Imperfect Freedom

Thirteen

She is pale. Her side is bandaged up, and the white stretched fabric is stained with blood. Her eyes are closed, and her face is pale.

"Elle?" I whisper. Her eyelids flutter open, and I exhale.

"Hey Mae." She whispers weakly. "How are you going?"

"I'm... I'm fine." I stutter.

She nods. "They told me I get to miss school. They asked me some questions about what happened, but I honestly don't remember a thing." She looks around the round the room then leans in to whisper, "But I do remember where I was. I was going to get you, and I saw some Silents wearing black come up the corridor, so I stopped to say hi, but then they grabbed me and I went under."

My heart fills with fear. "Why? Why did they do it?"

She shrugs. "My guess is someone clearly didn't want us going ahead with the experiment."

I frown. "Well they got what they wanted."

She nods, then her eyes go soft. "Why didn't you go without me? After you knew I wasn't coming. You could have gone and gotten out."

I shake my head. "I could never leave you Elle."

She smiles. "I could never leave you either Mae."

I smile back.

She frowns, thinking of something. "Hey, what about the CD? Have you heard from them at all?"

I shake my head.

"Okay. Promise you won't go back without me?"

This time I nod, instead of shaking my head. "I promise I won't go back to the Silents until you are better."

She smiles. "Good. Now, leave me alone to sleep."

She doesn't formally say goodbye, just lies down again and falls asleep. I let myself out, my little nine year old brain flipping thoughts over in my head. Who didn't want us to get out of the CD?

And the more pressing question;

Who would stab Elle to ensure that?

-*-*-

Tyran is athletic and coordinated. His arms are strong and he is determined. He barely speaks. He just trains. It isn't long until he has caught up with the rest of the group. Unfortunately, Calix is no where near the same. He is hardworking but uncoordinated, not strong, and hates hurting anything.

"I'm sorry, I'm such a ditz." He says for the thousandth time one day in training. I sigh.

"You aren't a ditz. You're just strong willed." I tell him.

"Strong willed in what?" he asks curiously, taking a break from precision practice to cock his head at me. I shake my head and gesture to keep punching.

He does, and punches the dummy forcefully, almost knocking me over from holding it. He grins at me and I laugh.

"Strong. Full stop."

He nods and drapes his hands over the dummy, so we are face to face. "But really Mae. What do you mean, strong willed?"

I smirk. "You're strong willed not to punch this dummy."

He shakes his head and continues punching in silence. I watch him, as he puts strength into each punch.

Glore comes over at some point. "Hey Maedana, training is over, but I'd be happy to give you the keys to the gym if you want to keep training."

I glance at Calix who shrugs, then say to Glore, "Well, we still haven't gotten the hang of a few things. I'll take the keys and give them back to you later."