A young man was walking around in a rundown neighborhood, whistling and looking around like he was looking for some action, but after a while he realized the night was dead, so he decided to go home.
"I'm home," he yelled.
"Kaden," a woman came out of a room to greet him. "Where you been all day?" she asked with a nervous look on her face.
"Hey, Mom. I've been out finding work," the boy said, diverting his eyes from hers. He then handed her a bag of money.
"Three hundred units?" She counted. "How did you get this much money?"
"I worked for it."
"Oh, Kaden, not again. Please tell me you're not robbing others again."
"No, Mom. I never did that in the first place. I got a job with some people, okay?" His mother looked in his eyes, but she couldn't see a lie in them.
"All right. Get ready for dinner."
"Yes, ma'am." The best lies are always covered with some truth.
He went to the kitchen. After washing his hands he saw his mom sitting down already waiting for him. He sat across from her, but in the middle of the table there was a picture of a man who looked very similar to Kaden — it was his father. His mother grabbed his hand and put her other hand on the photo with Kaden's father. As Kaden did the same, his mother then closed her eyes and started praying. He was going to close his eyes as well but stopped when he noticed papers stacked; he could just barely make them out — they were bills. Kaden hated this feeling in his gut.
The feeling that his best wasn't good enough. As his mother finished, he closed his eyes seeing that his mom was finishing up.
"Amen."
"Amen."
The two then started eating, but even so Kaden couldn't take his eyes off the stack of letters.
"You know, Mom, I don't make that much from this job. I could quit and just—" he began, but she cut him off as she slammed her hand on the table.
"We went over this, Kaden. You are too young to be involved in the big world."
"Too young? Mom, I'm nineteen. I'm an adult. I can defend myself."
"Not while you're under my roof. When you're here to me, you're still the same boy who I held in my arms."
"But Mom, they're doing a mass recruitment. After a certain point they'll be looking for standards. This could be our big break."
"I said no. Your father—" she paused after saying that, her jaw clenched shut. "Your father thought the same thing, and where did that lead him? Eaten by those beasts, Kaden. We didn't get to bury him. You are my little boy; a parent's worst nightmare is burying their child, but what's worse is not having a body to bury. We get by for now with our two jobs."
"We'll be able to pay those bills, but then they would just stack on and on to the point where we'll lose the house. Dad knew that," he stopped and sighed. "Look, the Zale family is coming here tomorrow night. I will be there, Mom, and you can't stop me," the boy said solemnly.
"I know I can't. Just promise you'll be safe," she asked.
"I will," he replied as they both hugged each other.
"To this day I don't know if that was the worst choice or the best choice of my life," Kaden said, looking at his two sons.
The next day passed. "Mom, I'm heading out to work," Kaden yelled.
"Okay, be safe," she yelled back as the door closed.
Kaden ran throughout the place, going in different directions like he was trying to make his next moves unpredictable. While running there were billboards all around which seemed to be something linking itself to a group.
"Join the Black Halo now and join us in building something great."
More and more boards like this one, yet all of them said the Black Halo and not any other of the great families.
Kaden finally stopped in an alleyway, climbing up a ladder going to the roof. When he reached the top, a hand was out. He grabbed the hand and got himself up.
"Get up here, Kaden," a manly voice called out, pulling him up. "What took you so long?" the voice asked. Kaden's eyes had to adjust to the sunlight flashing in his eyes. He shook his head, opening his eyes and seeing a dark-skinned man with a muscular build on display, shirtless, with short jet-black hair standing up in a fade.
"I told you, Kwame. I gotta take extra steps, you know. A lot of these people in the Black Halo walls know my mom. I can't let them see me doing this stuff and tell her — then that's both of our asses."
"True that. So ready to get started?" Kaden shook his head. As they were ready to move, they heard commotion going on at the bottom of the building. When they did, they both peered over to see what was going on. They could see an old man being harassed by a person in a black-and-golden uniform. Both of them knew who it was.
"The Black Halo guard," they both whispered.
"Where are our masks?" Kaden questioned.
"Here." Kwame then gave him what looked like a bunny mask, while Kaden got a mask of a gorilla.
"Why do I have to be the bunny again?" Kaden questioned.
"Because you're the softest and sweetest of us all," Kwame chuckled, with Kaden flipping him off in response. The two then climbed down the ladder as the man started running, but he ran to a dead end.
"Please, I tried finding a job but no one would hire me. Please give me another month," the man begged.
"You had your last month. Now come with us and walk out the walls peacefully," two men walked him down getting closer. "Don't resist. We don't want to cause you harm."
"Please resist. We've been looking for some action all day."
"Stop right there," a voice in a dramatic tone — all looked at the entrance of the alley and saw two people standing there, one more tall and buff than the other, with him standing proudly while the other was shaking his head.
"Stop right there? Really, that's so lame," Kaden said.
"Next time you say something—" Kwame replied back.
"Ahh, finally," one of them stepped up. "We've been looking for you people. What do you call yourselves, the resistance or some shit?"
"It's the Wallborn Defenders," Kaden yelled.
The two guards and the men started laughing.
"What kind of name is that?" a guard yelled. "It's so corny."
"Shut up, and you shut as well before you don't get saved," Kwame yelled as the two rushed in with their fists ready. The two guards were ready with their weapons being quickly pulled out, then charged in. Both wielded swords; one slashed at Kaden's feet but he got out of it by jumping with elegance, his feet landing on the sword. It wasn't a beast weapon — at this time level-one beast weaponry was rare. He then kicked the man in his shin, making him drop the sword. The man quickly jumped back, pulling out a gun, but when he looked up he didn't see Kaden. All he saw was his coworker on the ground and Kwame standing over him. He then pointed the weapon at Kwame.
"I told them we should use guns but nooo, they want us to use swords and shit. So when we get a beast weapon we'll have a good hold over it, but that won't mean shit if we're dead," the man thought as he held Kwame at gunpoint while looking around vigorously for Kaden. But the man was up top holding onto a beam, coming down and slamming the man's head into the ground, knocking him out.
"G5, look out!" Kaden called.
Kwame turned to see the man he thought knocked to be back up holding a gun to his face and firing toward his gut, knocking him over.
"G5!!" he yelled.
"Don't be sad. You're gonna join him next," the guard chuckled, but stopped as he felt a hand on his and could see the person he just shot holding him. He was ready to dump more into the man, but Kwame moved too quick, tossing the man by his legs, making him spin in a cartwheel motion into the wall, hitting his head and passing out.
"How was my acting?" Kaden said laughing as he started to search the man, taking out a wallet with coins that had a silver tint to it, with the letter U on it, and putting them in his own pockets.
"7/10, but better luck next time, B4," the other did the same as Kaden.
"Incredible," the guy who was getting kicked out said, looking at the two. "The one with the bunny was nimble and fast and his moves were so decisive, like he already planned it out ahead of time. And there — that person with the gorilla mask — he was able to knock Ken out with a single punch and then flip his body with just one hand."
"All right, we're done here. Come with us." Kwame had his hand out as the guy grabbed it. Kaden felt like something was wrong.
"Hey, you said you were looking for a job and that no one would hire you and I'm guessing you have no family or they would've paid the tax for you, am I right?" he questioned, with the guy shaking his head up and down. "Hmm." He kicked the man in the side of his head so fast that he couldn't even react, banging his head on the floor and knocking him out.
"B4, what is wrong with you?" Kwame yelled as he saw Kaden checking the body. "Hey, we don't rob the defenseless." He grabbed his hand but stopped, and then they heard sirens.
"All right, I'm done. Let's go," Kaden yelled. They both started climbing the ladders on the sides of the buildings up to the roof.
"B4, explain yourself. We had to abandon that man back there. He would've had a home — now he'll most likely be eaten by beasts when they kick him out of the walls."
"Code 45092," Kaden said to get Kwame to see what was going on. It was the code that told them the man was undercover.
After jumping between eight roofs of apartments, the two stopped, feeling like they were far enough from the crime scene.
"How did you know, B4?" he still used Kaden's code name just in case there were still cameras.
"A couple reasons. One — the man said he was looking for a job for a while but couldn't find one. By the way they were talking they were harassing the man for a while, but there was not a speck of dirt on him and by his looks he had been well fed. For a man looking for a job he should be a bit on the skinnier side. And two…" Kaden then grabbed a card out of his hand. It was an ID which had his face and said he was a guard of the Black Halo. "I saw — or what I really should say is I saw the tracker. Luckily our masks have the design to see the small trackers or we would've been in trouble."
"So long story short it was a—"
"A setup." A man slammed his hand on the table.
"Yes sir, Kornal," both of the young men said.
"I'm glad you two picked up on this, B4 and G5. I knew you two would show your worth at some point. Now we know they're getting smarter and they're trying to set us up. You two are dismissed." Kaden and Kwame both bowed at him and walked away.
"This is bad, sir," a woman said with a tablet in her hands. "If this is true, all of our members who are out there need to be careful about who they bring down here." She started to walk to a window where rows of bunk beds lay, which made it look like a homeless shelter. "We can't keep housing almost anyone anymore since we're also reaching the limit capacity of how many people we can house and their food. At some point some of these are gonna have to fight for their food or be kicked out of here and sooner or later out the walls."
"Yes, but there's one big flaw: what's stopping them from telling them where we are as revenge and to get on their good side? And then the biggest problem of them all — the Zale family is coming, and something tells me they're here for more than recruitment."