Migration

A Room

"Where's Matthew?"

Jennifer didn't answer. She refocused on Zoe briefly before scanning once around the room and disappearing again into her thoughts.

"Is he dead?" Zoe asked bluntly, immediately wishing she'd phrased it better.

"No. No," each word sounded different. The first answered Zoe with clarity, the second was more of an inward sigh, soundtracking the slight fall in her shoulders that Zoe noticed.

"He ran off."

Zoe knew from her tone that whilst it might have been OK for her to run, whilst Jennifer could wrap her arms around Zoe and reassure her that to survive was enough, she didn't feel the same for Matthew. There was a long silence between them, which brought the hushed conversations and moans of pain from around the room to the foreground of Zoe's attention.

The door hissed open and two large Drones strode in and grabbed the nearest person to them, a young man with a shaved head who Zoe didn't recognise. There was a brief moment of panic and indecision as he glanced around the room for assistance, but there were two more Drones stood in plain sight just outside the door, their guns sweeping the room from left to right almost begging for an invitation to fire and their presence kept everybody backed against the walls. The young man's colleague who he'd been talking to moments before stepped forward slightly and tried to hold onto his shoulder, but a swift kick sent him to the ground easily enough and a crack on his skull from a rifle butt made sure he stayed down. He froze motionless in a half crouch on the floor, dark red blood seeping between his fingers where his hand had rushed to inspect the impact and dropping in large sticky globules onto the white floor.

The Drones turned around and yanked the young man out of the room. Zoe watched them push him away down the corridor for a moment before the doors slid shut and cut him out of the moment. There was silence in the room whilst everybody exchanged nervous glances.

"What do you think they'll do?" Zoe whispered to Jennifer.

"I don't know, but that's the third they've taken."

Zoe waited for her to continue, but she didn't.

"Did they bring them back?" Zoe asked, breaking the silence.

Jennifer looked intently at her, unblinking as if she was waiting for something. Her eyes looked incredibly sad Zoe thought, not crying, but glassy, as if they had been emptied out and only the surface remained. As they stared at each other Zoe heard it. A single shot. Far off, but unmistakable. She hadn't noticed how quiet the room had become until that sound punctuated the hush with its dull beat. Jennifer blinked and Zoe understood that none of them came back.

"I'm so sorry," Jennifer said unexpectedly, her gaze still fixed on Zoe. "I should have sent you off with Max. He'd have looked after you."

"No, don't," Zoe took her hand and smiled at her, although tears began to roll down her cheeks at the same time. "I'd rather be here with you. I'd rather be here than anywhere else."

Jennifer smiled and chuckled a little.

"Crazy kid."

She let go of her hand and wiped the tears from her cheek with her thumb, making black streaks across her face from the soot, which made a rough barrier between their skin.

The door hissed open again, making them both jump and Jennifer drop her hand down. The two Drones entered again and scanned around the room, eyeing the wounded on the floor and the faces around the walls that stared silently back at them. Their gaze eventually locked onto Zoe and Jennifer sat on the floor, making Zoe's heart skip a beat and her breathing stop dead.