Cairo

Chapter 36: Prelude

Wind mixed with sand whipped through the air as the cruiser sped down the road. Coaltrice had a vice grip on the handle as she glared through the windshield. One could only guess what kinds of thoughts were racing through her mind. Probably faster than the car, if that was even possible.

Cairo leaned back into his seat, turning his head to look out the window next to him. The wind slashed through the open window, causing his hair to fly all around him. After a few seconds, he sighed, rolling up the window. From the mirror, Cairo could see Coaltrice looking up at him. When their gazes locked, she lowered her eyes into a glare.

"It's hot enough in his horrid heat," Coaltrice snapped. "Roll the damn thing back up before we all fry."

"I'll roll it up when you tell me what this 'extreme emergency' is. Besides the fucking car has air conditioning. Just turn the A/C on; it's not like it'll cost you anything since you're already paying for it."

"I'm paying for how much I use it. I'd rather not use it if I don't have to. That's just wasted money."

"Yeah." Cairo rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he turned his head back to the window next to him. "Not like you're rich and have enough money to do that. Oh right, it's not only your moral standards that are cheap."

Coaltrice gripped the steering wheel harder until her knuckles were white. "If this is about Aiden—"

"It has nothing to do about Aiden," Cairo barked. "Why does everything in the world have to revolve around him? What—if it involves you, it automatically has to involve him now? I didn't know you two were attached at the hip. Tell, when you'd go for surgery?"

"Why don't you stop sassing me and grow the fuck up?"

"Same to you, Xiucolat. Maybe if you stopped being a shameless whore and actually did something, we wouldn't be in the middle of a rebellion."

The tires grinded hard against the ground. Cairo pushed his body as far back against the seat as he could, reaching to hold on to whatever was readily available. A screech from metal grinding against metal shook the air around Cairo, and he flinched at the sound. He closed his eyes as he felt the car start spinning.

.

"Get out."

Coaltrice's voice lingered in the air for a moment, hanging like a dead body in the proceeding silence. Cairo opened one of his eyes, then both as he looked around the empty car. He cleared his throat, unbuckling his seatbelt, and jumping out of the car.

When the door slammed, Aerie walked over to Cairo's side. He leaned against the cruiser. Despite the metal being hot, Cairo was already used to the scalding feeling.

"The HQ?" Cairo said, glancing down the road in front of him. "Mind telling me what we're doing here, or are you still not answering any of my questions?"

"I don't know." Coaltrice pulled out a pair of sunglasses, pushing them up her nose. "Are you done sassing me?"

"Real funny, Xiucolat, because from where I stand, you're the one doing the sassing here, not me."

Cairo couldn't see where Coaltrice was looking through her sunglass, but he had a good feeling that she was looking at him despite her head being turned away. She put her hand on her hip, lifting her head up to the sky. Her voice was quiet, almost as if she was whispering, an eerie type of calm. As it progressed, through, Cairo could hear the panic built in. He kept his eyes on her, his shoulders pulled forward as he strained to listen.

"There's an emergency," Coaltrice said. "Or maybe the end... I don't know. A couple hours ago a spy we sent into the rebel camp came back with important information that the rebels were making their move against us anytime now. I'd like to say we stand a chance, but realistically speaking... We have no teamwork, our soldiers are scrambled and ill prepared to fight any kind of serious battle, and to top that all of, with the assassinations that just happened, it cut a large chunk of our power. Even if on the slight chance that we won, what price would we have to pay for that? And remember that friend of yours? Well, he's siding with the rebels, and—"