Battle of Colours

CHAPTER III

       It was silent again. All around the barn. All around these young people and inside their mind and inside their hearts.

     It was a deafening silence with screams of anger and anxiety — one of the worst kinds of silence.

     "What do you mean we're in with the Reds?" Bianca asked.

     "Did the bomb explode?" Manali asked too.

     "No, it didn't," he simply answered. "That's why we're with the Reds, now. I managed to stop them from bombing The Lantern," he took a deep breath. "Three bombs, they had three bloody bombs ready to blow out — not just one. One within The Lantern, one in a park and one in a mall."

    "Why?" Manali asked in a whisper.

     Violet mentally rolled her eyes — this is how you can spot a new fighter from a skilled one. They always ask questions out loud instead of thinking by themselves. Besides, the answers were often quite obvious. White people were often hanging out in parks — even in the South. Some White men working in the South had their families with them and they were often seen picnicking in parks.

     On the other hand, people of Colour were not allowed in parks if a White family was already in there — that was the rule.

    Then, why the mall? Since people of Colour did not have enough bits to shop in malls, they only went to small shops. Once again, if one person of Colour wanted to go to a mall – just to hang out – they had particular opening times, from 4 PM to 8 PM — because from 7 AM to 4 PM, malls were for White families only.

     "It still doesn't explain why we're in with those bloody bastards!"

     "Bianca," Violet glared at her. She liked her friend — a lot, but it was crazy how Bianca could be stupid and boring from time to time.

     "They refused to cancel the attacks unless we would become their allies."

     "You could've asked us first!"

     "Are you ever going to shut the hell up!?" Alex suddenly shouted. "Shut up and let him speak!"

     "Hey, easy, Rompicoglioni," she snapped back.

     "Oh really? Do you really think that I am the ball-breaker right now?!"

     "You two, shut up!" Erik shouted back, standing up.

     Violet slightly jumped in fear and both Alex and Bianca went quiet. These people were known for always arguing — but it was just another typical brother and sister messed-up relationship.

     "I went to speak with George. He laughed when he saw me because he knew he fooled us. I asked him why? And he said 'You guys are always on our arses, all the time, behind us – yet you always seem to have a few steps ahead of us.' He said they wanted to be left alone for a few minutes because he knew we'd try to stop them. I tried to convince him not to do it – I seriously did. I told him that we must not let our strength degenerate into hate and blood, that we have to be smarter and faster, you know what he did?"

     "He laughed," Alex whispered.

    "Hell yeah, he did! That bastard began to laugh at me, at all of us. He knew he had the upper hand, so he began to play with me like a cat and its mouse. He said 'What do I get out of it?' I was surprised, I didn't know he'd blackmail me. I said 'money', he said 'weapons', I said 'no', he said 'yes', I said 'we'll help you, we're smart' he said 'we'll become allies, and we get to know your secrets.'"

     There was another moment of silence. They were all weighing the pros and the cons — trying to figure out the level of danger they were in.