Chapter 1
It was cold the night we found her. Our breath fogged and rose to a quarter moon cloud covered stars. There was still enough light that we wouldn't need thermal goggles or night vision lenses. And while I knew I was not alone, it was still unnerving to not hear anything walking beside me. But stealth was Kat's specialty. I glanced over from time to time just to make sure she hadn't blown away or something. Being made of smoke can be dangerous like that.
Our perimeter search was going extraordinary dull and my gun was digging into my shoulder. I pulled it off and shrugged my purple army jacket back into place.
"I don't see why you still wear that," Kat interjected behind me.
"Sentimental. And extremely warm." I grin toward the moon, internally laughing about how it was only a half truth. Small things like that always make me laugh.
"Not your jacket. Your hat."
I paused... "Eh. It gives me personality."
"A top hat is not personality. It's weird."
Not something I wasn't use to hearing. A top hat on a captain in a secret military is a little absurd. But what do I care. I'm Hatter.
By that time I hadn't noticed that Kat had stopped. I just happened to turn my head to see her standing a few feet behind me. The moonlight hit her part translucent skin and made it glow slightly. Her round face was looking off the road into a patch of bushes and was looking startled. I doubled back to see what was going on and shouldered my gun. The safety clicked off and I leaned around to see into the bushes.
The quarter moon gave enough light so that we could see her crumpled form. The breeze whistled for a brief moment as we gazed down at her.
It was easy to see from her cloths alone that she was an escapee. Her long shirt barely covered her emaciated frame and the dark red stripes contrasted violently against her pale, never-seen-sun before, skin. And even more so against her white blond hair.
She stirred slightly, but I realized she was only shivering.
"What do we do Hatter?" Kat asked from my side.
"Leave her," I replied quickly. "There's no reason for us to bring her and more so we don't need to give others a reason to look for her at the Party. She would only slow us down, and we both need Tea soon."
"But Hatter, she's an inmate. What if she is spliced?"
"Not our problem, Kat. Leave her. We need to get back so you can have Tea."
"Yes Hatter...."
The look she gave me struck deep to old emotions. Pity wasn't something I was used to feeling and I didn't like it. The sinking lead weight that settled in my stomach after dropping slowly from my throat and even more so the near physical pain I felt in my heart.
Kat saw me pause and she knew what I meant. Being made of smoke made her impervious to pain, as well as any physical contact. But sometimes something will slip through, and she will feel that.
"Come on Kat. You know we can't."
She stalked past me and headed back to the road, not making a single noise.
I looked down at the girl again but this time forced myself to not care. I could not afford to have someone leaving a trail to the Party.
But still....
"I'm sorry," I whisper. My arms slip out of the deep purple army jacket and I slowly laid it across her body. For the first time I realised how small and how... beautiful she was.
"At least if you get caught, they will not shot you... Only take you back for questioning till they find out which solider let you out and gave you his jacket."
With that I walked back to the road and popped a Tea Pill, just to take the edge of the pity flowing through me.
I reached the road and shouldered my gun. Kat is standing a few meters away and looking flustered.
I press the button to activate my ear piece,"Dee, Dom, we are coming in."
And we left.
