Civil

I couldn't see my own hands in front of me, they were talking in complete darkness, loud enough that it woke me up, but quiet enough that V wouldn't hear. I could tell they were trying their best to keep their voices down, but the tension between Com and Tum was intolerable. Nobody did anything wrong, they just had different perspectives on the situation.

I didn't dare turn on the lights so I quietly approached them hoping that they wouldn't draw their weapons.

"Mom?" I asked. I could tell that all their heads turned. It was best to leave, but I wanted to stop the conversation before I heard more of something bad that might end up happening. "Is something wrong?" I asked. I heard a shuffle and her footsteps coming towards me. She guided me to a place where the moonlight shone through the small window near the washroom. But it wasn't her, it was a man, maybe a man from my father's work.

"Your parents are busy, they told me to put you to bed." Fear rushed through my body wondering what he meant by "put you to bed". I backed out of the light. It was the tone he said it in that made me anxious.

"I-I'm good" I stuttered. He chuckled and walked closer to me.

"I meant like go to bed so you can have a good sleep for work in the morning," he said, like he read my mind.

I felt foolish, but at the same time, he looked pretty scary with tattoos covering his entire arms. What did he mean by work? He obviously knew more than me. Was there something that my parents wanted to keep from me?

He walked me to my room where the hologram of Com was the only thing shining, but it wasn't light enough for me to see.

"Thanks-"

"Dene, I'm Dene"

"Thanks, Dene." I said. He stood in my doorway as I lifted up my weighted blanket and snuggled underneath. He walked away slowly.

I lay down on my side wondering what they were talking about. For a fourteen-year-old, I sure thought a lot about things that didn't concern me.

The sounds of them talking were faint but I heard them all stand up and leave.

In the morning I woke up with messy hair and my pillows all on the ground.

In Fort Hosierre the sun rarely shone due to the pollution. I got up and didn't hear a sound. With the press of a button, the windows were covered in wall and sat down to reset the date on my alarm clock.

I got used to the dark after V set out rules for us to follow and my parents ripped up my birth certificate so V couldn't trace me. So I never went to school and I never met anyone other than my parents, their work friends, and my only two friends Hayden and Scarlet. My parents usually had meetings, but never like the one that I saw the night before. Usually, they have the lights on and talk normally. This time I could tell that they were hiding something.

I walked upstairs and saw them whispering to each other, but I didn't have time to hide and listen, they caught me standing there.

"Morning," they acknowledged. I looked for some bread to toast with my new laser, but they had already made some scrambled eggs for me.

"Hey," I said, "can I go over to Hayden's?" They looked at each other and then looked at me with sympathy, so I knew something was wrong.

"Well-" My dad started talking until my mother butted in. "I'm sorry but it's best if you stay inside, V is going to attack soon, we're not sure when, but it's best for you to stay home while we organize a safe haven." I predicted something was wrong and I was right.

I had no way of contacting either of them because V took away almost everything we could use to do so, including phones, computers, tablets, interactive holograms and even televisions.