The Fox and The Forest (EDITING)

Pollute the mind(1.6)

  ☁  ☁  ☁

Jasmine.

With the mention of that name, Kate was reminded of her old friend's warmth and kindness. But moreso of her absence. She hadn't quite felt it before but now that they had found Flynn, Jasmine's absence was achingly clear. It left a hole inside the group of three, like an oil rig on a scarred landscape. 

At that very moment, Jasmine was both haziness and clarity all at once. 

Kate didn't reply to Flynn's question, deciding instead to talk to someone ahead of her, to find out exactly where the group of Purifier trainees were heading. She would try to distract herself with revenge.

Some refused straight away to talk with Kate. Others would begin a conversation but timidly stopped replying as soon as she mentioned the lakes. They weren't prohibited to talk of water, but, more often than not, it was too risky to engage in conversation about it. Fearing they would slip up and mention plants or animals, most preferred to ignore the subject all together.

It was a gloomy state of preferred ignorance for most of the people in the Lake District. And it had remained that way for years. The children were the only ones you had to watch out for. They were the ones who were most likely to possess such recklessness optimism.

"Jasmine wasn't with us. When we escaped," Tom explained to Flynn, drawing a veil over his own sadness.

"Oh crap," Flynn remarked. The way the swear word emerged from his throat confidently, and swam in the air under his oxygen mask, conveyed how he wore his age well. "Jasmine could be anywhere. She could even be-"

"Don't," Kate snapped, knowing precisely what Flynn was alluding to. She stubbornly refused to be told about the present danger Jasmine could be in. For when something was spoken it wasn't just a possibility anymore- it was much more real.

Kate turned back to the one of the only people who she had managed to convince to talk with her. She made sure to shake off any anxiety, so that she could focus on the task at hand.

*

"Pardon me," Kate tapped a rather tall looking woman on the back. "Sorry to bother you again. I was just wondering if you know whereabouts we're heading to?" Kate inquired, after shoving past a few young grumbling Purifier trainees, so that she was nearer to the edge of the group.

"I do," the woman admitted, looking Kate up and down. "and I should tell you because?" She crossed her arms, continuing to observe the girl with a scrutinized gaze, from under her lengthy black fringe. Her bangs nearly completely covered her left eye, making the glasses that clipped onto her oxygen mask look rather peculiar indeed.

"Well see, I'm new here..." Kate began, formulating a pitiful story. "And I'm awfully scared Miss," she said in a tender wavering voice. "I don't know anyone. I don't know what a Purifier is. I don't know where I am. I just don't know what to do," she squeezed her eyes closed, forcing tears of seeming desperation to trickle down her face. 

"Oh no, don't cry." Her previous judgmental disposition faded under the pressure.  

Ha, you watch me Kate thought smugly. 

Kate's forged sniffles erupted into wails and she buried her head in her hands. The guards on the outer perimeter of the group had noticed the disruption. Having noticed their approach, the lady became more desperate. "No. Please just shh," she said. "You're making a scene." 

"Cleo! What have you done now?" whispered a woman with a face as plump as an unmodified berry, who walked closely adjacent to Cleo. When Kate brought her head out of her hands she noticed that two of them were older than most of the other trainees. They must've been in their early twenties.