They are piled into the back of pick-up trucks at the end of the week. Titus stretches out his legs in front of him, thankful that he wasn't sent to the orchard and forced into a truck with five others. Three is ideal. He struggles to imagine all ten of them in one truck bed. It would be like the plane upon which they arrived, when his knees cramped from how tight the seats were. Arriving here, direct sunlight for the first time, arid and stale air, it feels like a lifetime ago.

It was. Just, not his lifetime. Caius' life.

When Holly Lee's son stops her truck, he stares out of the truck bed. They aren't at Benji's.

"Out you get," he smacks the door.

Eurydice jumps out of the truck. Harvey struggles to lower himself, his sweaty grip slipping. His cane slips, and Titus brings it out of the truck for him.

When Rhiannon Rose drops out, the last of them, the truck rolls away.

They stand on a road. Opposite them is a grassy field. Just a ways up the road, on the crest of the hill, they see a farmhouse.

"You good for that distance?" Titus asks Harvey.

The man scowls, "course, Silver."

Titus just rolls his eyes.

They are halfway there when they hear another truck down the road. Music blares from inside it. Eurydice turns her head before the others hear the music. She swears she smells diesel even from here. She misses her motorcycle, misses the feeling of wet cement under her feet, gloved hands, broken bones, living bounties and one dead.

From inside the front window, she sees blue hair.

The truck slows just beside them, idling. The other delinquents are in the back, besides Gale who sits with George.

"Was it Dale who dropped you off?" George leans out the window, shaking his head. "Classic. He's the worst. Well, hop in."

Idling for just a second, they begin to climb in. Faris reaches over to help Harvey inside. Just a tug of his arm is enough, and soon all the delinquents except Gale are crammed into the front and driving off.

Their reunion is cut short by the truck jolting on the uneven dirt road. Harvey braces himself, slamming into Titus. Norbu drops down to the metal, slamming his chest in. The air leaves his lungs, and he feels the sore ache of the ones which broke when he fell during his arrest.

"Norbu, my leg," Cosmia hisses, though he doesn't move. His heart pounds in his chest.

Faris grabs him and pulls him upright. The man beside him is nearly green. Faris taps his shoulder. Though Norbu's eyes dart toward Faris, they don't meet him. They are glassy, like the dividing wall separating Faris and his cell from the rest of the panopticon. This time, Faris doesn't feel like he's trapped inside. He doesn't take his hand off Norbu, doesn't let him miss the warmth.

The truck slows down, faster than walking past but not faster than a jog, and the road is still bumpy. His suspension is broken. Calath noticed it when they and Cosmia first drove to George Rooney's place during their first night. Five weeks ago. The sun is even hotter now, but at least the warmth is familiar. It's bumpy. Calath watches Kae's knuckles go white from her hold on the side of the truck.

"Hope your friends are okay back there," George Rooney says to Gale. His hand is just as white on the gear shift, holding it in place.

The glass window to the truck bed is dirty. Gale is only able to make out their shadows. He turns back, staring at the soft hairs on George's arm.

"Sure they are fine."

"Some of the roads out here are really bad," he says.

They continue driving down until they make another turn. On the sides of the driveway and lot, there are wooden and wire fences. They are in better condition than the road. Beyond that, they see Benji atop a hill, parked next to the homestead and a few other small buildings. He waves at them.

Barely, George can make out two other people.

When they climb the hill, Cosmia is sure they are going to tumble out of the truck. Somehow, they get to the top, huddled together. Everyone begins to hop out of the back.

Gale stares at George, "bye."

George smiles softly, "take this. You'll want it."

He passes Gale a bag. Something raddles inside it. Gale goes to open it but George puts his hand on Gale's. The pressure is soft, firm, and Gale pulls open the door to escape before George can see his red face.

As George Rooney pulls out of the lot, the convicts gather in front of Benji. Eurydice rolls her eyes and crosses her arms in front of her chest. There is no way she expected to see Bobby and Katie again, but she should have expected Benji to befriend their ilk. Katie sees her and adjusts little Jojo on her hip. Jojo waves at Eurydice, who only stops herself from baring her teeth when Rhiannon Rose chuckles.

"Not funny," she hisses.

Rhiannon Rose shrugs.

"Everybody, this is Katie and Bobby Flemming, in case you forgot," Benji says. "They've been kind enough to show us their ranch. Figured you could use some time getting use to farm, come on."

Eurydice is subjected to the worst tour of her life. Norbu asks too many questions, but even Faris seems to have trouble hiding his discomfort. They are shown a few chicken coops, a stable with a dozen horses inside, and then the pig sty which has twice as many pigs, and a huge area. The part that is most insane are the cows. There are a hundred cows on fifty acres, and thirty sheep.

"We almost had to give some of it up last year," Bobby says. "There was a disease that went through and killed half the cattle."

He wraps an arm around Benji's shoulder and nuzzles him. Benji laughs and gently pries himself free.

Faris stops walking. He looks for Gale or Cosmia, or even Norbu, looks for anyone else with a cross of recognition on their face. Of course, Harvey couldn't know. He wasn't at George's farm, and so only Faris stands still. Eventually, he keeps walking.

Then, Bobby and Katie hand over the reigns. The lot is theirs to explore.

~~~

Norbu goes to the horses. Kae follows, pinching close behind him. One of the Flemming's daughters gives brief instructions, but her nose is buried in a book. One, white with black spots, calls to Norbu. Well, it whineys, and Kae gasps.

"Chatty like me," Norbu smirks. He goes over and hands the horse an apple. It bites it straight from his hand, sloppy lips touching Norbu. He laughs. "Kae, come on."

"They are terrifying!"

"Course they are," Norbu laughs. He looks back at her and winks, "so are you."

So, Kae steps closer. One, and the other. She is brave. She carries a butterfly on her wrist, beautiful but toxic creatures. Kae leans forward. Before now, her hands have never felt bound, restrained. She can't touch it. She can't. She can.

Then, she tilts forward and does. The impulse washes through her as she grazes the horse's long face. It blinks at her but doesn't react. She and Norbu both giggle.

~~~

The pigsty smells, which makes it perfect for conspiracy. Faris, Calath, and Harvey stand outside it.

"Tell him what you told me," Faris says.

Calath shrugs. It hardly seems important. It didn't even then, when she mentioned it in conversation.

"Kae isn't as afraid of chickens as-"

"No, the Eurydice thing."

Calath glares at Faris. She blinks and looks at Harvey. The lower echelon was never her favourite place in the organization. Even Dovey has more tact.

"Eurydice is still trying to get Calath to break in upstairs?" she furrows his brow. "That thing?"

"Yes," Faris pinches his brow. Then, he sighs, "sorry, you're right. Thanks, Calath."

She nods. The politics of this don't escape her. What escapes the men around her, and likely everyone but Benji, is Calath's former membership to the Flatteners. She knows what information means, knows what men like Harvey think when they tighten their grips around their canes.

"Seems we'll have to make our own personal panopticon," Harvey stares at the pigs in the pen. How fat and happy. How contained.

~~~

Cosmia doesn't expect to be sought out by Rhiannon Rose. She wanders the cow pasture, staring at the animals. The other group spent all week milking them, and Cosmia supposes she is happier than ever for the apple orchard. They smell, a muffled sort of smell that seems to linger on the entire farm, but is worse the closer she gets to the cows.

Animals don't terrify her the same way as people do. At times like these, she finds herself reaching to the tattoos of birds on the small of her back. Now, she thumbs the snake-scale tattoo that wraps around her wrist. There should be one on both arms. Shackles come in pairs.

"It fucking reeks," Rhiannon Rose says behind her.

Cosmia turns her head, red hair peeking into view beneath her black strands, and Rhiannon Rose feels her breath hitch. It has been a week without fire, the longest in her life. It's nearly a complete and utter detox from the thing. She hadn't expected the sight of what could be flickering flames to knot around her heart and pull it from her chest.

"Yeah, it does."

"Do you think-" Rhiannon Rose stops. She shakes her head and keeps approaching.

"What?" Cosmia asks.

When Rhiannon Rose stands beside her, she can make her mouth move again, "it's a bit weird that Norbu wasn't hurt in the blast. It didn't fault by him."

Cosmia shrugs, "no clue. I specialize in robotics builds and electronic instrumentation."

"I work in a garage part-time, but I'm an apprentice in thermodynamics," Rhiannon Rose says. "I'm not a plumber, or even an expert in fluid mechanics, but I'm having trouble imagining how you and Gale were more impacted than Norbu."

Cosmia shrugs, "he's probably got a backwards old system. It's all manual."

Rhiannon Rose shudders at the very word.

~~~

Reliving the attack with the chickens is not on Titus' agenda. Realistically, he'd like to avoid all of the animals, but the farmers seem to be picking on Eurydice who refuses to step foot on the lot past the driveway now that the tour is over, and so he wanders.

Gale sees him, and hugs the bag in closer. He's already opened it. Now, he's wandered onto the middle of one of the fields, pulled out a few pieces of dried corn, and holds them out in his hand.

The sheep makes a sound that Gale has never heard before, and Gale nearly shrieks. It steps closer, one hoof and the next, and Gale can feel his neck in his throat. Everyone else had to touch the chickens. Well, most of everyone, and Gale isn't a coward. If Titus could do it, then so can Gale.

Its mouth is sloppy and wet. Gale forces his hand not to tighten. The sheep eats it but already is starting to sniff the bag. Gale holds it above his head, and then takes out a small handful.

The sheep keeps eating. Gale tries not to laugh.

He sees Titus approach but doesn't say anything until he feels his shadow.

"Where did you get that?" he asks.

"Why, you jealous?" Gale looks over, his face already contorted.

Titus sighs. Are they still fighting? The conversation where Gale said he looked nice in his Sunday best is barely something Titus remembers, but that was the last time they spoke.

"Listen, if I-" he cuts himself off.

That's how his father always apologized.

Gale raises an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry," Titus says. "I don't think you're a liar and I'd hate to imply it."

Gale turns his head back toward the sheep. It's sniffing the bag again. Gale opens it and shows the contents to Titus.

"Come on," Gale says. "Give it a try."

"Fuck no," Titus says. "What if it's as vicious as a chicken?"

"George told us calling people a chicken means they're easily frightened."

Titus scoffs, "has he seen a chicken?"

~~~

Eurydice has never before wished she wasn't a bounty hunter. She loves her job, loves contorting her body in hidden crevices, revving her motorcycle, stunning and shooting and hunting. Of course, those skills come in handy, even here. She wishes they hadn't today, because then she never would have found Jojo Flemming during hide and seek, and Bobby and Katie Flemming wouldn't insist on personally trying to get her up on a horse.

"This is barbaric," she hisses to Benji.

He only smiles at her.

"Come on, let's get you up," Bobby slaps the hind of the horse. "It'll be great. Promise."

Eurydice glares at Benji, but puts her foot in the stirrup. Her stomach churns as she mounts it. She tries to find all the ways it's similar to a motorcycle. She's mounting it, straddling, holding reins like handlebars.

She's going to puke.

"You're doing great, darling," Katie smiles up at her.

"Animals aren't all that scary," Bobby laughs. "Out here, they certainly aren't deadly."

A truck on the road backfires. The sound is loud, like a shotgun.

~~~~~

Welp. Another one bites the dust. We're going to start cranking up things eventually, but maybe not soon lol. Let me know what you think in the comments!