Chapter 4

A couple hours later, I was unfortunately awakened by the alarm. I dragged myself out of bed, and took off the hospital gown I'd been wearing. I took a long shower, but was disturbed by a loud banging at the bathroom door.

"Hey Yukari, will you stop wasting all the damn hot water?! I need to get a shower too!" Jonathan yelled from behind the door.

"Bug off, Jon, women always take long showers!" I called back.

"Like you'd know any—"

"Finish that sentence and I will tear you limb from limb!" I interrupted.

Just for that, I stayed in the shower just a little longer than I would have. After getting out and throwing my hair back into a pigtail (I wasn't one for fashion, alright?), I rummaged through the closet to find something decent for me to wear. The choices were slim, so I just grabbed a long skirt and t-shirt, and threw it on.

Jonathan finished cleaning up himself only minutes later, and emerged from his room and met me in the living room. I looked at the clock.

"Oh… SHIT. We're late!" I yelled at Jonathan.

"How the hell are we so damn late?" Jonathan yelled back, as he nearly knocked the door off its hinges.

We ran down the hall, following the sketchy map I had made earlier. We reached one of the public elevators, but it was taking an eternity to move. I started pacing around, hoping we'd make it to the headquarters on time. After a few moments of pacing, I noticed a stairwell.

"Jonathan, jump on my back."

"Do what? Why?" he asked.

"Will you just do it and stop asking stupid questions?!" I demanded.

Jonathan climbed up on my back, piggy-back style, and I took off down the stairwell. There were a few people in the stairwell, and I could tell they were a bit freaked out to see a girl carrying a guy down the stairs at over 40 miles an hour. I was going so fast down the stairs, my feet spent more time on the walls (to change direction) than they did on the floor.

However, even though we were going that fast down the stairs, it still took a good few minutes to reach the bottom, where the rebellion headquarters entrance was.

"Alright alright get off me, you're killing my back!" I told Jonathan, while elbowing him in the gut.

Jonathan climbed off of me, and just stood there, as if a bit overwhelmed.

"What? You act like you've never seen me run fast before." I asked.

"Huh? Oh… sorry… you just scared the living crap out of me!"

"Not my fault you're such a baby." I pointed out.

"You could at least tell me when you're going to do that next time." He said.

"Don't worry about that, there won't be a next time," I said. "You weigh a ton!"

Suddenly, I realized that we were standing in front of a desk, with a guy just standing there, at a loss for words for the conversation taking place before him.

"Can I… help you?" he finally asked.

"We're here to meet Michael," Jonathan replied.

"Michael? We have a lot of Michaels. What is his last name?" the clerk asked.

"His last name? Hell, I don't know his last name. Do you?" Jonathan said, turning to me.

"I never asked him!" I said.

"That's brilliant, Yukari. How long have you known him? And you still don't know his name?" he pointed out.

"Hey, what about you? You're not exactly a stranger either!" I defended.

While we continued to bicker, the metal gate behind the clerk opened. Michael stepped out, looking at us and shaking his head.

"It's McCormick. Michael McCormick. I figured this was going to happen, I'm glad I came down." Michael said.

The clerk spun around in his seat to look at Michael.

"Oh, you! Sorry, Michael, I didn't know it was your guests. They were a little, unusual."

"That's fine, Tony. They've always been unusual." Michael replied.

I stared daggers at Michael, and then walked around the desk. Jonathan followed. Michael motioned for us to continue through the gate.

"So what is this meeting about?" I asked, as we walked down the long dark hallway.

"I'm going to show you two what the rebellion is really about. What we do, what we have, how we work. I'm also hoping that you two will join the special team I am working on. There's a lot to talk about, so I'll start off with the basics." Michael said.

I nodded.

"The rebellion is mostly comprised of a defense force. We have five lines of defense. The first line, the observation line, exists primarily to keep an eye on City Eternal and what they are doing. They're the ones that give us advance warning of attacks, and give us as much intelligence as we can gather. This line is rather fuzzy, it moves as intelligence changes.

The second line, the hold line, is our primary defense infrastructure. This is where most of our units are posted, and most of our turrets. It's their job to keep anything the first line discovers from becoming a threat to the refugee camp. This line circles about 10 miles from the outer limits of the camp.

The third line, the fall back line, is our secondary defense infrastructure. Many of our provisions are held there, with our support personnel. They keep the second line stocked, and also maintain a place to fall back to if the second line falls. This line circles the outer borders of the camp.

The fourth line, the last defense line, is as the name implies. It's our last real line of defense from attack. This line is actually the top three floors of the refugee camp; the only floors above ground.

The fifth line, is the lockdown line. This line is located on the fourth, fifth, and technically this bottom floor. All it is is a massive titanium gate. If City Eternal were to push us back to the fifth line, the gates would be sealed shut, effectively cutting us off from the world above. It also cuts us off from the rebellion headquarters, since they could enter from that location also. The metal gate you walked through earlier is part of the massive titanium gate."

After taking all this in from Michael, I came to understand just how serious they took the defense of the camp. Just like everything else I had seen so far, this too showed me that the refugee camp was not merely a camp, but a new, living city.

"That's insane! Has City Eternal really attacked that much to warrant such a thorough defense?" Jonathan asked.

"That is one of the things I could not mention earlier. This is classified. We have something that City Eternal wants. A five-phase fusion reactor." Michael said quietly.

"Don't they already have fusion technology?" I asked.

"They do, but it's limited. Our reactor would effectively solve any power problems they would have for the foreseeable future."

"So why don't we give it to them? Then surely they'd leave the camp alone." Jonathan said.

"No, the exact opposite. If we give them the reactor, they'll have no further use for us. They will nuke the camp until it is nothing but slag. The only reason we're safe is because we have that bargaining chip." Michael replied.

After a good few minutes of discussion, we'd finally reached the end of the long walkway. We jumped on an elevator, and it took us up quite a way. The elevator didn't specify how far up, but judging from how long we were inside, I'd say we were close to the surface.

When the doors opened, I was welcomed with the sound of people talking and computers beeping. Tactical displays covered the walls, and people were moving around at a frantic pace. On the largest display, I recognized a diagram of City Eternal.

"Welcome to headquarters," Michael said.