“Citizen R0524, halt and accept your judgment!” You heard the computerized voice of one of the enforcement droids that had been after you all day, slowly gaining on you, and you knew without looking behind you that it wasn’t alone. “Citizen R0524, halt and accept your judgment!” The voice sounded behind you again and you mentally cursed your luck for having gotten caught out after curfew. Although that was the only time you could hunt for enough food to feed both yourself and your younger sister.

Ever since your parents had disappeared one day several months ago, you had been forced to do whatever you could to care for her. Sudden disappearances were not uncommon, especially in the poorer sections of the city. But even though it wasn’t strange anymore for people to disappear every so often without a trace, the disappearances seemed to be happening much more frequently. It was almost as if the government was trying to clear the poor out of the city completely. That was what truly scared you. Because if the government was actually trying to do so, there would be no end to the disappearances until the South Corridor was a ghost town.

“Citizen R0524, halt and accept your judgment!”

You cursed under your breath as you turned the corner into an alley, hoping to lose the enforcement droids in the cramped and dirty alleys of the South Corridor. While you knew the alleys like the back of your hand, you were sure the droids didn’t have maps programmed with all the hidden shortcuts.

As you hurried around a garbage dumpster, you ran headfirst into someone and the only thing that kept you from falling over were the hands that suddenly grabbed your arms. You gasped and was about to cry out from the shock before a hand clapped over your mouth and you were pulled backwards farther into the alleyway shadows. Glancing up to see who it was that had pulled you away, you felt your heart stop for a moment. Blonde hair. Enforcement droid.

Before you could scream, the man holding your arms spoke. “Don’t scream. They don’t know about this alley. I won’t hurt you, I’m not with them.” The voice was soft and almost human, it didn’t fit the standard for the enforcement droids. Their voices were always loud and powerful. This man’s voice was soft and if you had been standing much farther away you would have completely missed his words.

He seemed to be listening for something before he pulled his hand away from your mouth and motioned down the alleyway. “Follow me. They’ll be patrolling this side. They don’t know about the other end of the alley.” He started to walk off down the alleyway before stopping and turning to look back at you. “Are you coming? They’ve been shouting your identification code all over this side of the city. You can’t go anywhere for a few days.”

You couldn’t stop staring at the blonde hair. He looked like an enforcement droid. As if he really was one, not like some rebel who dyed their hair or wore a wig to stir up trouble. He seemed to actually be one of the droids and you couldn’t calm the uneasiness in the pit of your stomach.

The man caught your gaze and sighed, running a hand through his hair. “It’s a temporary dye. I’ll wash it out as soon as we get back to safety. Now come on. They’ll start to investigate further if we don’t get out of here. They sense you, so you have to disappear.”

You shuddered at the thought of the enforcement droids being able to sense you and find you whenever they wanted. It was one of your worst fears, second only to something happening to your sister. You felt a hand on your wrist and you jumped before seeing that it was the mysterious man taking your hand to pull you away down the alleyway.

About halfway down the alley you realized something didn’t seem right. That was when you noticed it. The hand on your wrist wasn’t warm or cold or anything. It simply was. Your eyes widened at the thought. You had thought he was an enforcement droid, and here was the proof. You stopped and tried to pull your arm free of his hand. “Let go of me! You filthy droid scum!”

He stopped and pushed you against the wall, covering your mouth with his hand. “Don’t say that. I may have started as one of them, but they left me for scraps and I’ve been wiped of their programming. And right now I’m the only one keeping you from getting captured and taken into R&D, and trust me, you do not want to go there. So keep your mouth shut and follow me.” His voice was still low, but you felt the threat all the way to your core and shuddered seeing the emptiness in his eyes. You had never been so close to an enforcement droid, or a droid of any kind, and the emptiness in his eyes scared you more than the loud computerized voices of the other droids that had been after you.

When you reached the other end of the alleyway, he stopped and again covered your mouth with his hand as he pulled you into the shadows along the edge of the alley. A pair of enforcement droids walked past the opening to the alley without sparing a glance in your direction. You never would have believed it if you hadn’t seen it yourself. Enforcement droids were like the old hunting dogs of the past. Once they locked on to a target, there was no deterring them from capturing their target. So for them to have simply walked right past you, it was something you weren’t sure what to do with the information. Because if you could slip past them, there would be no reason to worry about how you were going to find your way back to the tiny apartment that you shared with your sister.

Just as you were pulling away to leave the alleyway, the hand on your arm jerked you back. The arm that wrapped around you was strong and you gave a small hiss as your ankle twisted and you fell back against the stranger’s chest. He quickly clamped a hand over your mouth and leaned in to whisper. “It’s not safe yet. The enforcement droids don’t sense you because a friend of mine added a higher level cloaking device for any humans in my company. So if you want to survive, you’ll stop trying to run off.”

You stayed in the alleyway shadows, held up only by the arm around your waist for long enough that you started to lose track of time. Your ankle had started to throb and you were sure it had swelled already as well, mentally cursing the droid that had caused the injury. If you were right, it was likely a sprain. That meant you would be nearly immobile for a week or more. By that time your sister would have starved, even if you managed to convince her to eat all the food portions you had hoarded in the apartment and the tiny amount in the bag on your back that were likely now all squished from the droid’s grip. The thought made you want to cry. A stupid mistake could possibly be the incident that gets your sister killed. The one person in the world you had left and she could die.

“Okay, I think it’s safe. Let’s go.” The voice shook you from your thoughts and the droid dropped his arms from around your waist and you collapsed to the pavement, unable to keep yourself up at first. You let out a small hiss of pain as you tried to push yourself to stand again, only to nearly fall again when you tried to put even a small amount of weight on your ankle. “Are you hurt?”

You turned to glare at the droid, trying to keep from wincing at the now intense pain shooting from your ankle. “Of course I’m hurt. You dragged me back and I twisted my ankle. So congratulations, you might have left me and my baby sister without a way to get any food or survive on our own. Not to mention, the enforcement droids are after me and I can’t stand, much less run from them.” You felt your initial anger losing steam and your shoulders drooped slightly.

“Let me help. I know someone who can fix you. I have friends that will help. And if you tell me where she is, I can get your sister brought there safely as well.” The droid seemed to be attempting to be contrite, and you almost wanted to believe him, but at the same time, he was an enforcement droid. “Here, climb on my back and I’ll carry you to safety. Let me make up for this mistake.”

“I’ll let you take me to this friend who can fix my ankle. I’m not telling you where my sister is, though. Not until I’m sure I can trust you. And if you try to turn me in to the government, I will tear you apart, even if I have to use my bare hands to dismantle every bit of your circuitry.” You knew you weren’t the most threatening looking, especially injured as you were, but you meant every word. If he tried anything, you would fight to your last breath to destroy him in return.

He nodded before holding out a hand. “I’m Leo. We don’t use the identification codes.”

“Star.” You cautiously took his hand before being picked up.

His voice was soft as he cautiously carried you out of the alleyway. “Keep your head down and close your eyes. Whatever happens, try not to react. I’ve got you.” You didn’t want to completely give up control to Leo, but you knew there was no other choice for you at the moment. Even knowing he was a droid, you still hated to be a burden.

Not being able to see where you were going made your defenses on high alert, and you tried to use all your other senses to try and figure out where you were heading, but you had never been the best at navigating without seeing where you were going, so after a few minutes you simply gave up and tried to relax. You felt yourself starting to slip into sleep before you were jostled slightly, and Leo’s voice trickled back to you. “Sorry. The paving is less secure here. It was meant to be added protection. Droid balance isn’t that great at times.”

You laughed softly before catching yourself and biting down on your bottom lip. “Sorry.”

Leo paused to shift you on his back and you unconsciously tightened your arms around his neck. He glanced back at you for a moment before continuing along the way. “A few tips for when we get to the hideout. Ken may seem a little .. odd .. but there’s no one I would trust more with my life or someone else’s life. And if you value your life, don’t mention the government around him. Especially not the kidnappings. Don’t talk about R&D either.” He paused and you felt him shake his head. “Actually it might be best not to say anything really.”

You wanted to scoff, but he had told you to keep from reacting to anything. And you didn’t want to risk blowing whatever cover story he had in mind by breaking any of his rules. Of course your curiosity was now on overdrive about this ‘Ken’ person, especially with all the things Leo had said about him. You wanted to ask what his story was but soon enough, you felt Leo stop.

“We’re here.”