Ignorance (BEING REWRITTEN. SEE 'THE REVOLT')

Chapter Three

“What is this place?” I ask, staring at the expanse of space, the hall lined with rooms.

“Some of us call it Headquarters, but to me, it’s home.” Artie waved at a man sitting on a bench outside a peeling-green painted room the word ‘AR BKS’ was written across the top, gaps where there had obviously been more. “That’s Zed, he organises the whole thing, makes sure we’re not all dead or whatever.” She grabs my shoulder, “You should meet him.” She grins at me and I smile back before she wheels me over to ‘AR BKS’.

“Hey Artie,” the man says, he can’t be more than about twenty. Only four years older than me and leading a whole army. “Who’s the guy?” He gestures towards me.

“His name’s Luca, he found us by mapping out where all the graffiti was and seeing where it all must have originated from.”

“Sounds like your type, Artie.” Zed smiles at me, smiling seems to be a lot more common here than it was back home. “So, Luca, what brings you to HQ?”

“This and that, couple of stair cases, few trains. The usual.” I try my best to look at ease but there’s something about this place that makes me feel slightly on edge. “So what do you do here?” Zed eyes me uncertainly and looks to Artie and then to Puck who has just joined us,

“Are you sure we can trust this kid?”

“Yeah, he seems alright” Artie says, after a few more seconds, Puck also replies.

“He went to all the effort of finding us and he sounds genuine.”

“That’s me, an alright guy who goes to a lot of effort to find knife-obsessed girls, it’s my thing.” I smile at Puck who taps her jacket pocket, letting me know who’s got the power here, or rather, who’s got the knife.

“Okay,” Zed chuckles under his slightly warm breath, “You can stay for a bit but if you show any sign of not being on our side then,” he gestures to Puck, “I’m sure she’ll have some fun times in store for you.”

Puck and Artie lead me away from Zed and over to another room which contains bunk-beds with dark blue blankets thrown roughly over them. Artie explains that this is their room. 

“So do you guys all live here then?” I ask,

“Yeah, there are about twenty-five of us who live here permanently and then there’s some other guys who come and go.” Puck remarks.

“Have you been here long?” 

“A while,” Artie says, fiddling with the flat piece of metal she also wears around her neck. “I came here when I was a kid, about eleven I think. I must’ve been here over five years then, that’s a pretty long time.” She sighs, for a second, a wave of sadness floods her face, her rather average features accentuated by this rare outburst of emotion by people at HQ.

“How come you’ve been here so long, don’t you miss your family?” I’m intrigued by her sadness. The questions seems to make her look uncomfortable so Puck quickly jumps in.

“Hey, I’m starving, who’s turn is it tonight?”

“Umm,” Artie runs her tiny hand through her wavy brown hair which I imagine is always as messy as it is tonight. She is starting to return to how she was before I asked that question. “I think it might be Tim’s turn but we can go and check the rota.” They both start to walk away and get about five metres out the door before they realise they’ve left me standing awkwardly by myself, not sure whether or not I should follow.

They lead me through the old building, back to ‘AR BKS’ which Artie mentions used to be some old coffee shop, not that I know what coffee is or why there are so many tables and chairs in said coffee shop, Zed is still sitting outside of ‘AR BKS’, fiddling with a can of blue spray paint.