Of Hearts And Stars (Classic Editon) (The Cadet Starship Chronicles) (5 page)

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14
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Butch went straight to the caregivers office with Marcus and George. They made sure to leave out an important fact that they did start the fight, and did not include any mention of a knife. Given Swift's pattern of defiance, antisocial tendencies, and the fact he did not suffer any injuries; his side of the story was disregarded. He was immediately punished: twenty lashes to his back and bed with no dinner.

“
After the laughter comes the tears.” Swift said laying on his stomach. After all of the whipping his back felt incredibly painful and sore “It is my destiny as an orphan, I think, to be flogged and punished until I'm an adult.” he said.

Ollie sat with his hands wrapped around his knees on the cold linoleum of Swift's floor “I tried to tell them what really happened.” he said and put his chin on his forearms “They told me they'd whip me too if I told anymore lies.”

Swift crawled to the edge of his bed an patted Ollie on the back. His friend meant well and was a good kid, but he thought that perhaps getting whipped was worse than the perception of having let someone else down.

“
No worries man. They'll whip me until my back becomes a tough and leathery carapace as solid as rock. I'll be invincible then, like Mark Wahlberg or Bruce Willis.”

Ollie shuddered and exclaimed “That's crazy!” Given Swift's recklessness and utter disregard for corporal punishment he thought that his friend might somehow be serious.

Swift closed his eyes and nodded “Crazy enough to work.”

“
No. Just plain crazy.” Ollie said.

“
Maybe.” Swift slid to a crouching position next to his bed and inhaled sharply through clenched teeth. He cringed from the throbbing pain in his back as he stood upright.

“
And maybe this plan will sound a bit better.” he said and walked carefully over to his wardrobe. From it he retrieved a travel map and then inched his way back to Ollie, who looked at the map that was being laid down before him. It had been written on to an extent, notes penned in a small and sharp script in between lines, circles and crosses.

“
So what's the plan?” Ollie asked.

A self satisfied look bloomed on Swift's face and he declared “This is our escape route. One day, after school, we leave and never come back.”

Ollie gave Swift a sober look and said “Crazy.”

“
Crazy enough to-”

Ollie gave him a weary look “C'mon dude...”

Swift crossed his arms and said “I wanna know when hence I've given you reason to doubt me.”

Ollie held his palm up and replied “I wanna know why you said 'when hence' instead of since when. Do people even talk like that? It doesn't make sense.”

“
Anyway, word police,” Swift scratched his head and went on with detailing the plan “I decided to bust this joint when I found out that my dad died. I've been doing research at school during lunch and recess on possible routes. I've calculated which routes are unlikely to have any monitors by search parties once it becomes know that we are missing. If we follow the path I drew on the map then we should safely and quickly escape the city.”

Ollie shook his head and said “There goes that 'we' again. What do you propose we do once we 'bust this joint'?”

“
Initially I had planned to start a new life, doing what work we can find-”

“
YES!” Ollie exclaimed and held his hands towards the ceiling, as if the answer had come down from on high.

Swift swatted down both of Ollie's hands and said “Dude let me finish. After I thought about it I remembered that there's someone who will help us out no matter what.”

“
Who?” Ollie asked.

“
My uncle Zach. The problem is that I can't contact him from in here. When I asked the caregivers for permission to send an email to him they said that he isn't a real person, and that I made him up. Then they whipped me for lying.”

Ollie's nose wrinkled as his face contorted in a look of distress “Holy crap dude!” Just how many times a week did Swift get whipped he wondered.

“
I know right? What's worse is that even if I am given permission to send him an email, they will screen it first and reject it if contains anything about abuse or neglect. Then comes the whipping for telling lies of course.” Swift said.

“
So you need to escape so that you can contact your uncle for help.” Ollie concluded.

“
Almost, but not quite. I intend for us to escape so we can contact my uncle for help. Notice how I kept saying 'we' instead of 'I'. It implies multiple people.”

Ollie pulled his knees in closer and sighed. When he spoke the sound of defeat rang clearly in his voice “I'd just slow you down...”

Swift waved his hand sharply as if to wipe away Ollie's doubts and fears and said “What? No! Where are you getting these ideas? You're my best friend! I need your help with this!”

Ollie smiled. This was the first time he had ever been someone's best friend.

“
I can help even if I don't come along.” he said.

Swift huffed and folded his arms again. He didn't want to argue with Ollie, but he also did not want to leave him behind.

“
What about Butch and his goon squad? Can you beat them alone?” he asked.

Ollie laughed so suddenly that it surprised Swift.

“
Are you kidding me? I'm gonna avoid'em like the plague.”

Swift sucked his teeth and said “Yeah, cause that's worked so well in the past. If that's the case then you're a chronic plague victim.”

This did not bother Ollie, who came back with “One can only be a chronic plague victim if one is a chronic plague survivor. I've made it all of this time without your mighty iron fists after all. Either we keep debating this or we prepare to start the plan.”

“
Escape is the plan. The plan is freedom.” Swift said solemnly.

“
Yes.” Ollie said and this time he meant it.

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15
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The morning they had decided upon arrived, and Ollie stopped by Swift's room. After they exchanged their usual greeting by fist bump Ollie presented Swift with a white envelope. In it was a small amount of money.

“
What's this?” Swift asked without taking the envelope.

“
Money, a common article for bartering.” Ollie quipped.

“
I know what money is butt-head. I mean where did you get it and why are you giving it to me?”

Ollie offered the envelope again and said “This is my life savings. I earned this while helping out Mr. Taylor in his shop. I figured you could use it more than me, and I won't be needing it.”

Swift looked at the envelope as if it were something more sinister than money. It gave him a sick feeling in his stomach.

“
Why are you giving away your life savings so easily? You worked hard for it. Why do you think you will not need it?” he asked.

Ollie held the envelope out even further and said “I already told you. What I actually need is to get out of here ASAP, and in order for that to happen I need you to succeed. Take the money.”

Swift had to restrain the urge to ask Ollie to come with him. He knew it was no good. Still he didn't want take Ollie's savings. Swift didn't want to be ungrateful, but accepting something like this gave him a deep feeling of sadness.

“
That's okay dude. I've prepared.” he said.

“
Hmm. Lemme see your bag.”

Ollie grabbed Swift's bag without waiting for an answer and looked inside. He saw the map, some packets of dried beef, and two bottles of water.

“
Oh Bear Grylls, what are you going to do when
all
of this water runs out? Drink your-”

“
Okay okay wisenheimer! I'll take the money. Jeez.”

Swift snatched the bag as well as the envelope. He stuffed the envelope into his bag.

Ollie folded his arms and declared “A winner is me.”

That day after school Swift set out. He'd knew it'd be tough, but getting away from the city would be the hardest part. Fortunately he had researched which public transit methods would offer the least resistance to an unaccompanied minor with no id. It was after dark when he made it to the city limits and looked back for the first time. There was no way that he would be able to see the orphanage from here, but still his gaze scanned the glowing lights of the city's downtown district “Be strong Ollie. Help is on the way.” he whispered before vanishing into the night.

By choosing to stick to suburban towns and smaller cities he was able to evade capture. He had been using the public communications terminals in the post offices of these places, but fear of being noticed for standing out in such small areas drove him to a denser city. Ironically, this led to his capture outside of a drugstore by an off-duty police officer who recognized him from a wanted description. He had stopped there briefly to replenish his supplies with the money given to him by Ollie, which also prevented him from having to become the ultimate survivor. Prior to his capture, Swift did send several messages to Zach. None of these received a response, but he was prepared for this seeing as he never visited the same spot twice. His faith was kept alive by two facts: Zach would never ignore him if he knew Swift needed his help, and Swift did not believe that fate would be cruel enough to take his uncle as it did his mother and father.

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16
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After his whipping, he returned to his room only to find it in shambles. Model ships were completely smashed up; model ships that he and Ollie had painstakingly built, their pieces strewn all over. The posters and diagrams that had once adorned his milky gray walls now covered the floor in uneven shreds, like morbid carpeting. He moved with urgency to his wardrobe and dropped down to his knees to check the bottom of it. The box with his father's things was still there untouched. He let out a sigh of relief and got back to his feet. This was no doubt the handy work of Butch and his goon squad. Swift planned to go check in with Ollie to get the full story, and then issue out beat downs accordingly. Top shelf beat downs.

Yet when he got to Ollie's room his temper ran cold and instead of preparing for a final fight he found himself staring into an empty room. Just then a familiar voice spoke from behind him and he turned slowly as if caught in a dream, or in this case a nightmare.

“
You're back!” Frankie exclaimed.

“
Oh it's you... Frankie... Where's Ollie?” Swift asked.

A look of discomfort spread across Frankie's face “So you haven't heard yet?” He looked down at his hands as if they would tell him what to say next and came to a conclusion, without the help of his hands, he looked up and said “Butch is still pretty mad that you knocked his teeth out, so when you ran away he decided to trash your room. Ollie must have heard us breaking your stuff-”

“
Us?” With an alarmingly cold look, Swift eyes begin to fix on Frankie “You were a part of this?” he asked.

“
Please let me finish!” Frankie cried as his gaze fell back to his hands in search for an answer, or maybe to find his voice. “He had to have heard us, because he came running in and shouted at us to cut it out. Butch told us to get him, but when I went to grab him he socked me hard in the stomach. He surprised me so much, because not only did it hurt a lot but Ollie had never fought back before. He reminded me of you for a second.” He grinned sheepishly at Swift, but Swift maintained that hauntingly chilly stare. Frankie was starting to get scared. This wasn't the wise guy from the cafeteria a few weeks ago. Danger seemed to hide right underneath those icy dark eyes and he began to consider whether or not to finish when Swift finally spoke again.

“
Ollie. Where is he?” he said in a flat voice that betrayed no emotion whatsoever.

To Frankie the emptiness seemed to convey a warning or perhaps a threat. He was sure that he could feel the anger coming from Swift's eyes even if it wasn't present in his voice. He could feel it watching him.

Frankie stuttered and his hands began to tremble with fear “But-ch...But-ch...and the guys...n-not me th-ough. They jumped him. At first I thought they were going to j-just rough him up a b-bit like usual...”

Frankie stopped. He was sweating badly now and shaking all over. After a few seconds of silence Swift spoke again.

“
You need to talk. Now.” Swift's voice was like a slap to the face.

Frankie took a deep breath, exhaled, and closed his eyes before he continued.

“
They got him down and started to kick and stomp him. They were shouting and cussing so loud that I thought a caregiver might come...no... I had hoped a caregiver would hear it and come stop them. Before I knew it I was shouting at them to stop, trying to pull them off of him, but I was too late.”

Swift said nothing as he soaked in this tale of ridiculously brutal violence. His face remained as still as stone. If he noticed the tears that had begun to roll down Frankie's face then he gave no indication that they mattered at all.

Frankie wiped his face with his forearm and cried “Blood! Blood was coming out of his mouth, ears, nose- everywhere! He wasn't breathing anymore either...or at least it didn't look like it.”