Blank Slates

Chapter 15

 Kairo, sitting on the edge of his bottom bunk, roughly tugged on his beat up boots and tied the fraying laces as tightly as he could. It was his team's turn to go scavenging again, and he always hated those days. They never really found anything interesting nor did anything exciting, and he was always aching for some kind of action. Though he would never openly admit it to anyone, he'd sometimes purposely be careless or step out of line just to see what would happen. Nothing to serious came out of those tests, which only encouraged him to try more and more reckless things. Calix had always tried to keep him in check, but sometimes, he too would purposely let his guard down.

Across from Kairo on the top of the other bunk bed sat Slade, a lanky teenage boy with black hair that was long in the front, curious almond-shaped brown eyes, and skin so fair it was as if he'd never seen the sun in his life. Kairo never liked hanging around him that much as he found the younger boy to be slightly immature, but Slade stuck to him anyway, forcing Kairo to begrudgingly assume an older brother role. Together, the two boys along with Calix shared a room. They used to have a fourth roommate, Tycho, but he had transferred out to be with his friends. Aside from the two bunk bed sets, most of the free space in their room was cluttered with all their belongings strewn about messily. They had a single desk, but three different chairs lying all around. A few shelves lined the walls, storing mainly Slade's knickknack collection, consisting of things from old snow globes to bullet casings. A small bathroom was attached to their quarters, and it was always a pain to have to wait for each other to finish.

A loud sound in the doorway caused Kairo and Slade to look up quickly. Their eyes fell on Calix who had decided it was a good idea to kick open the door obnoxiously to announce his arrival. Kairo laughed to himself. Behind them, two girls calmly approached, Akilah and Yves. Akilah was a tall and stocky girl with black brown hair styled as a pixie cut and deep set blue eyes. Her entire left arm was heavily tattooed, and she had even done most of it herself. She smiled broadly, showing off her slightly crooked teeth. Akilah wasn't the most easy on the eyes, but Kairo respected her greatly as the leader of his team. Yves was much smaller with a slender curvy figure and a small waist. Her straight brown hair hung delicately around her ears, coming to rest at the top of her shoulders. Green eyes stood out against her fair skin and freckles spotted her round cheeks and button nose. She offered Kairo a soft smile, and he nodded simply in return.

"Ready to go?" Calix asked, leaning against the doorframe.

Kairo nodded, standing up, sliding his pistol into its holster, and shouldering his carbine rifle. "Yup. Did you give the Blanks their food today?"

"Yessir," Calix returned, giving Kairo a thumbs up. "Blondie wouldn't take it as usual and Brownie just accepted it and thanked me."

"Did she say anything else?"

He shrugged. "Just asked what happened to you and why you weren't coming anymore. And to that I told her that she roasted you so badly the other day that you needed to take some time off to recover."

"What?!" Kairo asked incredulously, glaring. "She didn't roast me in the slightest."

"But she did match wits with you," Akilah cut in, laughing.

Calix hooted. "She looked utterly confused when I said that to her though, so don't think your ego's gonna be hurt now."

Kairo sighed, shaking his head but grinning. "Aye, whatever. Let's just go."

The five of them headed down the hall, passing by all the other Insurgent quarters and heading to the upper levels of their base. Slade and Yves opted to take the lift while Akilah, Calix, and Kairo attempted to beat them by running up the stairs, not caring about the people they nearly bowled over on their way up. They regrouped at the room closest to the top which resembled an old basement, including old furniture like desks and dressers scattered about. The walls were made of drab grey stone and had a few random landscape paintings hung up. When the base had first been constructed, the room had been soundproofed to help mask the noise below. Taking care to conceal all the doors and panels, they all gathered at the ladder leading to the top hatch. Calix climbed up first and unlocked the door, pushing it open and hoisting himself out. On the top level, above all the complex structures of their base, existed an old and rickety cottage, long abandoned by its owners. Kairo figured that it had possibly existed many years before Sarin's regime had risen up. The fireplace was nice looking, but could never be used, and the front porch had a family of rats living under it. Once they were all out, they shut the hatch and replaced the floor panels in the correct position. It was early in the morning and the first rays of sunlight were peaking through the cloudy windows.