The Arena - The Moon Trilogy - Book #2

Chapter twenty-two:

Everyone rushed to meet her as soon as she came in. They looked relieved.

"We all thought for sure you were going to lose. We were so glad to see you win!" Clara said, seeming the happiest of them all. Everyone agreed with what she said.

Clarity felt momentarily stung that Clara hadn't expected her to win, but she knew that she meant nothing by it, so she let it go. She hadn't even been expecting to win, herself. She had no right to blame them.

As soon as she was able to calm them down enough, Clarity related the whole story. About 77432 and the fact that the fight had been staged. The others were just as surprised as she had been at the offer of help.

"So she's the one that helped us at the Organization headquarters?" Rachel asked after Clarity finished telling the whole story.

"I think so." Clarity replied, pondering over the strangeness of her name—or number, rather. 77432.

"How are we supposed to talk to her about this? We don't exactly have much freedom around here." Sam said. He had a good point. How was 77432 supposed to help them if she couldn't even communicate with them?

Her train of thought was halted when the sound of murmuring voices drifted in the cell from the hallway beyond. All five of them turned their attention to the doorway to watch for the group that they knew was approaching.

A few moments later, August, Eric, and 77432 came into view. They stopped in front of the door. August and Eric were expected, but the golden-haired woman couldn't have come as more of a shock.

"Congratulations," Eric said. "Once again, I'm surprised you won. I trained 77432 myself."

Clarity had suspected they shared some sort of history. She wished she could read their minds to find out exactly what had happened.

"Why are you here? To gloat over your success?" Rachel asked dryly.

"No. I'm not the gloating type," Eric said. His singular good eye showed anger, but his face was passive. "I'm here because 77432 had requested to be put in your cell with you." His voice dripped with contempt when he said "you".

"But if she's a prisoner too, why would you listen to her requests?" Clara asked.

"We used to be close. Obviously we aren't anymore." He shot a glare at the woman. "But we were," Eric stated coldly.

Once again, Clarity wondered what sort of past Eric and 77432 shared. She doubted they could have been lovers, but it was one of the first possibilities to cross her mind.

August opened the door and 77432 entered. She was wearing a collar very similar to the white ones that their own group had. However, hers was black.

She winked at Clarity as she passed on her way to sit down on one of the long benches that lined the walls. Clarity would have returned the wink, but she knew that Eric might see.

Without another word, the door to the cell was slammed shut, and the two standing on the other side walked away. 77432 sat.

The sound of murmuring voices once again reached their ears, this time moving away from the cell. Clarity had assumed that August couldn't talk in his current condition, but apparently that wasn't the case.

Everyone turned to look at 77432 as soon as the voices faded away.

"So, what's your master plan?" Sam, probably physically unable to be any more sarcastic.

"I sense hostility." 77432 said, her eyes focused straight ahead. Her voice was dead—completely devoid of emotions.

"Don't mind him. He's always like that." Clara said, taking a seat right next to 77432. "But we would like to know what the escape plan is."

"You are aware that we are underwater?" 77432 asked, her eyes still staring straight ahead.

"We had a suspicion," Alex stated. He was just as bad as Sam. His voice dripped with sarcasm.

"There are a few other people here that I have contacted. They have agreed to help, but it will be hard. Our captors have superior technology, as well as more manpower." 77432 said. She had to have been close to Eric for a long time. Their accents were identical.

"Tell us something we don't know." Rachel joined the sarcasm club.

"If we can find a way to rupture the outer shell of the underwater base, the whole building will flood. If we are able to remove the collars from Clarity and myself, we can teleport everyone out of here before the entire place literally is Atlantis." 77432 said, finally breaking her stare to look around the group at random, her eyes stopping for a moment before moving on. Clarity felt a shiver when her eyes met the golden ones across the room.

"That's quite a few 'ifs'." Sam stated, narrowing his eyes.

"Nothing is impossible if you try hard enough." 77432 returned simply. Another "if."

"Yeah, but are we willing to try hard enough?" Alex asked. "Sometimes, trying too hard can just make everything worse."

Clarity tried not to think of the 'worse' their situation could get. It was already pretty crummy.

"And besides, even if you try hard enough, everything's impossible if the other side has August." Rachel assessed, giving voice to the damning piece of information that had been haunting Clarity.

"August will not be a problem when the time comes." 77432 said in a low tone.

There were only a handful of meanings for what 77432 had said, all of them bad. Clarity refused to let herself imagine them in too much detail.