We were scurrying around one of the busiest quarters in Virtus, looking for things to steal, when a quarrel broke out a few meters away from us. A party of four police officers had grabbed a young man and he was fighting to get free. A thick crowd of curious people gathered quickly around them. There was a lot of shouting and swearing and as we got closer to see what was going on, we saw that the guy’s nose was bleeding and that there was a nasty cut on his forehead and several more covering his arms.
The officers were calling him names, threatening him, telling him that he was an ignorant fool that he thought he could defy the laws of this city and that he would learn his lesson in jail. Next to us, a couple was pointing at the lad disgusted and talking in low voices.
“Are you sure it’s him?”
“Of course, the police was looking for him for months now.”
“He doesn’t look that impressive, if you ask me.”
“Impressive or not, he’s one of the most notorious gangsters in Virtus, they say. It was about time they arrested him. Arrogant scums, all of them!”
Alex turned to us furious.
“We can’t let the cops have him!”
“But, Alex-”, I started protesting.
“No, serious, Phoebs! We can’t… We can’t let them have him. He has no one to defend him. We got to try at least!”
He was right of course. He passed our bags to Max.
“Max, do you remember the big candy shop we stole from a couple of days ago?”
“Yeah.”
“There is a small park opposite that street with a pond with ducks. I want you to go and waited for us there. And make sure you take good care of our possessions. OK, buddy?”
“But I want to help too!”, Max demanded.
“I know, but I can’t risk losing everything we struggled so hard to gain, and I want you to make sure that we don’t.”
He made sound like the most important job in the world. Max was not fully convinced but reluctantly agreed to comply. I think I loved Alex even more at that moment. He put Max’s safety above everything else and I was grateful for that.
We waited until Max was already away and got ready.
“We need to create some havoc and give the guy a chance to slip away.” Alex told me. “Start pushing and hitting everyone in the crowd. Break through the cops, wait till I set him free, and then get the hell away as fast as possible”, he said sharply as if he was calculating every little detail in his mind. It was not really a great plan, but we didn’t have time to come up with another. I nodded.
He grabbed and squeezed my hand.
“Phoebs, if things get nasty, run. Make sure you get away. Ok? I’ll catch up with you later.”
Before having a chance to respond, he let go of my hand and dashed into the couple next to us, punching the guy down. The lady next to him started screaming. People turned around, but before they realize what happened Alex had attached already another two, slipping among them, leaving no time for them to react.
I took out of my bag a graffiti spray. It was bright orange, Max’s favorite. I run as fast as I could hitting the crowd, spraying to their eyes running between them. They tried to reach out and grab me but they couldn’t see a thing. Most of them circling around pushing and grabbing anyone next to them. Alex kept hitting them low in their stomachs, their legs, behind their necks.
Two of the four police men run towards the crowd and tried to see what was happening. They got in the middle of the blinded people pushed away. I managed to run behind one of them and spray his back the XQ symbol in bright orange. It is our symbol. It means times (X) Q the first part of from timesquatters. Max thought of it. Who else? Alex saw me and run towards me. We were standing back to back his fists against the police man, my spray against the crowd!
…but I’ll let you know what happened next time!
Have a good week everyone!