Chapter 1: On the Run

Kid, a 15 year old gang member, is framed for killing the leader of The Harbingers, the city's strongest gang. In no time, word spreads that The Harbingers want him, dead or alive.

Sweat trickled down his burning face, ignorant to the freezing cold weather that tightly encased the dark city. His bangs were sticky against his pounding forehead. He was breathing heavily; his lungs struggled to work properly as the frigid air constricted them. He felt as if he smoked cigarettes every second of every day since his birth. His whole body hurt as if it had been crushed by a steam roller. Twice.

The group of guys yelling relentless taunts were distant, but getting closer with each passing second. His pursuers were a few of the toughest members of the city's most influential gang. He himself was a member of the city's newest gang addition. He quickly joined up, donning the name Kid, the only name most people knew him by anyway, and throwing his birth name away like it was last week's overdue garbage.

The people hunting him were seeking revenge. Kid had been tasked with killing the other gang's leader, in an effort to make them stand above the rest, and show everyone that they were here to stay. The top gang, The Harbingers, had the strongest and most respected leader in the city's history: Kiway Antrim. Kiway was strong by every definition of the word, Kid had always heard. His sudden death wasn't even Kid's fault, but the gang members couldn't care less to let him stay alive long enough to hear his side of the story.

At 15-years-old, a bounty the size of an old west outlaw's was already placed firmly upon his head, assuming, of course, The Harbingers somehow didn't catch him first. It was an annoying misunderstanding either way. Sure, he wasn't the best person around by far, but he only joined the gang for recognition, not for murder and being hunted like a wild animal. He'd always figured he could leave that dirty work to the other members of the gang he belonged to, The Angels of Demise.

His fellow Angels probably assumed he was dead by now, or they didn't even care, which was the more likely scenario. After all, Kid was a pawn. He figured it from the start, but didn't really care. People needed him and he loved the feeling, regardless of how desperate it sounded.

Kid was hiding behind two smashed up trash cans in an alley sandwiched between a discount clothes store, and some sort of mini-mart. He was roughly a mile away from where Kiway was murdered. He had managed to get away from most of the Harbingers, but some of them were a lot more relentless than the others. They had chased him through what felt like hundreds of alleys and backyards. Luckily, he moved a little quicker, granting him some time to rest as he took in the darkness, embracing it as it protected him from the rest of the world.

He was weaponless, and had no real viable means of defense. He had dropped the pistol his leader had given him when he ran away from the scene of the assassination. His home turf was at least five or six hours away on foot, at best, he estimated.

When he got back--if he got back--he was going to leave this all behind. Far behind.

The group of Harbingers were finally moving on to the next alley, not even coming close to halting their search. Kid was wearing his hoodie with the Angels' insignia embroidered on the back. He knew with it on, Harbingers, and any other gang members for that matter, would be able to identify him miles away. He also knew that if he took it off, he'd freeze to death in the cold that was still ravaging the city.

The dead end alleyway he'd been hiding in was all clear. Kid could hear his stalkers in the next alley over, their words laced with pure hatred. He began frantically looking for a way out, any way out. The wall behind him wasn't actually very tall now that he got a good look at it. A crate made of partially rotten wood nestled in a pile of decade old newspapers beside him caught his eye. Letting his brain take control of his aching body, he grabbed the crate and propped it against the wall.

Kid backed up a bit before releasing a deep, exhausted breath. He sprinted up the crate and gripped the top of the wall. He had to use all of his strength to hold on as he used the soles of his worn boots to climb the rest of the way up. The wall cast a bigger shadow on the other side than he was expecting. He dropped down into the dark, instantly falling to his side when his feet met the ground. Fortunately, none of his followers seemed to hear it, as they were too busy arguing amongst themselves about trying to find him.

He was now in a much, much smaller alley. Across the street was a tiny rundown, but still somehow operating, laundromat. He could see a short, pudgy man behind a counter through the huge window that displayed the business's barely functioning machines. He decided he would try to see if the man had a phone. If he didn't, the cash register was sure to have enough spare change for a payphone, or even a bus, if he could find one.

Emerging from the darkness, he did a quick look-around to see if it was safe to bolt across the dimly lit street. All was clear, save for a few bystanders hanging out with their friends, minding their own, uninterrupted business.

Almost as soon as his foot touched the cracked blacktop, he heard someone to his left scream, “Yo, there he is! I found him!”

Kid immediately took off down the road.

A downtown sort of area laid in front of him. Half of the shops in the district were closed, as it was roughly 1 A.M. With all of the light produced by the stores that were still open, there were no shadows or dark crevices to duck into. He could hear more Harbingers popping up behind him, each one more furious than the last. Glancing back, he saw about eight pursuers barreling towards him, all of them carrying aluminum bats, or thick chains coated in rust.

He muttered a few unrepeatable words as his muscles and lungs burned from being pushed past their limit. The road he was charging down led to a highway, which he knew could either work in his favor, or straight up against it. There were no streets to turn off of, so all he could do was move faster, and hope for a break in traffic that would allow him to slip through to the other side.

The highway was coming closer and closer, and his heart was thumping harder and harder. Even at a moment that hectic, he couldn't help but compare himself to an insignificant frog attempting to take on a beastly alligator, something right out of a childish video game he'd played years before. A dark blue car almost clipped him, but he was just quick enough to make it across unharmed.

Behind him, he heard a gross thud and quickly turned back to see one of the Harbingers laying on the ground with blood pouring from his head. Another vehicle had hit the youth head on. When the car screeched to a halt, the other members started yelling and cursing out the driver. It was obvious to Kid that the driver wasn't making it home that night, but he couldn't worry about anyone but himself at the moment.

He ran and ran, turning down every other street, hoping to throw them off his trail. Kid wasn't familiar with this side of the city he was in. He was an extremely small fish out of water in this foreign territory. His surroundings consisted of basically nothing but medium sized houses that were all exact replicas. They were all lined up next to each other on either side of the road. It was quite unnerving for Kid, who was used to gritty streets, salty air, and huge dilapidated skyscrapers. The air in that area was rich, the streets were clean, and the houses--well he could quite easily see over the roofs of all of them.

Kid had always heard that no one on that side of the city ever even stayed up past nine, since they all had busy schedules to adhere to. The Harbingers weren't exactly the stealthy type, so he would at least be able to hear them approaching in the dead, eerie silence. As he went from running, to jogging, to walking, the past events began to replay in his mind so vividly, like a movie he couldn't stop or pause. He saw himself standing in front of Kiway with a gun aimed at his stomach. Kiway wasn't scared, or even mad in the least.

Kiway opted to talk Kid out of it, and was well ahead of succeeding. When Kid lowered the gun, a bullet from another lowlife's weapon found a home in the center of Kiway's skull. No one had even known Kid was there, and Kiway was going to keep it like that. He knew the Angels were using him, and he knew Kid didn't have it in him to pull the trigger. He was going to let Kid walk as he dealt with the Angels.

But as soon as the gunshot rang through the air, all eyes were on him. Before he could even blink, they all rushed for him, rage in their eyes. He dropped the gun and ran as hard and fast as he possibly could, not stopping or looking back until he found a small alleyway. He had been on the run for at least an hour and a half, not getting but a few minutes to rest. It was starting to take a heavy toll on him. He wanted to stop, but there was no place he could rest without the risk of being discovered by somebody. He would have to press on, fighting the urge to collapse.

Marching down the empty street, Kid began to tense up. He had never felt so surrounded, yet so completely alone before. Some of the lights from a house further down flickered on. Curious, he upped his pace a bit, while still cautiously hanging back just in case. When he got closer, he could hear a guy and girl yelling at each other. The door of the house burst open, prompting Kid to quickly duck behind a car parked in front of the curb. The couple came out, screaming pretty loud-- loud enough to obviously wake the neighbors, as a few house's lights sparked to life. “If you want that deadbeat, then go get him!” the guy yelled, throwing a hefty suitcase at the girl.

“I will, you creep!” she yelled back, letting the suitcase land directly before her feet without so much as flinching.

The guy slammed the door, and the girl dropped to her knees before slowly succumbing to angry tears. Kid didn't really care about her or her problems, but he needed to get by her in order to keep going. He was contemplating whether he should ask her for directions, or just try to find the way on his own. Before he could come to a resolution, however, the answer presented itself.

The girl looked back and jumped when she noticed Kid standing in the middle of the road. His body tensed up even more as she quickly stood up. She had short black hair that barely touched her shoulders. Standing at about 5'5, she was only a little shorter than him. Her blue eyes were bloodshot and puffy, easily noticeable from where he stood. She looked like a high-class girl; makeup covering an already beautiful face, clothes way too expensive looking for the area she resided in, all of it.

“What do you want?” she asked, her voice trembling.

“Uh, what's the quickest way to the Shekhinah District from here?”

“I'm not sure. Wait a second,” she stepped back. “You're that Angel that killed that top dog gang guy, aren't you?” she looked even more scared than before.

“What if I am, huh? And how do you even know about that, anyway?” Kid asked, his annoyance morphing into a sort of anger that was slowly building inside of him.

“Are-- are you going to hurt me?”

“Relax,” the anger slowly began to dissolve. “I didn't do it. Someone else took Kiway out. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, that's all. What about the other question?”

Her fear started to very slowly melt away. “It's all over the radio. I heard about it, like, an hour ago. They described what you kind of look like. Average height, dark hair, red and black hoodie, that kind of stuff.”

“And just like that, you knew it was me?” he crossed his arms.

“Not many people like you really come this way,” she said, nervously fiddling with her hair.

“Fair enough,” his arms fell back to his sides.

“Yeah. Anyway, like I said, I don't know how to get where you're going any faster. Sorry.”

“Ah, don't worry about it,” Kid groaned, turning to leave.

“Wait, let me come with you. I can maybe help you find it,” she said, wiping the tears from her face.

“You do not want to go where I'm going. I have Kiway's psychotic goons on my a*s, the last thing I need is some little rich girl I don't even know slowing me down.”

“It doesn't hurt to have someone tag along, you know,” she countered, moving closer to Kid.

“Tag along? This isn't some sort of game. If they catch me, I'm dead. Not 'beat up so bad I wished I were dead', but literally face down in a gutter dead.”

“And I understand that. Look, I need to go that way anyways, so I might as well go with you, considering I'm pretty sure I wouldn't last out here by myself for very long,” an almost cocky smile began to form on her face.

“That's not my problem.”

“Please? Come on, I'm practically on my knees begging here. Do you want me to literally drop to my knees, because I will,” she said, her hands pressed firmly together.

“How do you know I won't just kill you when we get someplace quiet?” he said, sporting a humorless expression.

“Are you going to kill me when we get someplace quiet?”

“No,” he finally said after a couple of seconds.

Kid definitely didn't want to babysit a girl that actually seemed to be a couple years older than he was, but he knew she'd follow regardless. He was hoping she'd get tired or too scared to carry on following him for long, thereby leaving him to go it alone. “Fine, but you listen to every word I say. What's your name?”

“Michelle,” she said, perking up, instantly irritating him.

“I'm Kid.”

“Nice to meet'cha. Let's rock.”

After shooting her a glare that all but literally told her to never say that again, he let her pick her suitcase up, and the pair started down the long empty street.

Author's Note

Heavily inspired by one of my favorite movies The Warriors, so if you've seen it, you'll understand haha. Kinda cheesy, I know. So, just tell me what you think, any feedback, good or bad, is greatly appreciated.