Zaharah walked away from the clinic without a backwards glance and trudged through the tea garden. The micro metal clinked in their canisters and the case periodically bumped against her hip. Her eyes were on the geranium bushes lining the walkway, but her mind was still back in the suite. A fresh flash of anger fell over her as she recounted everything she'd learned.

Crushed by a creeper. Experimented on. Memories stolen. Lied to. Manipulated.

Skorpi beeped at her and she realised she was squeezing her long board tight enough to make it groan. She took a breath and set her mind ahead. Getting to the mainland was her biggest problem, followed by what would happen after.

The only way off of Denden was by Heli, and she didn't have one of those on standby. Depending on how far away they were from the mainland, swimming might be possible. But they'd need survival suits for that. Jumping into those filthy Atlantic waters without protection was ill-advised. On top of all the radiation that had leaked into water half a century ago, there was pollution from all the sunken cities tainting the ocean.

Skorpi beeped in her ear and she realised she'd stopped walking. Right in front of the lab. At this hour, Dwight and his team would be settling in. It was just a beta test. That was what he'd told her about the video. Those people are probably androids.

Zaharah didn't know what force compelled her forward, but she started towards the double doors. Skorpi beeped his protests, pointing her back towards the road, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. Long strides took her through the entrance and across the lobby to the lab in the back. Less than ten people occupied to the room, most lounging around the TV.

Her focus was on the far corner of the room, where Dwight sat hunched in front of his many screens. She crossed to his desk and stood there for goodness knew how long, her metal hand balled into a fist. She'd jokingly threatened to hit him with it so many times, but never felt the urge sincerely until this moment.

Dwight finally looked up at her, one eyebrow arched. "Did you not read my text? I said to come in at—"

"Shut the fuck up. You goddamn liar." Her voice wasn't loud, but it still caught the attention of the other techs. Their chatter died down and a dozen eyes lighted on her.

Dwight exhaled a sigh, like he was a parent dealing with a belligerent child. "What are you on about Za—"

"I know. I know what happened the night of the accident. I know that creeper shot at me and Jade. I know that video Cammi sent me was the truth." Her voice rose with every word, and by the end of it she was screaming loud enough for the whole building to hear.

Yet, Dwight's countenance didn't change. He took a long drag from his cigarette, but didn't try to refute her claims. Which only served to rile Zaharah up even more.

She wished he'd scream back, defend himself. Something. But he just sat there with that dumb, nonchalant look on his face.

"I called you my friend!" She slammed her metal arm into his desk on the final word. "But you're nothing but a fucking snake." And with that, she turned on her heel and marched out of the lab.

Zaharah waited until she was outside to let her tears fall. She'd ranted and raved for nothing;he didn't care. Of course. He'd lied to her so easily. Convinced her the video was fake, that Cammi was the one lying to her.

Fuck him. Fuck all of them. She was going to get her family off this cursed hunk of metal, find an apartment on the main land. It would be up to her and Markus to find work and get Jade into school. But they'd figure it out. They had to.

Zaharah swiped at her tears and dashed her anger aside along with them so determination could take hold. She'd need every ounce of it to survive the road ahead. She adjusted the bag on her shoulder and started for the ramp. Just as she was about the throw down her board, the beep of a horn caught her ear.

At the base of the ramp was a pink and turquoise buggy. Pharahdox waved to her from inside, and Skorpi waved back.

Zaharah wasn't sure if she had the mental fortitude to deal with another person, but skating off and pretending she didn't see the charming DJ would only make things worse. She could imagine Pharahdox driving to catch up, the incessant questions that would follow. Are you okay, Zaharah? Do you want to talk about it, Zaharah?

She tucked her board back under her arm and started down the ramp, and by the time she got to the bottom, Pharah was out of the buggy and leaning against it like a car model. She was looking fly in her nothing special sweat pants, crop top and Chuck's. The girl could make a trash bag look awesome.

"Hey, just Pharah." Her voice was a little hoarse from screaming at Will and Dwight, but she still managed a light tone.

"Zaharah, hi." Pharah looked down at her toes. "Ah... This is a little weird, I know. But I was by your apartment earlier and..." She winced. "Okay, that definitely sounded weird. But I uh..."

Zaharah arched a brow. She couldn't tell if she was emotionally overloaded and thus not thinking straight or if Pharahdox was being coy with her.

"Markus said you might be here, so I rode over." She wrapped on the buggy with her knuckles. "Would you like a ride home?"

"You drove out here to give me a ride home?"

Her head snapped up. "No, of course not. That would be weird. I uh... I had to ride by here anyway, and I wanted to talk to you about something. I'll understand if this is a bad time. I know you have a lot going on right now and—"

"Pharah... I'd love a ride, thanks." She rounded the buggy and slid into the passenger's side. Her board went into the back and she put the bag of micro metal in her lap.

They rode through the centre platform in silence. Skorpi hung half inside the buggy with his claws out the window. On a normal day Zaharah would take the time to enjoy the scenery, especially this time of year when the ponciana were starting to bloom, but her mind was too restless. Too many what ifs and what nows demanded her attention. I was like a thousand voices screaming in her head at once.

"I spoke to the Director," Pharah said, breaking the silence.

Zaharah's lips curled into a scowl, and her voice was icy when she spoke. "And what did she say?"

"Well... she told me to mind my own business, though much more... politely I guess." She drummed her fingers on the wheel. "I don't think she should uproot you and Jade against your will. I've always known the Director as a fair and rational woman, but she seems adamant about this."

She snort-laughed. "You don't know the Director, Pharah. You don't know her at all."

"And you do?" Pharah pulled in front of the Southside complex and cut the buggy's power.

Zaharah leaned her head back against the seat. "Honestly, just Pharah, I'd rather not rope you into all of this. I've caused enough damage already. You have a blossoming career and I don't want to be responsible for ruining it."

"What do you mean?"

She bit the inside of her cheek, contemplating how much she should tell Pharah. If it was worth the risk. A lie sat on the tip of her tongue, but she didn't let it get out. "Jade and I are going to leave Denden and move to the mainland. But not with the Director. I'm not sure how yet, but we need to get out of here. Today. Now, if that's possible."

Pharah stayed silent for a long time, and the whir of the ventilation system switching on invaded the buggy. Her eyes remained out the windshield when she spoke. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"I don't know... I guess... you could keep quiet about this. We want to leave quietly."

"Okay. I can do that."

"Thanks." Zaharah gathered her things, and popped her door open, ready to bid her final farewell the charming DJ. Their friendship, if one could even call it that, was short lived, but she'd grown fond of Pharah's easy-going demeanour and fresh style.

"Wait." Pharah opened the glove compartment and rifled through before producing a marker. "Here, give me your arm." When Zaharah obliged, Pharah wrote across her forearm. "It's my personal email. Message me once you guys are settled. If you want."

Zaharah looked down at the email address, the black marker ink stark against her dark brown skin, . Then flicked her gaze back up at Pharah, who'd suddenly become fascinated with the marker. "Okay. I'll be in touch. Take care, just Pharah." She stepped out the buggy and waved to Pharah as she ascended the complex's steps.

She didn't bother packing her board away and went up to the second floor for what she hoped was the last time. She drifted past homes of people she had never introduced herself to. Markus had tried to get them to make friends here, but Zaharah never saw the point, especially when they were planning to leave as soon as she graduated.

The walk up to her apartment felt longer than it should, and she met the door ajar and chatter drifting into the hall. Markus and Jade sat in the living room surrounded by luggage. The former leaned against the wall by the kitchen door while the latter sat on the couch scrolling through her phone.

"Is this everything?" Zaharah asked.

Jade nodded. Pharahdox was here looking for you. Are you two pals or something now? Have you been hanging out without me?

"Good, get dressed, we're leaving." Zaharah set the micro metal on the coffee table.

Markus leaned off the wall and moved to sit beside Jade. "The Director said she'd send a buggy at two. Jade said she wanted to go up to the roof before that."

Zaharah's lips tipped into a frown. The roof was the first place Markus had taken them when he officially became their android caretaker. They'd had s'mores and played video games on his briefcase PC. Good times. Better times.

"We're not going anywhere with that fucking bitch." She took Skorpi from her shoulder and set him on the table. "Skorpi, connect to the TV. There's something I need to tell you guys about."

Jade and Markus exchanged a glance, but didn't interrupt. Probably because it was rare for Zaharah to share anything with them, unless they wrung it out of her.

"A couple of days ago... I got an email from someone called Cammi..." She told them everything, showed them the videos, the messages, the voice notes. She told them about her appointment with Dr Cyan, the Director breaking the news of the move, and finally about what she learned from Dr Will, about her memories. By the time she got through it all, she wanted to lie down and sleep, and maybe forget all of this happened.

This is so fucked, Jade signed. She'd gotten out of her seat to pace around the room. The Director told me we didn't have any surviving relatives. Why didn't Doctor Cyan say anything?

Zaharah shook her head. "Your guess is as good as mine."

And what about my memories? I don't remember any of that creeper shit.

"Your memories are being stored somewhere else Jade," Markus said. "Or they may have been deleted entirely by now. They probably kept Zaharah's for further testing with the micro metal samples they took from her blood." He hadn't uttered a word the entire time, just stared at the table. Or through it.

Zaharah's stomach fell, her hands shook and she had to swallow several times to stop herself from throwing up. "Markus... you knew? This whole time?"

His gaze finally flicked up to her. "I did."

Jade fell back onto the couch as though her legs had given out on her and threaded her hands in her hair. Zaharah may have done the same if she wasn't already sitting down. She could handle Dr Will, who'd been her doctor for two years, and Dwight, who'd become her only friend in Denden.

But Markus... He'd been the closest thing to a parent they'd had. This hurt was different, deeper, it clawed at her chest and rent her heart in two. She wanted to scream at him, make him feel what she was feeling, but she didn't have the strength. So she sat there and ground her teeth, fighting the tears stinging her eyes.

"Please," Markus said. "Let me explain."

"Explain what?" Zaharah asked. "That you're a fucking liar?"

He exhaled a sigh and roughed up his dreadlocks. "You're right, and my reasons don't justify any of it. But I'll tell you them anyway. Perhaps they'll give you some perspective."

Zaharah was about to tell him to shove his reasons up his ass, but Jade waved at her. Let him talk, she signed.

"Fine."

"I... I'm an older android," Markus began. "Models like me were decommissioned around fifty years ago, because of some flaw in our system that was exploited by hackers. But my former employer want to preserve me."

Zaharah looked up at him, but his eyes were on the coffee table.

"So I was sent here, with simple instructions. Stay alive. For as long as I could. By any means necessary. And to do that, I had to make myself useful. I did odd jobs around the lab, moving equipment, running supplies from the dock. That night, when the creeper attacked you, I was there. I saw it happen on the security monitors. And I was the one who drove Dwight and the doctors to the shipyard.

"While we dealt with you, they sent out teams to look for the boat, but they reported back with no survivors. I don't know if that's true or if they're hiding something. There's a lot that you two don't know about Denden. It's advertised as a place for displaced children, and an experiment in small island sustainability, but it's also a place for... societies more affluent members to stash their secrets."

Markus' words sent a chill down Zaharah's spine. Denden is full of tragedies, Pharahdox had told her. She wondered how many other tragedies were muddied by lies.

"When you were being wheeled into surgery Zaharah, Jade was left out in the waiting area. And we started talking. She was scared, and I tried to allay her fears, assure her that you were in the most capable hands. I stole her some snacks from the break room and offered to put the TV on something more palatable than the news."

I... Jade fisted her hands and scrunched her brow. I don't remember that.

"Then how do you remember meeting me?"

I was in the tea garden between the lab and the clinic. You brought a briefcase PC with two controllers and asked me if I knew how to play street fighter.

Markus' lips tipped into a frown. "I see. They probably wanted you to forget Skorpi could talk."

"He was talking in my memories," Zaharah said. Her anger had ebbed, but the heat of it still lingered on her chest. "Do you know what happened to him?"

"The Director asked Dwight to look at both him and your arm, and when Dwight returned him, he wasn't talking anymore. Just a beep here and there."

"Oh..." Like she needed another reason to be angry with him. "So you weren't meant to be a caretaker, were you?"

Markus shook his head. "Aleesha had seen Jade and I getting along, and when you started recovering, Zaharah, she asked if I'd be willing to be an android caretaker. I accepted, and Dwight and his team tweaked my programming to make me more... domestically inclined. Considering the real reason I was here, I couldn't say no, but agreeing also meant keeping Denden's dirty secrets."

Sounds like we're all prisoners here, Jade signed. She turned to face Markus fully. Who did you work for before you came to Denden?

"I can't tell you that. Not until you get to the mainland." He stood and dragged his dreads out of his face.

Zaharah arched a brow. "You're coming with us?"

"I'm not sure if I can, but... I'm going to get you both out of here."