There was a beautiful girl with a stunning smile standing behind a portable desk handing them fresh clothes and rations. As Foxy took her supplies, she lingered for few seconds longer, staring at the girl.

"Have a nice day!"

The clean man and the man that had told them to call him Kez stood in the sideline and watched. They were other people -- not slum dwellers -- who were setting up a large tent a bit farther way. Foxy had no idea what was happening. She moved from the line so the other people would get their chance. People who never left their slums were standing in the line for their rations.

None of this made any sense.

"What is this?" Emma asked as she followed Foxy. Apparently, Foxy was the one with all the answers or so Emma thought.

"I don't know."

"No one helps us." Emma said as she tore open a packet of biscuit with her teeth and started munching on it.

"Kez said that he wanted to offer us something."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "More than this. Who are they? What do they want?" Then she looked at Foxy. "They know you. Maybe you should ask."

Foxy shook her head. "No. They will tell us anyway."

"It can't be anything good. What are they going to do? Offer us jobs?" Emma laughed darkly, showcasing her rotten teeth. Foxy cringed inwardly and looked away. Her gaze went to the two men, and met the clean man's. She was going to look away but he smiled at her. It was a nice one. It didn't have any of the mischief of the other night. So she smiled back.

He moved his mouth to say something. But in all the hustle-bustle she could not hear a word.

"Come, let's go." Foxy grabbed Emma's arm and both of them went to the men. Kez didn't give them a look when they drew near, the clean man, however smiled as they approached.

"I said hopefully your thinking of me has changed from yesterday." The clean man said and the mischevious smile was back.

Foxy chose her word carefully. "Maybe." And then added, after casting a scared glance at Kez. If he noticed, he didn't show. "I'm not sure of your intentions."

But it was Kez who spoke, without looking. "What could be our intentions, little one?"

Foxy felt her tongue dry out. She had no idea why. It was like Kez scared her senseless. She glanced at Emma, who was simply staring at the men, but caught her glance, and said.

"We are trying to figure it out."

"What are the theories, eh?" Kez finally looked at them. Meeting each of their gaze evenly.

"We don't have any." Emma replied.

The clean man smiled, "Foxy?"

"What?" Foxy managed.

"No theories?"

She swallowed. Her eyes kept drifting towards Kez, who was watching her with curiosity. Unlike the clean man, Kez's eyes were always brimmed with emotions. And he had this sparkle in his eyes. It was hypnotic, to some extent; but his demeanour made everything strange. She looked away.

"This is a . . ." she hesitated, she decided to look at the clean man, his emotionless eyes provided comfort, ". . . a bribe."

The clean man smiled and Kez laughed loudly. The people in the line looked at them. Emma and Foxy took a step back instinctively.

"Hell, yeah, it's a bribe." Kez said. "What do you think we were doin', little one, charity?"

"But this has come from our charity money." The clean man pointed out.

Kez waved a beefy hand. "This is business. We're businessmen." He looked at Emma. "I'm sure this lady has some idea." Then he looked back at Foxy. "But I won't call it bribe." He turned to the clean man. "What was the word that you used?"

"Incentives." The clean man said. His gaze never leaving Foxy's face. The smile, the damn annoying smile, remained intact.

"Ay, incentives. It's what we are doin'."

Before Emma could open her mouth to ask a question, Kez interrupted, "All will be answered, love. We will tell our full sob story. Don't worry, eh?"

▪

The tent was set up for all the slum dwellers and it was large. It could inhabit hundreds of them. But due to the good death rates, there were only few of them. They were hundreds before. Last summer, however, had not been kind to them.

If anyone kept count, and no one did, these slums had good 80 to 90 people. This tent was too large.

When Foxy entered, the tent was too grand for her. Large, clean, it had red plastic chairs set up for them to sit. It was air conditioned. The cold air was such welcomed feeling that Foxy simply wanted to curl up and sleep. She could sleep for ages or even years.

Foxy and Emma grabbed the chair on the second row as people started piling in. As the last person entered, one of the young ones, zipped the tent up and took his chair.

"Welcome," Kez boomed, "People of the slums!"

Both the men stood at the center. Even they had plastic chairs for them.

This time, his greeting was received with an appropriate response, as people cheered. Kez smiled, clearly liking the change of the mood. He limped as he talked.

"I'm aware that there are too many questions in your head. Who are these strange men? What are they doin' here? Are they good men? Should we trust them?"

He looked at them meeting their gaze. "I say no. Trust no one. Think for yourself. But think wisely." He tapped his temple. "It's what I'm here to do, eh? To ask you to think as you weigh the options that I'm goin' to give you."

"Options?" Someone asked.

"Ay, options." Kez nodded. "But before that, let me tell you who we are. 'Cause, this man here . . ." he pointed at the clean man, "insists, that we tell you our story."

"I will try to keep it short." Kez said and then continued, "Not some time long ago, when Omnia, the planet that we live in, was not part of the First Alliance, we both," he pointed at himself and the clean man, "were part of a group of people that wanted to leave Ard in carriers and come to Omnia, away from First Alliance's tight grip, eh? In Omnia, we thought, we would find our safe haven."

One kid, Foxy didn't talk to her, raised her hand hesitantly, interrupting him. Kez looked at her for a while, then gave a curt nod.

"Ard?" She squeaked.

Kez turned to look at the clean man. Foxy wondered if it was a look of incredulous. Did he expect them to be educated? Kez took a deep calming breath, and said. "It's the main planet where the Queen lives. Where the First Alliance base is. Where the laws are made. It's the planet from where they rule the four planets." He waved his hand in dismissal, "I'll send you a video on the history of First Alliance, anyway . . ."

He continued, "It took us years to find Omnia. The carriers were not well equipped to stay in space for long. Many, many people died. This one," he pointed at the clean man, "was born in the carrier. I was a mere toddler and I had already seen so many deaths around me."

The silence that followed was deafening. Foxy had no idea where Kez was going with this story or why the clean man wanted it to be told. The story was interesting. Kez said it in such away with dramatic pauses, intense gazes, and voice modulation. Foxy watched him concentrating, learning traits. She was watching a man doing something that he knew he was good at.

"By the time we reached Omnia, half  the people we started out with died out of starvation or simply because of the journey." Kez said.

Foxy listened to his every word. He had gripped them. His voice, his presence, his limp, the cane, the way he talked, his hand movements . . . all of it; it had them hooked. Foxy admired him. This was an impressive feat.

"And we had journeyed with corpses beside us. Since the air was filtered in the carriers there was no decomposition. The corpses remain intact. The loved ones staring at their dead family who looked insanely human." He smiled, "The corpses, they looked like humans sleeping. They piled them in a corner, and when you stared at them, they looked so alive. It was beautiful, to some extent." Kez stopped. Foxy expected him to clear his throat but he continued. "His mother died too. Giving birth to him."

The way the last sentences were said. It was too matter of fact. Foxy couldn't help but feel the callous way.

Foxy followed Kez's pointed finger and there sat the clean man. He looked at them steadily. No emotions at all. Foxy felt a shudder pass through her spine.

"It was an odd thing, to be in space, headin' to a planet with carriers filled with fanatics." He spat the last word. "Omnia; it sounded too good to be true, eh? But who was I to question. I was a kid. I didn't know. I was simply grateful that we found this dirtbag of a planet, eh? He had already turned two when we did." Kez pointed at the clean man. "We landed, and the people realised that Omnia wasn't no Jannah. It was shit, just like any other planet, and we didn't have a government to feed us, and take care of us, and wipe our asses. What did the grown ass people did? They plead with the First Alliance, begged them to take Omnia as its own. First Alliance had nothing to lose, and a planet filled with idiots to gain. They wanted to run away from First Alliance, only to beg them to adopt them. Pathetic; our elders, eh?"

He wiped his mouth. Foxy could feel hidden rage within him. He didn't show it off. But the hate was evident. Kez hated the First Alliance with all his might.

"Anyway, we were two orphaned kids in an outlaw planet, without any actual leadership. So we decided, we could not live as shit bags for the rest of our life, eh? Omnia was shit. Ard was shit. First Alliance was shit. . ."

"Is he allowed to talk like that?" Foxy asked Emma. Emma shrugged.

". . . but we weren't. We grew up as rebels, outlaws, and decided that no matter what, our people won't die of hunger. That includes you." Kez pointed a finger at them.

"And when we say our people, it means all of you, even those of you who surrendered your ass to the First Alliance only to now live in slums while this boy . . ." he pointed at the clean man, ". . . and I make Omnia a safe haven that it was supposed to be."

"But we cannot do this for free." Kez said, and took a seat on his chair, smiling at them, ending his winding speech, the emotions that he had showed them completely dissappearing from his face."help us help you."

▪