The Underbelly (First Draft)

Going With The Flow

I was not aware of what was going on around me. Thoughts kept jumping in and out of me, almost as if my life was giving me vertigo. My mind was spinning and twisting, hurling out of control like a roller-coaster ride that has just been derailed.

I could feel the memories of my past coming up to me, my mother combing my hair and me feeling very safe in her embrace, my father was no longer the big bad man of my nightmares in my mind when I thought of him. He was the man who took me in when I had nowhere to go, he was the man who gave up everything so that I could have a chance to live a normal life with my mother and even when that was taken away from me, instead of ignoring the problem he gave me the training and tools to fight back.

A sob hitched out of my throat, he died so that we could get away. I felt something begin to shift inside of me, my father died so that we could live. Dad knows now that we can never live a normal life, he wouldn't have sacrificed himself just for us to get away, he would have only sacrificed himself if he knew that we stood a chance in taking on the Surface.

And we will.

I opened my eyes for the first time in forever and I felt like I had just breached the surface of a lake I was drowning in and I was gulping the air graciously and gratefully. I could see Chaz looking at me with sad eyes and there was also a hint of that fear that I saw before the battle of the Underbelly except this time it was directed at me. And I felt ashamed for that.

I smiled and felt my skin on my face crinkle as the stains of the tears broke and splintered apart. "What's going on?" Chaz was watching me carefully, almost like he was expecting me to flee at a moment's notice. He seemed satisfied and he relied carefully, "we're nearly at the safe house, the rest of them are waiting for us there."

He paused for a moment and I grunted in annoyance, "just spit it out, I really don't want to be beating around the bush right now." Chaz nodded slowly, "ok then, well a new Underworld boss is going to be chosen." I cocked my head to the side, "Underworld? Don't you mean Underbelly?" Chaz shook his head, "when your father rose to power, people were terrified of his gifts and so in order to appease the people he made up a new position that he would occupy, the ruler of the Underworld as opposed to the Underbelly. It made people feel like they had more of a say if normal people ran the Underbelly when in reality your father was the ruler of the Underbelly."

He shrugged his shoulders, "it was more of a reactive to the political climate of the time but now it might actually be an issue, only a gifted person can be the ruler of the Underworld but since that person is the actual ruler of the Underbelly, the various Underbelly councils will be vehemently opposed to anyone taking that post."

I finally got it. If the ruler of the Underworld had to be gifted, then realistically it had to be one of the academy students. That was why the council was against it, most of us were too young and those of us that were old enough, they didn't trust enough to control.

Bloody politics.

I felt my gift begin to writhe in agitation and Cha must have sensed something because he was now looking at me in apprehension, "whoa, let's remember who the real enemy is Rissa." His stupid nickname irked me enough that it snapped me out of my dark mood.

"Don't call me that! You know I don't like it." My voice was half distracted as my brain raced ahead into the future, plans began to snap together and potential obstacles were studied and potential solutions presented themselves.

Chaz coughed, "did you hear me?" I gave him my full attention, "no sorry I was thinking, what did you say?" Chaz schooched closer to me and lurched forward when the escape pod swerved sharply, he laughed and with that sound the last of my murderous mood evaporated, "listen Chaz." My serious tone snapped his attention to me. My voice was clear and strong, everything that I really did not feel right now, "my father believed with all of his fibre that the Surface oppresses people and that they need to be removed in order for people to experience true liberty."

I turned away for a moment to catch my breath and I turned back to him to race over the finish line, "I honestly did not believe him, I thought that he was delusional. I thought that the Surface was corrupt and evil but not oppressive. I thought, naively, that if I was away from them that they would leave me alone. But they are not content with destroying their home, they want to spread their evil." I paused to catch my breath, as I neared the end of my speech, "I knew it in the moment they blew up the blast doors."

Chaz was following me with rapt attention but at that he frowned quizzically, "what do you mean? I don't get it." I regarded him sadly, "I explicitly remember my father saying that nothing short of a nuclear bomb would be able to blow apart the door, then I thought about it. The doors were blown outwards."

Horrified comprehension dawned on Chaz's face, "you mean?" I nodded woodenly, "they were blown open from the inside and since there were no soldiers from their side even down from the roof, apart from the soldiers my group and I were fighting, that means that someone must have planted the bomb there before the battle."

"It means that we have traitors in our midst and I will not rest until they are dead."

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