Rats: Shai's Story

I Love You

Author's Note: I hope you all are enjoying this story

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Mikko's footsteps echoed through the cluttered house. Shai and Jasper were sitting in his kitchen. Shai was resting her head against the counter. Jasper woke up at the crack of dawn and was shaking her awake. He dragged her out of bed and down the street to Mikko's. Mikko told them to wait down in the kitchen while he went looking for supplies.

"I've been thinking," Jasper said.

"About what?" Shai lifted her head off of the cool counter.

"The rebellions."

Shai knew what he was going to say before he said it. She shook her head ran her fingers through her tangled hair.

"Jas, what do you think is going to happen?" she asked.

"I can't believe you're not more interested," he said. "You're the one always sneaking into Bright. You're the one who wanted to break a Rat out of a camp."

"That was just one! Who knows how many Rats are locked away?"

"We got two out."

Todd and Ren were out of the camp, but only because Todd dragged her out with him. There were hundreds of other Rats in the that camp, and they'd spend the rest of their lives stuck in that camp. Shai wished she could get them out, but she knew that it was impossible. Her and Jasper would be killed. She was willing to risk her life for Todd, he was the one that raised her. He was the closest thing she had to family.

"We have Tegan now," Jasper said. "He will change things. He won't keep those camps running."

Shai jumped when she heard a pounding on the door. She ran down the cramped hallway and looked through the peephole of the door. She opened the door to see Todd and Ren standing there. She was glad to see him out of the brown uniform, but she was still not used to seeing his hair so short.

"'Bout time you got here," she said.

"Good morning to you too," Todd said.

Shai turned around and walked back down to the kitchen. Todd followed her and Ren was close behind him. Mikko came running down the stairs with arms full of boxes. He still had his ratty bathrobe wrapped around himself. He dropped the box on the counter and began dumping the contents out.

"I hope you're all ready to head into Royale," he said. "Cause we're probably going to get arrested in Bright."

"Wait, why are we going to be arrested in Bright?" Shai asked.

"We have to board the train to get into Royale. Apparently driving and flying is too dangerous for Brights."

"People can fly?" Shai raised an eyebrow.

Mikko waved his hand and ignored her. She watched as he pull bottles out of the box. They were the bottles he used when he made her look like a man.

"They may be able to tell that we are Rats, and they'll arrest us," Mikko said. "The scanners won't be able to pick up Tegan's Royal file."

"So how do you plan on getting us on the train?" Jasper asked.

"They don't do any identity checking until you get off the train at Royale," he said. "We're going to break off into groups. Fly and Jasper will be together." Shai rolled her eyes. He was still not able to pronounce her name properly. "And Tegan and Ren you two will be together. We're going to split up when we buy tickets so that we do not look suspicious."