Enhance: Chapter 2

“So we’re here now.” The roar of the train as it left behind them echoed through their ears. The trio of experiments were on the platform inside a station. They had ditched not only the truck but also their clothes. They’d managed to steal some new ones from a Target on the ride over.

As for the money for the tickets, they hitched a ride. It was a situation of cat and mouse to avoid the train conductors. They were able to do it so easily they actually made a game of it. It took two trains to get to the city and on the second ride they pushed their luck as much as possible. 52 and 247 were flawless in their plan. 365 was the one who was almost caught twice.

They stepped off the train on the last stop. They were, despite not admitting it, afraid. Being confined and dealing with daily test from the scientist was normal for them. Having freedom wasn’t. They each took a deep breath.

“There’s the stairs. It’ll put us in the city.” 247 said and folded her arms. She was wearing a dark green hoodie and jeans now. “What now?”

“You asked me?” 365 asked raising her eyebrow. She had a short sleeved shirt and jeans. The shirt was dark red and she had taken a few armbands for her wrist.

“It was your plan.” 247 mentioned before glancing down at the phone they had taken. She was wondering if there was a way to make use of it. No doubt they could be tracked through it so they’d have to ditch it sooner rather than later.

“Well. I got us this far. You got any bright ideas?” she asked her pointedly.

“Whatever we do let’s stop hanging around in the open.” 52 said irritation ins his voice. He’d taken a black hoodie but had the sleeves rolled up to his arms. There was muscle showing there but he was still lean. He had black jeans as well and then folded his arms. “Let’s just pick a direction.”

“Start with the basics. We need shelter.” 247 said and glanced at the two them. “We need a place big enough for the three of us.”

“Why not a pent house?” 365 asked and the others just stared at her. “It’ll be big enough for the three of us. And then some.”

“Yeah but how are we going to pay for it?” 247 shook her head. “We’re not exactly hirable assets. Not to mention look at us. We look like college drop outs. No schooling. No job experience. Not even social security.”

“Look Debbie Downer, I don’t know how we’re going to do that. I’m just tossing out ideas!” She tossed her hands in the air and paced around the street

247 gave her a look. “Debbie Downer?”

“I was reading while on the train.” Her face flushed red for a moment and she glanced away from them. “What of it?”

“How much do you think we could get for this?” 52 asked them both as he looked at the phone.

“What’re you talking about?” 365 asked. “Like selling it?”

52 nodded. “We need to learn about the world. Hands on. The world that we weren’t allowed to learn about. There are smart ways to do this but we can’t do shit without money.”

“What’re you getting at?” 365 asked.

“I have an idea.” With that 247 snatched the phone from 52 and then went up the stairs. When they got street level it was dark outside but the city was lit up. There were bright flashing lights for the theater, lights on from every convenience store for miles and cars all over.

The trio however looked like every other set of millennials on the streets and that was good. 247 had her head in the phone doing God knew what with the device. They fell into step behind her mainly because they were marveling at the rest. They’d only seen pictures of cities and not a single one of them did justice. The sheer amount of color and sound was like a sensory overload.

“Where are we going?” 365 shouted.

“Electronics shopping.” She stole a glance at the phone and the blue arrow on the map was going forward.

“Like what? A Best Buy or something?”

247 shook her head. “Better. We need shipping containers.” She made a sound of frustration and turned sharply down an alleyway. The suddenness of it threw them off and they almost missed their turn. “Walking takes too long. How well can you guys see me?”

“Pretty damn well. Enhanced vision and all that.” 52 said and looked at her. “Why?”

“Follow me.” With that she jumped and grabbed ahold of a fire escape ladder. Using her weight she dragged it down all the way and started climbing.

“Who died and made her boss?” 365 asked but she followed.

Started made the jumped and started climbing the steps. 52 was taking a more unique approach to the climb. Jumping to the wall he grabbed on and then jumped back to the other. The walls were close enough and he was fast enough to get the climb down to a science.

The trio got to the rooftops together and 247 didn’t waste time. She sped forward sprinting across them like it was nothing. 247 moved around things, dodging and flipping around skylights and roof top openings.  365 however preferred to just vault and jump over them. 52 didn’t ever lose stride as he ran forward.

They were blurs across the sky but their path wasn’t defined. They just had to follow the green hoodie that belonged to 247. She jumped forward, after hitting the edge of a roof and fell downward. Hands first she rolled and sprung up to keep her momentum.

Her body felt more alive than it ever had during the training. There was something about the rush of stinking air, hard concrete under her sneakers, and energy in the city. She turned on her heel and spun past a steam vent and dashed forward again.

She could see in the distance her goal. She could hear the sounds of the storage ship that was leaving out of a dock. She could see it pulling away slowly and hear the faint echo of the horn. “Come on guys pick up the pace!”

There was a communal laugh between the two of them and she felt the wind pass her. 365 passed her first and became a singular blur of movement. She hit a ramp and jumped straight into the air. For a moment she hung there and she was above this chunk of the city. She could see it all for just a moment before she came down.

Slamming into the ground and her legs buckled under her own force. 52 and 247 stopped at the edge of the building watching her. 365 walked forward slowly and then turned around to stare up at them.

“Come on.” She said and waved her hand down.

52 jumped down while 247 grabbed the edge of the building and slid down. She landed last and the trio started to walk forward.

“Which of these is the crate we’re breaking into it.” 365 asked as she ran her fingers of the rigged steel. There was very intricate graffiti along them.

247 pulled the phone from her pocket and booted up the map. The two looked over her shoulder at the phone. The map looked normal with the blue arrow indicating them.

52 raised his eyebrow. “Is it supposed to do that?”

“It is now. This way.” She said walking toward it.

The dock was dark with a few lights at random intervals. They could smell the water and something like wood and oil. Following the phone it was able to highlight individual crates around them and it showed that the crate 247 wanted was about four crates away.

They passed by one crate when 52 grabbed the back of 247’s hoodie. He yanked her back and pressed her flat against it. 365 frowned at the suddenness but she heard it. There was a yawn as a guard passed by. He was overweight and had the eyes of someone who was only here because of the coffee. Regardless he wasn’t a threat. However, it was better to not just walk into someone who could sound an alarm.

They waited as he passed by and the slowness was agonizing. 52 was about to step forward and take him out when 247 grabbed his hand and glared. “We don’t need to do that. He’s almost gone.” She said quickly.

“Yeah but he’s taking too long.”

“Try to restrain yourself.”

Together they walked faster with more of a purpose. They kept their ears peeled to try and not run into another set of guards. So far so good. And then it happened. Out of the corner of their eye a flashlight passed over them. They were illuminated and their shadow was spread far across the crate.

No one spoke nor moved for long moments. Then suddenly 52 surged forward. Before the guard could open his mouth he grabbed him by the head. Using his weight he slammed him into the ground and there was a loud crack. He panted heavily and checked his pulse

“He’s still alive.” he told them

“Was that needed?”

“Didn’t want to wait any longer.” Wiping his brow, he closed her eyes for a moment.

247 looked at him and sighed heavily before pointing to the crate in front of them. “Should be in there.”

They approached it quickly and found the front doors of it locked with a a chain and padlock. 52 grabbed it, pulled and broke it. The door opened after a hard pull and then they swung it open. They were packed with plastic wrapped boxes. 247 reached her hand forward and tore one of the boxes out of the packaging.

It was a tan colored boxes lined with cardboard sheets. She opened one and saw the graphics card peeking back at her. Top of the line. She went to several more and she was glad to find out that they were holding the same contents.

“Grab as many as you can.” She told them. She managed to grab about eight boxes before her vision started to get obstructed. 52 was able to take nine and 365 only grabbed seven. They shoved some in their boxes and held onto the rest.

With that much taken care of they started their exit plan. As they got more and more comfortable with their loads they started running again They didn’t slow down until they hit the street again.

“Where are we taking this?”

“We’re going to find a place to sell them.” 247 instructed.

“How’re we going to find a place to do that?” 365 asked.

52 glanced at the two of them when he turned down an alleyway suddenly. Both women glanced at him, wondering where this spurt of inspiration came from. But they followed him since, no one else had a good idea.

He stopped when the alley ended in a shop. Pointing to it he arched an eyebrow at them. The shop had a flickering neon light that read off as ‘EZ Pwn’. The windows were filled with miscellaneous crap with iron bars lining the outside of them.

“Wait here.” 247 said as she walked toward the door. Before she entered she set down all but two of her boxes.

“More orders?” 365 asked her face already turning to a scowl.

“Because we’ve got a lot of shit. We can’t sell it all here or else we’ll get cheated.” 247 said and shook her head.

Walking inside she didn’t bother to glance at the odds and ends on the walls. Recently sold stuff was stacked and arrayed in two aisles. The counter was directly to the right of that. Going to the counter a grungy man looked at her. His shirt was stained and checkered. His face had stubble and his eyes were half open. The entire place smelled of ham and cigarette smoke.

“I need to sell these.” 247 said dropping one of the boxes in front of the man.

He arched his eyebrow at the box. Opening it, he slid the sheet container out and his eyes widened. With trembling fingers he pulled one of the cards out and turned it over. It was the real deal. But how did this woman got her hands on something like this he didn’t know.

She was just a little girl to him. He figured he could probably pull the wool over her eyes and make a steal. Taking a breath and scratching his jaw slowly he glanced at the chips again and opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off quickly.

“How much will you buy these for?” 247 asked.

The man looked her up and down. Her face wasn’t blank or even scared. She face was calm but her eyes. Her eyes freaked him out slightly. He wasn’t sure what it was but he didn’t want to be on this chick’s bad side.

“I don’t want to know where you got these from and I’m not gonna ask. For this one, I’d give you about $300.”

247 narrowed her eyes then and the man broke into a cold sweat at her glare. “Don’t lie to me. I know they’re worth at least three times that.”

The man gulped slowly and nodded slowly. “Right. Right. My bad. Then let’s try and make a compromise. Because I don’t have that kind of money for an entire box of these. So let’s work something out. Cool?”

247 frowned but gave a curt nod. She was going to control this deal. “$600 per chip. Or I walk. You can afford to pay that much. I know that not to mention you will be a far richer man once you sell these on your own. I have one other box to sell you. That one is unopened and will be worth more to you.”

The man tried to speak and then scowled. This was going to bankrupt him. He wasn’t a tech wizard but he knew tech wizards and they had taught him a thing or two. Knew how to respect a few good things that would come his way. He even subscribed to a magazine. So he knew this was real and he knew this was quality.

“Shit. Alright. Fuck it.” The man said and hit the counter before going toward the register. He had to ring of keys and walked toward the backroom. “This is a fucking gamble but fuck it. Give me the chips.”

Bending down she grabbed the last box and placed it onto the counter. The man had returned from and had placed a stack of bills on the counter as he had one hand on the other box.

He did the same, putting another set of bills down and there seemed to be a visual pain on his face as he did this. Taking both stacks she flipped through the bills quickly. She counted them in her head, mouthing it slowly and then nodded.

“Good. Thank you.”

Turning around she left the shop to a very bored looking 52 and 365. “How’d it go?” 52 asked.

“Are we rolling in it yet?” 365 asked with a sarcastic gleam. 247 showed the wad of cash and smirked at them. 365 snorted shocked. “Who carries that much on them at one time?”

“Apparently this guy. Maybe he’s got some illegal stuff on the back end.” 247 shrugged.

52 whistled softly as he glanced at their remaining haul. “I doubt that we’ll be able to sell much more tonight. Maybe one more place. With that kind of cash we can find a place for a month. Minimum.”

365 had tuned them out for a bit but she heard the last part and her ears perked up. “I heard that. Come on let’s go!”

This was the first step. At least the first major step toward getting things done. They gathered up the boxes and using the stolen phone were able to look up several listings for their apartments. They’d investigate them starting tomorrow. Tonight they checked into a hotel room.

The hotel clerk didn’t ask questions when they showed cash. They got their trio of keys and in seconds were in the hotel on the fifth floor. The room was very tan. Tan walls, sheets, curtains, chairs. It was almost eye straining. The stacked the boxes into the corner of the room on top of the complementary table.

52 was standing while 365 flopped on the bed. 247 was sitting in the chair still playing with the phone. 365 rolled back and forth across the bed shuddering and moaning.

“Holy shit, is this what a real bed feels like?” She said and her voice was soft, barely above a whisper. She’d only known the stiff piece of fabric from her cell. Food wise she’d only known the tasteless nutritious gruel they served them to make sure that they were ‘healthy’ as they wanted.

“Now what? What more do we want to do?” 247 asked with a frown. It showed on her face that she was tired.

“We can figure that out tomorrow.” 52 said and then glanced at them. “But tonight, we should get some rest.”

“Yeah. Sleep sounds good.” 365 mumbled.

“Wait,” 247 yawned as she said this. “One more thing I want to do. Names. We need real names.”

“Names?” 52 repeated.

“Yeah the scientist gave us numbers.” She said.  “But we’re there anymore. We need to blend in.”

365 pulled herself up slowly and yawned. She hadn’t given it much thought before but she was right. They weren’t numbers. They weren’t experiments. They were people.

“Alright. So what kind of names should we pick?”

52 shrugged. “Anything. Whatever feels right?”

“Yumi. I like the name Yumi.” She said with a grin and fell back against the bed. Her eyes were already closing and her breathing slowed down.

“What about you?” 52 asked her and she thought for a moment.

“I was thinking Feint.” She said softly. “I don’t know why but I really like the name Feint.” 52 laughed. “Well what about you?”

“I haven’t decided yet though.”

247 or rather Feint stifled a yawn before looking at him. “You. You should think about Phase.”

She could feel her body was starting to fail her. Dragging herself out of the chair she made it to the bed before lying down on the opposite bed. She was out of it the moment her body hit the bed. 52 stared at the two of them before glancing out the window.

“Phase huh?” he cracked a smile and then felt himself topple slightly. He stumbled toward the bed and then lay down across the food of the bed. He shut his eyes and let sleep take him.