Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday

Chapter 11: Obscurity

I sat at the table, my hand holding my head up by the bridge of my nose. Everything was still swirly and fuzzy, but everyone's voices stung like daggers. We'd argued and we'd fought before. None of us were perfect, but no matter our differences we were strong together. Now, our cracks were beginning to show, and the very things that brought us together were being questioned.

"This was a planned, calculated and deliberate attack!" Katrina shouts. "I'll stand for us fighting, but I will not stand and watch us be murdered in our sleep!"

"What difference does it make?" Megan replies, her voice only a notch lower than Kat's. "We can't throw in the towel just because the danger suddenly got real. If we were going to do that we would've quit after we watched the school burn."

"Maybe we should have!" Kat answers, sadness overtaking her voice.

"Trina, you know you don't mean that." Justin interjects, tone defeated.

"But I do Justin." She sighs, sinking into her chair. "You don't understand, none of you do. Whatever was used on Warren could have easily killed him. He should thank his lucky stars it didn't, because I doubt the attacker would have cared either way. Something that powerful is not easy to obtain, and that means we're either dealing with a medical professional –which is doubtful—or someone with connections."

"So it's someone attached to the U.N.A military probably, what else is new Kat?" Megan retorts. I know without looking her fingers are tapping her forearm. She knows how much she's willing to sacrifice for R.I.O.T, her real question is how far the rest of us are willing to go.

"Megan, how can you treat this so nonchalantly?" Kat yells, hands gesturing and meeting the table again with a bang.

"We're all on the same side here..." X tries to say, getting cut off by Megan rising from her chair and slamming her own hands onto the table, rattling the glass of water in front of me so hard that it threatens to knock over.

"Because now is not the time for weakness! If they're upping their game, coming after us like this, on top of the Tournament of Power, we all need to be in this together. It's all or nothing." I let go of my head and finally look up, watching Megan stare at an invisible place between her hands on the table. Her expression is cold, very raw. For the first time in a long time I fight the urge to clasp her hands between mine. I'd love to know what thoughts are racing through her head, and the silver hidden behind my bangs would allow me to. But not here, not now, and maybe not ever. A lot of good that did me once; I've grown to understand what an invasion of privacy it can be.

"What's our goal here?" Kat asks, glancing at each of us in turn. "Survival or destruction?"

"Trina, what does that have to do with anything?" Justin asks.

"Think about it. If we're trying to survive, this should be a threat. But if we're trying to go out there and graffiti on walls and get schools burned down, then sure, let's go about business as usual."

"None of us know what we're doing. We haven't exactly run a rebellion before." X says.

"We're not the bad guys here, Kat." Megan insists, letting go of the table, face set with determination. "But if no one else is going to stand up, then we might as well."

"At the cost of our lives?"

"I'm willing to pay that cost if it's what it takes."

"But what will giving our lives accomplish, Megan? If anything, it means they win."

"No." I say, my voice barely above a whisper yet carrying across the room like a tidal wave. I stand up from my chair, squinting in the light as I grab the edge of the table to steady myself. "It does not mean they win, otherwise they already would have won. People have already given their lives for this, unknowingly. Every child slaughtered because of genes they didn't ask for, every soldier who tried desperately to uphold the flags they were sworn to protect, and every mother, father, sister and brother who watched in silence as their families were torn apart! As they hid from powers no one should be allowed to wield, as their freedoms were stripped away under the guise of science!" My arms are shaking, but not from the after-effects of the drug.