Amadeus

315 days until extinction.

“God, they never think we’re monitoring the sewers. It’s wild what people assume.”

The younger woman laughed while she led both Harper and Jackson through the alleyway. She was wearing a bright, playful smile while holding a metal baseball back behind her neck and across her shoulders; and given the faint dent near the top Jackson suspected it was not solely for theatrics.

Her eyes were big and sparkled with a chaotic glee and the way she gave him that slightly crooked smile made Jackson’s stomach twist uncomfortably, which he assumed was due to the still lingering smell of the sewer.

“Hey Pat,” the young woman elbowed one of the gunmen, a larger man with a fairly large scar running up his cheek and into his salt and pepper hair. “How many of that lunatics men have we caught down there now? Eight?”

“Seven.” The man called Pat corrected.

“Captain’s gotta be running out of manpower.” She let her eyes fall over Harper and Jackson before giving them both an almost mocking smile.

Jackson’s eyes went wide.

“We’re not with-”

“Jackson!” Harper cut him off before he could say anything, giving him a stern stare that told him not to say anything further.

“Oooooh, big lady knows to keep her mouth shut.” The woman stared at her while walking backward before shrugging, “don’t matter none. Gabby is kind of an expert at getting people to talk.”

They walked in silence from then on, with Jackson’s mind burning with thoughts of where they might be going or what might happen when they got there. But those questions ceased as they were both brought into a large open section of neighborhood that was alive with activity.

People sitting at café tables having conversations as children played in the street. A record player from within one of the upper story windows hummed a melodic, jazzy tune and from somewhere further down the street were the sounds of an action movie. Were it not for the fact this was all happening in the middle of the street Jackson might have assumed it was just a regular day.

“Holy crap.” Was all Jackson could muster, glancing at Harper to see she was also impressed by the sight.

“Pretty nice, right? No wonder your boss wants it so bad.”

Glancing at his companion Jackson could no longer keep silent.

“We don’t work for anybody.” He tried to make his voice as stern as he’d heard Harper speak in moments of severity, but the laugh the woman gave caused him to shrink slightly.

“A likely story. Well doesn’t matter, now you get to tell it to Gabs.” She opened the door to what looked to be a community movie theatre. The entryway was not very large with a small concession stand whose glass case now stood empty. Standing behind it was a younger man who could not have been much older than Jackson, he looked at the pair with momentary surprise before the woman set her bat on the counter.

“Gabs upstairs?” She asked, almost absentmindedly.

“Yeah, who are they?”

“Another batch of sewer rats. Well armed though.” As she spoke the weaponry they had confiscated from the pair was placed on the counter alongside the other bat. The man there gave a nod before taking them all and putting them into one of several lockers tucked behind the stand.

He gestured with his head at a stairwell on the far wall.

Harper gestured for Jackson to go first but one of the gunmen stuck a pistol in the small of her back pushing her into the stairs first, followed by the gunman and then Jackson and the other two captors.

It was not an overly long stairwell to climb, little more than up to the second floor, yet Jackson’s steps felt heavier with every footfall and by the time they had reached the top his brow was beading with sweat as fear had completely seized control of him.

He was not sure what he had expected to find, perhaps some office laden with artillery and taxidermy animals. What he had not expected was a rather cozy room with a large projection device situated in the middle near a section of the wall that had been cut away so that it could be played on the larger screen below; Jackson had never been in a projection booth before but it was far nicer than he had expected. And standing near the device looking through a small screen was a woman who looked to be in her mid 30’s, a single streak of white contrasting her stark raven colored hair that was worn in a loose bun atop her head.

“Gabby, found some sewer rats for you to squeeze info out of.”

The woman turned and smiled, “thank you Keila.” Her words were soft and kind but there was an air of power to them, evidenced as the young woman who’d escorted them gave a small nod before leaving and closing the door behind her.

“Been awhile, Harper.” The projectionist woman asked suddenly, looking at the pair of them with a small and seemingly kind smile.

Jackson looked at Harper whose entire body was almost rigid with stress, he had never before seen the look in her eyes he saw now. Anxiety mixed with pain.

“Do you like movies?” Her eyes shifted to Jackson and her smile seemed to become more genuine.

“Uh…yes?” Was all he could muster, his eyes glancing nervously to Harper for any sign that she had some semblance of plan but all he could see was a deer in the headlights.

“What’s your favorite?”

Pondering the question momentarily Jackson shrugged, “probably Amadeus.” In his mind he remembered how much he related to both the lead characters, the isolation of being labelled a genius along with that of not being fully supported by family.

“An interesting choice. Do you play?”

“I…do. I’m sorry but I just have to say we’re not-”

“You’re not part of The Captain’s little militia. Yes, I know.”

Relief flooded through him as Jackson felt part of his jaw loosen and didn’t even realize how tight he’d been clenching his muscles. Yet still Harper remained rigid and so relief did not flood through him fully.

“Oh, okay…well, that’s good then.” Jackson looked up at Harper and cleared his throat, “so you two know each other?”

“We go way back.”

“No we don’t.” Harper said, suddenly breaking the silence she had fallen under. “That implies a longstanding familiarity. We served together, that’s it.”

The woman named Gabby let out a bitter laugh, shaking her head as she stared at Harper.

“That’s it?” Her eyebrow raised slightly. “You don’t want to tell him what you did to me?”

Jackson glanced at Harper in surprise, partly unwilling that someone with such a strict sense of herself had ever done wrong to another.

But Harper merely took a slow breath before asking calmly, “are we being held against our will?”

There was a pause as Gabby seemed to consider it before waving her hand. “Not at the moment, but Keila will be tagging along to make sure you’re following neighborhood rules.”

“We won’t be here long.” Harper said curtly before turning and walking out letting the door slam hard behind her.

Jackson looked between the door and Gabby like following a Wimbledon tennis match before finally saying, “um. I guess thank you for not killing us?”

“Watch yourself with her, kid.” Gabby said, gesturing with her head at the door before moving back to the projection device.

“What do you mean?”

“If Amadeus is your favorite movie, then all I’ll say is she’d be perfect for the role of Salieri.”