The Narval House, a sprawling residence near the border, housed all those who, like me, had been assigned to the role of a Narval Officer. I had heard about this title before, though I never understood the origin of the name. As far as I knew, Narvals, more accurately, Narwhals, were marine animals with long tusks that used to live in the Antarctic. So, nothing to do with us, right? 

Maybe it was the fighting lance that each Officer carried, which might have reminded them of a Narwhal's tusk, or perhaps it was the helmet; some Officials wore ones with a pointed protrusion on the front. It could be either of those, but I really had no idea. To me, the name seemed a bit of a joke, given how scarce clean water and healthy marine life had become these days. Narwhals were practically mythical at this point.

Anyway, back to the present: two Reg soldiers as imposing as surveillance towers and Heather, my apparent new lead or boss, or whatever she was supposed to be for me, escorted me to the Narval House.

We passed through an entrance bustling with officers going up and down that seemed to be the heart of the house, connecting everything else. Stairs led up to the rooms, stairs down to a basement, a hallway to the dining area, and a glass door at the back opened into the training yard.

As Heather showed me around, I noticed that even though the place was crowded, no one paid me any attention, as if I were a ghost. And you know what? It was amusing because every officer seemed to go out of their way to acknowledge Heather, who was standing right next to me. They all greeted her, bowing their heads and standing as rigid as statues, while I remained invisible. She was the furthest thing from a ghost in there, although she did instill a certain level of fear in her colleagues, all said.

When we got to the third floor Heather stopped before a door in a long hallway full of many more doors.

"This will be your room." She said while knocking. A moment later, a black woman with shaved hair emerged. She had a cluster of fluorescent earrings hanging from her left ear and a shiny implant covering the back of her neck. The connectors emitted a shifting green-blue neon light that flickered at every moment. It was an extravagant look, but I must say cool as hell.

"Oh, hi. I just finished the introduction to the new Narvals." Then she noticed me. "The last new girl?" She asked, glancing at me.

"Yes." Heather confirmed. "Grace, this is Kate, the combat lead. She will teach you all you need to know about defense and attack Reg techniques."

"Hi." I said dryly.

"Oh, wow, I can tell how excited you are to be here." Kate let out a laugh. "Don't worry, in a couple of days, you'll be so busy that you won't have time to think about whether you're excited or not."

Kate grinned and gave me an annoying little jab in the arm. I didn't react, just tried to show the greatest indifference I could manage. Suddenly, a beeping sound came from Heather's Reg Bracelet, and she looked at it.

"Damn it," Heather muttered. "The power tower's getting interference. I've got to take care of this." She turned to Kate. "Can you handle things here?"

Okey, so now I was a thing.

"Sure Lead," Kate replied with a grin. "Have fun with the power tower. Let's hope it's not a bunch of death rats clogging up the bouncer like the last time."

"Ugh, don't make me remember that." Heather said with a grimaced expression, turning away. But before she could take two steps, I called out, "Hold on!"

Heather turned around, surprised. Kate frowned, confused.

"Can we talk for a minute? Privately." I said, lowering my voice.

Kate looked at Heather raising an eyebrow as if I was crazy for asking that. "There's an empty room here." She said opening the door.

Inside, the room was lined with six perfectly arranged bunk beds, and a large window at the far end bathed the space in a white light. The sheets were covered in the silver Reg triangle symbol, as if they wanted to make sure we never forgot where we were, even in our sleep.

"I don't have much time. What's the matter?" Heather asked impatiently.

"Where is my brother?"

"I don't know."

I gasped frustrated. "Come on! Either you know where he is, or you have a way to find him."

Heather didn't even flinch. "I don't know. But more than that, I don't care."

Her words felt like a knife twisting in my gut. The raw rage of that day surged back like a hurricane, and I pushed her against the wall. Surprisingly, she didn't defend herself, even though I knew from experience that she was stronger than me and could have tossed me aside in an instant.

"You know what?" I began. "For a moment, when I was waiting in line, and you told me your name, I thought there was a hint of humanity in you and that maybe this place wouldn't be so bad. But now I see how wrong I was... You are just as heartless as they say, a cold, unfeeling human."

Silence.

My eyes were locked on hers.

Locked on that disgusting clear blue as cold as her.

"Is that all?" She said flatly not letting my eyes go.

My breathing was ragged and heavy, while hers was almost imperceptible as if she didn't even need air to survive.

Kate knocked on the door. "Hey, Lead, everything ok?"

"Yeah, just a minute!" She shouted back.

Heather held my gaze and then pushed me back shaking off my grip as if it were nothing. "Touch me again and I'll kick you so hard you'll go through the wall." Then she turned on her heel and walked away. I took a deep breath to contain my eagerness to split those damned bunk beds in half and tear apart the triangles of those disgusting sheets.

When I got out of the room I found Kate waiting, confusion crossing her face. I watched as Heather disappeared down the end of the hallway, completely focused and not even bothering to look back.

"What the hell did you two talk about?" Kate asked.

"She's an asshole." I muttered.

"Hey, you can't talk about the Border Lead like that!" Kate said as we entered the room where I was supposed to sleep from now on.

"Yeah, whatever." I shrugged.

The room was a near-carbon copy of the one I had discussed with Heather, except this time, two other people were eyeing me from their bunk beds. One was a tall, very slim girl with long black hair, and the other was a short guy with curly brown hair and quite the opposite of slim. Both looked as lost as I felt.

Before I could even make sense of the space, Kate handed me a bag, bumping into my stomach. "This is for you. New clothes."

I trudged over to the first bunk bed I saw and dropped it with a thud.

"This isn't your bunk. You don't get to choose, new girl." Kate said.

I sighed. "Fine. Where the hell am I supposed to sleep?"

Kate pointed to the floor.

"You've got to be kidding me." I said.

The guy with curly hair snickered and my eyes darted at him like knives.

"What's so funny?!" I snapped.

His teasing smile vanished in less than a second, replaced by fear.

The tall girl, who had been observing me since I came in, moved in between the short guy and me. "Chill out, will you?" She said annoyed.

Great. Just great. One more person telling me what to do or don't do. Was my life going to be always like this from now on?

"Why? Because you say so?" I said stepping towards her.

"Yeah, because I say so. I don't want to hear your fucking complaints."

Kate stepped in, trying to defuse the situation. "Alright, enough. I'm your combat lead, and I'd prefer not to start with a fight until we're in class. Mark, Laura, this is Grace." She gestured to each of us. "Your roommate."

Laura sighed.

"I'm not here to make friends." I said flatly.

"Fine by me." Laura said crossing the room and storming away. Mark, the other guy, followed her silently, throwing me a glance over his shoulder until they both came out of the room.

Kate then stared at me an eyebrow raised. "Is your plan called "Get everyone to hate me"? Because if it is, you're nailing it."

"Give me a break." I said.

Kate took a deep breath as if regaining her strength to not lose it on me. "Come on, catch this." She threw a sleeping bag that I caught in mid-air. "There are not enough beds right now, so you'll sleep on the floor."

"And to think that I believed my situation would improve... What a fool I was."

I unrolled the sleeping bad on the floor and then unzipped the bag she had given me with the new clothes. It was the Narval uniform. "Do I have to wear this?" I asked.

"Yes and don't forget to always wear this on whatever shirt you have." Kate tossed a piece of cloth at me. It was a silver band.

The silver triangle symbol made my stomach churn. As if with the uniform, the Reg Bracelet, and the fucking patterned bed sheets weren't enough remainder. My head was spinning. I was supposed to be with Michael. How had I ended up here, in this job, of all possible ones? Nothing made sense.

"Hey, are you okay? You look really pale." Kate said, concerned.

"I feel dizzy." I replied, sitting on the floor.

"Okay, let's get the hell out of here and breathe fresh air. This is a lot to process. Come with me."

Kate guided me to a staircase winding up the side of the house, zigzagging its way until we reached a large terrace.

"Welcome to my secret place!" Kate said excitedly. "Only a few of us have the key to the terrace, and one of them happens to be me! What do you think, new girl?"

No matter how much I wanted to hold on to my anger, I couldn't deny that the place was beautiful. The sun was just setting behind the mountains, casting rays that stretched out like elongated arms, shooting across the sky. It would have been a perfect view if it weren't for the long, thick gray wall cutting through everything like a parasitic worm in an intestine. You couldn't even see where it ended; it vanished into the mist.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked. "Why are you being nice to me?"

Kate took a deep breath and pondered the question for a moment. "Because you looked as about to throw up and I'm not very fond of that smell."

Okey, that comment earned a small smile from me. I liked her humor.

"So, do you send all the troubled newcomers here?" I said as I stepped forward to get a better view.

"Just the really, really, really troubled ones." She winked.

"Fair."

We both observed the landscape in kind silence for a moment. No matter how much I tried, looking at both sides of the wall was always a shock it seemed I could never get over it. On one side was my home, or at least, the land where I grew up: crumbled trees, collapsed buildings, fires, smoke... Turn around, and there was the advanced Reg World: artificial greenery, sleek high-tech buildings, geometric streets, and people moving about like ants in formation, the opposite poles yet the same reality.

And in this whole messy world, where would Michael be? The question never left me. Not for a single moment.

"I don't want to see landscapes, even less this one." I said.

Kate rolled her eyes, not taking me seriously. "Come on, you haven't seen the best yet."

She approached the edge of the terrace and, with a swift leap, dropped down onto the roof below. She then looked up with a smile and gestured for me to follow. We sat letting our feet dangle in the void, as a soft breeze grazed our faces.

It was strangely quiet, the only background sound was the turbines of the gates and the buzz of some far spaceships floating in the air. Kate stretched her arms to the front and then to the back. Her muscles were very tuned, and she had a very cool tattoo on her left arm which I hadn't noticed before.

"What is it?" I said pointing to the tattoo.

Kate pulled up her sleeve to show it more clearly. It was a triangle and inside of it, on each side of the shape, there was the silhouette of a panther walking. Two were the same size, the third was smaller. The tattoo had fluor colors that changed as she moved.

"You've discovered my family." She pointed to the bigger panters. "Mom, Dad, and the little one is me. We all got the same tattoo once my father got to walk again."

I frowned, "Got to walk again?"

Kate nodded. "Thanks to the Reg Society, my dad could treat his disease, which prevented him from walking. Oh, and also from having babies, and here I am! That's why they joined them since the beginning."

My mind rushed to find all the information my parents had taught me about the Reg Society but as much as I looked, I couldn't remember any talk about happy families finding the cure to illnesses and having babies.

"So, you were born here?" I asked.

"Bingo!" She said. "And you... let me guess. You were born in Oakvale."

I turned at her surprised. "How do you know?"

Kate laughed satisfied. "The toughest people always come from the north, mostly Oakvale. The ones that cry the first night are usually from the south, most of the time from Linderston or Sirvalley. Oakvalers are usually the best at combat by the way." She winked at me.

I sighed because thinking about training for them was less than appealing at the moment.

"Hey, I know that being a Narval Officer might seem a bit... ironic. But it's not that bad. There are a bunch of nice people here. And I have the feeling you are in the right place to be."

I looked at her not really convinced. "You're so sure, huh?"

She nodded. "If Heather has accepted you, that means you're in the right place."

Ugh, Heather. I hated thinking about her, and my expression gave me away.

"I know you hate her; you made that pretty clear. But can I ask why? I've heard she saved you." She asked.

"Is that what she told you?" I asked, feeling my anger bubbling beneath my skin.

"No, no," she laughed as if that was nonsense. "She would never do that, she's not the type to give herself medals. It was Leah, another Narval officer, who told me."

"Okay then, tell Leah she misses the part where my brother was banned from entering at the very last moment and she did nothing to help him."

"That's not cool." She said.

"That's what I thought." I said irony sliding into my tone.

"There's probably a reason behind it." Kate said.

"What?"

"There's always a reason. Maybe she didn't see the possibility to get him in. Maybe everything happened too fast and she had to act without risking anyone else." Kate said.

I rolled my eyes. I was foolish to think someone as close to Heather as Kate would take my side. "Okay, so you're on her side. I get it."

"Hey, relax." Kate nudged my arm. "Not everything is black and white, you know?"

I took a deep breath, looking away from her. It felt pretty clear to me what was right and wrong, but I wasn't about to start an argument, especially not with her.

"Can we just drop it?" I asked, my voice sharper than I intended.

"Sure, I'll zip it." She mimed locking her lips, then grinned. "But can I ask you something else?"

I hesitated, mulling it over.

"Oh, come on!" She pressed.

"Alright, try it." I said.

"Why did you transfer?"

Her question caught me off guard. "I think that's the first time someone's actually asked me that."

"Really?" she said, sounding surprised.

"Yeah. Where I come from, people jump at the chance to get the call. There's no 'why' about it. Although my brother and I had a pretty heated argument, to be honest."

"Why is so?"

She seemed genuinely interested. No protocol or psychological technique playing there.

"Well, my parents were quite against the Reg Society. None of us were supposed to join. Ever." I explained.

"Interesting. And when did that change?"

"When they died. Suddenly, it was just me and Michael. I wanted a life, and I'm not ashamed to admit it."

"Why should you be?" Kate said. "It's totally understandable."

"Maybe for you it is. Because nothing has ever been taken away from you. But when you've seen your land destructed by the drones it's hard to admit you might want to join them." I explained.

Kate shifted her gaze to the sky, letting a comfortable silence settle between us as if she was giving what I said the space to sink in.

"I'm sorry you had to go through all of that." She said.

I nodded in appreciation.

"But you're wrong about one thing." She said with a mischievous grin.

"What?"

"I do know how it feels when they take something away from you." She said.

"You do?"

"Yes, have you seen this?"

Kate pointed out the implant she had in the back of her head. The shiny colorful one.

"Well, they put it there when I was a kid. Without my consensus. Not even my parents could decide. The system did."

"Really?" I said.

"Yep. Plus... Do you think I'm here because this is my dream job?" She asked.

"Maybe...?" I said.

She laughed. "Nop. Working here was a punishment."

"For what?"

"For trying to escape the wall."

"You've got to be kidding me."

She shook her head. "Not at all girl. I was young and wanted to see the world that lay beyond this."

She gazed at the wall.

"But... By law, all the Reg-born civils can't leave. Ever." She stated.

"You're trapped in here." I said more to myself than to her.

"I'm trapped in here." She remarked. "So, you're story is sad and you have all the right to be angry, of course. But, from time to time, try to see it like this: You've already seen more world than I ever will." 

Author's Note:

This is the second version of this chapter. :) I hope you enjoy Kate's character so far!

If you notice any inconsistencies with the following chapters, please let me know. There may be some as I'm making revisions daily, but everything will eventually be cleaned up. Rest assured, no editing will change the core story. So keep reading and enjoy!

Love you all! ❤️

Ava 💫