True North Rising || Ongoing ||

Chapter Five

Katlyn debates heavily the next day about going to the meeting but she's concerned: if she goes will they let her go? Will they kill her for knowing the location of an NVR Safehouse? Will they take her hostage and used as a bargaining chip? All these questions run wild through her mind as she throws her legs over her bed and goes to take a shower. After her shower she texts Clara to meet her at the Cafe, she agrees to the meeting with much hesitation knowing she would just go in circles thinking about it anymore. She leaves the house thinking one thing, I hope I don't live to regret this if things go wrong.

The three of them meet at the Cafe and walk down deeper into the city into the less desirable parts of the city with run down and boarded up shops, metal bars on the windows, tagging and trash everywhere. Katlyn isn't usually phased by much but this area of the city doesn't make her feel very at ease but Clara and Adam seem right at home here, people even looking at them out of equal fear and respect. They walk down an alley between two closed off buildings littered with trash, and NVR tags spray painted on the walls alongside various other rebellious symbols. They enter through the back of an abandoned apartment building and make their way up several floors before stopping outside one of the apartments with NVR sprayed black inside of a red circle on the door.

They enter and the apartment is empty aside from pieces of furniture that clearly wasn't here before: plastic chairs, wooden makeshift table, cooking station with a portable gas stove, canned food, and water. The smell isn't the greatest but that's expected given the state of the building. At the table are three NVR members with their weapons close by. One with a shogun, another with an AK and a pistol strapped to her hip, and the third has a pistol. Clara and Adam lead Katlyn towards the back room where two more NVR Fighters are standing both armed with hunting rifles. Katlyn makes a mental note of the mixed weapons the fighters are using, seeing that they clearly don't have access to better weapons given they have only one high powered rifle present, or maybe it's intentional. They enter the room and the same woman from the bombing is sitting on a worn down bed with her arm being propped up by her knee, her face is serious but not aggressively so.

She looks almost surprised that Clara managed to convince Katlyn to go along with the meeting, commenting that she did good work on getting her there. Katlyn is nervous but puts on her best poker face to hide the fact her heart is about to burst out of her chest and run out the door. The woman stands up, looking Katlyn up and down taking her in as if she's inspecting her. She locks eyes with Katlyn and grins slightly,

"She looks like a soldier. Almost convinced me she's not scared shitless. Almost." The woman sits back on the bed, and gestures for Katlyn to sit on the chair across from her, Katlyn sits and the two just stare at each other for a moment.

"I'm Serena, the Second for the NVR. Your friend has told me a lot about you." Serena says with a relaxed tone, Katlyn looks confused for a moment.

"Second? Clare told me you were the Boss."

"I am, I'm her Boss. You don't get to meet our Commander until I decide if you're trustworthy, or a threat to our cause." Serena explains with a bit firmer tone.

Katlyn stays silent for a moment while carefully choosing her next words wisely.

"So what? Is there some kind of test you're gonna give me?" Katlyn asks very sarcastically, Serena chuckles at her.

"You think this is a game? We're fighting for something, Katlyn. We're fighting for you."

Katlyn scoffs, smiling in a sarcastic manner,

"Fighting for me? You nearly killed my best friend, and got me detained for being an Insurgent. If that whole, fighting for you, line is the best you got you'll have to do better than that."