I gazed upon the imposing golden statue, the structure dominating my field of vision. It was of a woman with her arms stretched towards the sky, as if begging some all-powerful being for mercy. It was tall as well, dominating the skyscrapers next to it. But when I looked at it all I could see was a cage for a canary, I being one of the few who knew what was trapped inside. The only one who knew that it wasn’t a what but rather a who.

And I was the only one who cared enough to free the poor canary.

~~~~~~~

I sat on the luxurious velvet couch, sipping the hot tea I held. The warm sweetness usually lifted my spirits in times of sorrow, but it was failing at its job on this particular day. The cold feeling of loneliness filled my every pore, I again was indulging myself in daydreams of freedom from my dwelling.

I did this regularly so as to distract myself from my predicament. My predicament at the time being that I was trapped. I’ve been trapped in here my whole life, all 18 years, ever since I can remember. Because of the books I’ve been allowed I know much about the world: different countries and their inhabitants, medicine and science and its applications in the modern world, space and its ever-growing wonders.

But even with all the knowledge I could ever want at my fingertips, it was not the same as experiencing in person the wonders of which I read about. I wished to feel the grass on my feet, feel the seawater on my skin, shiver as snowflakes fell onto my face. So since I was unable to make these desires come true, (I had searched for years but found no escape) I settled for the imaginary instead.

On this particular day I indulged in a fantasy of going to the beach, of swimming in the salty water that covered so much of this planet’s surface. I quickly lost myself in the fantasy, and forgot where I actually was and believed myself to be in an ocean of no name. The sun was shining on my skin, the cool seawater flowing around my waist. Then a screeching noise shattered the daydream.

The noise startled me into dropping my tea all over the couch, the hot liquid barely missing my legs.

“Crap!” I exclaimed loudly, I quickly ran to the kitchenette for towels. After soaking up the hot herbal liquid, it dawned on me how unusual the screeching noise was. It had sounded like metal against metal, reminiscent of how I imagined nails on a chalkboard might sound. I walked over to the balcony to see what had made that terrifying noise, but I saw nothing. Nothing to account for whatever that noise was. So I decided to ignore it and go watch TV, feeling too lazy to investigate further.

~~~~~~~~
I forced the metal door open which produced a horribly loud noise. Way to be subtle I thought to myself. I hoped there wasn’t many guards.

Inside the room I had broken into was a very startled looking man in a lab coat. The moment he saw me he pulled out a radio to alert others to my presence. Before he could utter a word I had a knife pressed against his throat.

“Drop. The. Radio.” I whispered in as malevolent a voice I could muster. When you had a rather high-pitched voice as I did it was rather difficult to sound dangerous and threatening. But I had done it before. Also the knife helped.

He instantly dropped the radio and it broke apart into pieces on the tile floor. Then in a quick movement I knocked him out with a blow to the head with the baseball bat I had gripped in my other hand. There was no one else in the room so I quickly got to work on ascertaining where my target was located.

I found the location quickly and began to make my way to the balcony of the statue.

Then an alarm began blaring.
~~~~~~~~

As quickly as I had started watching the next episode of my show the TV turned off and an alarm sounded as the light turned red. Panic struck my heart as I had no idea what was going on. Was someone breaking in? Is my dwelling (I refused to call it home as I did not like it) being attacked? Were thoughts that raced through my mind. I had no idea what to do so a call to action struck me. I grabbed the nearest weapon I had (a rolling pin from the kitchenette) and hid under the dining table.

It was a tight squeeze for my tall frame, but I was lean and was able to fully hide. Backed against the wall in the corner I had full vantage point of the door, and I watched it carefully. I heard my heart pound in my ears as my knuckles turned white from gripping the rolling pin so hard. I didn’t know what I would do if someone came in, but I had no other options.

I waited.

~~~~~~~~

“Dangit.” I muttered to myself as the alarm blared. The last thing I wanted to do was kill people just doing their job, but my job came first. I pulled out my pistol and with sheathed my knife, holding the baseball bat as my melee weapon.

Two guards came up and I shot one in the femur, he was down instantly, and the other in the shoulder. The one shot in shoulder kept coming though, obviously led on my adrenaline, and I jumped out of the way and behind cover as he pulled out a gun of his own. I shot him in the knee from my position and whilst he was down knocked him and femur guy out with my bat. I should really bring tranquilizer guns to things like this I thought to myself. After dispatching several more guards along the way in similar fashion I finally reached the door to where the caged canary was locked. It was a large metal door, only openable from one side. Luckily that side was the one I was on.

It was locked when I tried it, and saw it had a key card swiper. It was then I noticed another scientist, another man, trembling in fear in the corner as he stared at me with terrified eyes.

“D-d-don’t kill me! Please!” he pleaded, his voice hoarse with terror. I softened my stance as sympathy reached out for the poor man, although he had been committing an evil he was not the mastermind to blame, which was the same reason I hadn’t killed any of the guards either. It isn’t a video game, the small enemies aren’t the ones that deserve to die, it’s the boss fights where death is allowed to occur.

“I’m not going to kill you, I don’t want to kill anyone. Those guards are still alive, see? I just knocked them out. Now do you have a key card for this? I don’t want to have to knock you out as well if I don’t have to.” I said in as gentle a voice as I could muster. He relaxed a bit and nodded.

“Y-you’re going to release the subject, aren’t you? I know it was wrong to keep a human being locked up like that, but the scientific advances were worth it in my mind. And in my colleagues.” he said shakily.

“No scientific advancement is worth depriving someone of a life. Do you have the key card or not?” I asked again, my voice a bit harsher. He cringed and nodded.

“Yes, here you go.” he said handing a smooth card to me. “But you only have a few minutes before a whole fleet arrives, the subject is very valuable to this operation. They will do anything to protect their investment. You do have an escape plan, correct?” I was shocked by his willingness to give information, which instantly made me suspicious. But he didn’t have a weapon on him so perhaps he found a conscious.

“Yes I do. Now leave before the fleet arrives, no one should be caught in the crossfire.” I ushered him away and he ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction. Turning around I swiped the key card and the light above the door turned green, and with no knowledge of what I’d find inside, I opened it.

~~~~~~~~~

I heard a noise at the impenetrable door that never opened, the only way out of this prison cell. I had investigated it many times, not even a door handle to help me open it.
I gripped the rolling pin tighter, my breath coming in short gasps. Thoughts of am I about to die? ran through my head. The door began to open, slowly as it was very heavy, revealing a metal hall on the other side. I saw figures on the floor, presumably unconscious. I didn’t know if the unconscious people were on my side or if whoever knocked them out was on my side, but I was about to find out.

A foot stepped through the threshold, then a leg, then the rest of the person’s body.

~~~~~~~~~

I stepped through the door into a very well furnished room, with many bookshelves aligning the walls, a fireplace and a kitchenette to boot. I didn’t see anyone however, but I knew there was no way the canary could have escaped. They were hiding.

“Hello? I’m not here to hurt you, I’m here to break you out.” I called out. I heard a noise from the corner, and someone stepped out from under a table.

~~~~~~~~~

It was a young woman, with reddish orangish hair cut extremely short and narrow blue eyes. She was tall and was wearing cargo pants and a tight tank top, I immediately noticed the pistol in it’s holster and a knife sheathed both on her hip. In her hand was a baseball bat as well. She did not appear very menacing, and it was almost laughable that she knocked out those figures in the hall, with her innocent appearance. Laughable that is until I noticed the rippling muscle in her arms.

She looked around, clearly not noticing my hiding location. I wasn’t sure whether to reveal myself, I still did not know who she was. She then spoke.

“Hello? I’m not here to hurt you, I’m here to break you out.” Her voice was high-pitched, almost like a little kid’s. She didn’t seem menacing, and her weapons were not in attack position. And although it was probably dumb, I couldn’t help the spark of hope that flared within me at the thought of breaking out of the prison. No matter how dangerous, I had to take this chance.

So I stepped out from under the table.

~~~~~~~~~

A boy stepped from under a table in the corner. He seemed only a few years younger than I, with sandy blonde hair and large green eyes. He was tall and lanky, as exampled by his awkward struggle to get out from under the table. His eyes were alighted with wariness but joy as well, he was probably ecstatic with the idea of getting out of the cage. He stood and we stared at each other for several seconds.

“We have to leave, now. More guards are coming.” I explained quickly.

“Wait, what guards? And can we wait a second, who are you? How do you know about me and why are you rescuing me?” his voice was soft, worried. It was also quiet, presumably because he didn’t have much chance to use it.

“I’ll explain when you’re safe, but kid we gotta go now.”

“No, I want at least one answer first. How do I even know I can trust you? I’m not coming with you until you give me something to go on to trust you.” he stuck his chin out stubbornly. I sighed in annoyance.

“Fine. My name is Spencer and I’m here to break you out because I feel keeping a human being locked in a cage their whole life is wrong. Is that good enough for you?” He smiled.

“Yes, thank you. My name is Saturn and I am very grateful for your rescuing me.” He held out his hand to shake and I shook it firmly. We both heard footsteps down the hall.

“We gotta go. You ready?” his smile grew as I said that.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Then let’s go!” And we were off.