The Indelibles (Wattys2015)

Chapter Three: New Friends & Broken Force-Fields

PHOENIX

Fenna leads me to the place I'll be staying until Sunday, the day we officially leave off into the woods to get to the city.

Fenna's job at the compound is behind the scenes stuff, like weapons, the suits that the we, the rebels wear into the city and things of that nature. He is quite talented and smart. After I asked him, it turns out that he hacked the security system in order to watch me for the past few months. He's smart, too smart.

He says that I need to have "the look" I guess he meant I should look intimidating. Fenna, unlike his twin, doesn't look too intimidating, he looks friendly. He's not going to the city with us, he obviously isn't the type for violence, Faye is though, so I'd be seeing him more than Fenna since we have training together.

"Well, here we are," Fenna announces. "Your bedroom that you probably won't be spending much time in." I step inside. There is no windows since we are underground. But the interior takes place of that; an elevated king sized bed sits behind a curved wall matching the other black walls, two doors are on each side of it, the one on the left leads to a closet-that is apparently filled with clothes for my disposal- and the other led to the bathroom. The room is glowy, with white lights coming from the roof. It reminds me of the other rooms in my duplex building.

I feel a slight pang of sadness from the thought. But I quickly push it away since now isn't the time for emotions.

"I'm heading to the cafeteria now, down the hall to your right.See you later Phoenix." He waves goodbye and I do the same.

I quickly locate the shower. The water here is warm, unlike the broken and ragged ones at home. I'm surprised the water didn't turn off or suddenly turn cold in the middle of my shower. When I'm done, I wrap myself in one of the fluffy soft white towels and dig through the closet. After I few minutes I find black stretchy pants, and a brown shirt, I keep on my personal boots and head started towards the cafeteria. I realize as I walk into the room the smell of food reminds me of how hungry I actually am.

I step into the line and everyone's eyes immediately attach to me. The room doesn't drop dead silent, but mouths slightly drop open, weird stares and furrowed brows come my way instead. There are about fifty people in here, all with something unique, like facial piercings, tattoos, or wild hair styles and colors. And here I am, plain. But here, I stick out, due to my basic short hair, ink free arms, and unpierced body.

Eager for the crowd to divert their attention else where, I anxiously grabbed my food and scan the room for a place to sit. I don't see Fenna anywhere. Soon I catch sight of Faye and his equally intimidating friends, I definitely not sitting with them. Something about him, how I can feel his glare from the corner of my eye, his annoyance at my panic attack, it rubs me the wrong way. He has a certain look of hatred for me.

I make it a point to avoid them, even during the journey to the city and stopping the government. They look like they were against me instead of being with me.

And it's not just them. It's everyone except for Fenna. But even he could be lying. I come to another conclusion. Make them like me so that they don't realize that I am, in fact, not apart of their antics they're gonna cause in Torren.

"Hey new friend! follow me!" A cheerful voice says.

I turn around and came face to face with a girl with darker skin than mine, she's a bit shorter with long braids, glasses covering her small eyes. She is gorgeous.

I have no one else to sit with, so I accept the invitation and quietly follow the girl with no name. Instead of going into the huge sea of people for a seat, we make a complete U turn towards the door I recently came from. I almost drop my tray when she makes a sharp right towards a stair case. We shoot up the stairs. Here, we have a view of everyone in the cafeteria through a short glass rail. Balcony like. The unknown girl and I walk to the middle of the room quickly. For her to be so much shorter than me, she moves entirely too fast. Which can be helpful in the lockdown. If someone makes it out alive from this, in my opinion, it will be her.