//Ahn: Gray

The distant sirens were still sounding, serving as a reminder that danger was not far away. It had been almost thirty minutes since they started running. They stopped now, the drunken man falling to his knees, the flask still tightly gripped in his hand. How he had managed to keep it on his person while performing such stunts while they were fleeing was beyond Ahn.

The man gasped for air, taking swigs from his nearly empty flask between breaths. "That…" he said, his chest heaving, "was a bit unfortunate, don't you think?"

Ahn was dumbfounded. They had been chased by the District's border patrol for half an hour, and were now fugitives in a dark alleyway, and all he had to say about it was that it was unfortunate? He had seemed confident when he said they would make it over the wall, but how he hoped to accomplish that was beyond Ahn.

The man tilted his head back, savoring the last few drops of alcohol he had left, then slumped over. He had ragged blond hair, which was marred with mud from when the female guard kicked him to the ground, and light brown eyes. His skin, though covered in dirt, was smooth. His slim build made him appear weak, but his running speed gave a different impression entirely. How had he managed to move so fast with such agility without augmentation?

"Well?" Sae asked impatiently. "What is your plan, assuming you have one?"

The man looked up, his head moving loosely, largely contrasting the decisive motions he made while running. His unfocused gaze sharpened as he got a closer look at her.

"Fiesty one," he said. "Do you have a plan to back up your attitude?" He grinned. "I do, of course."

Sae's eyes flashed with irritation.

"Do you mind sharing it with us?" Ahn asked quickly, shutting out the chance for Sae to respond aggressively. The last thing they wanted was to make the person sharing a hiding spot with them angry. They didn't know how he would react.

"Before that, let's get to know each other a little," the man said. "Names first. It'll be a pain if we have to call each other 'you' or 'dude' while working together, don't you think?"

Ahn nodded. While he didn't exactly see the importance of it, he decided there wasn't any point in giving him their human names. "Ahn. Nice to meet you," he said, forcing a slight smile.

The man turned to Sae with a smirk. "And you, pretty lady?"

Ahn grabbed Sae's wrist, stopping her from unsheathing her sword.

Sae yanked her arm away, letting it fall to her side. "Sae," she said venomously. "Your turn."

The man put his hands up in a mock surrendering gesture. "Right, right. Nathan." He paused. "Gray."

Ahn thought for a moment. The name sounded almost familiar, but he couldn't place where he had heard it before.

'I don't trust him,' Sae thought to Ahn. 'He seems like an idiot, but that look in his eyes is dangerous.'

'We need to at least hear him out,' Ahn replied. 'If we decide to leave him, we don't know what he'll try to do.'

"So?" Ahn turned to Nathan, if that was his real name. "What do you have in mind?"

Nathan's smile returned, wider than before, the cunning look in his eyes flashing back to life. "Follow me," he said.

Sae looked at Ahn. Ahn gave her a subtle nod, then starting walking after Nathan. Sae hesitantly did the same.

Water dripped lightly from the rooftops above, showering the pavement at Ahn's feet. It wasn't loud, but in the relative silence, each drop sounded like a bomb going off. Every time Ahn stepped in a puddle he nearly jumped from the sudden noise. The sirens were inaudible now. Either the search had been temporarily abandoned or they were too far away to be heard.

Nathan vaulted over a rusty pipe about three feet in diameter, skillfully ducking underneath a power line directly above it. Where did he learn to do this so efficiently?

While the streets were dimly lit, the series of alleys they were walking through were nearly pitch black. Ahn had to utilize various optical filters to see even a few feet in front of him. Nathan, on the other hand, appeared to have no trouble navigating through the darkness.

They eventually arrived at a small clearing between a couple of long unoccupied buildings. Glass crunched at Ahn's feet. They were near the slums now. Nathan pointed upward.

"See that?" Nathan whispered.

Ahn looked at the spot Nathan was pointing to, but wasn't able to find what he was talking about. All he saw was the enormous wall about two hundred feet away. Its presence, even from this distance, was almost overbearing. Nobody would dream of scaling it.

Ahn shook his head.

Nathan sighed. "There's a sentry turret on top of the wall on the fifth section from the left," he said, pointing again.

Ahn had seen it, but didn't understand where Nathan was going with it. "What about it?"

Nathan looked at him with an expression of overly exaggerated sympathy, as if he were a clueless child who needed guidance. "There's two guards posted on every turret, and each turret is three sections of wall away from each other." He was wildly grinning now, the smell of alcohol permeating the air with each word he said. Despite this, he was able to convey his ideas concisely and accurately. "That particular turret, though, has a special guard on it."

Sae looked intrigued now. "Special how?"

"It's not a human," Nathan said. "It's a decommissioned military android that didn't go insane like the others. If we get close enough, I can hack it."

Ahn understood now. Older models of androids were susceptible to being hacked and even controlled from an external source. If the guard really was one of them, being able to control it would make breaking into District 3 far easier.

Suspicion clouded Sae's face as she listened. "And how can you be so sure that your information is accurate? How can we trust it?"

Nathan waved a hand dismissively. "Whether you decide to believe me or not is entirely up to you. Either way, you don't have any better ideas to get across on your own, do you?"

Sae lowered her head in a failed attempt to conceal her frustration. Ahn shared some of her doubts, but Nathan was right. They didn't have any other option, and if they waited too long, they would eventually be found.

'Sae,' he thought to her.

'I know,' her voice replied.

Ahn looked at Nathan. "What do you want us to do?"