The Untouchables

Chapter Twenty-eight: Lynn

"Well, this is a very nice change in scenery." I told Atlas.

"I don't know if you are aware, but this is a prison cell." Atlas stated, confused on how I found my cell a 'nice change' in scenery.

"I was being sarcastic." I informed him.

"Me too."

"Fantastic."

The cozy cell they'd shoved me into would've been very pleasant, since it's in the Monarch's Sector and everything is dazzling here, but the damp, wet stones around me reeked a musty odor. A strange, smelly fungus was growing off of the ceiling and dripping a slimy liquid creating green puddles on the floor. Even the tiny, thin cot they'd thrown in here couldn't escape the fungus' liquidy substance, absorbing any part of the slime that came near it like a disgusting, cotton sponge.

But the best part of the cell was in the corner of the cell.

A pile of severed stray limbs and body parts were gathered into a larger pile in the corner than I would have expected, only adding to the stench of rotting flesh and fungus. I greatly resisted the urge to vomit by not breathing too deeply, and not looking directly at the fungus juice.

"Charming."

Atlas chuckled a little at my remark about my current living situation. "Well, prison isn't supposed to be comfortable." He said, "Plus, you signed up for this."

I looked at him incredulously. "How did I sign up for this?" I gestured to the dark, dank, disgusting cell I was in.

"You signed up for this when you decided to plot a jailbreak in a laboratory." He told me evenly. "When you defied the will of the President. When you became a rebel."

"Seriously?" I raised an eyebrow. "It's such a crime to rescue children being used as experiments, and save them from their inevitable deaths by the hands of the Monarch?" I asked in a fiery tone.

Somehow, I knew I could talk to him in whatever tone I chose. I wasn't as scared as I was yesterday to be face to face with a Ranger with a massive, lethal weapon. Maybe it was because I knew him already? Maybe it was because he hesitated when ordered to kill me.

I didn't really know.

"Well, no. I actually admire your boldness to change what you see is wrong with our society." He told me. "However, it is most certainly illegal to badmouth our President, kill countless amounts of Rangers, evade arrest, escaping your assigned Sector, harboring another fugitive, evading house arrest, and possessing illegal weaponry."

"You allowed scientists to kidnap and experiment on helpless children!" I shouted at him.

"Hey!" Another Ranger shouted from a ways down the corridor. "You alright down there, Harshit?"

Ho-ly god.

I coughed a little in a desperate attempt to cover up my laugh. It ended up sounding like I choked a little on my saliva, which I did.

Mr. Atlas-I'm-A-Big-Strong-Ranger's last name was Harshit?

"I'm fine." Atlas gritted through his teeth. "Thanks anyways, Adkins."

Atlas looked back towards me, and noticed the laugh I was trying to suppress.

"Shut up."

"I didn't say anything." I grinned, trying not to snap back into laughter.

"Whatever." He rolled his eyes. "What were you saying? Trying to convince me that everything you've done hasn't been illegal?"

"I'm telling you that you can't take innocent children away from their families to experiment on them." I told him again.