REBEL CLOTHES ✓

PICK YOUR POISON

The leaders always said not to interact with the Sleepers, especially the ones stillinside Dema, but Josh just couldn't help himself.

He woke up in the medic's tent with a concussion and three stitches in his head. His head still ached and his vision swam when he stood up from the cot, but other than that, he felt fine.

Josh walked out of the tent and into the center of their camp. They were currently staked outside a series of caves in the Trench. Usually they'd never stay so close to the bottom of the ravine, preferring to be closer to the top for quick getaways, but they had people on the inside helping others escape.

Jenna ran up to his, pulling him in a tight hug. He grunted as she squeezed hard enough to break his ribs, but laughed and hugged her back.

"Jeez, Jenna, don't break my ribs now," he said.

She pulled back and punched his shoulder. "That's for leaving our post to save some Sleeper. You know the leaders are going to kick your ass for that."

Josh groaned. "Please tell me you didn't."

"I had to!" Jenna retorted. "How many sightings do we have of Bishops our here? Not a lot, considering they only come out when there's a big threat."

A whistle made them both flinch. Jenna patted Josh's shoulder in reassurance.

"I'll pray they don't kill you," she said.

Josh rolled his eyes. "Thanks," he drawled.

She ran off to join some scouts near the edge of the river, leaving Josh alone to meet his fate.

A fire pit sat in the middle of the camp, where he could see the leaders gathered around. One of them watched Josh carefully, and waved him over when they made eye contact. Josh secretly begged to any omniscient being that they don't kill him.

To most of the younger adults in the camp, Clancy was the embodiment of what goes bump in the night. Clancy was tall and well built, with dark, overgrown hair and olive skin that was scarred all over. He had a crooked nose and the beginnings of gray hair at his temples despite his young age. A pair of aviator goggles pushed back his hair away from his forehead.

This showed off the jagged scar that stretched from his hairline through his left eye and across his face like half of an x, ending near the corner of his mouth. If he wasn't intimidating enough, the infamous half x scar, along with the others he accumulated over the years, made any new bandito crap their pants at just the sight of him.

"You're a fucking idiot, Dun," Clancy said as Josh jogged up to the pit.

"Let me explain-"

Rose, one of the other leaders, held up her hand to silence him. "You don't need to explain yourself to us. What you did was reckless, irresponsible, and incredibly idiotic, even for you. Jumping in front of a Bishop? It's like you're begging to be caught. You could've gone into a coma."

Believe it or not, Rose was the nicer of the two, but not by much. Her strawberry blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and her eyes shined dangerously like Jenna's, but forest green instead of crystal blue. She had tan skin that was just as scarred as Clancy's, and she wore a dark green bomber jacket, the one that started it all.

"Okay, but-"

"No, okay buts," Clancy snapped. "You're going to be a leader one day. You can't go wasting your abilities on stupid acts like the one you pulled yesterday."

"You guys don't understand. I saw a Sleeper in my dream."

Rose's eyebrows shot to her hairline, and Clancy went deadly silent for a moment.

"I thought I told you-"

"Yeah, yeah, don't interact with the Sleepers, but that was just a kid!" Josh exclaimed.

Clancy rolled his eyes. "Did he see your face?" Josh shook his head. "Okay, that's good. What exactly did you see?"

He explained about how he heard the boy calling out for someone in his dream, then saw the Bishop knock him to the ground. Josh, being the idiot he was, ran out to push the boy out of the way. The boy disappeared, along with the Bishop, but Josh swore he saw one of the flowers growing from between the rocks go missing as well.

That was when he was found in the river with a massive cut on his temple. Jenna had dragged him back to the camp.

"And then I woke up in the medic's tent," he finished, watching the two's reaction.

Rose was completely poker faced, but Josh could read Clancy like a book. He looked both horrified and impressed.

One thing about Sleepers in Dema that they've learned the hard way- they never survived more than a year after discovering their abilities. Bishops had a way of searching them out and exploiting their powers for their own benefit.

Josh grew up listening to stories of how evil the world outside of Dema was, when the real evil was keeping those poor people inside their walls.

"Punish me however you want, but I needed to save him," Josh said. "A Bishop showing up in a Sleeper's first dream is nearly unheard of. That must mean either this isn't his first dream, or he's a lot stronger than anything we've ever seen before."

Rose presses her fingers against her temples. "The kid's right, Clancy. Someone with that power is bound to found a lot faster than others."

Clancy sighed and scratched at the bridge of his nose, where the scar ran across the bump. "I can't believe you. Fine. Josh, you'll be in charge of recruiting him since you seem to have a fascination for this kid."

Josh started to jump and and down, but then stopped when Clancy glared at him.

"Don't get too excited, Josh," Rose warned. "You need to remember, most people in Dema don't even know who we are. If he tells anyone- and I mean anyone- on the inside, he's a dead man walking."

Josh nodded. "You can trust me. Besides, who has the biggest streak of saving kids from Dema?"

"That'd be Kiyoko, but you're a close second," Clancy said, cracking a small grin.

"Hey!"