Retrospect

Five

Slipping around the corner, I rushed into the alley where my building's fire escape was. Making it out of the celebration in one piece without being caught was definitely a challenge, but I had remembered a short cut that I used when I came home from the Butterfly Shop. I knew it wasn't a good idea to go back to my apartment since I was basically in the spotlight, however, I needed to remove the tracker somehow and I was sure I still had a tracker remover somewhere in the mayhem of my closet. I'd miraculously found it on the street one night, about a week ago, without knowing what it did and just how rare it was.

I jumped up on the trash can, then taking a small leap, I put my hands up and grabbed ahold of the first step, pulling myself up. I gritted my teeth, my energy evaporating quickly due to all of the running from the officers. My feet banged on the metal fire escape as I sprinted, taking two steps at a time. Hearing police sirens off in the distance made me pick up my pace because they weren't too far away. They'd be here within five minutes and unfortunately, I needed much more than that to keep my head straight. I was shaking so bad that once I reached my window, it took some time to open it because my hands kept slipping.

Once I had vaulted through the window, I stood in the living room, everything tidy and in its place. Taking one step, the whole apartment was cloaked in red light all at once. I felt paralyzed in my spot. My fridge began speaking. "Alert! A tracker has been detected! Alert! A tracker has been detected!"

As soon as I heard this, I knew I had to gather whatever I could and leave, especially the tracker removers. Adrenaline pumped through my veins as I dashed over to my bedroom, my whole body growing hot under the heavy coat. I yanked open the closet door with my sweaty hand and bent down to search for the tracker removers. They had to be in there somewhere, otherwise I'd just have to ditch them and run around with officers forever chasing me. They would know where I was at all times and I definitely couldn't have that.

Throwing a bunch of clothes over my shoulder, I dug through some socks and found a rectangular tool that had a gray circle on the top of it. I immediately pressed it to where the tracker was on my pocket and a bright, blue light flashed. The tracker unlatched itself from my skin and fell to the floor with a thud. It was now disabled, but the red emergency light faded in and out still, drowning the room in darkness before casting a dim glow on my face again. Plus, the fridge hadn't shut up yet.

I decided to grab a large bag, quickly stuffing things in it that I thought I would need for the next few days. I retrieved the pocket knife that was in the worker coat's pocket and put it in as well as an extra pair of gloves. I wasn't taking any chances coming back here for a while because the tracker had given my apartment's location away. I stuffed some of the glow-in-the-dark makeup, just in case, then went to the kitchen and raided my fridge. Thankfully it didn't bug me about how many sweets I had eaten that day. It was too busy alarming the apartment management and officers for it to waste time on that.

I stuffed everything I could, including the tracker removers and all of my cards with money on them, though I knew I wouldn't be able to use them without being scanned. Luckily, there were a few food stands that sold items without checking a customer's identity.

Then I shrugged off my worker coat and added it to what I was taking with me. I took a wig and my phone that I rarely brought anywhere.

It could easily be placed in the palm of a hand to speak to someone and any question a person had was answered instantly with it. Holograms that sprung up from the center of it allowed people to listen to music and see pictures and videos stored on it, but I never used it for anything except keeping important things written down so I wouldn't forget them. I was too paranoid to try to do anything else on it because of the chance of officers somehow finding me through it. I also took the device, which thankfully was still in the pocket of the worker coat, and tucked it into the bag along with everything else.