Just Have Faith

Chapter 1

The City. One of the most heavily government-monitored places on Earth. The media and Internet are heavily censored. Even phone calls are monitored. The buildings touched the clouds and hug one another closely. People went about their daily lives on the streets below.

None of that mattered to Faith Connors right now. All that mattered was getting to her friend and partner, Celeste, nicknamed Cel, and receive the package Cel had for her. Faith and Cel were runners. Runners saw the City in a different way. They saw the flow of the rooftops, the pathways between. Runners are paid to transport items and information without the government knowing. Faith ran along a rooftop, vaulting over some low pipes. Faith ran to the edge of the building, a taller building looming in front of her. Faith leapt over the gap, her momentum allowing her to reach the building's fire escape and climb up to the building's roof.

As Faith steadied herself to catch her breath, she heard Mercury, nicknamed Merc, over her earpiece. "Nice moves, Faith. Alright, Cel should be at your position with the package any minute now. Oh, and Faith? This package is particularly fragile; just make sure it doesn't see the light of day. I repeat, DON'T OPEN IT."

"Alright, thanks for the heads-up, Merc." Faith replied.

Faith, now a young woman, brushed her short, black hair out of her face, which spoke of an Asian ancestry. Faith wore her usual today; a black tank top, some white cargo jeans that complemented her slim figure, and some red sneakers and one red fingerless glove on her right hand.

After a few minutes of waiting, Faith called Cel on her earpiece and said "Cel, where the hell are you? I've been here for ten minutes!"

She heard over the radio "Sorry, Faith, but you heard Merc. I gotta go slow with this."

After two more minutes, Cel hauled herself up over the side of the building. Cel was about the same age as Faith, with blonde hair and a more European face. She wore a red tank top, black jeans, black sneakers, and black gloves. She walked over to Faith and slung a metal canister from her back.

"Here, Faith. Now, get going." Cel said as she handed the case to Faith and flipped off the edge of the roof.

As Faith was adjusting the case onto her back, some police officers, dubbed Blues by the runners, burst through the rooftop door and turned to face Faith. One of them yelled "There she is! Don't let her escape!" A guard ran up to Faith and took a swing at her with his baton, but Faith was quicker. Faith grabbed his wrist with her right hand, used her left to disarm him, then took the butt of the handle to his gut. The Blue doubled over in pain, allowing Faith to knee him in the face, knocking him out cold.

Faith ran away from the other Blues as they were drawing their pistols. Faith jumped and grabbed a steel cable connecting to a support on a lower, farther away building. As she sped down it like a zip line, the Blues were still shooting at her with less than stellar accuracy.

One bullet, however, managed to pierce the shell of Faith's package. The hole started to leak gas and sparks. Faith dropped onto the roof below and rolled behind cover.

As she was fumbling to take of the package, she frantically called Merc and said "Merc! One of the Blues shot the case! What do I do?"

"Faith, get out of there! RUN!" but it was too late. The package burst and released a blinding ball of light. When the light faded, all that was left was a mangled scrap of metal. There was no sign of Faith.