clean clothes I have that’ll fit.”

He felt another pang of anxiety. Perhaps if he could focus on fixing whatever issue was in front of them, it would go away.

Still, it was a nice feeling, in a way. Maybe these next few days wouldn’t be so bad after all.

APEX

Kieran's eyes blurred in brilliant displays of light and darkness.

He stormed through the tunnels beneath the hills of subsection A--Aura keeping pace as they sprinted.

Their gait was hurried and pained--their breaths ripping, gasping in the air and sending hollow echoes throughout as they ran.

The boat. Kieran thought, over and over again. We have to get to the boat.

"I can't go back to Unity!" Aura explained. Loor was dead. The words crushed into Kieran though he had known their truth for the past several minutes.

This plan had gone all sorts of sideways. The laptop--should Aura even have it, as the past few minutes had been a blur--was their only salvation. How was he to explain to AA what had happened? If Aura couldn't go back to Unity, what could he even accomplish to get them both in better standing in AA?

Right now, the time for rumination was far from where they were--running like animals from what would likely be a mob of police and resistance.

Kieran pushed past the hatch and dumped them on the beach. Suddenly, all of the noise and the chaos of the party bled away into the night. Here the salt air sliced through the silence like a tempest calm. And suddenly, all was still.

Kieran huffed and puffed--trying to catch his breath. Beside and behind him, Aura seemed similarly lost in thought. A momentary glance to her concerned him, given the emotion on her face, but he gave it no mind.

They both were murderers, this night. There was little to be done about that. He could ask her later how a shoreline could be so moving.

He led them forward--slower now, gently--across the retrograde boardwalk. Towards the ragged boats around and beneath. Out here the full moon shone upon the shores of this vast sea so much that the distant, cragged peaks of distant mountains shone themselves even now.

All he wanted in this moment was to leave. To take Aura far, far away from whatever fetid mess they had created tonight and to start something new. But he knew things may be more complex than that. They always were.

"That's where we're going," he responded in kind to her question. He figured she wouldn't be so impressed, but what else was there to do in light of what had happened? Escape via the streets was one thing, but after Loor's death? These consequences would be felt for long after they had escaped.

Or been killed.

Looking for construction and engineering he could recognize, Kieran spotted a larger boat with twin hulls. A catamaran, to be exact. This sort of boat had what he wanted--a sturdier engine he could possibly start with siphoned fuel, and a lower storage and cabin area to hide in should AA come around.

"Here," Kieran said, helping Aura down to the top of the boat. He took a few takes around the area before letting his guard down--wasting no time and moving to the stern and opening the engine compartment.

"These retrograde engines have held up better than you'd have expected," he explained to her as he took a look at the block. He felt alongside the walls of the inner compartment, leaning into it and feeling for bumps. "The batteries die, of course, but a lot of the time the people who owned these had these jumpers that held up hundreds of years. They thought it would have them if they were abandoned at sea, but for us," he continued, "it works out long after they're gone."

As he talked and explained, he couldn't help but think of the last time he had been on a boat like this. In Port Apex, with the port boys and him looking around abandoned retrograde models for booze or something better. He spent much of his adolescence like that--drinking with the others, messing with engine parts, without a care in the world so long as they were back before the morning...

He shook the thought from his head and kept making adjustments to the engine block. "I know you probably had the best reason in the world to kill Loor. In fact, I'm pretty fucking sure of it." He found a bolt holding the ignition assembly and began to loosen it.

"Though honestly, I'm not sure where we go from here because of it."

He looked to Aura--unsure of her eyes but knowing his shone little more than the truth. He could get the boat moving, sure, but then what?

"I'm not sure what we do from here."

APEX

More than an hour, Kieran repeated to himself in his mind the moment the words came from Aura. Be concerned if it takes more than an hour.

Kieran wanted to ask more, but he--like Aura--found himself quickly interrupted by the particularly rotund figure making his way down the spiral staircase.

Loor. Scarlet red in the face from heavy intoxication, the man was known to have quite the binary personality. Getting on his bad sign was typically someone’s final, fatal mistake.

As he locked eyes with Aura, he made himself scarce; ensuring his back faced away from Loor and Aura and towards the rest of the party-going crowd. He was security, after all. And yet, he couldn’t help but feel remorse as he turned away from her.

His job was to protect her. Or rather, to ensure he honored his promise to her. And, his job was to foil the plot of her organization. And, the escape Apex once and for all.

This evening yielded several layers of difficulty in ensuring his goals were met. What had happened so fast as to make him involved in so much espionage? This was not his world. Yet here he was.

Watching, as Loor with Aura in loose tow made his way to the bar.

Taking the opportunity to break away, he did so.

***

Kieran kept a close but distant eye on Aura throughout the evening as he mingled about the festivities. He was able to snag a drink as he did so, after spotting several guards doing the same. Monkey see, monkey do.

Sometime soon after Loor began supplying himself and Aura with booze, he slid upstairs--hoping to scope out the rooms from which the man had come.

It was a risky venture, of course--he was relying on Loor to take his time socializing before retiring with Aura. But he found himself ducking into the hallway anyways, counting the seconds he was gone as he went. One, two, three...

In here, stationed guards waited outside many of the doors that adorned the curved hallways. Here the sounds of sex were thick in the air, as the men of bureaucracy and their unwilling paramours engaged in a fetid communion.

Kieran grew nauseous as he continued his search for tells and giveaways. And as fate had it, he found his man.

Or his room, rather.

Loor’s door was a double-wide, guarded by a man that Kieran hadn’t arrived with who armed himself with a small pistol brandished freely in a loose palm.

Kieran gave a nod as he passed forward into the restroom at the end of the hall. This man was very likely Loor’s and Loor’s alone. Purchased exclusively, and loyal to no one else.

As he waited in the restroom for what felt as if it were the appropriate time, he began to think of some sort of plan to clear this hallway. The number of guards just wasn’t going to work. He could use his credentials to clear most of the men, but Loor’s man? He wasn’t going to move. He needed clearing out in a way that wasn’t going to be fun.

As he thought, three loud raps came upon the door.

“This bathroom is for guests only,” came a surprisingly tenor-toned voice. “Go to the basement if you need it. Come on!”

Kieran froze, then waited, then anxiously waited. This opportunity may have benefited him.

“I’m sorry,” he called out in a nasal tone, trying what he could to sound bashful. “I’ve got a, uh... well I seem to have made a bit of a mess.”

A long silence. Then--

“The fuck do you mean, a mess?”

The door burst open then--left purposely unlocked by Kieran.

“You see, it’s right over here--” he started, moving the guard behind him and closing the door.

As soon as it did, Kieran took his shot. He punched--hard and fast--directly at the back of the man’s neck. He had one shot at this, and it seemed to have paid off.

The man left out a soft ’guh’ sort of noise as his legs buckled beneath him. He had clearly been concussed by his blow, and likely partially paralyzed as well.

Kieran didn’t take any chances. He punched just as hard again at the spot, then grabbed at the man and lowered him gently. He tried not to think too hard about what he had just done.

He took the pistol from the limp man, opened the door, and locked it from the inside before closing it up again. He took a few steps towards the remaining guards, before pulling out a black seal.

“I’m gonna need this hallway cleared if that’s alright.”

***

Kieran waited at the foot of the staircase after Aura and Loor had made their way upstairs. The night had already turned sour--as far too many people had needed his black seal for him to be able to get past. Not to mention the loose end currently unconscious or worse in the bathroom upstairs.

The more he waited, the more he feared that the man still lived. But then again, few had taken that serious of a blow to the head and survived.

He simply needed to hope for the unthinkable.

And as he did, he heard rushed footsteps beating down the staircase. He had little time to turn before he saw Aura.

His eyes quickly scanned her up and down. He had no need to ask how it had gone. It was loud enough for all the party to see.

We need to go now.

“Come on,” he said, taking her by the arm and pulling her towards the staircase. They brushed past guests and quickly made their way to the basement door.

As he opened the door, he heard footsteps above them, on the second-floor staircase, making their way down just moments after him.

”Fuck me,” he spat out. “This way.”

He and Aura fled quickly down the lower stairs into the basement. Here, he desperately peered down the hallways in search of their absolution--the door outside to the tunnel beneath the earth.

But all he could see were more doors and more halls each way he went.

He could feel Aura just behind him, knowing he needed to think fast. But before he could, the door above them to the ground level slammed shut.

At the top of the stairs, the guard from the bathroom stood.

“Get behind me,” he said to Aura. The moment she was out of his path, he bolted up the stairs as the guard bolted down towards him.

The two locked arms at their halfway point. The guard thrust an uppercut Kieran’s way, only to meet the concrete lining the staircase walls. He yelped in pain--covered by the pulsing sounds of the music above.

Kieran moved next, lifting a knee to pelt the man below the belt. The guard saw it coming--clasping both his hands together in a tight fist and slamming it down on Kieran’s head.

He stumbled back a few steps, before taking a second blow to the face, before losing his balance and tumbling the rest of the way down. Sharp, stabbing pain pelted Kieran along his legs, side, and left arm. Thankfully, he had taken no further hits to his head as he fell.

He rose to his feet just as the guard finished coming down the stairs. He took a wide stance, driving his left shoulder in the man and lifting him in the air. As he did, he grabbed at the man’s thighs and drove down--swinging the guard’s head like a pendulum into the corner of the sharp, concrete stair behind him.

A sickening crunch erupted from the man’s head, and blood soon after that. Kieran stood over the man, before lifting a foot and stomping down--ensuring the guard wouldn’t follow them this time.

He took three sharp, deep breaths, catching himself, before turning to Aura. In his adrenaline, he wasn’t sure if she was terrified, relieved, both, or neither.

All he knew now was to run.

He sprinted down the longest hallway towards what seemed the be the heaviest door. It ripped open easily, and a cold gust of air told Kieran that he had succeeded on his first try.

He motioned for Aura to follow, and as soon as the two were outside, he shut the door behind them.

Above them, they could hear the murmur of commotion. The party was beginning to become aware of what had just happened to Loor. No more time could be wasted.

“In here,” Kieran spoke harshly, just above a whisper, and the two disappeared into the tunnels below.