Republic of Omisha

Chapter 29: Valerie

  They split up. As Valerie runs with Eliza, she has picked up on her nerves. You don't have to know Valerie well to know that she dreads surprises. She likes to know exactly what's going on, and Eliza refused to tell her what they're doing or where they're headed.

They ran past the school, past the outbuildings. Where were they going?

They stopped at a fortified building. It looked like a modified war bunker. Valerie stopped and stared. She breathed heavy from the run.

"What are we doing here, Eliza?" She said in the most demanding voice that she could muster.

Eliza stopped few strides away from the compound. When she spoke she didn't make any effort to face Valerie. "I couldn't tell you before... you'd have tried to talk me out of it."

"That didn't answer my question."

Moments passed, neither of them moved. In an instant Eliza spun around and approached Valerie. She stood uncomfortably close staring into Valerie's eyes. Eliza's stare was cold, calculated. "Let me ask you this... why won't the teachers help us? Don't they see that choosing a few and shunning the rest of our race is cruel or have they just embraced the illusion that they're above them? That makes them below everyone else. I mean they know what we've been through. They've lost like us. Why? Why do they chose my uncle's cause over mine?"

Valerie shook her head. She was trembling because of Eliza's rage. She was controlling it so well for being so obviously enraged, too well. "People fall on different sides of things, like your mother and your uncle. They may be sibling, but they viewed it differently."

Valerie changes her expression in an attempt to demand respect "What are we doing here?" She hung on every word.

Eliza smirks at her. She saw through her little facade, not that that was difficult to do, especially for how well Eliza knows her. That's when Valerie realized that she doesn't need to demand respect. Eliza is her friend and she respects Valerie a great deal, more than most.

"Oh, Val." Eliza is almost laughing.

Valerie just gives her a stern look and Eliza snaps out of it. She sighs and says, "This black wolf can't hurt me." She gestures to the building. "When they blow the whistle it tells them to stop hunting and he had my scent so they told him to not hurt me and he'll remember my scent so I'm safe."

Valerie's eyes grow wide. This building is where they housed the beasts when they weren't in the arena. Eliza must have done her research last night. She was the last one to bed.

She had been vague on purpose. Valerie understood what she intended to do.

Valerie takes a shuddering breath and sighed releasing her nerves. She knows that it's pointless to try to talk Eliza out of anything, she is strong willed.

She looks at Eliza and nods. They walk unto the compound. Eliza types a password into the keypad and they're in.