There are two ways I could handle the situation. I could shoot this awful traitor or let her go free. As I press my gun harder into Taylor's head, I almost burst into hysterics because I'm still deciding. Taylor whimpers and begs me to not kill her.

I laugh like Daniel would if he was in my situation. "Shut up."

With a surprisingly quiet bang, Taylor falls face-first onto the ground, an ugly-looking bullet wedged into her flawless skin. How ironic.

I pocket my amazingly-quiet gun and drag Taylor's body into the thicket near the broken road. With lots of loud crunching, I leave her towards the base of a tree with her mouth taped shut and a flyer stuck to her shirt.

Good work, Ashley.

I blow a wisp of hair out of my eyes, panting slightly. I walk back to the street and pick up the flyers from the ground. I pull more flyers out of my backpack and zip it back up again, placing it on my back. I jog what feels like fifty more streets, tacking flyers everywhere. The farther I run, the lighter my backpack weighs.

Luckily, I don't run into any people. After an additional hour or two of exhaustion-filled running, I spot a figure at the end of my street. I fumble to reach for my gun but the silhouette raises its left hand and salutes. I jog tiredly towards the silhouette as it transforms from a black shadow into a sweaty Danny. Seeing him worn out makes me even more tired, but it's the good kind of exhaustion, the kind you get from doing something good.

"Had any trouble?" Danny asks happily.

"Only one person," I say. "I left her in a patch of woods."

"Do you know who it was?"

I clear my throat. Danny's eyes widen at the prospect of my declaration. "It was Taylor, Danny. The Taylor."

Danny stares at me for a moment, and his eyes drift over my left shoulder. At first, they're empty with hurt, but then his eyebrows furrow and his eyes squint. I give him a questioning look, and I turn around to face an empty street, except for...

"Ashley, get down," Danny hisses, forcing us to the ground. The small pangs of bullets zoom over our heads. I roll once and rush to crawl into the dark undergrowth nearby. Small rocks stick into my elbows as I pull out my gun to aim at the three targets down the street. I fire a few bullets, finally hitting one of the figures. The silhouette crumples to the ground in a heap, but the remaining two continue to close in on us.

"C'mon, Cardry," Danny says gruffly in military-mode as he shoots the second person.

I take a deep breath, close my left eye, and carefully aim instead of firing blindly. I follow the target closely as it continues to come closer. I hold my breath as I pull the trigger. As soon as my bullet enters the man's body, I feel his bullet skim my shoulder.

The small scrape barely hurts, but it opens a would in my shoulder. I sit up to inspect the damage, leaving my gun to lay next to me on the ground. I carefully touch my shoulder and feel the stickiness of blood through the tear in my shirt sleeve. I hear Danny rise from his shooting spot and run over to our three targets. I stand up roughly to go to join him, wiping my blood onto the grass.

As I search each man for distinguishing features, I notice they are all dress in government uniforms: gray polos, black pants, and gun holsters with the ISA emblem sewn into them. The men must be from the enforcement office. A thought flashes across my head, reminding me of Taylor's outfit. Gray skirt, white blouse, and a... an empty gun holster.

Why was Taylor outside to begin with? Was she really on night patrol? Did officers come to look for her when they heard me shoot?

I don't get time to answer my questions because dragging a man across the pavement becomes too difficult. I pull the guy with all my might to the side of the road and roll him into the grass. Hmmf, that should do. Thankfully, Danny has already taken care of the two other.

I sigh and swing my ponytail over my shoulder. Retreating to our shooting location, I retrieve my gun after a minute of shuffling around in the undergrowth. I finally feel the gun barrel and shove it into my holster. Then I search for Danny, who's already crossing the street, the one that connects the downtown area to the residential.

There's no way I'm going to catch up with him. I ran and jogged way too much already. But Danny waits for me at the opening of the business district anyway. "Any day now, Ashley."

"Shut up," I huff. I walk slowly, stopping next to Danny. "How did they know where to find us?"

Danny sighs. "I don't know. In places as poor as Fort Collins, one or two officers watch the cameras at night."

"Someone might have heard my gunshots and alerted them," I say bluntly.

My theory makes perfect sense, but why was that Taylor girl out this late to begin with? And why is she in Fort Collins of all places? Like everything else in the corrupt ISA, I'm left with no answers. Maybe I should just stick to rhetorical questions.

"True," Danny says, "but we can't risk any more situations like that. For all we know, those guys could have taken down all of our flyers."

I guess the gunfight erased some resentment between Danny and I. At least I know I can trust him in terms of fighting guards.

Danny and I say a curt goodbye, and we head in different directions: Danny to the west side of the remaining town and me to the east side. After one final glance towards Danny, I face the better-lit downtown area. Falling apart like everything else in the Imperial States, I jog down the street, strategically putting flyers under streetlight and on doors.

A small gust of wind blows and cools me off ever-so-slightly. With the night awake and my adreniline pulsing, I've never felt more alive. I run up the path to a shop with its sign hanging on one nail. I tape a flyer onto the front door. I turn around and survey the rest of the street. I spot a clean government building right near and ElectroBoard. I decide to stay away from that building because the threat of being spotted is higher.

Instead of crossing in the middle of the street, I loop around the backs of the buildings. When I am close to the government building I dart across the street to tape a flyer to its neighboring structure. Soon I'm out of the proximity of the insultingly clean building, and I take a breather against the side of a grocery shop. I reach to the side of my backpack to get my water bottle. I pop the cap off and take a refreshing sip. Closing it, I sip it back in its mesh pocket and continue my route.

Whew, I am really tired. The combination of exhausted-tired and sleepy-tired are taking their toll, but I keep going through street after street of shops both abandoned and barely inhabited. I don't come in contact with any humans, but I do see a raccoon that nearly makes me scream.

That raccoon was more terrifying that the gunmen and Taylor combined. I really hope I don't see a skunk.

After an eternity of taping with two painful paper cuts, I reach the second location Danny and I agreed to meet at. It's already getting lighter, signaling the approaching daybreak. I sit on the ground near some branches and wait for Danny. When I finally see the his figure approaching in the distance, I stand and salute him with my left hand. Danny nods once and rests him hands on his knees as he reaches me.

"Did you see anyone?" I ask Danny. He pants for a painstaking minute before answering.

"Nah, but a guy in an enforcement office almost saw me. Thank God he looked outside before I put the flyers up."

"Good," I say, letting Danny take a breather. He pulls out his compass and commands me to take the remaining flyers out of both of our bags.

"4:39," Danny reads, "We've got to move." I lug the flyers into my arms and struggle a bit to stand.

We run the final lengths of Fort Collins, dropping flyers every couple yards. By the time we reach the other end of town, we've cover a good amount of ground. Once the last flyer leaves my hands, the sun breaks through the darkness, causing a beautiful explosion of color in the morning sky.

Danny pulls me into the woods, and we hide behind some brush. "5:00 A.M," he says, and an alarm booms from the ElectroBoards. My hands instinctively cover my ears. Within the minute, people rush into the streets, panicked. An enlarged form of the flyers we've posted display on the ElectroBoards. The booming alarm ceases, and instead, the flyer's words blast across the entire town. Only a few government employees rush into the streets, confused.

Everyone is breaking the Silence Act, and they don't know what to do about it. I smile to myself. My dad would be proud.

More and more citizens begin to understand what's going on. People start cheering, laughing, and (my personal favorite) tackling guards.

I smile at the scene, at something I would have feared if I still worked with the juvenile agency. As the Guards panic, conflicted at whether to shoot or to run from the citizens, I gloat quietly in our success. Just as I look away from the wonderful chaos, Danny loses his balance on his toes and stumbles out from behind the bush.

That's when a guard spots us.

We run.

※ ※ ※ ※ ※