Redemption

Chapter 4

The walk seems longer this morning. It's absurd. We are going to be late to class. I didn't pick up the pace.

The first orphan we come across, is sitting in an alleyway. A gruesome slash on his leg shows that without care, he would die. The Forgotten were ruthless. They would stop at no cost to take food or shelter from a lesser being.

This boy is freezing. I bend down and awoke him. He looks at me with startling blue eyes. It was that of relation to an electricity storm. I had only seen a storm of such power once. Since then, though, nothing so brilliant has happened.

I hand him the burnt toast and examine his wound. It was, in fact, done so by a weapon. My expertise is not strong, in the sense, that I could truly understand his fatality.

"What is your name?" I ask.

 He looked broken. I don't blame him. Instead, the boy sits up straighter, cringing in the process.

"Emery," he utters. "Emery is my name."

It seems to be an unusual name. Children were given a name by their parents. The society decided to keep that fragment from the olden days the same. A name of Emery was very odd. I haven't ever heard of such a name.

I look up at Meghan and Claire. They too, have the look of puzzlement on their faces. Meghan bends down and makes level eye contact with Emery.

"Hello Emery. My name is Meghan. We are here to help you," she utters.

"Please. Who did this to you?" she continues.

Emery speaks with inflection, "We should not speak here. There are ears everywhere."

We are running out of time. We can't be any later for we would be interrogated. I took a deep breath and glance at the surroundings.

"Here is the deal, Emery." I speak in a rapidly hushed tone.

"We are going to send you to our home," I continue, "Listen to me carefully. The fifth house on the right is ours. A woman, our mother, should open the door. Ask politely to come indoors. If she denies your request, say that Avery sent you." The last words I speak are the most dangerous. "Tell her to hide you somewhere in the attic. No one can suspect anything."

He nods and hobbles off. The inspector comes by every afternoon. They are instructed to search the home and report any unusual sighting or object in the home. I grew to understand that the inspectors were looking for signs of rebellion, evidence of a planned uprising, or any unregistered orphan within the home. It made me realize how terrified our society really is. They are afraid of being destroyed. They are afraid of falling and never climbing back up. It's sick.

We are dangerously close to the interrogation bell. We stand and brush off our garments. We too, shouldn't have any evidence of a potential quarrel or luxurious down-time. We would all be interrogated. I hold the twin's hands as we hurried through debris and rubble. Soon, our glorious academic center is before us.

As always, we quicken our pace, bags bump at our sides. We reach the entrance and the soldier standing patrol. Luckily, the interrogation bell hasn't rung. I can pass the questioning, but I can't keep up the lying act for too long. I tend to flinch and shift my eyes.

The guard waits for our names to be spoken.

I cough, "Avery, Claire, and Meghan Rider." 

The guard smiles.

His smile is unreadable. I cannot tell whether it is a small act of kindness or an act of cruelty. I clear my thoughts and study his facial features. For some reason, he looks very familiar. My thoughts flash to several weeks ago when I was told of a potential rebellion that I was somehow part of.

This guard is the same guard, or impostor that stood outside the classroom door while the instructor talked to me.

He catches my look of recognition and he winks.

"Avery, Claire, and Meghan Rider," he smirks.

"You all, have been scheduled an interrogation." he continues.

Claire and Meghan look at me. I give them each a reassuring squeeze. They both get the idea that I will handle this.

"Sir," I politely say.

"I believe you are mistaken for the interrogation bell hasn't rung yet." I give him the slightest hint that I was going to play along. I honestly hope, I didn't read him wrong. For if this wasn't the same guard, we were all in deep trouble.

He spoke once more, "Miss Rider, you and your brethren have been scheduled a random interrogation, for your tardiness has been building up gradually."

I do not understand what he means. How were we going to pull this off? Like Emery said, there are ears and eyes everywhere. If we go through with this so called interrogation, there would be actual men of authority eavesdropping in. What if we get caught? 

"I apologize to you sir, and to the General," I continue. "We will gladly testify."

The imposter guard seems relieved that I have obliged.

"Miss Avery, your instructor has been informed of your absence." he says. "Miss Claire and Miss Meghan, your instructors have also been informed of your absence." he nods. "You all will be relieved of instruction today on suspension."

He motions to a door. Where the door led, I do not know. My feet somehow follow him without any doubt.

He opens the door into a soundproof room. There are three chairs and an old wooden table.

"Please, have a seat." he says.

I look at him and then to the chairs he referred to.

"Before I sit, sir, I would like to know whom is watching this interrogation." I say. My voice quavers. Claire and Meghan stay standing beside me.

He replies, "No one Miss Rider. This is a taped interrogation that will be further studied later. For now it is I that will be questioning you three."

With that, I sit. Claire and Meghan sit as well. The first "question" that come out of his mouth, actually isn't a question at all. Instead he speaks of our planned rebellion. Something, I had hoped to have forgotten.

"As you know Miss Rider, we are planning a rebellion," he began. "You were informed so a week ago by Adalene."

I feel Claire's gaze, but I don't look back. If I am to be a part of this, I need to be uninterrupted.

"Yes, I do recall." I say. "Why do you have us here? What is going on?" I insist.

"Today, we start the rebellion," he replies. "Please do not fear, you all will be safe." As if on cue, the building begins to burn.