Numbered

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Kylie struggled to keep her eyes open. She’d been waiting with another Zero in a hiding spot in the mountains. Nick had put her on watch to see if there were any guards. He’d told her that their activities would be relatively small scale for a few months until the group gained strength. Tonight they were vandalising the government buildings. Kylie was facing the back of one of the city offices they were targeting. Jared was part of the team spray-painting the walls. Kylie was nervous. If any of them got caught, they’d all be imprisoned or worse. Earlier in the week, a man in another anti-government group had been found out and he was publicly executed in the city square with hundreds being forced to watch as an example of what happened if you defied the government.

“It’s quiet tonight, huh?” Her watching partner, Nico, asked. He’d barely spoken the whole night; he was that serious about scanning for guards. Kylie turned to him, the reflection of the city lights in her eyes. Nico certainly looked formidable. He was a tall guy with a shaven head, piercing eyes and a long scar running down the side of his face.

“Yeah, I’m just hoping it’s not some trap,” she muttered.

“Nah, I doubt it. We would’ve heard from our inside guys,” Nico replied, flashing a reassuring smile.

“We’ve got inside guys?” Kylie asked, surprised.

“Yeah, you didn’t think we were just going on gut instinct, did you?”

She hummed in response.

“What’s your story then? Why’d you get involved?”

She raised her eyebrows. “I could ask you the same question.”

“Smart girl,” he said. “Okay, usually I let the ladies go first, but I’ll tell you about me, and then it’s your turn. Deal?”

“Deal,” she shook his hand, noticing how callused his palms were. Worker’s hands, she thought. Kylie remembered her granny saying something about her father working in the fields and how rough his hands were.

“Well, I grew up in an orphanage. My parents left me like many of the Zeros did to their children. The other kids were pretty mean to me – they’d call me names and say I’d be better off if I killed myself because I was worthless.”

Kylie could recall the many times she’d been called worthless. “Were there not other Zeros there?”

“There were, but we were kept separate. They were kind of intimidated by me when I got into fighting. That’s how I got the scar. Some Official decided to teach me a lesson,” Nico explained. “But he didn’t get away with it. I broke his arm in the fight and threatened to kill him if he came near me again. He was too humiliated at being beaten by a Zero to tell anyone.”

“I used to fight too,” Kylie replied. She paused. “My parents were two Zeros. They were murdered by Officials when I was younger. I don’t really remember them.”