Because We Had Us

Chapter 3. A Game Of Hide And Seek

Jo

      Corin actually came up with the brilliant idea of hiding Mir inside the room that held the massive air purification system. According to my snarky criminal mastermind partner the filter of the machine was changed every three days and it had just been changed, so it was a perfect hiding spot, at least for two days. We had two days of testing, physical and mental days, and then on the third day we would leave, if we meet the criteria. Corin, being great at stealing food as we witnessed already, had left drawers of food with Miriam. Racing the clock to get to my sister before the filtration changers did was our only problem, well besides the problem of her being alone during testing, but she was brave. She had to be.

     I had just had my physical eval and was starving from my mandatory workout. Lunch time at COA was just as bad as high school. The clicks were present, with seating charts color coded according to our jumpsuits. I had been given navy blue and Corin, the only person I knew here besides my fugitive sister, had been given black. I sat down next to all of the other people dressed in navy blue, with my disposable packages of chicken, nuts, and my freeze dried lemonade. We had to get used to eating this food before going to space according to my travel coordinator.

     Everyone's attention suddenly shifted from our disgusting freeze dried food to a long black haired girl who was being escorted in by a large man, who held her by her wrists that were bounded by rope. She wore an olive green suit that looked two sizes two big and contrasted against her pale complexion. She plopped down at a table empty handed and caused those around her to scatter. The big man released her from her ties, but stood watch of her until the intercom called us all outside different examination rooms.

     That night I laid awake on my stiff cot imagining all the things that could possibly go wrong with our plan. The system could break and the maintenance guys could find Miriam, she was probably terrified, and Corin could rat us out. The list went on and on. My incessant worrying was interrupted when I saw a familiar face peek around my door.

     "You're not supposed to be in the girls bunk area!" I immediately reprimanded him before he could explain himself. I was a rule follower at heart always. "What are you doing here?"

     "So I can't help you anymore," he bluntly said. His face said 'I'm not really sorry but I'm pretending to be.' "Usually I would be all for some scandalous plan, but I realized that I'm not really in a place to risk anything." He talked with his hands all nonchalantly like what he was saying was nothing.

     "What do you mean you're not in a place to- you know what, whatever just go we don't need your help," I snapped back. He chuckled at my response as if he thought he was better than me and then sauntered out of the room. 

     "What a jerk," I scoffed to myself. It's ok I'll get her out of there by myself. I didn't need his help. How hard could it be to get into the air filtration room? I'd be fine as long as I remembered the pass code, but then I realized I had no clue what it was. Corin let us in last time and I hadn't paid a lick of attention. I was too distracted by my own guilt of leaving my sisters alone in a scary dungeon like room. The tears she cried left me feeling in pieces as I shut the door. The small nod she gave me as we left was the only thing that stopped me from breaking the door down and rescuing her, but she understood even though she didn't want to.

     The next day I suffered through an extremely long space safety class. The class itself was actually quite informative, but I couldn't focus with Corin sitting next to me flipping his pencil obnoxiously. I was seething with rage at the sight of him, but if I wanted to get my sister out I realized I'd have to play dirty too. I scribbled on a piece of paper and chunked it at Corin's head. The note read, what's the passcode? Though, I wanted to add a few more colorful words on the end of that sentence I didn't.