Signal to the Fortified Residential Zone

Three

They opened the door carefully, unsure if they were stumbling upon a blessing or a trap. Instead, they stumbled upon Gum.

The girl looked almost as surprised to see them as they were her.

"Hey...," She stammered nervously, eyes shifting from side to side. 

Beat wasted no time finding out where they stood.

"Have you been hearing this, too?" Beat asked intensely, pointing to the strange head gear she also wore on top of her head.

"Yes," gum whispered, afraid of being heard. "I wasn't sure if I should believe it or not, but that man's telling the truth. Look."

She gestured towards a pile of boxes in the corner of the room, and the pair's eyes expectantly followed. 

"Have you opened one yet?" Beat questioned, eager to know what was inside.

"No," the girl admitted, looking away. "I got too scared. But now that someone else is here, I think I feel okay to do it."

Each member of the group hesitantly grabbed a box and set to work at opening it. They were made of a cardboard material, way flimsier than most of the containers they'd seen carrying wares inside of the dome. The contents inside the boxes only did more to confuse them.

"What are they?" Rhyth questioned, holding up a pair of blue shoes with wheels attached to their bottoms.

"That's a good question," Beat said, scratching at his head as he examined his pair.

"I guess we'll just have to take them and wait for that K person to tell us what to do with them, then...," Gum offered.

The group agreed, dispersing almost as quickly and quietly as it had assembled. Rhyth found as good of a hiding spot for hers as she could manage. Beat also set to covering his.

The three suffered extremely throughout the next day of training, anxious to find out what sort of things they'd been given. They spent the night together, crowded in Rhyth's home, hardly able to shut their eyes.

They'd barely dozed off when the static started emanating from their headsets again.