"Come on up, everyone, we've got some searching to get back to." Kris ordered, clapping her hands to grab the attention of the four of them sitting on the ground. She was back with Mike at her side, who sent Sara a hateful glance whenever he got the chance.

Sara flinched on the inside. How could he despise her that much when he barely knows her? Sara sure wouldn't dare ask him that, looking in his direction makes her uncomfortable enough.

Vienna helped her stand up, and she murmured a thank you, before brushing the dust off her clothes.

"Where to next, Kris?" Charles asked, folding his arms over his chest. Cory was eying Mike with a tense glare, that even though it wasn't directed at her, she could imagine him analyzing the guy's thoughts. She almost felt bad for Mike, almost.

"You tell me, what's left on your copy of the list, Charles?" asked Kris.
After fumbling with his pocket, Charles picked up a piece of paper, unfolded it and then frowned.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I've been to only two here, C and D. There are seven left to explore."

"Make them a six, Sara and I have been to A." Kris said.

Both Sara and Charles nodded.

"4, Cory and I looked into B and F." Vienna added.

Charles took out a small sharp pencil from his pocket, and cut out the mentioned buildings.

Kris applauded, "That's great! Only 4 to go, and you, Mike," she turned to face him, "what about you? You must've checked somewhere."

He threw Sara another one of his despiteful glances, and she decided to punch him in the face whenever the chance hits. Enough was enough.

He stared at Kris long enough for her to forget what the question was. "E." He said, his tone cold and expression unreadable, and then he stomped away, again, but far into the forest this time.

Kris sighed, "Don't mind him." She told Sara, before changing the topic and announcing, "All right, friends. Only 3 left, Vienna, Cory, team up and look into G and H, also take Charles with you. Sara and I are going straight to I, the last one. Make sure to look for anything peculiar or related to the girl we're looking for, we're meeting here by midnight to share what we've found. Is that clear?"

"Crystal." Cory assured.

"Great, then. See you later, guys, take care of yourself and try not to get hurt."

Cory gave them both a wholehearted smile before strolling behind Charles, who stretched out his hand in the air to show directions.

"Off we go then." Kris said, smiling at her.

Frankly speaking, Sara was excited for one single reason: it was a matter of a few hours before finding all that's possible about Evran, she was sure of it.

Sara followed Kris through the woods, her feet struggling with the mud and her lungs sought for breath. Besides their footsteps and the rustles of the leaves, comfortable silence hung in the air between the two young adults, allowing Sara to sink deeper in her thoughts. The rebel group and the concept it's based on, its aim, and the reason they fight for, was confusing her in a strange way. If 5 individuals coming from different races and origins could communicate and co-exist so well, why did the Act of Separation happen in the first place? What triggered it, the root cause of it all? And Mike's attitude towards her made her even more confused, crossed more lines and threads in her unfinished mind chart of conclusion.

That little voice in her head whispered, it can't always be true, not for everyone. These 5 people can't compete with the billions of the rest of the world. Your basis of judgement is wrong. Stop it. Just focus on finding Evran.

She sighed and ran two steps to catch up with Kris. The moment they were shoulder to shoulder, Sara spoke to run away from her mind.

"Kris, can I ask you a question?"

"Besides the fact that you just did, go ahead, I'm listening."

"Well," Sara paused to dunk under a branch, "I've been thinking about Mike and his sharp glares since he found out I hid behind a name that wasn't my own."

"And the question is..." Kris urged, not slowing her fast pace.

"Oh, right," Sara said, "the question is, why do you think he holds all that loathing against me? Has he told you anything in this regard?"

Kris shook her head and laughed. The heat never rushed to Sara's cheeks that fast before, she was truly embarrassed.

"What's funny?"

"It's your use of words, Sara. Loathing? What a strong adjective to describe something that weak and unmentionable. I told you not to take him seriously, he's a bit alarmed since your arrival, nothing to worry about."

Sara got even more worried then, her mind repeating one phrase over and over again.

Since your arrival.

"What about my arrival? I don't recall doing anything wrong since my arrival."

This time Kris stopped and turned around to face her.

"No, Sara, you didn't, and for the record, it's not personal. He's got some issues."

"What kind of issues? Trust issues?"

"Yes, trust issues, and I'd tell you why, but it's a long story and it might bore you."

"I think a conversation will make this journey a lot easier."

"Yes," Kris said and turned around so that they were shoulder to shoulder once again before starting again, "Few years ago, a girl named Stella joined us. She was communicative, intelligent and seemed to have huge plans of action for the group. If anything, she had the eyes of a leader and the bravery of a warrior. I loved her work, her character, and before you ask, she was a pallid child born to Wheatlander parents. But what raised the alarms in our heads every time she talked to us was how she admitted that Stella wasn't her real name. So, it wasn't that big of a surprise when Mike found out that she was a spy from the Separators government. He was the one who dealt with her, which made him on guard since then."

"A spy?" Sara asked in disbelief while Kris nodded in reply. "Well, what was her real name then, if it wasn't Stella?"

Kris shrugged, "I don't have a clue, she never said it."

Sara pondered it for a while. But it wasn't her being a spy that perplexed her the most, it was how Kris described the girl. A pallid born to Wheatlander parents. Her mind immediately drifted to Evran on that phrase, and her real name being mysterious added to her suspicion.

Kris shook her head and said, "Can you believe it? How she lived with us for 5 years, 5 whole years, and then it all goes in vain because of a folly act of treachery. Although she turned out a traitor, I often wonder what happened to her, or in other words, how Mike dealt with her."

"I know Mike is your friend, but by any chance could it have been murder?" Sara asked before swallowing the lump in her throat.

Kris looked her in the eye, "What are you accusing him of? Mike, a murderer? For goodness sake, he can't hurt a fly!"

Sara flinched and wished she could take it back. Still, Mike didn't seem too kind to her as Kris just described.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it that way, you're right, he couldn't have killed her, for sure." She said, wondering how she could apologise and lie in the same sentence.

Kris turned her focus on the path ahead and sighed, "Don't mind it, it's all right."

Sara nodded, but it was no more than a few seconds before her curiosity urged her to inquire about one last thing.

"Kris, when did Stella join you?"

"About 12 years ago, why?"

Her mind quickly did the math and the conclusion hit her so hard, she was struggling to form words and reply.

"Nothing," she said, "Just curious."
Kris nodded and walked ahead, leaving Sara in her own bubble of daze.

A pallid born to Wheatlander parents.

Unknown name.

Joined 12 years ago, 5 years before the time Evran disappeared.

Could that be a coincidence?

It took them no more than a few minutes to get out of the woods and scrub their muddy shoes on the aged rocky pavement.

"This part of the Section is the oldest, it held life for generations before us, but after the act of Separation and the civil wars that followed, it ended up like this." Kris told Sara, her eyes staring out at the aged buildings, most of which had either missing roofs, or windows, and some had missing floors altogether. The asphalt was cracked in a pattern that reminded Sara of the veins on her hands, and the rocks they were standing on had new tiny plants emerging from the cracks, and the empty spaces between the rocks. She stared at them until she couldn't peel her eyes off of them as they strived from beneath, holding a promise of life.

"And which one are we inspecting?" Sara asked, eager to get it over with.

"It's not too far, I guess, must be behind that one on front or to its left."

Sara nodded, but a question popped up in her head and proceeded to ask it.

"If there are too many old buildings to search for clues in, why do you have a list of only a limited number of them, not to mention that each one is far away from the other?"

"Good question, I admit," Kris acknowledged, her eyes still fixed on the ruin that lay ahead and beyond. "The buildings I labelled in alphabets were the ones the Separators chose as temporary shelters for those who couldn't afford the luxuries in the heart of Pallid, but only for a short period of time. After that, they neglected them and year after year, the ruin passed to them like a tumour."

"But why were they neglected?"

Kris met her eyes for a fragment of a second, and in them did Sara see the anger in its purest forms.

"There was a wedding, of two Differents, held in building H. The lady was an Onyx, and the man was a Pallid. They said it was a disgrace, that it was disgusting. The next morning, the couple were hanged, and the shelters announced out of service until further notice." With that said, Kris started walking ahead to their destination, her feet noticeably slower as if she lost her spirit.

"Dear Lord!" Sara exclaimed in a murmur. It was hard to believe how murder was so often done, so easily done. Since when had ending a life been as easy as throwing away a toy or an old DVD?

But Kris threw not a single comment or spoke of anything after, just walked forward in silence, forcing Sara to follow with no room for conversation, either.

Soon they had reached the building I on the list, and to Sara it looked a bit out of place with its whole roof and whole window frames with nothing but the glass missing. Compared to the half fallen, half eaten by war neighbours, this one was standing straight and firm.

Renewed as a shelter, probably, Sara thought, before the negligence, of course.

Kris stepped in first with Sara right on her heel. Together, they ran up a flight of stairs until they were on the second floor. It somehow made sense to check top to bottom rather than the other way around. The corridor was dimly lit now that it was almost sunset, and Sara could see the glow on the wooden floor that creaked with their steps.

They entered the first door on their right, Kris jumping over old scattered papers and heading straight to the cupboard on the far wall, while she sat on her knees and began to check the contents of the papers her friend just skipped on.

They were fragile, and yellow, and torn. Sara concluded from the black spots that some of them had that they were burnt at the edges. She tried to read something, sort out the words on the pages, but almost all the lines were faded. She almost gave up and went to help Kris before her eyes caught something in the mess that lay around her. Stuck to her friend's shoe was a piece of paper that had lines written in red ink. She crawled to it and carefully slid it off, cringing her eyebrows at realizing how it stuck to Kris's feet.

Blood. Dried blood covered the edges, and lighter smears layered over the words, but luckily, she could make out the words.

"What's this?" came Kris's question, but Sara was too absorbed, too astonished to focus on anything else but the paper in her hand, and so she read until she reached the end at an unfinished word, but when she turned the paper, there was nothing on the back but a printed date.

"Sara?" Kris called for her attention once more, and she raised her head to answer her, tell her what she read, but no words came out.

After all, a letter from a murdered girl isn't that easy to digest. And for Sara, it wasn't any dead girl, but the one they're all looking for.

Evran.