DETERRENT - Apply Fic

02

They meet for the first time on the plane, where they are still not allowed to speak to each other. A few of them have been on planes before, commercial airlines which sit no more than sixty people, flying to Hell's Haven, or rarely, Underpass City. This plane is different, a private airline, fit to sit no more than twenty people. In the back row, the two attending officers sit together, scanning the subjects once they are assigned to their seats.

Across from them, the supervisor sits next to Benji. She scrolls through pages of notes. Benji hopes his farmhands have put everything together. They sent someone out a few days ago and their list of required changes was long and their offering of funds was non-existent. Bought a safe for Benji's shotgun and padlocks for everything from the equipment shed beside the barn to the cutlery drawers in his kitchen. Cleaned and repaired two of the empty work quarters and bought sheets for the subjects.

The flight is long. Titus has flown by private jet to Hell's Haven yearly, on vacation after vacation. That trip takes a long time, passing through the dead and poisoned lands between all of the cities in the Adam Collective. This takes even longer. His legs cramp halfway through the flight. When he uses the bathroom, he stretches his legs. The officer knocks on the door and he keeps going for a second longer. Titus wonders what his father would say if he saw him now.

Then he wonders what his father would say about his arrest or any of this at all. The last leg of the flight is plagued with such thoughts.

Six hours pass before they are loaded off the plane.

Rhiannon Rose was put next to Harvey at the front, though she doesn't know his name. She is behind him in line as they are let off the plane. Harvey hisses in the sunlight. The windows in the plane are dark, filtered heavily and only showing the shadows of the grey lands. As she steps into the light, she stops for a second.

It has never felt this bright.

Burning. Fire. Heat. Crackling and smoke.

"Move," an officer says.

She does, stepping forward.

Harvey looks back at her, cowering beneath a hand to protect his eyes. There are maybe three days when you can see the sun every year in Neo Elysian, and it's never like this. Always a hazy outline, barely yellow. It burns.

He stares at Rhiannon Rose as she steps out of the way, glancing at everyone else who steps out. Ace, as he knows him, steps out next and winces as well. So does the next man, and one after the other they all hide from the light. Not the ginger girl who sat beside him for the last six hours and stared at nothing.

"Holy fuck," Eurydice hisses. They sent her out in a fuck-ugly shirt, the green-brown colour of the river in The Sticks and black pants that crinkle with every move. All of them are matching too, and so Eurydice would be reminded of the ugly colours if she weren't blinded. Her arms are exposed and she feels the heat.

"Communication is prohibited," one the guards says.

Eurydice rolls her eyes and then shuts them tightly. They are allowed to talk once the officers leave, so they've been told. Stupid to keep up with their power play now.

"We'll have clothes, hats and sunscreen for y'all at the farm," Benji says. He rubs his eyes once and then is fine. "I'm afraid it's only going to get hotter once we hit July."

The group is led into a van where they are cramped together for another two hours before they are brought to the farm. They roll the windows down due to the heat. Calath sticks their head out of it. The wind rushes through their short curls, and they are suddenly aware of the slick sweat up their back.