The Junior that Knew too Much

In the bushes, off to the side of the compound, Julie counted to herself, ‘1,2,3’ as she wiped the sweat from her brow. It was just before sunset, but the heat felt like midday. In the bushes, off to the side of the compound, Julie counted to herself, ‘1,2,3’ as she wiped the sweat from her brow. It was just before sunset, but the heat felt like midday.

‘That’s all 3 guards gone, they will be back from the perimeter check in 4 minutes, Go!’ She screams at herself, as if to psych herself up for what she needs to accomplish in the next 30 or so minutes. Heart pounding in her throat, she shoots off like a rocket across the open field and down the brick wall to the back delivery bay.

The old shopping centre was the newest strong hold for the government’s latest army guard recruits to come through Julie’s hometown. Every so many months new recruits come in and try and make it theirs, rule with their version of the latest government legislations and rules. It’s been this way for the last few years, ever since the first foreign invasion from North Korea and the Cyborgs. At first it was just rolling black outs and shoddy internet, but soon everyone was told to stay in-doors and it eventually became illegal to leave your house. Not long after that all the able bodied men and woman were taken to war and fitted with brain chips to tack their movements all over the globe. Most people returned but the chips were faulty. If you were lucky, you may get a bit of telekinetic ability and just minor headaches, or, they exploded.

Julie stops just short of the end of the brick wall, and presses her body stiff up against it, hand covering her mouth so no one can hear her panting. This was only the second time she had done this run and last time was almost fatal. As she pears around the wall to the delivery bay she can see the coast is clear. Julie darts off and skids under the delivery ramp and smacks straight into Seamus, her big brother, who has been sitting there since the last guard walk, half an hour ago.

‘Oh, crap Jules!’ Seamus groans as he holds his forehead.

‘Shhh they’re coming back’ Julie whispers.

As the guards assemble at the back door again, it’s as if time stood still. They are only inches above Julie, she can smell their cologne mixed with ash from the cigarettes they are smoking. One guard flicks a cigarette butt into the darkness below the ramp and it hits Julie square in the forehead, burning her skin and scorching her hair. Both Julie and Seamus hold their breath as the butt falls to the floor, praying the guard didn’t see them in the dim light the butt gave off in the dark space under the cement ramp.

As the loud siren roars from the speakers, time begins again, and Julie is snaps back into reality. The speakers on the delivery bay are ear piercing and echo through the shopping centre.

‘An intruder has been spotted in the north quadrant’ a voice yells from one of the guard’s radio. ‘Annnd that’s Ted, right on time as always’ Seamus smirks, Julie is too nervous to respond.

Ted is Seamus’s best friend who just happens to be a computer whiz. Ted had managed to break into the government’s security system to set off an alarm that would send the guards in the opposite direction Julie and Seamus need to go. The back door slams shut, the coast is clear, and Julie and Seamus slowly come out of hiding and make their way up the stairs to the back door. The green light buzzes and the door unlocks, another trick from Ted. Seamus grips the cold steel door and pulls it open. The cold air from the internal air cons hit the hot thick atmosphere from the outside. It’s been so long since Julie felt air con on her face. It feels like it could freeze the sweat dripping down her cheeks. She quickly ducks under Seamus’s arm and races ahead.

‘Right! remember what Ted said, we only have about 15 minutes before the guards start coming back an..’ whispers Seamus as they tip toe down the hallway.

‘Yes, I know’!’ Julie cuts him off, snarling as she turns her head back to him.

She already felt crappy for last time, she didn’t need reminding. She remembers vividly getting caught halfway down the hallway by a guard coming from the security room because, the cameras came back on too soon. She remembers the burning pain as she got shot when they escaped back out the delivery bay. She knows they have to get into the storage room and open the hatch in the floor so they can rob the government of all its food stores, before the cameras and sensors switch back on. She knows how serious this is, they can’t come back and try again.

This time they know what they need to do and how fast they need to be. The plan in its entirety is to rob the government of the food stores they have. Supplies have been cut off and what does get through, the rebels steal and sell to the locals at ridiculous prices. The best part is no one knows the shopping centre quite like Julie. She worked in the supermarket when she was a junior right up until it was abandoned once it was illegal to leave the house. She knows all the places to hide and found this old tunnel that started in the back storage room of the supermarket and ended on the other side of the highway in the drain, completely out of sight. No one ever knew what it was for and once found, it was locked so no one could use it. Seamus and Ted had been monitoring the tunnel exit and realised that not only did the rebels not know about it, neither did the army guard recruits. The plan is to line the tunnel with the locals and get as many boxes down the tunnel, handing boxes to your neighbour as fast as you can. Then pile into the waiting trucks and escape into the night.

As they crept down the hallway, the sound of guards in the distance floated through the air and Julie was certain you could hear her heart beating outside her chest. As the duo approached the storage room door Seamus yanked it open, pushing Julie inside. Once inside they took a breath, Julie was filled with adrenaline. This is further than they made it before. The two of them look around the room and absorb their surroundings and notice a shelving unit and boxes stacked to the roof over in the far-right side of the room.

‘There! over there Seamus!’ Julie squeals as she points over to the far-right side in the exact spot the hatch door to the tunnel should be. Keeping their heads down so they’re not seen by guards passing the frosted windows, they make their way to the corner and begin trying to move the shelving unit and boxes.

‘We have to lift it gently and move it bit by bit’ Seamus grunts as the two of them grab each end of the shelving unit.

‘This is taking precious time; we are running out of!’ Julie hisses.

‘I can’t frickin’ help it Julie!’ Seamus snaps back. At that, they hear muffled noise coming from the tunnel, everyone must be in position and ready.

Once the shelving unit is moved Seamus sets about cutting the old lock on the hatch. He has some kind of bolt-cutter- wire-clippers type thing, Julie is never sure what his tools are, but it works so that’s all she’s worried about. Seamus huffs as he lifts the latch with all his might. He slips as he heaves the hatch up and knocks into some metal shelving making a loud scraping noise on the ground.

‘Shh hurry, someone could have heard that!’ Julie whispers and was met with a narrowed eyed Seamus. Seamus starts handing boxes down to the open hands in the tunnel, faster and faster they go. Julie can’t believe it! They have emptied nearly half the storage room. Suddenly the door’s automatic lock, locks. The noise makes Seamus stand up in straight fear. All he can do is let out a gasp, waiting for the door to open and be shot on sight. It was then that he realised the door locking was the automatic function and no one was actually there.

‘The doors locking’ Julie whispers, a little confused.

‘That’s the first sign of Ted losing access to the security system. Next is the senses and cameras, we are running out of time!’ Seamus whisper-screams down the tunnel. Seamus stands up and looks at Julie who is standing next to him, box in hand completely frozen in fear. Everyone in the tunnel starts clearing out and Seamus jumps into the hole. Suddenly the sensors start making noise.

‘Julie move! Now!’ Seamus yells and snaps Julie out of her frozen fear. She jumps down the hole, ‘quick the hatch!’ Seamus points to the still open hatch. They must close it, or the guards will see exactly where they went, and they will have no chance. Julie jumps up and grabs the inside of the hatch and pulls down with all her might. The hatch slams shut and with torches on, the brother and sister run for their lives out of the tunnel and into the darkness.

As the guards re-enter the security room, they begin to play back from when the cameras started rolling again and the sensors turned back on, to see if they can find who was responsible for the false alarm.

‘The sensors went off in the storage room first, so plays those back Trevor’ commanded John the Head Security Guard. They begin playing back the storage room camera.

‘I don’t see anything’ says Trevor.

‘There has to be something, the sensors wont just go off!’ exclaimed John as he slams his paperwork on the desk. As the two guards watch the footage, they notice something at the very beginning, movement in the far-right corner.

‘Could be a glitch’ suggests Trevor.

‘No, something is moving, zoom in’ demands John as he leans in closer to the screen and pushes his glasses up his nose.

‘I swear, if this place is haunted, I’m out!’ declares Trevor, throwing his hands in the air.

‘Stop the tape, zoom in!’ shouts John. ‘Well damn, its worse than a haunting’ declares John.

‘What do you mean?’ asks Trevor with a confused look on his face.

‘It’s those kids from last time, they have stolen half the stores’ announces John as he moves over so Trevor can see the screen.

‘How do you know?’ asks Trevor.

‘Look closer’ says John.

‘Well, I’ll be, it is! but how did she survive, I thought you shot her in the stomach?’ questions Trevor. John doesn’t answer and just stares at the zoomed in image on the screen. The imagine of part of an arm and hand, more precisely the image of a hand grabbing at the hatch to close it, Julie’s hand and the giant heart-shaped locket tattoo that is etched into her flesh. Now they have something to search the locals look for.

‘That’s all 3 guards gone, they will be back from the perimeter check in 4 minutes, Go!’ She screams at herself, as if to psych herself up for what she needs to accomplish in the next 30 or so minutes. Heart pounding in her throat, she shoots off like a rocket across the open field and down the brick wall to the back delivery bay.

The old shopping centre was the newest strong hold for the government’s latest army guard recruits to come through Julie’s hometown. Every so many months new recruits come in and try and make it theirs, rule with their version of the latest government legislations and rules. It’s been this way for the last few years, ever since the first foreign invasion from North Korea and the Cyborgs. At first it was just rolling black outs and shoddy internet, but soon everyone was told to stay in-doors and it eventually became illegal to leave your house. Not long after that all the able bodied men and woman were taken to war and fitted with brain chips to tack their movements all over the globe. Most people returned but the chips were faulty. If you were lucky, you may get a bit of telekinetic ability and just minor headaches, or, they exploded.

Julie stops just short of the end of the brick wall, and presses her body stiff up against it, hand covering her mouth so no one can hear her panting. This was only the second time she had done this run and last time was almost fatal. As she pears around the wall to the delivery bay she can see the coast is clear. Julie darts off and skids under the delivery ramp and smacks straight into Seamus, her big brother, who has been sitting there since the last guard walk, half an hour ago.

‘Oh, crap Jules!’ Seamus groans as he holds his forehead.

‘Shh they’re coming back’ Julie whispers.

As the guards assemble at the back door again, it’s as if time stood still. They are only inches above Julie, she can smell their cologne mixed with ash from the cigarettes they are smoking. One guard flicks a cigarette butt into the darkness below the ramp and it hits Julie square in the forehead, burning her skin and scorching her hair. Both Julie and Seamus hold their breath as the butt falls to the floor, praying the guard didn’t see them in the dim light the butt gave off in the dark space under the cement ramp.

As the loud siren roars from the speakers, time begins again, and Julie is snaps back into reality. The speakers on the delivery bay are ear piercing and echo through the shopping centre.

‘An intruder has been spotted in the north quadrant’ a voice yells from one of the guard’s radio. ‘Annnd that’s Ted, right on time as always’ Seamus smirks, Julie is too nervous to respond.

Ted is Seamus’s best friend who just happens to be a computer whiz. Ted had managed to break into the government’s security system to set off an alarm that would send the guards in the opposite direction Julie and Seamus need to go. The back door slams shut, the coast is clear, and Julie and Seamus slowly come out of hiding and make their way up the stairs to the back door. The green light buzzes and the door unlocks, another trick from Ted. Seamus grips the cold steel door and pulls it open. The cold air from the internal air cons hit the hot thick atmosphere from the outside. It’s been so long since Julie felt air con on her face. It feels like it could freeze the sweat dripping down her cheeks. She quickly ducks under Seamus’s arm and races ahead.

‘Right! remember what Ted said, we only have about 15 minutes before the guards start coming back an..’ whispers Seamus as they tip toe down the hallway.

‘Yes, I know’!’ Julie cuts him off, snarling as she turns her head back to him.

She already felt crappy for last time, she didn’t need reminding. She remembers vividly getting caught halfway down the hallway by a guard coming from the security room because, the cameras came back on too soon. She remembers the burning pain as she got shot when they escaped back out the delivery bay. She knows they have to get into the storage room and open the hatch in the floor so they can rob the government of all its food stores, before the cameras and sensors switch back on. She knows how serious this is, they can’t come back and try again.

This time they know what they need to do and how fast they need to be. The plan in its entirety is to rob the government of the food stores they have. Supplies have been cut off and what does get through, the rebels steal and sell to the locals at ridiculous prices. The best part is no one knows the shopping centre quite like Julie. She worked in the supermarket when she was a junior right up until it was abandoned once it was illegal to leave the house. She knows all the places to hide and found this old tunnel that started in the back storage room of the supermarket and ended on the other side of the highway in the drain, completely out of sight. No one ever knew what it was for and once found, it was locked so no one could use it. Seamus and Ted had been monitoring the tunnel exit and realised that not only did the rebels not know about it, neither did the army guard recruits. The plan is to line the tunnel with the locals and get as many boxes down the tunnel, handing boxes to your neighbour as fast as you can. Then pile into the waiting trucks and escape into the night.

As they crept down the hallway, the sound of guards in the distance floated through the air and Julie was certain you could hear her heart beating outside her chest. As the duo approached the storage room door Seamus yanked it open, pushing Julie inside. Once inside they took a breath, Julie was filled with adrenaline. This is further than they made it before. The two of them look around the room and absorb their surroundings and notice a shelving unit and boxes stacked to the roof over in the far-right side of the room.

‘There! over there Seamus!’ Julie squeals as she points over to the far-right side in the exact spot the hatch door to the tunnel should be. Keeping their heads down so they’re not seen by guards passing the frosted windows, they make their way to the corner and begin trying to move the shelving unit and boxes.

‘We have to lift it gently and move it bit by bit’ Seamus grunts as the two of them grab each end of the shelving unit.

‘This is taking precious time; we are running out of!’ Julie hisses.

‘I can’t frickin’ help it Julie!’ Seamus snaps back. At that, they hear muffled noise coming from the tunnel, everyone must be in position and ready.

Once the shelving unit is moved Seamus sets about cutting the old lock on the hatch. He has some kind of bolt-cutter- wire-clippers type thing, Julie is never sure what his tools are, but it works so that’s all she’s worried about. Seamus huffs as he lifts the latch with all his might. He slips as he heaves the hatch up and knocks into some metal shelving making a loud scraping noise on the ground.

‘Shh hurry, someone could have heard that!’ Julie whispers and was met with a narrowed eyed Seamus. Seamus starts handing boxes down to the open hands in the tunnel, faster and faster they go. Julie can’t believe it! They have emptied nearly half the storage room. Suddenly the door’s automatic lock, locks. The noise makes Seamus stand up in straight fear. All he can do is let out a gasp, waiting for the door to open and be shot on sight. It was then that he realised the door locking was the automatic function and no one was actually there.

‘The doors locking’ Julie whispers, a little confused.

‘That’s the first sign of Ted losing access to the security system. Next is the senses and cameras, we are running out of time!’ Seamus whisper-screams down the tunnel. Seamus stands up and looks at Julie who is standing next to him, box in hand completely frozen in fear. Everyone in the tunnel starts clearing out and Seamus jumps into the hole. Suddenly the sensors start making noise.

‘Julie move! Now!’ Seamus yells and snaps Julie out of her frozen fear. She jumps down the hole, ‘quick the hatch!’ Seamus points to the still open hatch. They must close it, or the guards will see exactly where they went, and they will have no chance. Julie jumps up and grabs the inside of the hatch and pulls down with all her might. The hatch slams shut and with torches on, the brother and sister run for their lives out of the tunnel and into the darkness.

As the guards re-enter the security room, they begin to play back from when the cameras started rolling again and the sensors turned back on, to see if they can find who was responsible for the false alarm.

‘The sensors went off in the storage room first, so plays those back Trevor’ commanded John the Head Security Guard. They begin playing back the storage room camera.

‘I don’t see anything’ says Trevor.

‘There has to be something, the sensors wont just go off!’ exclaimed John as he slams his paperwork on the desk. As the two guards watch the footage, they notice something at the very beginning, movement in the far-right corner.

‘Could be a glitch’ suggests Trevor.

‘No, something is moving, zoom in’ demands John as he leans in closer to the screen and pushes his glasses up his nose.

‘I swear, if this place is haunted, I’m out!’ declares Trevor, throwing his hands in the air.

‘Stop the tape, zoom in!’ shouts John. ‘Well damn, its worse than a haunting’ declares John.

‘What do you mean?’ asks Trevor with a confused look on his face.

‘It’s those kids from last time, they have stolen half the stores’ announces John as he moves over so Trevor can see the screen.

‘How do you know?’ asks Trevor.

‘Look closer’ says John.

‘Well, I’ll be, it is! but how did she survive, I thought you shot her in the stomach?’ questions Trevor. John doesn’t answer and just stares at the zoomed in image on the screen. The imagine of part of an arm and hand, more precisely the image of a hand grabbing at the hatch to close it, Julie’s hand and the giant heart-shaped locket tattoo that is etched into her flesh. Now they have something to search the locals look for.