Cry For Tomorrow by Dianna Hunter

don’t move!”
    The hair at the back of my neck prickled as I waited for the inevitable. Every muscle in my body was tensed, ready to act if chance presented. It took every ounce of my willpower to force myself to stand still.
    The agent was so close now that I could smell the garlic on his breath, and even in this poor light, I could see the ripples in his short-cropped blond hair, and every wrinkle and scar on the bulldoggish face sneering down at us. His shoulders were so wide that they almost touched the sides of the narrow alley. I recognized the weapon he was pointing at my face as one of the electronic stun guns commonly used by the police and military to subdue criminals. Through the narrow space between his side and the wall, I could see the grey agent waiting at the mouth of the alley, his taser also pointed in our direction.
    I knew that as long as the tasers were set on stun they wouldn’t kill us, but it most certainly would hurt and disable. My hope that Kelly and Jon had escaped down the alley was dashed when I heard Jon’s soft, tremulous voice.
    “W-we couldn’t g-get out. The alley’s a dead end,” he whispered.
    “That’s okay, just stay close to me,” I whispered back.
    “Okay, that’s more like it. Now, real slow and easy, you all start coming toward me,” ordered the agent as he slowly started backing out of the alley. I could swear that he never once blinked either of those cold black eyes locked on us.
    Jennie and I exchanged nervous glances as we each took hold of the small hands reaching for ours. Merry had scraped both of her knees when she’d fallen but she bravely blinked back her tears when I tugged at her hand and clung to my side as we moved toward the mouth of the alley.
    “Halie,” hissed Kelly as she slid in close behind my shoulder. “What are you doing? If we go out there, they’re going to take us in!”
    “We don’t have any choice,” I whispered, “yet.”
    “Back up, sergeant, let’s give them a little space,” the agent growled. The insignia on his pocket and his manner implied that he held more rank than the grey agent.
    As they reached the mouth of the alley, both agents backed away, giving us room to emerge into the open. We had no option but to obey their order, but Jennie and I weren’t ready to give up yet. Exchanging covert nods, we began moving away from each other. Jennie gently nudged the younger children, urging them to slide along the wall a few feet while I tried to divert the agents’ full attention to me.
    “Now, I want you to know that you young people have nothing to fear from us. I am Captain Sanders of the Allied Military Service, and this here is Sergeant Rainor,” declared the blond agent as he paced back and forth before us. He reached one hand down and rumpled little Jon’s hair as if he found him cute. Jon jerked his head away and scowled angrily at the offender.
    “Now, I understand that there is some confusion as to who murdered your friends back there and we do realize that you, in all probability, had nothing to do with that. And, just to put your minds at rest, I am giving you my personal word that the Military had nothing to do with it either. We do, however, suspect that this was the work of rogue agents employed by the Company.” He cast a sly grin at his subordinate. “It is true that they have, well, that they have been known to get a little rough when they don’t get the answers they want, but,” he cast his beady eyes from one captive to the next, “ our agency does not condone such methods, or resort to committing deeds of such a deplorable nature.” He stopped pacing and his eyes jumped from Jen’s face and back to mine again as he tried to determine which of us was dominant.
    I finally couldn’t help myself. “If you’re such a damned big-shot, working for the military and all, then why aren’t you doing something about what happened to our friends instead of harassing us? We’re just a bunch of innocent