A Land of Despair

I'll Vouch for Her.

We were lead into one of the office spaces on the second floor, everything looked normal on the inside.
Outside looking in, one could never tell there were people running an organization.

Mark sat down at the head of a large conference table, Gunther sat himself on the other side. The rest of us remained standing.

"Sit down, all of you." Mark said.

We sat down, Hope and I sat down opposite Gunther, Tina placed herself two seats away.

Mark scanned the room silently. His eyes skimmed over the three of us with calculated precision. "Is she part of your team? Back in your town?"

"No," replied Tina with a board tone "we just go to school together and she seems to enjoy spying on us"

"I wasn't spying on anyone." Hope mumbled, not even bothering to look up, her lips in a pout.

"Then explain yourself." Mark probbed, as calm as he had been since we met.

"I... I was at the shopping center buying a few things, and I couldn't remember how to get back to the sports dome, so I sat outside. Then I saw you guys walking out I decided to follow you hoping you would lead me back."

"But then why did you continue to follow us after you realized we weren't going to right way?" It was me asking this time, hoping for an insight as to what ran through her head.

"It was too late by then. We were already far off." She replied.

"Your team lead trusts you a great deal," Mark was addressing Tina and I now, "I don't doubt your loyalty, but I can't say the same about her. If she opens her mouth about us, it's over. All our work will be for nothing and we will lose it all."

By now we all knew she knew who we were. She knew that we were part of the rebel alliance. She knew  we were skipping school every weekend to plot the downfall of the controllers in our midst.

"No one knows she was here, and no one saw them with her. We can deal with this as quickly as possible." Gunther snapped, we all knew what he meant by that.

"I'll vouch for her, I'll take responsibility for anything that concerns her!"

Everyone's eyes were on me. If I was to be honest, I was just as surprised as they were that I had said such a thing.

"What!" Tina screeched, "are you serious Adam? Why? We can just leave her and go. She's going to ruin everything we have worked so hard for."

"We can't just leave her."

"I can't just let you leave because you say that." Mark exclaimed. "There is too much at risk."

Tina stood up, gave me an exasperated look, sat back down and looked away.

"Mark, did you make the arrangements for ..."
A woman with in lab coat came into the room, she trailed off when her eyes landed on Hope and I, her face morphed from surprise to panic.
"Can I talk to you for a moment Mark?"

"I'm in the middle of something here."

"It's important!" She insisted.

They both walked out of the room, leaving us in silence.

"Adam." Hope whispered.

"Hmm"

Before she could say anything, Mark came back and made a shocking announcement.
"The three of you are free to leave."

"Come on man!" Gunther was practically foaming at the mouth.
Mark gave him a look and he kept silent.

"You may go.  Adam, I'm counting on you to keep the situation under control." He turned to leave signaling Gunther to follow him out.

The three of us, alone in that room where frozen. Was this a trap?
The girls looked to me for guidance, I felt lost under the pressure of there unwavering stares, but I knew I had to make a move.

"Let's go." I stated.

"Is it safe?" Hope asked. I gave her a shrug and walked to the door, they followed suit.

In the hallway, everyone was going about their business normally.

We walked out of the building on high alert, we kept going, watching for anything.

As soon as we entered the sports dome, we could finally breathe with ease.

I was in my assigned room, packing up because we were heading back to school the next day. I had instructed the girls to do the same, none of them had spoken since we left Mark and his friends,I was relieved about it.
There was no way we would have had a conversation with our emotions being how they were at the moment.

"Hey Hope, do you want to sit together on the bus ride to school?"

"No, thanks Adam. I'm okay." With a reassuring nod, she walked into the hover bus and took a seat by herself.

I approached her because I had wanted to talk to her about the situation from yesterday. I didn't want her going around with the wrong idea...

Rather, I didn't want her going around telling people what she had seen or heard.
It was clear though, that she was going to make things difficult.

I ran my hand through my hair. What was going to happen now.

Tina gave me a look as she entered the bus, she wasn't happy and she was making it known. I was going to get an earful once we could talk. She was always one to speak her thoughts.
One to have her voice heard, even when it was of no use.

This situation was getting increasingly stressful.

I decided I would leave them both alone until I found a way to get them on the same side, because Tina didn't like Hope and Hope wouldn't be where she wasn't wanted, but we needed Hope not to talk.