Saints Before Sixth

FOURTH

'I'm Andy, this is my friend Christiano. Who are you?' She only replied because his voice sounded too young for a Keeper or other personnel; the only option left was another kid who escaped.

'Atlas, Whistler.' He sounded as if he just woke up from sleeping for hours.

She still couldn't see him properly, but it also wasn't her main priority right now to check out whether he had dashing looks to show off or not.

'Did you escape?', She asked.

'Yes. Can you please close the container doors, we'll be able to talk much better.'

Christiano assured Andy he would, a few moments later the three of them had sat down on the cool, vinyl-like flooring.

'We escaped too. Do you know what's going on here?'

Atlas took a deep breath before he spoke again. 'The Bidding, they decided to bring it forward a day. It's happening in about six hours from now.'

'Guys, is there- can we get any light in here? I'd feel much more at ease,' Christiano suggested hesitantly.

'I have a flashlight, but I'm not sure how helpful it'll be. I already used it for a while, don't think the battery will last much longer.' Andy heard Atlas fiddling around in the dark.

A switching sound announced a soft flash of light, which most likely would have been brighter if it wasn't for the battery.

The light shone carefully on Christiano, and then Andy. Afterwards, he aimed it at his own face. He had a significantly darker skin tone than both of them did, with a square jaw. His head carried dark curls - kind of like Christiano's - but much shorter and a lot tighter when it came to texture.

'How did you two free yourselves?' He put the flashlight down in the middle in an attempt to have some general lighting in the container.

Andy gave him a quick run-through, skimming vaguely over the part where her best friend summoned the dead. Afterwards, she asked him if he knew why the Bidding was set to happen earlier than planned.

'The Keeper you mentioned being locked in Solitary, he said it was necessary because he feared you guys would cause more issues. Organising it early meant having it be a problem for others within the Institute instead, they'd be gone by then.'

'The bastard', Christiano said, admittedly amused to know it had been their doing.

'Do we just wait here then, until Transport has left?' Andy asked Atlas. He seemed to be significantly more up to date with all of this then she or Chris were.

'Actually, no. The Bidding is our only way to escape, leaving the property will cost us our lives within seconds; weaponed men surround this place, as well as dozens of mines in the ground.' Ironically his voice sounded ever so calm while explaining the possible ways of how they could end their lives.

'The Bidding? You want us to go there and be sold off like cheap merchandise?', Chris protested, his eyes spread wide open from surprise.

'I'm just as against it as you are - Christiano, was it?' He waited until a nod confirmed his question. 'But it's the only shot we have. Otherwise, it's another year until the next opening.'

'Nothing about the Bidding will be cheap, you can take my word on that. By the way.'

Andy turned out to be right before; it had been too easy and this was why.

'Might as well get comfortable if we have six hours of waiting ahead of us,' Chris stated casually, as he went to lay on his back.

After a few minutes the flashlight died, Andy and Atlas simply sat in silence for what felt like a long time. Chris' soft snoring gave them something to listen to.