The Fox and The Forest (EDITING)

Erasure (2.6)

♨ 

Beginning to walk away, Kate then glanced behind her. She gazed sadly at the cave as the patchwork of bobbing lights diminished. Along with the cave itself, quickly fading away into the darkness like an echoing whisper. 

"Flynn wouldn't want to hide this," Kate said in assurance. "He wouldn't care what the government thought of him! He's only been biding his time with the Purifiers here!"

"How can you be sure? There's no point in remembering the cave. Forget about it," Tom replied, with a gentle sternness to his voice. For he too glanced back at the fading display and felt a sadness and anger similar to Kate's own.  "It'll only do us more harm if we remember what we weren't supposed to see, like before- in the forest." 

But Kate could not understand why Tom still wouldn't express his disgust. Why he couldn't bare to uproot the government after what they had done to them. After what the government had dared to hide from them.

Kate was beginning to feel more and more like a dementia patient, a woman maddened with experience. One who, when she had something to say, would be disregarded as a sad rambling product of the cruel cruel world. 

"But that's the thing... It's like they don't even care if we've seen their secrets or not this time! As long as we don't speak of it. It's like they think we're too weak to respond!" 

Her voice mingled with the bubbling pockets of air- hanging in the water around them and glinting in their movements like the delicate drops of a crystal chandelier. 

Had Kate been looking at Blue, she might have noticed the increasing intensity of his frown and the shade that filtered over his eyes. Though she was not looking at Blue. Kate had avoided looking at him completely; afraid of being reminded that it was she who had almost killed him. 

It was in this moment that she felt the body of the facility nurse weigh heavy on her shoulders, her own back bent with the memories of the dead. 

*

"So, the Colonel said we'd need to collect the water and bring it back." Tom's gaze focused on navigating through the darkening path ahead. "Not that he thought we'd be alive but here we are. So, if we collect the water then hopefully we can..." he paused, finishing his sentence with the almost robotic phrase "earn forgiveness." Tom knew full well that to tell a Purifier loyalist he wanted to "get out of this hell hole and never return" was a recipe for disaster. He recalled gratefully Ray's warning about government watchers. 

"Finally! Good plan," said Blue. "OK, here I go." 

Reflexively, Blue pressed the buttons on his control pad in the complex sequence that he had learnt during Purifier training; despite his usual ease with with instruction, he flinched suddenly.

In the twilight waters Tom could just about read the downtrodden look on his face. " Of course!" Blue groaned. "How on earth could I forget! The water collector on my suit's broke. I've been training for this all my life and I get the dodgy suit!"

"Life can be so vicious," Kate affirmed, finding a particularly interesting spot of sand to stare at.  

Tom rammed his metal foot into Kate's leg, reminding her of the truth. That it was her own vicious nature that had put the boy in danger. 

"Don't bother collecting the water," he turned to Blue. "The less water pressure you put on your suit the better.  We'll just make sure we gather as much as possible. "

Blue looked angrily down at the metal glove that plugged his leaking suit  and then took a resigning step back. 

"And how are we supposed to collect this water?" Kate said. She had been curious to discover the inner workings of the Purification before, but now felt sickened and sour after her recent attempt at revenge had failed miserably.