Inside

by Kyra Anderson

  We went through security silently and got into the elevator.

  However, when the doors opened, instead of being greeted by the normal silence of the Commission of the People, we heard chatter. Mark was just as surprised as we were. He carefully stepped out of the elevator, his hand at his hip to grab his gun if necessary.

  Carefully opening the door to the meeting room, all three of us were surprised by what we saw.

  The room was completely full of people, men and women dressed professionally with an intimidating air. On one side of the room, there were two large groups of men and women donning military uniforms, decorated with medals and ribbons, their hair short and slicked back. Through the rest of the room, there were people of many different races, all with who I guessed were translators and advisors. There were foreign ambassadors and even a few foreign leaders I recognized, such as the Prime Minister of France, and the President of the Korean Peninsula.

  And there was Dana, standing at the front of the room with Sean stationed behind him. Dana saw us and smiled. His gaze caught the attention of everyone in the room, who silenced and turned.

  Though the whole world was staring at us.

  These were all people who knew about the Commission of the People and the experimentations…all people Dana had influence over…

  “Ah, Little Lily and the gang,” Dana grinned in a chastising tone. “I’m sorry, I guess I should have told you that I was having a meeting today and that you didn’t need to be here.” He sighed. “Well, sorry about that. Mark, take them home.”

  Mark hesitated only a moment before he bowed at the waist and ushered us backward, closing the door to the meeting room.

  Nausea overwhelmed me. While we were planning our next move, so was Dana.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  The following day, Carolina High School in the South-East Region organized a walkout, claiming that they were not going to learn material that was approved from the Commission of the People when the Commission was torturing the people they were capturing.

  There were whispers around our school of doing the same thing. Again, it felt as though everything was going too fast.

  I was having nightmares about people dying, about our revolution failing and Dana somehow winning in the end. I tried to tell myself they were only dreams. Besides, that same Tuesday, I had other things to worry about.

  Saying I was going on a date with Clark, I left the house, running away after my mother started talking about condoms and safe sex. Knowing she thought I was having sex with Clark made me cringe. Then I blushed because of the sex I had been having with Mykail without protection…

  The entire situation was more than uncomfortable.

  Mark took both Clark and I to the agreed abandoned warehouse by public transportation, walking us from the bus stop to the location. I vaguely remembered how to get to the factory we had seen when trying to decide where to base our operation. We decided to complete our project in the basement so that the lights through the broken windows would not attract attention.

  By the time the three of us got to the basement, Peter, a medical school dropout, and Bethany, an art student, had set up the lights and camera facing a chair. Tori and Griffin were there as well and greeted us warmly next to Hiroki, Ichiro, Rin, and Minsoo. It had been a while since I had seen some of the members of the Eight Group, so I hugged all of them, thrilled to see them.

  Griffin was the first to sit in the rickety chair and speak to the camera. Everyone present watched quietly, listening to his story once again. Griffin also told the camera what his abilities were. As far as I could tell, he was the perfect fighter. He had enough strength to lift cars with ease and even throw them. He had reflexes fast enough to avoid most direct attacks and was able to see with great precision in the dark. His hearing was superb and his aim was also impressive. He was an ultimate warrior. He only needed to sleep for about an hour a night and did not need as much food or water to stay in peak condition.

  Dana had been trying to build the perfect soldier.

  Griffin also said that he had metallic plates under his chest that expanded and contracted with his ribs and were bullet proof to anything but a straight shot, protecting most of his vital organs.

  When he was finished explaining, he stood and removed his shirt, turning sideways and taking a deep breath, causing his chest to expand, showing the plates move under his skin, protruding to make his ribcage look like slats on a shutter. I stared at the display unblinkingly until Griffin let out his breath and replaced his shirt.

  After Griffin, Tori told her story and explained her abilities.

  She had all the capabilities Griffin had, only she seemed like the improved version, with metal plates along other vital points and the ability to operate for days at a time without sleep. She was also smaller and could be hidden more easily than the large Griffin. She was the perfect, manufactured soldier, particularly since she did not need a gun to fire a bullet at the speed of a gun. She had enough muscle power in her hands to shoot a bullet with her fingers, something she proved on camera.

  When Griffin and Tori were finished, Peter and Bethany glanced at their list, asking for the next few people. Rin and Minsoo went to gather them, while Mark and Clark joined Griffin and Tori to discuss something. Instead of following them, I turned to Hiroki and Ichiro.

  “How have you been?”

  “Busy,” Hiroki laughed. “But good. You?”

  “Eh, haven’t been sleeping well, but that’s to be expected, I guess,” I shrugged, downplaying my nightmares. “So…um, do you guys need to sleep? And eat?”

  “Yes,” Hiroki chuckled. “I think we all need about one or two hours of sleep, but we don’t need to eat as much. Maybe once a day.”

  “Has Mark been taking care of himself?” I pressed. “I don’t want you to lie for him. I feel like he’s the type that would ignore sleeping and eating.”

  Hiroki laughed.

  “Don’t worry, we watch out for him,” he assured. “And I know you sometimes think that Mark is being a little too careful and paranoid, but trust him, he knows what he’s doing.”

  “He learned his lesson…” Ichiro mumbled with a snort.

  That caused me to blink in surprise. Hiroki rounding angrily on Ichiro and scolded him in their native tongue, though Ichiro looked away, ignoring Hiroki.

  “What did he mean?” I asked worriedly.

  This time Hiroki smacked Ichiro on the back of the head, causing the other member of the Eight Group to let out a whine and say something back to Hiroki, who replied sharply. Ichiro bowed his head before walking away. The other member of the Eight Group sighed heavily.

  “Sorry, he’s just…” Hiroki shook his head again, “I think the phrase is ‘he’s just like that.’”

  “It’s fine, but…” I looked back to see Mark still with Griffin and the others. “What did he mean? Did Mark get in trouble?”

  “Yes…but he meant…well, we all learned our lesson,” Hiroki said. “This isn’t the first time Hyunwoo has gone against Dana. He knows better now how careful we have to be…”

  “You mean when he got his voice…” I did not complete the sentence. I glanced back at the leader of the Eight Group. “Why would Dana mutilate him like that?”

  “He didn’t just mutilate him…” Hiroki whispered. “Hyunwoo was the one who organized the experiments to rise up against Dana four years ago. We got close enough for Hyunwoo to attack. He tried to kill Dana. But there were not enough of us, and we tried to take over the Commission from the inside, which failed…Hyunwoo is the one who paid for it…”

  Hiroki took a deep breath and looked at the ground, leaning against the wall behind him.

  “Dana didn’t just take his voice…he humiliated him. He broke him down and made us watch as punishment. Dana had the scientists beat Hyunwoo with pipes before he was on the table…they waited for him to stand before beating him down again until…until he just couldn’t get up anymore…” Hiroki’s voice was t
ight with pain and I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was reliving the experience as he recounted the story. “And every time we would look away, Dana would shock us and make us look…”

  My hand was already at my mouth, the tears in my eyes.

  “When Hyunwoo couldn’t get up anymore, they put him on the table, put his head in a vice, and burned his face. Dana still wanted Hyunwoo to be able to work after the torture, so they didn’t hurt his eyes…instead they put the cigarettes in his mouth and on his tongue, they made him swallow them. Then they urinated on him…We had to watch this happen…there was nothing we could do…” Hiroki swallowed hard and lifted a hand to wipe away the tears. “They laughed when he vomited…they teased him when he was screaming as they started cutting into his neck without numbing him…the things that they did to him…they weren’t just taking his voice, they were breaking him…”

  Trying to hold my own tears back, I turned to look at Mark once again. He was listening very intently to what Tori was saying, completely unaware that I was learning of the horrific torture that left him without a voice.

  “But they didn’t break him…” I barely managed to choke.

  “They almost did…” Hiroki disagreed. “When he was recuperating, he wouldn’t move, he wouldn’t look at anyone…he wasted away in that cell, no matter how we tried to reach him…” Hiroki took a deep breath. “But, as always, Woobin understood him and finally got through to him, helped him stand up again. Hyunwoo finally came back to us…and even after all that he’s fighting…”

  We were both looking at Mark.

  “Every time I think about what we want to accomplish and think it’s too much, or that I need to give up, I remember everything Hyunwoo endured, and how he still is turning to spit in Dana’s face.” Hiroki laughed. “Hyunwoo was always quiet and calm…but when you get him angry, he is a force of nature.”

  “What did Josh say to him?” I asked. The experiment shrugged.

  “I don’t know. Hyunwoo has…always been a little strange, even when we were growing up. Not in a bad way, he was just different. The only one who ever understood him was Woobin. They lived in houses next to one another, so they spent more time with one another than with the rest of us. Woobin was always at Hyunwoo’s house because his own father kept trying to kill him. It was safer with Hyunwoo.”

  “What? Why?” I gasped, horrified.

  “Woobin was another mouth to feed,” Hiroki sighed. “When you’re a hidden society like we were, children are not a blessing. They’re dangerous to the safety of the community and to resources. So, Woobin spent time with Hyunwoo to escape his father. That’s why they’re so close. They always have been.”

  “Where is Josh now?”

  “He should be here soon,” Hiroki answered. “Lily,” he called my attention, “Hyunwoo would not want you to know that story about his torture. I only told you because I think it’s important for you to understand that Mark has learned the hard way, and you can trust him to be very careful. Trust his judgment and understand where it’s coming from…”

  I sighed.

  “The truth is, lately…I’ve been thinking that what we’re doing is wrong…that it’s going to get people killed and that it’s not worth that…” I murmured. “I wanted to talk to Mark about it, but he’s sacrificed so much for this…”

  “Just because he’s invested in this revolution doesn’t mean you can’t talk to him,” Hiroki chuckled. I smiled weakly.

  “I know…but…” I thought for a moment before lowering my voice. “A lot of this is my doing, my idea…and I don’t want everyone to know that I’m having second thoughts. And talking to Mark alone, I think, distresses him because he can’t converse back…”

  Hiroki nodded slowly. “He can’t even talk to Eun…”

  I hesitated. “Does he think we can win?”

  Hiroki was silent for a long moment.

  “If I had to take a guess,” he finally said after my stomach had tied itself into knots, “if he didn’t think we had a good chance, he wouldn’t be doing this right now.”

  The door at the top of the basement stairs opened and Minsoo and Rin descended into the room with Sophia and Alexandra. Tagging behind the entire group was another familiar face.

  “Look who we found!” Rin laughed.

  “Josh!” Tori smiled. I also tried to smile, but I was still rattled by the stories. Josh waved to everyone with a big smile and when he saw me, his smile widened and he came over to us first.

  “Hey, Lily,” he grinned, hugging me around the shoulders with one arm. I smiled, trying to swallow the tight ball in my throat. “How are you?”

  “Okay, you?”

  “…fine. You don’t sound okay.” He pulled away and turned to face me fully. I tried to hide my face. “Are you crying?”

  “No.”

  “You look like it…” he said. He looked between me and Hiroki. “What is it?”

  Hiroki said something and Josh hesitated before turning back to me.

  “Oh…” he whispered. “Don’t tell him that you know…” Josh said, his hand tightening on my shoulder. I shook my head and sniffed, trying desperately to keep the tears from overwhelming me. Josh rubbed my shoulder.

  “I knew it was bad…but…I never thought…” Once again, I sniffed and swallowed hard. Josh hugged me.

  “It’s okay,” Josh assured, his hand rubbing my back. “It’s over. He’s alright.”

  “How did you…what did you say to him?” I asked, backing away to look at Josh seriously. The experiment sighed, making a face, trying to figure out how to explain.

  “Hyunwoo is…he’s really simple in a complicated way,” Josh started, struggling with the words. “That was the first time he was…not good anymore.” He turned to Hiroki, frustrated, speaking quickly.

  “Oh,” Hiroki nodded. “He wasn’t able to help anyone. He was the one needing help.”

  “He had to think about himself,” Josh continued. “He always thought about himself by how he helped others. But then he was…” Josh was at a loss for words.

  “Helpless?” I whispered. Mark’s best friend nodded, his eyes sad.

  “He thought he had failed everyone,” he added. “And he thought we would…be angry with him.”

  I nodded. “But, he’s your leader. Surely he knew that you wouldn’t do that to him,” I said.

  “He is our leader, but only because we follow him,” Hiroki agreed.

  “Hyunwoo never said ‘I am your leader.’ He just had ideas and he had brains to make them work,” Josh elaborated. “And he put everyone before him…He did not understand that we had to take care of him when he was hurt, and it was too much for him. He wouldn’t let anyone in.”

  “Hiroki said that you guys watch out for him,” I grinned. “You make sure he eats and sleeps…”

  Josh nodded. “That’s why I’m here,” he smiled. “I brought food.” He looked at me with his eyebrows high. “Are you hungry?”

  “No, thank you,” I chuckled.

  “Are you sure? There’s a lot…”

  “I’m sure.”

  Josh hugged me once more and then turned, calling to Mark, who turned quickly and followed his friend up the stairs.

  While I was pleased to hear about the way the others of the Eight Group took care of Mark, my stomach was still churning. As Sophia began filming her message, my brain detached and I thought about Mark being beaten with pipes, humiliated and burned, screaming in pain as his throat was sliced open. The tears were burning my eyes again. While a part of me was strengthened by realizing that Mark had endured and was still fighting despite everything, a bigger part of me was terrified. Hearing the brutality used in torturing Mark made the reality of Dana’s power that much stronger. Someone who I thought could never be taken down, could never break, had been beaten and humiliated to the point of almost giving up on life, and we were poking at that same volatile creature that had already caused so much damage.

  More than before, I
was convinced we needed to stop.

  I tried to keep a smile on my face and stay strong in front of everyone. I laughed at Josh teasing everyone to get the emotions in their voice, telling everyone to act like puppies looking for homes. I forced a smile every time Griffin and Tori looked to me with a pleased grin at our progress. I spoke with Clark about how we were going to circulate the videos. But my head was a mess of scattered and frightened thoughts, contemplating calling off the revolution.

  * *** *

  The following morning, during rush hour to school, I was shocked by the city coming to a dead halt when Mykail was spotted once again. This time with a banner reading “watch our stories.”

  Through the three-hour delay at school, I had nothing to do but sit in the hallway and fume. One week previous, I would have been thrilled at how much attention we were getting, but with my current mindset, I was furious. It was the first time I found myself angry at Mark. I was upset that he would put Mykail in immediate danger once again, so soon after his other appearance. I was upset that he was causing the ball to roll faster and bring the reality of our revolution closer.

  My lack of sleep and frightened thoughts caused my emotions to overpower rational thought and caused me to forget that I had agreed to the plan with Mykail the previous evening.

  As the halls began filling, chatter of the angel and questions from the students filled my ears, echoing around the large hallways and amplifying the noise. I angrily stormed to one of the courtyards, ignoring how cold it was and covered my ears, crouching to the ground and trying to control my breathing. Everything was spinning out of control, as if I was already surrounded by gunshots and the groans of my dying friends.

  I was swimming in thoughts of other options. I could find a way to sneak the experiments and freed humans over the southern border, where they might be able to find a way to live their lives. Perhaps I could go to Dana and admit my fault, causing him to take me in and leave the others alone. I felt trapped, frightened, and that I was about to lose my grip on reality. I had created a movement that was too big to control, and it was growing bigger by the day.