The people that had been in the Commission did not provide comfort the same way. It was silent, supportive, and completely devoid of pressure. I felt more at ease with that than I expected.
The room of old computers and monitors was crowded with people, watching the three screens as the program before the news wrapped up. Tori and Griffin were leaning against the back wall with us. Tori sighed and leaned against Griffin’s arm, watching tiredly.
“Tori,” I called. She turned quickly. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah. Just a little tired.”
“She’s been awake for the last week and a half,” Griffin said. “Her batteries are about to die.” Griffin turned to her. “Will you sleep tonight?” he asked, lifting his eyebrow.
“Will you stop snoring?” she teased.
“I do not snore…”
“Yes, you do,” more than a dozen voices, including my own, contradicted. He looked around, shocked, pretending to be indignant.
“Get earplugs,” he snapped playfully.
I was impressed at how everyone was getting along so well. The two bunk rooms were very crowded and with the trauma levels of the experiments and those who had been captured by the Commission, everyone had some form of sleep disturbance. I shared a bed with Mykail, which proved to be extremely difficult due to his large wings. He slept on the top bunk and allowed his wings to drape down each side heavily, but that also meant that the heavy wings were over me, practically suffocating me with their weight.
After some rearranging, we finally found a way to, somewhat-comfortably, share the bed.
However, the close quarters, I was sure, were taking their toll. There were some tensions that Griffin and Tori had told me about when I saw some people snap at one another, but they told me that it was just a response to the worry of the rebellion, the less-than-desirable food, lack of sleep, and close quarters.
I was worried that if it got out of hand, we would implode as a revolution. I needed to talk to the main strategy group soon to discuss the food shortage, the high tensions, and what we needed to quickly, but smartly, speed up the process of getting everyone out of the fort.
But, at that moment, there was too much going on in my mind to even try to think of our next big move, or use the teasing as a way to bring up the topic of solving our problems.
“How much have I missed lately?” I asked, nodding to the screens.
“When was the last time you watched the news?”
“…a week ago?” I answered hesitantly.
“The CEO and four corporate managers of the Carolina Media Group have been arrested,” Griffin said.
“Arrested? For what?”
“Treason,” Griffin sighed. “There is a big public outcry about it. They had to move them out of the prison they were in and bring them to Central because people were rioting outside and causing trouble.”
“They’re in Central now?” I hissed.
“Welcome to your seven o’clock news, I’m Debbie Peats,” the female anchor said.
“And I’m Joseph Walsh,” the man next to her nodded. “Our first story of the night comes from deep space. The Altereye team just contacted Central…”
“So, people were angry about the Carolina managers getting arrested,” I continued, turning to Griffin and Tori when I realized that the story had nothing to do with us. “What are they asking the government to do?”
“Nothing…” Tori smiled.
“What do you mean?”
“They’re asking us to do something,” Mykail clarified. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “You’ve done a good job.”
“We did a good job,” I laughed.
“Group hug!” Tori called with a beaming smile, pulling Griffin away from the wall and dragging him to us, throwing her arm around my shoulders. I laughed while Griffin groaned and Mykail, slyly, was able to escape the hug.
“Tori…” Griffin laughed, pretending to be annoyed.
“Don’t be so grumpy,” she teased, though she did release us.
“So, what have they been asking us to do?” I pressed.
“Mostly, they’ve been asking us to break them out,” Griffin said. I looked at him, my eyebrows high.
“And the thoughts on this are…?”
Griffin sighed and turned to Tori, who looked at him for a moment before turning to me.
“We need to prove how dedicated we are to this,” she said. “If we answered and broke these people out of the camp, they would see that we stand with those who support us, and we could gain a very strong following.”
“I agree.” Mykail nodded. “It would be best to find a way to break them out and show everyone that we mean what we say.”
“Do we know where they are?” I asked.
“The location is secret. But don’t worry,” Tori winked, “we got men on the inside.”
“Our second story of tonight,” Debbie said, the camera focusing on her once again. “The outcry at the imprisonment of Carolina Media Group CEO Jerry Parker has moved all over the country. There have been seventeen reported demonstrations across the regions of people holding signs outside city halls, demanding that he be freed. There have been reports that the number of people at such demonstrations have doubled since Mr. Parker was moved to an undisclosed location, raising fears that he will soon face punishment from the Commission of the People for his public support of the recent rebellion against Central and the Commission of the People.”
The image changed to footage of men and women holding signs, saying “Support Central Angels” and “Free the Rebels!” They were chanting various phrases, garbled from the number of voices.
“This is one group outside the city hall of New Boston,” Debby’s voice said over the montage. “Despite their demands to release CEO Parker, they claimed that they were unwilling to ask Central for his acquittal.”
A woman came on the screen, being interviewed as she held her sign.
“It’s obvious that Central and the Commission of the People are going to try and get rid of the people who support the rebellion. The Commission is trying to keep their power. It needs to be dismantled completely.”
A man was next to be interviewed.
“We have to step in fast, before the Commission makes him into some kind of secret weapon,” he declared. “We hope the Central Angels can do something.”
When the camera went back to the studio, Joseph started speaking.
“As we’ve stated before, this is just one of seventeen reported demonstrations taking place across the country. Beyond these protests, reports of vandalism and graffiti continue to pour in, all showing sentiments in agreement with the movement now known as the Central Angels.”
“I like that name…” I smiled. Mykail squeezed my hand.
“The Commission of the People has yet to respond to the accusations against the transfer of CEO Parker, and their silence has led to some devastating crimes,” Debby added. “Earlier today in south Central, a van was discovered near an abandoned motel with seven bodies around the scene. The dead men were identified as employees of the Commission of the People, and once Central Intelligence and the Commission of the People were called to the site, news crews were banned from the scene. Our informant was able to take pictures of the crime beforehand, though we are unable to share most of the photos due to the graphic nature. There is one photo, however. Here you can see the side of the van that was found spray painted with wings.”
I could not help but bark a laugh, shaking my head in disbelief as I looked over the picture.
“See? Mark knows what to do,” Griffin told me with a smile.
“Central Spokesperson Leana Grey had this to say about the crime,” Debbie concluded, nodding as the shot cut to an informal press conference on the front steps of the Chamber of Regions building. Leana Grey was an older woman with a hard face, wearing a suit and looking extremely aggravated.
“This rebellion has taken things too far,” she said sharply. “Attacking Commiss
ion employees in such a violent fashion shows disregard for human life. This was done just because of their employment. These people are criminals and terrorist and must be held accountable for this heinous crime.”
Cutting back to the studio, Debbie closed the story.
“We will bring you more updates as this story progresses. If you have any information about the crime, please call your local law enforcement,” she concluded.
“In entertainment news, RM Entertainment announced…”
“Won’t it be a little too much if we make ourselves out to be murderers?” I whispered, turning to Griffin and Tori.
“It was a Commission van…” Griffin started slowly. “For now, I think we’re safe. But it would be best to be very careful from here on. I’m pretty sure that was just a onetime thing. We probably could not get away with it again.”
After another ten minutes of watching news that had little to do with our revolution, I went to help Tori with dinner preparations. Mykail stayed with the others, continuing to watch the news.
“So…do I need to ask you if you’re going to be okay?” Tori asked as she pulled out pouches of the rations that everyone had been living on. I hated the rations, but the hunger in my stomach always pushed me to eat them anyway.
I took the ration packs, sorting them by type into our serving bins.
“I’m fine…”
“Are you just saying that?”
“Yes,” I admitted. Tori chuckled and grabbed another handful of rations, kneeling next to me as we both sorted our stacks. I remained quiet before sighing and stopping in my work.
“Mark wouldn’t have killed them if I hadn’t…” I finally hissed, unable to finish the thought.
“Don’t be so sure about that,” Tori said. “Mark has a vengeful streak in him. Anyone who has ever done him wrong has paid for it. And hurting you is something he would deem worthy of revenge.”
“…is Mark dangerous?”
“Extremely,” Tori nodded, turning to me. “But so are you. Look at what you’ve accomplished and you have never pulled the trigger on anyone. People are dangerous. It doesn’t matter who they are.”
I picked up the next ration, resuming my sorting.
“I just wonder if it was avoidable, that’s all…”
“Probably not,” Tori sighed. “We’re at war, now. These things will happen.”
I looked back to the diminishing crates in the supply room.
“We’re running out of food really fast…” I noted, trying to make the comment sound off-handed. Tori sighed dejectedly.
“Some of us have been trying to find a way to get more rations. Several of the experiments only need one meal per day, but the humans are quickly getting hungry, and when they get hungry, tensions rise a little higher.”
“I thought we had a lot of food, though.”
“We did,” Tori agreed. “Some of it had to be disposed of because it was no longer edible. Griff found the schematics of the fort, and the rule they had was to keep supplies enough to last for six months for sixty people. We have twice as many in this fort…” Tori stood, pulling the two bins full of rations off the ground as easily as if they were empty. “We will need to figure something out quickly,” she said. “But we can worry about that another day.”
Members of the rebellion trickled into the main bunker for rations. Tori handed me a serving, reminding me that I was also human and couldn’t survive on one meal a day. I thanked her and took my dinner, walking to Mykail and sitting with him to talk about nothing in particular.
Everyone dispersed to different activities. A large group was playing cards in one corner, cheering when someone lost and another person could jump into the group, the radio drowned out by the excited players. Tori disappeared, as did Griffin, and I was left with Mykail, who was dozing off, staring at the various groups of people as they lounged around the main bunker.
As some people were heading into the bunk rooms in an attempt to get some sleep, I remained wide awake. Mykail had gone to sleep on his side, his head resting on my leg as I played with his hair. The fine strands were tangled, so I slowly worked my fingers through his hair, trying not to wake him.
I looked at his wings, which were still pristine and white, though some sections were dirty from being on the ground when he was resting them. I noticed some darker spots barely hidden by the feathers that covered the scarred area where his skin met the wings.
I moved the feathers gently out of the way and was shocked to see sores along the base of his wings. I was about to wake him up when I remembered Dana coming to our house to give Mykail his shots. The leader of the Commission of the People had told me about Mykail’s body fighting his wings, which could eventually kill him.
I was shocked Mykail did not say anything earlier.
I debated whether or not to bring up the topic with the sleeping experiment. I tried to tell myself that I was overthinking things and that there might have been some light irritation from the dirty conditions of the fort, or that the skin had broken from being dry.
I nervously recalled what Dana had said about caring for the experiments, wondering how many of the experiments were hiding their pain.
There was a clank and then a resonating boom that caused everyone to look at the warped spiral staircase leading into the fort from the power plant above. Everyone in the main bunker silenced. Though only a few people knew where the staircase led, everyone was more anxious about that particular entrance.
When I saw the thin man coming quickly down the stairs, holding a bag at his side, I relaxed.
Josh smiled, seeing me first as he descended the final flight of steel stairs. He was greeted with smiles and waves by everyone in the fort. Everyone loved seeing Josh.
The noise woke Mykail and he sat up, blinking tiredly.
“Where is Peter?” Josh asked, looking for the med-school dropout.
“I’ll get him,” Gracie offered, jumping away from the card games and running into the first bunk room.
“Where have you been?” Mykail asked the Eight Group member. “We were getting worried.”
“Things got busy,” he said with a shrug. Josh held the black bag forward. “Rin finally got some.”
“She did?” Mykail breathed, a relieved smile spreading across his face.
“Some what?” I blinked.
“The shots to help with my wings,” Mykail answered, trying to sound nonchalant. I was about to say something about seeing the sores, but I decided against it. He was trying to keep his pain concealed, and I felt that bringing it up would make him feel worse about his condition.
“Josh?” Peter hissed, blinking the sleep from his eyes as he joined us. “What’s going on?”
“This is for you,” Josh smiled, extending the bag. Peter’s eyes went wide and he smiled, taking the bag.
“Thank you, I was getting worried about Alex and Mykail…” he murmured.
“I told you I was fine,” Mykail said with a chuckle, standing up.
“Well, you are now,” Peter agreed with a grin. “Come on, let’s go to the medical room.”
“I’ll be back in a little bit,” Mykail assured, squeezing my hand again as Peter asked a few other people to gather the experiments that needed medical treatment.
“Josh, Josh,” a teenage boy named Luke, who was the best technician we had in the bunker, called, running to the experiment. “Did you get any more pictures of what happened this afternoon? The news is saying it was a hate crime.”
Josh grinned and pulled out his phone, turning to his photos and showing one to Luke.
“Oh, you are awesome!” Luke beamed, taking the phone. “This is perfect!”
The teen ran off with Josh’s phone and I chuckled. Josh sat down next to me.
“What picture did he see?” I asked as casually as I could.
“The section maps. Marked targets for Sweeps…notes about what to do with the people captured…”
“Wow…” I blinked. “And he’s
going to go spread those online?”
“I hope so,” Josh said. “And then delete them off my phone,” he added with a chuckle. He looked at me for a moment before nudging me. “Are you okay?”
I smiled and turned away, nodding slowly.
“I’m okay…” I murmured. “It was…it was just a lot to process…” Josh reached around my shoulders, pulling me close and looking at me with a light smile.
“I’m sorry if we scared you…”
“I’m alright,” I assured. “Where’s Mark?”
Josh laughed and shook his head, rolling his eyes.
“He’s at the Commission, making sure that everyone thinks someone else did it,” he explained. “Ruining evidence…”
“You two are pretty good at covering your tracks,” I said with a teasing eyebrow. “Like you’ve done this before or something.”
“Three times,” Josh held up three fingers.
“Three?”
“There was another time where Mark killed two people and we had to hide them…” Josh elaborated. “They were about to rape Eun and he stepped in.”
“You two are always saving his sisters…” I tried to tease. Josh smiled. “Do you regret what you did for Mark’s older sister? Since it led to this?”
Josh turned to me and then groaned, his head rolling around on his neck as he withdrew his arm, running a hand through his hair in frustration.
“How can you ask me that?” he groaned, smiling. “Such a difficult question…”
“I mean, I heard that the life you had before was…really bad,” I said as carefully as I could. Josh puffed out his cheeks, trying to think of a way to answer.
“Our families were very strict,” Josh agreed. “We were always watching out for people who were going to hurt us, but we didn’t know who they were…and as kids we were always wondering how our life would be outside…but…we were happy,” he assured with a small smile.
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