Kris lay on her back, her bones aching against the cold  concrete of the joined cell. Around her, behind those multiple bars, drowned the rest of the rebels in a sound sleep, but somehow her recent encounter with Mike kept her eyes wide open. Shifting to her side, she thought, her eyes grazing over her dozing off friends, about their reaction when they find out that one of them is the reason why they’re here, that a piece of their puzzle decided to fit somewhere else for its personal convenience. But was it even theirs in the first place? Had it actually been a part of them all that time, or was it just pretending to fit in and forcing everyone to be blind to that act?

The cell, the rebels, the bars, everything blurred in her vision as her eyes stung so hard and burnt against her lid. And before she knew it, hot tears streamed down her nose and cheek and darkened the grey concrete. She fought against them, against the wail she was expecting to emerge out of her chest, and she was angry, angrier even that she couldn’t hold it in, and her heart banged like a mad ox, her throat burned in her neck. Even then, some unconscious will was too careful, too precise about the silence of this breakdown, and so she lay crumpled, shaking, and broken, yet it was too quiet a pin drop would have sounded off like an angry alarm.

“Kris,”

She turned around, startled by the echo of her name through the tunnel she was trapped in. And she ran, not as fast as she was trained, but as fast as the rate of her heartbeats and the escalation of fear in the air.

“Kris,” the voice started again, ripping her out of her lungs in a startle, even then, she kept running from left to right and from right to left until her chest constricted and her knees wobbled beneath her.

“Kris!”

Kris jumped upright, her hand on her raging heart as her vision started to clear out through the fog. Inspecting her surroundings, she found herself back in the cell with Charlie by her side, a deformed hair pin in his hand, and the metal door that separated her from physical contact with the rebels hanging open, the lock clearly broken.

“You okay there, Kris?” he asked, his expression that of pure concern.

She looked at him, her confusion slowing down her comprehension.

“Charlie? What-”

“Shh,” he cut her off, his index finger shooting up to his lips as he drifted closer to her and held her hands.

She looked down at their entwined hands, “it’s okay,” he started again, “It was just a bad dream, all right? You’re okay.”

And at that point, Kris saw that everyone else is sound asleep and realised that her nightmares woke Charlie up again. She was about to apologize until she turned and saw that familiar concerned look on his face.

She exhaled, and her hands started to shake. He held them tighter, and said, “You’re safe, Kris. That douche bag will get what he deserves.”

She nodded, too tired to ask him how he knew it was Mike who caused her the discomfort last night.

“Better?” he whispered in the now friendly darkness.

“Always,” she topped her response with her usual smile that he instantly flashed back at her.

“Good that, you need to rest now, all right, and,” he paused to retrieve a paper tissue from his pocket and proceeded to wipe the sweat off her temples and cheeks, “there you go,” he added with a smile, and helped her lay back on the concrete, not before taking off his jacket and folding it under her head as a makeshift pillow.

“Sleep tight, Kris,”

“Charlie?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you,”

And like every single time, he said, “Thank yous aren’t exchanged in families, Kris,” and topped it off with a reassuring smile.

________________________________________

1.2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. And at the count of 16, the light of dawn penetrated through the bars of the window. Sara smiled and got up, her compass in her hand, assuring her that the direction was just about right. With her arms raised up high and her voice rising in a calm Allahu Akbar, she started her everyday dawn prayer, relishing her soul and reminding herself that no matter what happens or where she’s imprisoned, there will always be a way out ‘cause she’s not alone, and will never be.

The guard on her door was observing her as she stood up, bent, and knelt, and at last ended her prayer with the whispered Assalamu Alaikum to her right and left. What never failed to astonish him though, was how she exhaled and smiled after every prayer as if relieved, and it made him wonder what could this physical spiritual routine offer so abundantly to her soul every single time that it sent her smiling at him as he placed the lunch tray before her every day. In an odd sense, witnessing this made his heart sink in a pit of guilt, stranger yet, it started an unfolding despise against Colonel Arthcroft everytime he placed an order against Muslims, or Christians, or anyone who followed a religion and belonged to anything but their so called special Pallid. It turned his stomach to knots every time it hit him that it’s people like her that they’re killing across the borders.

Eliminate.

Eliminate.

Eliminate.

Eliminate those of darker shades, the whitelanders, wheatlanders, ecrus, d-ecrus, and onyxes, everyone, and recently the list expanded to Pallids who followed a religion, no matter what it is, they were always sent to kill, eliminate, and no one ever dared to ask why before drowning people in their own blood.

And as Sara went back to sleep, his fist clenched at his side, but even then he hadn’t known why.

_____________________________________

The smell of fresh coffee rose from the two cups in an enchanting dance of steam as Asli carried them to the living room where Veronica sat on the sofa and vigorously typed on her laptop’s keyboard, more like assaulted the poor keys with her aggressive taps.

“Easy, Veronica,” she said as she settled in one of the comfy chairs, “next thing you know, these keys would be in your eyes by this force. Here, take your coffee,” she offered her the second cup which she accepted with a grateful smile and started sipping on it as she went back to typing simultaneously.

Asli sunk back in her seat and began devouring her own beverage. She silently examined her surroundings, the expensively designed ceiling, the comfortable smooth textured furniture, the marble coffee table, the sophisticated decor of the walls as a whole, the massive TV, and last but not least, the new blue cotton pyjamas she was wearing now, all of which proved that Veronica had a one good taste that needed decent effort to be challenged.

As soon as they’d come back home from their shopping spree, Veronica shrugged off her leather jacket, crashed on the sofa and launched her laptop, and since then she’d been aggressively typing, clicking here and there, and frowning every once in a while. Asli once asked her what she was doing, and she replied with a quick indecipherable “I’m trying to access Jack’s server,” which she guessed wasn’t as easy as she thought it to be. And now it’s 5 AM, and the girl hasn’t slowed down a second.

“OH MY GOD!” Veronica shrieked, startling Asli out of her thoughts so hard that drops of hot coffee were spilt on her hands.

“What? What is it?”

Veronica jumped up with the laptop in her hands and plastered an ear to ear grin on her face as she looked at Asli.

“IT WORKED! I’M IN! I CAN FINALLY ORDER NOW!” She shrieked again, her excitement sent a wave of laughter in Asli and she couldn’t help chuckling herself.

“Finally!” Asli said, “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s order them now!”

Veronica nodded, “Yes, yes,” she said as she took her seat back on the couch, “You’re right. How many do we need again? One for each section, is it not?”

“That makes it 5, excluding Pallid of course.”

“All right, done.”

Asli was struck.

“Wait, that’s it?”

“Yeah,” Veronica said with a grin.

“Are you sure they’re equipped with microphones?”

“Yes, yes, Jack sent a quick link with the products ready to be ordered. E36700, latest model in the market equipped with an F800 microphone, which produces the best sound quality audio notes in 2065.” She reassured her with a proud smile.

Asli was shook, “Wow,”

Veronica smirked, “I know, girl, I know, Jack’s good.”

“You are, too,” Asli said, and it was true; the girl worked herself out for 7 hours straight.

“Duh,” she teased, “how charming of you to say, though,”

Asli chuckled and went back to her coffee, but a few seconds later, she spoke again.

“Now what?”

Veronica held up a finger, gesturing her to wait as she chugalugged the entire beverage. Once done, she put the glass down on the coffee table and said, “Now, we pack enough clothes for two nights or even more and head over to Jack.”

Asli was taken aback, and jumped up as Veronica strode to her room.

“Wait, are we staying at Jack’s or what?” Asli yelled after her as she followed her inside.

“Yes,” she replied, already throwing mini jackets, tank tops and jeans in a backpack on her bed, “Go and pack your to go stuff in your backpack and get ready. Jack said that the second the order is placed, we run over to him and discuss the rest of the plan.”

“But we don’t know when we’re going to receive the order just yet,”

Veronica shrugged off her protest. “The receipt said we’d be getting the required product in 24 hours, now get moving.”

How fast! Asli thought as she nodded, and ran to her room. Her backpack was casually lying open on the bed already from last night which was oddly convenient considering how much in a hurry Veronica was.

She slid the closet open and picked some delicates, a pyjama, two shirts and a pair of jeans and threw them carelessly in the bag before zipping it up and swinging it around her shoulders. And out of the room, she ran and crashed into Veronica in the hallway who looked at her in amusement, fully dressed with her own backpack hanging over one shoulder.

“You sure you’re ready?” she asked with a smirk.

Unsure of the reason behind her smugness, she said, “Very much, yes, or do you think I should put makeup on again?”

Veronica tensed for a fraction of a second before shifting to her mocking demeanor again. “Asli, honey, you’re still in your pyjamas.”

She immediately looked down at her outfit and saw that, quite unfortunately, she was indeed still clad in her cotton pyjamas which she clearly forgot to strip out of due to her rushing about. Her cheeks instantly flushed with embarrassment, and Veronica, noticing the sudden redness of her face, started to laugh, which only served to heat them up even more.

“Hey, hey,” Veronica said between two bits of laughter, “it’s okay, just don’t forget to put on your sneakers this time.”

And with that being said, she shook her head and unlocked the door, gesturing for the indignant Asli to step out.

“Ver, have the receipt directed to my inbox at once.”

Few taps on her phone then, “Done,”

“Good,” Jack said, “Now give me a second.”

Asli, confused as always by these two fast minds and their vigorous tapping on keyboards and touch screens, leaned close enough to Veronica’s ear and whispered, “What’s he doing now?”

“He’s redirecting the delivery to each of the sections immediately and programming the systems to deliver them all at the same time.” Veronica answered without removing her eyes off her screen.

Asli nodded even though she was sure none of them was paying attention and couldn’t help but feel useless, to have them both working so hard as she idly sat and watched.

“Is there any way I can help?” she muttered, and a pause indicated that none of them heard a word of it.

Until-

“Wait a sec, woman, your role is coming in a few.”

“Don’t call her woman, Jack, it’s inappropriate.”

“What? Isn’t she a woman? I haven’t trespassed the boundaries this time, Ver.”

Veronica rolled her eyes, “I’m talking about the tone, you idiot, how you said it, that is.”

“Ugh, women,” he complained and raised his fingers to demonstrate quotation marks, “ ‘It’s not what you said, it’s how you said it,’ ”

Veronica rolled her eyes again, and he snickered.

“All right, all right, stop your search now, Ver, I got all the numbers.”

“Oh thank God,” Veronica said as she dropped her phone and started massaging her fingers.

Jack turned to face Asli now, his expression serious and stern.

“Now is when your assistance is required, hun,” from her peripheral vision, Asli could see Veronica shake her head at the word hun, “You’re the one who’s going to call the booths, all right, and leave all the technical job to me and Ver, can you do that?”

Asli nodded, it sounded fair enough to her.

“Good that, which section do you want to start with?”

Asli was taken aback, “Now?” she exclaimed.

He raised an eyebrow, “Well, yes, we’re running out of time. Now, which section do you want to start with?” he asked again.

Without a second thought, Asli knew what it was.

“Wheatland, I've got my brother there.”

“Good thinking.” He pointed out as he instantly dialed the 7 digits number and handed the phone over to her.

With the cold glassy screen on her ear, she waited for the beep to change to her brother’s voice, but then cursed herself for being so ridiculous, it’s the public phone booth for goodness sake.

The beeps vanished in a static, and then, “Hello?”

“Mark?” she exclaimed.