"Help!" Calath shouts, from somewhere near the edge of the cornfield.

Norbu is always the fastest. He bolts without waiting for the others, and follows the echo of their voice. They don't call out for help again. It's too dark and the corn to thick to see them, and so at the last second Norbu has to dart out of the way to avoid slamming into Calath.

Yet, he still trips. He rolls over on himself, slamming into the dirt. His ribs ache, right where they did when he fell while fleeing all those weeks ago.

Norbu turns around and scrambles backward. There is a body on the ground, foaming at the mouth.

"Norbu?" Faris shouts, somewhere far off.

Norbu pulls himself up and grabs Calath. He tightens his hands around his shoulders and looks back at the body then at her, "go find them. Tell them it was a snake and that I'm dealing with it. Go!"

Wide-eyed as always, Calath runs back through the cornfield, chasing the sound of Faris' voice.

It won't hold them off for long, but Norbu doesn't need long. He's used to injuries from fighting in the ring, knows how to bandage bad cuts and how to reset a popped shoulder, but none of that specifically is what has prepared him for this.

Even in the low light, he can tell the foam is blue and sparkling. It bubbles.

This isn't one of the new workers, but the one that trained Norbu his first week here. A man, one who never spoke to Norbu, and he supposed he never looked for the signs, because who would expect a Neo Elysian street drug to wind up in farmworkers out in North Marcanty.

Norbu props the guy up onto his side in case he vomits. It would be easier to see with a flashlight, and Norbu isn't wearing his glasses so he can't make out the pupils.

"Hey!" Norbu snaps his fingers in front of the guy. "Hey!"

The man lets out a groan.

There's no vomit on the ground, and the guy is awake and at least somewhat cognisant. No, this isn't an overdose. The guy's high, probably on liquid bubble rather than a tablet, and Norbu knows very few scum who would sell the drug in its liquid form. It's too dangerous.

"That's not a snake," Faris hisses.

Norbu stands up, turning around to look at him. He peers around.

"Gale's with Cosmia," Faris answers the question before he's even asked it. "I said I'd make sure you buried the snake deep enough."

Norbu stands up. The guy stays upright, but is slowly tipping over. Norbu forms a fist and cracks his knuckles, "farmworker is high on bubble. I thought it was an overdose, but he'll wake up fine."

Faris' eyes flicker down to the guy. Bubble. In a place without an internet connection.

"You're the dealer," Faris says. "How did it get here?"

Norbu shrugs. The engine of a truck grumbles nearby, and they hear it getting closer, turning onto the farm property.

"We talk to Clockwork first," Faris says. "Before Benji."

"You think Benji knows?" Norbu asks, looking at the man as he finally slumps onto the ground.

Faris swallows, "I think there's a reason that all of the farmworkers that work here year-round don't have tongues."

~~~

Norbu, Calath and Faris keep it together for the rest of the weekend. For Faris, it is like it was long ago, before the panopticon, before the silence. Dimming the shine in his eyes that only comes from mischief. In some ways, it is like the panopticon. Someone is always watching. There is no talking, no communicating, no coughing, no allowance for sound.

Norbu tries to talk to him twice. Faris brushes him off. He is most afraid of Harvey or Calath noticing, but neither of them approach him with any concerns. Cosmia spends the better part of Saturday playing lawn games with Gale. Neither of them speak much, just throw bags full of beans at the holes in wooden boards, or chuck polished sticks at wooden stakes.

She wants Benji to talk to her, but he's never alone. He's in the kitchen a lot, making meals and giving Harvey a well-needed break. At one point, she throws a stick wide so it smacks into the side of the house. The sound cracks like lightening, and yet the homestead is undamaged.

Gale notices, of course, and that is when their games break. He abandons her, walks to the far edge of the property and sits on the ground, leaning against the fence. The rage is building again. It's a pulse, jumping from her skin into his. He's going back. He's going back to working in factories and hurting under the thumb of his father. The sky won't be blue. Gale might never see grass again, for as long as he lives.

And he's fucking tired of it.

Gale stalks back toward the farm. He grabs a hoe from the store and returns to the fence at the edge and starts to beat it. The wood splinters, and then snaps in half, and the first beam of the fence crashes down but it's not enough. It all has to be gone. Gale doesn't understand Rhiannon Rose. It is not enough to burn it. He must tear it apart with his bare hands, splintered and torn fingers, until it is nothing but sawdust, until the fence that contains them is gone. It was only supposed to hold them for two weeks but that isn't enough.

"Knock it off!"

Gale turns around, facing Titus. His shoulders heave, his breath heavier than the weight of the sky.

"Or what?" Gale asks. "You going to cry to Daddy when we get back?"

"I'm going to get Eurydice now," Titus says. "You want hard labour for the next few days?"

Gale throws down the hoe. He flexes at Titus and walks away.

Once Gale disappears into the tall cornfield, Titus picks up the hoe. The handle is rusty, jagged, and there is blood on it.

Titus throws it down and picks up one of the planks. One hand on either end. It's worn, old, and Titus snaps it in half.

~~~

As usually, Calath doesn't say anything. They sit and fiddle with the truck. They'll need gas to get it running, which Calath steals from the lawnmower in the shed. As they fuel the tank, Kae lies in the truck bed, staring up at her wrist. The bracelet isn't tight, but she has a slight paleness to her skin around it, a softer tanline than the harsh ones which mark her shoulders and arms.

"I did it," she whispers to Calath.

That's when Calath looks up, tilting their head, "which thing?"

Kae furrows her brow and sits up too, staring at Calath who peeks out from the edge of the truck. Which thing indeed. The original crime which got her here, a conditional charge removed from her records once she returns? Of course she did that. Did she steal screws from Calath, yes, and she stole the shoes out of George's boots when he first arrived at the farm. She climbed on Gale's shoulders to pick apples from trees and conspired with Eurydice and disobeyed her father.

Then, Kae blinks, "what are you talking about?"

Calath narrows their brows, "what are you talking about?"

Kae sighs and then looks back up at the clouds. She squints in the light.

It is unsatisfying. The immediate thought that occurs to Calath is the overdose they witnessed, although that would be absurd. Kae, with her button nose and small frame isn't dealing bubble. She must have broken into Benji's quarters, finally. There are only two other mysteries Kae could be referring to, of course. The shadow they saw on the farm the night everyone was swimming, and the explosion Benji insists was their fault.

Calath drops the can of gas on their foot. It leaks into the soil.

~~~

Eurydice is not satisfied, of course. With Benji in the kitchen, she is brazen. Of course, the doors remain locked, but the rest of the house is not. So, Eurydice takes to opening every drawer, checking every book for false holes, and she finds nothing. A practiced bountyhunter like her knows that people sometimes hide things in plain sight, but why would Benji when he has industrial locks on his door. Still, she checks between the sofa cushions, and under the bathroom sink.

She is lying on the bathroom floor on the upper floor, checking each drawer for a false bottom when the door shuts behind her.

Eurydice pulls herself upright and rests her back against the wall.

"You look like a crazed addict right now," Rhiannon Rose says.

Eurydice's face twitches, "like you the time you resorted to using steel wool and a battery to set a fire?"

There is no change to Rhiannon Rose's face. It's rosy, slightly burned and her mechanical arm doesn't show the wear and tear of the weeks that have led on. Other things around her are always changing states. Buildings to rubble, kindling to ashes.

"Unappreciated," Rhiannon Rose finally says.

Eurydice starts to lie back down to check the next drawer's bottom, "so if your presence."

"I just thought you'd like to hear something interesting," Rhiannon Rose says.

At that, Eurydice closes the drawer. She smiles, the points of her sharp teeth pressed together.

"Go ahead."

Rhiannon Rose smiles, "sure. So long as you do all of my chores next week."

Eurydice crosses her arms, "you're mad. Piss off."

Rhiannon Rose sighs and opens the door. At least she's not the one lying on a bathroom floor.

~~~

It's Sunday evening when Norbu finally makes eye contact with Faris across the table. He gives the slightest of tilts of his glass, and Norbu grins. After dinner, he helps dry the dishes, moving around the kitchen and shoving each glass and plate back where it belongs. Harvey stands at the sink, elbow pressed tightly against Faris'.

Faris often helps. So does Gale, but Norbu ushered him out of the room quickly.

"You going to tell me what's going on?" Harvey cocks an eyebrow.

Faris nods, "once we're out of the house."

And in ten minutes the three men stand, in the exact spot the worker overdosed, and Norbu explains what he saw that night. The way the bubble glistened, could only be liquid, was definitely not a seizure or radiation poisoning, or are other disease.

"It sparkled, Clockwork," Norbu insists, waving his hands in the air above him. "There's no doubt what it was."

Harvey leans on his cane, feels the way the dirt gives way beneath his cane, squishing like flesh. He feels his eyes darken.

"I've felt like I've been watched for weeks," Faris whispers, voice lower than the sinking sun on the horizon. "And I just thought I was going crazy from the panopticon, but what the fuck is bubble doing out here? And why can't any of the workers speak?"

There are many trades Harvey is involved in, but the drug trade is not one of them, "who's smuggling bubble to North Marcanty?"

Faris' eyes sparkle, "that's the thing. What if it's not smuggled in here? What if it's smuggled out?"

~~~~~

Eek! We are so close to the ending I'm screaming and crying and throwing up. Let me know what you think as always in the comments!