Walls

Chapter 8

Darius grabbed a chair that was sitting off to the side of the room and dragged it to the front of the table. He quietly sat down and put his hands together. He was no longer smiling.

'Look. Fourteen years ago, right when the disease started popping up a lot in simulus communities, there was a group of people who had certain.. Beliefs. They thought they could cure the diseased with a chemical in healthier people's blood, a chemical that the disease got rid of. But they needed a lot of blood. They needed so much that even draining a person to their last drop of blood wouldn't even be enough to build a structure for the cure.'

Darius paused and took a deep breath. 'No one would volunteer. No healthy person would subject themselves to being drained.

'So they resorted to kidnapping. They would stage attacks against people who had higher levels of this chemical in their blood, which were typically children. People like all of you,' He added, addressing the four people in front of him. My mind wandered vaguely to all the suddenly empty seats in my classrooms. 'They didn't have much trouble getting diseased. All they had to do was stage a fight in a solomus community and drag a couple of people out in the commotion.

'They'd pose as 'outsiders' to steer the questions being asked about them away.

'I had decided that it had to stop. But of course, working for the government, as I used to, didn't help my cause. They were fully aware of what was going on and had chosen not to do anything about it.

'The section of the Walls I patrolled had malfunctioned. There was a section of it that wasn't electrified. I forced my way through it slowly, taking my time as to not alert the authorities. But I ended up creating a small crack in the Wall, just big enough for me to squeeze through.

'So I ran. I got out of there as fast as possible. I walked for maybe four days before finding this place.' Darius gestured to the ceiling. 'It was a miracle. And it was perfect-this place was designed to withstand nuclear war, I think. So I set out on a mission to get as many people with this stuff in their blood to safety here, and away from the government. I trained them with the combat skills I learned working with the government, I taught them how to handle weapons that were found in here and how to protect themselves, as well as others.

'That was fourteen years ago. People are still going missing due to this, but not nearly as many as before.

'But people are still in danger, more now than ever, I think. These people, the government, they've resorted to murder. Anyone who may or may not know about what we're doing here are brought in almost daily. I'm not completely sure what goes on in there, but it always ends in death. Almost everyone I've ever interacted with in the past fourteen years has turned up dead.' He fumbled with his fingers. 'Including my wife.'

I was taken aback by shock. Darius's wife..

'She wouldn't have gone easy, Dar. From what you've told us, she was a total badass. We'll make her death count.' Liv hesitated and patted Darius's hand awkwardly. She was obviously not used to consoling people, but at least she was trying her best.

Darius sniffed. 'Yeah,' he paused, 'Blair, you don't know hand-to-hand combat, do you?'

Slightly surprised by the drastic change of subject, I tripped on my answer a bit. 'I, um-I mean, unless you count fighting my sister-' Liv started to laugh. Not a mean laugh, but a wholehearted laugh.

I laughed with her. 'Yeah, not really. Can you-?'

'I can teach her.' Liv interrupted. Darius stared at her for a split second before saying, with a smile that came out of the blue, 'Yeah, I think that would work well.'

Liv looked slightly pleased with herself. Ducky looked at the both of us and smiled widely. Felix chuckled.

Darius stood up and checked his watch. 'Well, I think lunch would be a good idea right now. You guys go eat, socialize a bit. Liv and Blair, meet in the training room when you're done. Felix and Ducky, you two can hang around them if you want. And Ducky-' Ducky has been in the middle of standing up. He knocked over his chair and tripped over it (I now realized why he had all the cuts and bruises). '-try not to distract them too much?' Ducky sighed and picked up his chair.

'Sure thing, Dar.' Ducky pouted slightly.

And with that, Liv, Ducky, Felix and I walked out of the room, leaving Darius to his thoughts.