Trinisent

Together

I watch the hoverail speed towards distant lights, leaving us in the silence. I pace up and down the aisle, trying to get my mind off what's been on my mind ever since I gained consciousness.

We left Jeremiah behind.

Chills run down my spine as my thoughts turn to what Judith's probably doing to him. I can still hear his screams in my head, begging Lynn to wake up.

I see another hoverail arrive at Station 3, and for a second I find myself considering going back to try and save him. I feel a hand on my shoulder.

As if hearing my thoughts Chiro looks at me."We can't Ro. It's too late."He whispers quietly, squeezing my shoulder.

I look up at him and give him a blank look. I don't even try to smile, he'll know I don't mean it. I know what he's saying is true, but I still haven't made peace with the fact.

He looks like shit. We all do, with torn pieces of cloth we found near the station tied around our wounds as makeshift bandages and dry blood and grime caked on our bodies.

I regained consciousness only after we'd left THEM's compound. We're all so tired and everything happened in such a hurry that I don't remember the exact details of how we managed to get out. All I remember is following Q, catching the nearest Hoverail, heedless to where it was headed, our only objective to leave Xyre behind. And from there we hitchhiked from place to place, stopping only to quench our thirst,ending up as far from Xyre we could get in one night.

"That should be ours." Q says taking a step forward, but immediately winces. He's been hit in his left shin, and the cloth is now soaked with blood. We're all injured and tired, but Q's somehow managed to think clearly, and take responsibility.

I look up at the station clock, it's 8:04 am and the station is starting to get busy. The sun had risen an hour or two ago and under different circumstances I would've been fascinated by the Hoverail tubes running overhead.

Niklaus is the least injured, and most normal looking person, so he steps into the tube first asking for tickets, while we all try to keep our heads down, and avoid any attention as people move in and start to fill in the seats. We're lucky that Q carried some credit on him from wherever he came from, or we would've still been stuck in Xyre.

I take a seat near the window, Jenna sits next to me, and almost immediately the Hoverail starts. I lean towards the glass, pressing my cheek against it.

From what little I've seen outside Xyre, things are so different. People are more mechanical, but so much more, free? Everything is not monitored like the way it was in Xyre, and I've seen plenty of people above the age of thirty, Q wasn't lying.

It's pretty overwhelming really. In Xyre, public activities had to be approved by THEM before taking place and people were expected to eat in their homes, or in the public mess, where silence was expected to be maintained. And now I see that here are people dancing, singing , eating in different places , all out in the open.

I sit straight as my breath starts to fog the glass and look away. I notice that the hoverail is slowing down and look at Q as he indicates for us to move out.

We get off at Station 7 located near Purnum, I notice that the station clock states the time as 10:00 am. Q navigates us through the bright streets filled with people starting a brand new day.

We finally spot a low-key hotel to rest in, and check in immediately. We have just enough money to last us two days until we reach our final destination which Q hasn't told us about yet. Not caring about food, I walk into our first room and collapse on the bed. And for the first time in a long time, I dream of absolutely nothing.

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I wake up to the curtains drawn across the windows and the smell of food. I turn to see Neeta sleeping beside me while Niklaus is lying on the couch. Someone's removed my sneakers , I find them placed next to a set of clean clothes in the bathroom.

Feeling too hungry to have a bath yet, I walk into the next room. There's a bag of fries, hot dogs and donuts on the table. I grab a donut and the bag of fries and flop onto the couch, stuffing myself. Po and Chiro are sleeping on the bed, and I hear the sound of pouring water from the bathroom. Must be Q or Tyler.

A glimpse out of the window shows a dark city, pinpricks of lights on the horizon.

Jenna peeks into the room, and once she sees me, she walks over and sits beside me. We silently share the bag of fries while we stare out of the window.

"Q's gone to get some more food." She says, breaking the silence.

"Hmm, we'll need it" I say through a stuffed mouth.

"Life would have been better here than in Xyre. I mean look at it this way, they're as unaware of THEM as we were. The only difference is that things are so much more, brighter here. If you get what I'm saying."She sighs.

I hold her hand and for a moment she smiles at me. But as soon as she realizes that I'm still dirty, she moves away.

"You still didn't have a shower!" She squeals "Don't touch me!"

I break into a grin, moving in to embrace her.

"Get away from me!" She silently screams getting off the couch.

"Guys, can you just I don't know, SHUT UP!" Po groans, making a weak attempt to throw a pillow at us.

I walk into the other bathroom to have a shower. I rub my skin sore, trying to wash off the grime and blood caked on me under the burning hot water

I think about what Jenna said, as I start to wash my hair. She's right, things are much happier here, but people are still as oblivious as the people of Xyre, to what THEM can do. If they knew what THEM was capable of doing, what THEIR governments were blindly supporting, they wouldn't be okay with this.

And with the disease going around, it won't be long till the entire realm is dependent on THEM. People need to know.

We need to tell them.

By ourselves we won't be able to take a stand against THEM. But together? We might.
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