Author's Note: I hope you all are enjoying this story so far!

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 Shai had never been in a car before. She had rarely ever seen any either. The only time she had really seen them were at the derby or the trucks that bring food to the Drop Off. The feeling of sitting in the front seat as Jasper sped down the empty road. She kept a tight grip on the sides of her seat. Mikko had his elbows up on the back of Jasper and Shai's seat and was leaning forward to talk to them. He was mostly giving Jasper directions on how to get to the camp.

"I need you two to be completely prepared," Mikko said for like the tenth time since they had left his house. "Shai, somebody may want to talk to you, so I need you to be able to sound like a man."

"What do I do?" she asked him. "Just drop my voice lower?"

"Basically, yes," Mikko agreed. He took two fingers and placed them at the bottom of his throat. "Talk from here."

Shai took in a deep breath and placed her fingers on the bottom of her throat, in the same spot Mikko had his fingers.

"What do you want me to say?" she said in her normal voice.

"How about the alphabet?" he suggested.

Shai furrowed her eyebrows at him. "I don't know what that is."

"Okay," Mikko said raking his hand through his tangled hair, leaving it even more tousled. Shai looked over at Jasper and he shrugged his shoulders. "How about 'my name is Officer Nicholby' then?"

Shai wondered why he had given her Jasper's name, but then she remembered about how he thought they were married.

"My name is Officer Nicholby," she tried saying from the bottom of her throat.

It felt odd and Jasper started laughing at her. She swung her arm out and hit him in the shoulder.

"A good rule for the car, Shai. Don't hit the driver," Jasper told her.

"Try again," Mikko told her.

Shai took a deep and bit down on her lip quickly. She tried saying it again, but this time she focused even more on lowering her voice. It came out much better than her first attempt at saying it. Jasper chuckled at her. Mikko took his elbow off of the seat and swung his hand to hit Jasper in the shoulder.

"What did I just say about the hitting?" Jasper yelled.

"It's my car. I don't need to follow the rules," Mikko told him. "Turn right here."

Jasper turned the car off the smooth strip of road they were riding. The car started to shake as the ground underneath them became rough. A large house came into view. Shai had never seen a house that big before; even the ones in Bright weren't this big. The windows still had all the glass in them and a large porch wrapped around the entire house. As they got closer the fence came into view.

The large metal posts tore through the sky and were laced together with wire. Large loops of sharp wire were wrapped around the top. The house seemed so quiet and beautiful. How could it be attached to something so cold and deadly?

Mikko told Jasper to pull over after they had drove beside the fence for a minute. Mikko opened up his door and ran outside. Jasper and Shai both got out of the car and joined him in front of the gate. A rectangle was cut into the fence and Shai realized that it was a door.

Tegan was behind that fence and she hoped that Todd was too. She had already decided that after she found Tegan she was going to search for Todd. He could be in that camp and she wasn't going to wait until Mikko was sure.

Mikko walked around to the back of his car and opened up the trunk.

"Shai, come here," he ordered her.

She walked over and could hear Jasper's footsteps behind her. Mikko was riffling through a few boxes of junk in his trunk. The packrat couldn't go anywhere with some of his pointless junk with him.

He pulled one of the gasmask out of the box and handed it to her.

"Put it on now," he told her. "I have five canisters of that gas you used the other night. I'm not sure when you'll need to use them, so be prepared. But first I have to give you something."

He put a ball into her hand. He pulled an object out of the box and hooked it over his ear. A small wire traced its way down to his mouth.

"Roll that and then put it in your ear. I'll be able to talk to you while you're in there," he said. "I'll have complete control of the cameras. So I'll probably have to save your ass at one point. The most important thing is to not question what I say and just do it. Understand?"

"Yeah," she said.

Her heart started beating quicker as she realized what she was about to do. She spent her entire life hiding from Officers, and now she was about to enter a camp full of them. Her fingers were trembling as she rolled the ball in her fingers. It squished down in size and she pushed it into her ear. It expanded inside of her eardrum and felt uncomfortable.

She carefully took her hat off and Jasper helped her put the mask on without ruining the bald head that Mikko had given her. Mikko pulled a belt out of one of the boxes and started tying it around her waist. He grabbed the canisters of gas and slipped them into knots he built into the belt. She hoped she remembered how to work it again.

Mikko handed her the other mask to give to Tegan. There wasn't an extra knot for her to hang the mask from. She undid the top button on her jacket and shoved it in. The uniform was much too big for her, so the mask fit in without awkwardly jutting out from her chest.

"There's a warehouse," Mikko told her. "It's near the back. I'll tell you when you get near it. I'm going to open up the door and Tegan will be inside. There's no order inside there so you have to look for a number. Every Rat that comes into these camps gets an identification number burned into the back of their neck. Tegan's is 0267732. Do you know what that looks like? I know you can't read."

Todd never taught her how to read, but he did teach her how to count. He stole paint from an artist at the Market. He made her spend many painstaking hours writing up to fifty on the walls of their apartment.

"Yeah, I do," she said.

"You sure, Shai?" Jasper asked her. "If you don't want to do this you can just tell me."

"I can do this," she snapped.

Jasper bit down on his lip and nodded his head. Him doubting her didn't make her feel any better now.

"I've gotta question," she told Mikko.

"I assumed there would be one. What is it?" he asked.

"If I'm always goin' to wear this thing over my face," she said pointing to the mask, "then why did you make me learn how to talk like a man?"

"You two are really dull," he told her. "I thought it would spice it up a bit. I was right, like usual. Now are you ready?"

Shai looked up at Jasper and she had never seen so much fear in his eyes before. She smiled at him to assure him she'd be alright. She leaned in to kiss him but quickly remembered the mask covering her face and wished she had done it before she put it on. Her arms went around his waist and he wrapped his around her shoulders. They kept pulling each other closer.

"If you can't get Tegan come back out right away," Jasper whispered to her. "We can have another chance. I don't want you dying."

"I will be fine," she tried to reassure him.

Mikko made a loud noise as he cleared his throat behind him. Shai kept her arms around Jasper, but turned her head around to look at Mikko. When Shai eyes met Mikko's he looked back down onto the screen in his hands. It was almost like he was embarrassed to see them that way.

"Two Officers doing that is enough of a reason to be arrested. So stop it," he said not taking his eyes off of his hands. Shai pulled herself away from Jasper and could feel his fingertips press into her shoulder blades through the thick material of the jacket. It was his way of not wanting to let her go.

"Are you ready?" Mikko asked her.

"Yeah," Shai said nodding her head. Her heart was slamming against her ribcage. Getting nervous in the Market felt nothing like this. She could feel the bile rise in her throat and her head felt dizzy. Her feet felt heavy and she feared that after a few steps she would tumble to the ground.

"Are you fast, Shai?" Mikko asked her.

"Why?" she asked.

Her voice came out panicky and she cursed herself for that. Mikko shot a glance up at her and smirked. Shai gnawed at her lip.

"It may be important. I'm going to open up the front gates first to distract most of the Officers. Then I'll open this gate," Mikko explained to her. "Well, be in the car waiting for you to come out with Tegan."

Shai chewed on her lip and just nodded her head. She stood in front of the gate and took one of the canisters out of her belt and prepared it in her hands. A bell went off and she could hear Officers shouting in a distance. Lights flooded the farm and Shai saw how large the farm really was. She didn't know how long it would take to get to that warehouse and she didn't know if she would have enough canisters to get there. The bell continued to ring and it hurt her ears.

The bar across the door in the fence and Shai moved her feet forward. Her feet dragged for the first couple steps, but after that she was off running. She wanted to make sure she got to the warehouse quickly.

Most of the Officers were racing towards the front gate and didn't even notice her. They obviously were never prepared for this to happen. She kept her head down and tried to shield the fact that she was wearing a large mask. She wasn't going to waste her gas now, as no one seemed to notice her.

The bright lights quickly turned off and the Officers looked even more in a panic.

"You should be able to get further unnoticed if they can't see," Mikko's voice filled her ear. Shai let out a gasp as she thought Mikko had followed her, but then she remembered about the little ball she put in her ear. "The warehouse is the large building between two smaller ones up ahead. It has a large metal door on the front. When you get there I'll open up the door."

Shai nodded her head as she began to sprint across the field.

--

Bells went off that Ren had never heard before. It woke her up and she quickly looked over to Todd. She thought that he may have tried to escape and not brought her with him. She saw him rubbing his eyes and sitting up on his bed. She felt ashamed for thinking he would leave her behind.

Rats jumped out of their bed, but they weren't sure to go. No Officers stayed inside the warehouse at night and none had entered since the bell went off. They had no idea where to go or what they were supposed to do, but the fear of being punished still lived inside them. Ren had been there for years and this had never happened before.

It was usually too dark in the warehouse to see anything at night. A bright light was peering through the bottom of the door. It illuminated the warehouse enough so she could see Todd clearly. Her face must have looked nervous because he cocked his head to the side to gesture for her to come over to his bed.

Without even thinking, Ren left her bed and climbed into Todd's. The thought of doing that would have never crossed her mind a couple months ago. There was something odd about Todd she didn't understand. She hadn't felt that close to someone since she was arrested, and she had only known him for a couple weeks.

She sat down in front of him so they could both stare at the door. It felt to her like that any moment it would open up. She gasped as she felt Todd wrap his arms around her waist and pull her towards him. He had her back pressed right up against his hard chest. He nuzzled his face into her neck and she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. She had never had a guy do this to her before and she didn't know why he was doing that.

The light under the door was quickly shut off and the warehouse was back in darkness. Having Todd's arms around her made her feel safe. The thought was almost comical to her. Her ears were ringing from the sharp sound bell continued.

--

As Shai began to run a couple Officers turned around to look at her oddly.

"Hey!" an Officer shouted out as he grabbed his gun strapped to his back.

Shai turned the top of the canister and dropped it on the ground. The gas let out a hissing noise, but it was barely audible. All of the Officers near her quickly grabbed their guns, but their knees quickly gave out from underneath them and fell to the ground. It caught the attention of more Officers around her and she started sprinting towards the warehouse that seemed so far away.

She fumbled at her belt for another canister. She heard shots being fired and she heard them fly past her ears and ricochet off of the buildings behind her. She opened up another canister and let it roll towards the Officers. They were quickly down on the ground with the other Officers.

Her fingers were already over another canister as she let the last one go. More Officers ran towards her and she dropped the next canister. The gas was still coming out of all of the canisters and was creating a wall to protect her. Officers chased after her, but they would pass out and add onto the pile of unconscious bodies.

Shai was close to the warehouse when Mikko's voice filled her ear. "I'm opening the door now. Remember 0267732."

0267732

She repeated the number over and over in her head so she wouldn't forget it. She dropped another canister by the door to make sure no Officers were able to sneak by. The large metal of the door began to rise and Shai was shocked by what she saw.

The warehouse was packed full of Rats. They all had the same shaved head and confused look on their face. It mustn't be every day that a bell goes off and an Officer in a mask comes running in during the middle of the night.

Shai had no idea what Tegan would look like. She had only seen that photo of him when he was a child. How was she supposed to know what he looked like eleven years later? She couldn't possibly check the back of every Rats neck, the gas would wear off before she even checked a third of them.

The Rats got off of their beds and moved around.

"I need Tegan!" she shouted out. She hoped that he would be happy that an Officer was looking for him.

"Shai, don't do that. It's not going to work!" Mikko was shouting at her. She could tell from the way he was yelling that he was just on edge as she was.

A man jumped out of his bed and ran down the aisle towards her. He was tall and pale blue eyes and was running towards her so fast he was tripping over his feet.

"I'm Tegan!" he shouted out.

--

It was still dark outside when the door to the warehouse began to open. Ren pulled herself away from Todd and sat on the edge of the bed. She felt strangely cold without his warm arms wrapped around her.

An Officer came running towards the warehouse at top speed. An odd looking mask was wrapped around his face. He stopped at the now open door and surveyed all of the Rats sitting on their beds. There was something odd strapped to his waist that Ren had never seen an Officer have before.

"I need Tegan!" the Officer yelled out. His voice was high pitched and sounded like a girl's. Ren turned her head to see Todd staring at him intensely. His body was leaning forward across the bed and his eyebrows were knitted together.

"I'm Tegan!" somebody shouted out.

Samson was stumbling down the aisle of beds. Ren's eyes grew, as what he had been saying must have been true. If an Officer is looking for Tegan then that means he must be alive. Samson wasn't lying. That Officer was taking him away from the farm. Ren was mad at Todd for turning Samson away so easily. If they were in a partnership then he would bring them with him.

They were stuck here now because of Todd.

--

Shai's stomach twisted as the man came running up to her. That was a lot easier than she expected it would be. The man's lips were curled into a large smile.

"I'm Tegan Dyer," he told her.

"Check his number, Shai," Mikko told her.

0267732, she repeated in her head again.

Shai grabbed the top of his head and pulled it down so she could see his neck. She was happy for once that she was tall because most girls wouldn't have been able to that. The numbers were scarred into his flesh.

8723456

It wasn't Tegan. She felt a pang in her chest and realized that this was going to actually be difficult.

"Sit back down," she ordered him.

The smile went off of the man's face and he bit down on his lip. He shook his head from side to side.

"What are you talking about?" he asked her. There was obviously anger behind his voice. "You're looking for Tegan and that's me."

"I said-" she started but then was quickly cut off.

"You're looking for Tegan and I'm right here. Why-"

He shut up when Shai shoved the barrel of the gun into his ribs. She had no intention of using it, but surely it would be a good threat. Holding the gun scared her enough. She didn't know how sensitive the trigger was and she didn't want to kill him.

"Sit. Down. Now," she snarled.

He shook his head and turned around and walked back down the aisle. He kept his head down and avoided the gazes of all the other Rats.

"Shai, you're running out of time," Mikko told her. "Get Tegan and get out to the car."

Shai nodded her head and her heart began to pound in her chest even harder. Tegan was somewhere in this room, but she didn't know where. Without him Mikko would never help her find Todd. She needed to get Tegan out of here.

"Tegan get out here!" she shouted, so anyone in the warehouse would be able to hear her.

--

Todd stared at the Officer oddly. He was squinting his eyes to see the Officer more clearly. Everyone was looking at this Officer weird, but not the same way Todd was. Ren shook his shoulder so that he would tell her what he was thinking.

She had to shake Todd a couple times before she caught his attention. He looked at her quickly and then back to the Officer. Ren let out a deep breath and rolled her eyes. She balled her fist up and punched him in the arm with all of her force.

Todd rubbed his arm and shot her a look. She pointed at the Officer with her thumb and shrugged her shoulders. He took one more look at the Officer and got up off his bed.

"Shai," he said.

--

Someone said her name and she thought it was Mikko at first. She quickly realized that it came from another Rat. She looked around the warehouse to see who it was. A man got up off his bed and his crystal blue eyes connected with hers.

It was Todd.

She couldn't stop her lips from curling into a smile. His tall frame was always slim, but he had lost a lot of weight since being arrested. His brown uniform was hanging off of him. His mop of brown hair was cut off and she could see his pale scalp.

She had found Todd and was running out of time, she couldn't go looking for Tegan. They had to leave now before they got caught.

"Let's go," she told him and he nodded his head.

He reached down and grabbed a girl's arm and pulled her up onto her feet. Shai was only able to tell she was a girl because of her height and tiny stature. Her skin was covered in large freckles, and the sun had turned her nose red that ran along to her cheeks. Her hair was shaved, just like everyone else's, but dark fuzz covered her scalp.

He had a tight grip on her wrist as they ran down the aisle. Shai reached into her jacket and pulled out the mask. If Todd was bringing this girl with him, she didn't have another mask to give her. She had no time to think about that. She shoved the mask into Todd's hands.

"You have to put this on," she told him.

"Why?" Todd asked looking at the mask.

"I'm usin' a gas to knock out the Officers," she said quickly.

"Is the gas harmful?"

"Don't think so. We need to go now."

Todd placed the mask over his face and Shai pulled another canister out of her belt. She only had a few more left. She took off running and opened up the next canister and rolled it out in front of her. While she was in the warehouse the number of bodies collapsed over each other had grown. Shai looked over her shoulder to make sure Todd and that girl was following. They were leaning up against each other and passing the mask back and forth. The one without the mask would hold the collar of their shirt up over their mouth and nose, but they were getting weak quickly.

She had no idea what Mikko was going to say to her when he realizes she brought two Rats back to the car. He'll be furious when he realizes that neither of them are Tegan. She couldn't believe that he hadn't told her anything since he instructed her to check the number on the man who claimed to be Tegan's neck.

She let go of another canister and let it roll further out. The bodies of the unconscious Officers were falling over each other. They created a line leading to the door in the fence she came through.

Shai kept running forward to the door and took another glance over her shoulder. The girl Todd had brought with him had tumbled to the ground. With her small size the gas must have already knocked her unconscious. Shai watched as Todd put the mask over his head and lift up her body off the ground. He curled the girl into himself and started running after Shai. She kept going until she got to the fence.

Todd was a lot slower than Shai remembered. The gas must be affecting him. Shai ran through the door and Todd was behind her. When he passed through, the door slammed shut and the metal bar slid make across. It was now locked again.

Shai couldn't believe it. They had actually just gotten a Rat out of a camp. That was what everyone in both the Slums and Bright thought was impossible. They had to leave soon before they were caught though.

She ran over to the car and opened the door to the backseat. Jasper had already turned the car on and the purr of the engine was noticeable. Jasper had a tight grip on the steering wheel and his lips curled into a smile when he saw that Shai got out uninjured. Mikko was sitting in the backseat his eyes jumping between the screen in and his hands and up to Shai.

"We need to get going now, Shai," he told her frantically. "I think they figured out it is me. I can't blame them, to be honest. They know I'm the only one brilliant enough to pull this off. They cut off my view from the security cameras. We need to go now."

Todd was dragging his feet as he came up to the car. The girl was still curled up in his arms. He set her down in the backseat of the car and Mikko let his head shoot up. His jaw dropped and shook his head.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What is this?" he asked angrily. "Shai, I'm not a shelter. I wouldn't mind being the one with the tasty drinks, but I'm not bringing home prisoners. I sent you for Tegan."

As Mikko was talking Todd had ripped the mask off of his face and fell down onto his knees. His arms were spread out across the seat as he tried to push the girl further in. They had to get going before anyone came. She had one more canister of that gas, but she didn't know how many Officers they would send after them.

Shai grabbed underneath Todd's arms and tried to heave him up into the car. Todd was helping her by trying to push himself up off the seat to climb in. The gas was taking its toll on him. He could barely move and Shai's arms scream out in pain as she tried to lift his heavy body.

Together they managed to pull him up into the seat. He finally fell unconscious and his body slumped over. He was leaning over the girl and had his arm draped across her body. He most likely fell over her uncontrollably when he passed out, but to Shai it looked like he was shielding her. Mikko stared at them with a mixture of confusion and interest.

Shai was about to close the door to the car, but something caught her eye. Todd's number was peeking out from the collar of his uniform. The numbers were still swollen and red, as it had recently been done. Her heart dropped into her stomach as she pulled back his collar and read his number.

0267732