I sat on the concrete ground, observing the prisoners glide over the obstacle course they'd made up with the bars and benches available. I was going to have to learn to do all this immaculately or else I'd have no chance keeping up with them in their flight. I scratched my head under my new hat. Well, it wasn't really a hat. They called it a 'bandanna'. I winced as the guard on patrol scanned the grounds. She glanced over me, unaware that I was not one of them. Thank you Alex, I thought. It was his genius that had gotten me this far.
The night before, I had begged Alex to help me. I did have a little plan to start with so I wasn't giving him an impossible task.
"So what if we swap the names in the confinement roster and make it so they're people who won't recognise me or something?" I suggested.
My little brother rolled his eyes. "Seriously Rosie, everyone recognises you. You're the spitting image of mum when she was your age apparently."
I shuddered at that; relieved it was only appearance that put us together.
"Okay, how about you dress up as a soldier and stick around while I'm training?" I advocated.
He shook his head. "I don't know, sis. Why do you want to do this so badly anyway?"
I groaned. "I've already told you, we need to find Stevie and these guys are our best bet out of here."
He raised an eyebrow. "Wait, says who I'm getting out of here too?" He said, narrowing his eyes. I put up my hands defensively. "Hey, I just assumed so because this place is a hell hole. You've gotta agree with me on that. But don't worry, you won't have to learn to fly like them. As soon as they see how awesome I am, they'll be sure to do me a favour." Alex didn't seem entirely convinced. "Well, I'm grateful you thought about me too. If you left me here alone, I'd probably go crazy," he said half-jokingly. I smiled. "So are you gonna help me or do I have to get caught a million times before getting somewhere?"
He exhaled loudly. "Alright, just give me a minute."
He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. I did my best to stay silent and not start tapping my foot impatiently. Then, without changing his position, he mumbled to me:
"Did you say something about dressing up?"
That's how I'm squatting here now, no one doing a double take to check if I'm Rose Kennedy. Of course, I had to give my brother most of the credit but I did plant the seed in his head. Luckily for me, Alex was trusted by my parents so he could get his hands on valuable information.
Well, valuable to us at least, maybe not anyone else.
When the war broke out and everyone was forced to move on base, civilians were originally allowed to wear their normal clothes. It was only changed when I was four since there was an ambush and the normal people were easily distinguishable from the militias. Since then, everyone was required to wear the uniform. However, their clothes were never destroyed. It ended up that all of it was chucked in a box and left to be chewed up by rats in the attic.
Alex made me go to school that day and promised he'd find those clothes. So I waited in my seat at the back of the class by the window, praying he'd keep to his word. Sure enough, a knock came at the convent door and my little brother asked for me to be excused. The nuns didn't suspect him since he was a very respectable member of the Kennedy family, unlike me. Doing my best to contain my excitement, we walked together to the attic.
We ransacked the place and found the cardboard box filled with regular clothing. My eyes widened at the pretty fabrics, all different textures. I picked through and found a light green T-shirt with black sleeves. There was a greyish purple, zip-up jacket with a fuzzy material around the hood that was comfortable and a pair of pants that had a coloured stripe up the side like the ones the guys had. I swapped my boots for ankle shoes. To finish my new guise, I pinned my hair under a hat.
I stole into the prison yard where Prince and the rest of his gang were already running freely. When the soldiers on duty had their backs turned, I ran in and jumped over a bench, doing what I could to blend in. They all took a glimpse at me then continued doing what they were doing, giving no hint that there was another person amongst their number.
Dog-catcher pulled me away from the group slightly and grinned. "Nice look you've got there but we don't do caps." I was puzzled. He took off my hat and I reached up to stop my hair from coming out of the pins. Out of his pocket, he presented the bandanna. It was white and plain, nothing as cool as the patterned ones they wore.
"New guys get white, sorry," he said.
I looked up at him. "You weren't wearing these yesterday."
He shrugged. "They were in the corner with our jackets. Speaking of which, may want to throw yours on the pile. It gets hot if you work with it on."
I slipped out of the zipped jumper and chucked it with theirs. I accepted the bandanna from him and tied it onto my head like they had. "Thanks Dog-catcher," I said.
He grimaced. "I'd prefer it actually if you called me by my real name."
I stared. "Isn't your name Dog-catcher? I thought it was foreign or something."
He laughed. "No, Prince gave us all nick-names, including himself. We couldn't stop him from calling us them so they stuck."
I dipped my head. "So I'm stuck with Pinks," I grumbled.
He frowned in sympathy. "'Fraid so."
I moaned. I'd much prefer it if I was just called Rose but at least I knew I belonged here for now. "So what do I call you?" I asked him.
"Dante," he replied.
I gave a half-smile. "Sure, nice to meet you Dante. I'm Rose."
He looked pleased. "Lovely to meet you too Rose. If you'll follow me, I'll be your teacher for today. We've got some pretty tough months ahead of us." I nodded. I liked Dante. He seemed a lot more approachable than Prince and Wings and... I thought of something. "What do I call the others?"
"Oh, well I already consulted them and Prince gave me permission to disclose their names. Prince, the one whom you already know is our kind-of leader, is called Ferris. Wings, the one who did a wall run in the cells, he's Gabriel. And the last one is nick-named Drifter but his real name is Elijah. Call them by their real names and they'll call you Rose. Except for Prince, he'll call you Pinks no matter what."
I snorted in disgust. "What makes him give us these weird names?"
"Maybe some other day," he said, looking around then glancing back over at me. "Didn't you say you went to school or something?" He asked. I nodded in response. He scratched his chin. "So how did you get out of it? Aren't your teachers looking for you?"
I grinned. "I'm not exactly a model student so the nuns get really fed up with me. They don't really care as long as they have a silent class and all the names ticked off their roll. So all I have to do is go through the door, sit at the back then jump out the window and I'm free. Well, kind of," I smirked. Dante laughed and shook his head.
"They must be blind to miss you."
"They pretty much are," I shrugged. Dante smiled then turned and looked at the guards who had their backs to us. "Wouldn't it make more sense to watch us? I've noticed that's a common thing amongst guards. They always look out instead of in."
"Oh, that's because once we've got you, you shouldn't really be able to escape because there's so many people around the base. What they're really worried about is other people coming in and breaking you out. You're most visible in the yard anyway so they keep their eyes on the horizon and the sky." Dante nodded then motioned me towards the row of bars. I stood on the ground and he clambered to the top of one of them. "First things first, how good are you at balancing?"
I thought back to when Stevie and I had to mop the main block after we'd chased each other around with muddy boots. He got bored and put one of the doormats inside. Then, he went just outside the door in a blind spot, ran in and jumped off the doormat. He landed on the wet floor and skidded across, laughing with joy.
"Give it a go, Rose!"
I giggled. I made my way to the door and copied him. Problem was, I'd never done this before and evidently, he had. Whilst I was sliding, I almost crashed into the wall but managed to turn my body away from it. I slid sideways and I thought I was going to fall but I somehow managed to hold myself up by bending my legs.
"Yeah, it's pretty good," I responded.
"Good," he said. He started walking with his arms extended either side of him along the silver bar. I observed in bewilderment, amazed at how easy it was for him. At the end of the bar, he jumped off and did a roll similar to the tumble Gabriel did for me yesterday but this one was forwards. He twisted around to look at me.
"Okay, now your turn."
I was horrified but if I was going to get out, I needed to learn. "Alright," I replied meekly. I went to the start and tried to stand on top of the silver. It was slippery and I couldn't balance without falling to one side. I was very discouraged when Dante appeared at my side. When I went to stand on the bar again, he held my hand.
"It's gonna be hard first time round so I'll spot you. Now try walking slowly along the bar- that's it- and if you feel like you're gonna fall, try holding your balance by bending your legs. If you're seriously going to fall, I want you to reach down and grab the bar. If you can regain steadiness, stand up and keep going. If you can't do it just step off."
I took a deep breath then began taking little steps across the metal. It seemed easier with Dante there to spot me. We went through this a few times and I found that if I went at a constant speed and didn't stop, it was a lot easier. He didn't make me jump off and do the roll so I just stepped off safely each time. I still needed him to help me stand on the bar though.
When I was halfway across on my fifth time, I must've loosened my grip on Dante's hand because he gently let go and moved away soundlessly. I didn't realise this until Ferris shouted at me:
"Hey Pinks! Nice going!"
My left hand grappled the air and found no trace of Dante anywhere. I turned my head and snatched blindly at the air. My legs moved on their own but they missed the bar. My limbs tangled together and I fell. Instinctively, I rotated onto my side. Instead of hitting the ground, I hit another body.
"Gotcha! Damn Rose, you were so close! Sorry, Prince does this all the time to us to test if you're focused. I didn't expect him to pick on you though."
I craned my neck to find Dante supporting my weight. I pushed off him and stood up straight. "Sorry," I said.
He just smirked. "It's okay. You have pretty good reflexes though. You like did a 360 in the air, although landing on your side wasn't what I expected."
I grimaced. Sure, Dante was trying to encourage me but one glance at Ferris shaking his head and sniggering with Gabriel told me how I was really going.
We did so much that day, precision jumping, climbing and swinging. It wasn't what I expected and I never thought it'd be this hard. I'd done the recruit training for so long that I'd thought this should've been easy. Then again, we'd never learned how to do anything like this before.
Since my reflexes were apparently pretty good, we moved onto safety rolling. "The reason why we roll," Dante began "is to stop us from injuring ourselves when landing. Crumpling on your side works I guess but this allows the impact to spread across more parts of your body."
He did a little run-up then dropped to the ground. His palms hit the concrete and he tucked his head under his armpit. He rolled forward as a human ball and popped back up at the end.
"You're aiming to roll from your shoulder to the opposite hip. Also, you need to protect your head so tuck it in. Trust me; it seriously hurts when you hit your head."
I was exhausted. There was no way I could try this without injuring myself. I'd probably put too much pressure on my arms since my legs felt like falling off. I was also getting a little ticked off with the way he did the technique demonstrations. He made it seem so effortless and didn't explain any part of it in a way a first-timer could understand. Still, I nodded and gave it a go.
I rolled forward. It didn't feel strange and at first I thought I'd done it. When I looked up at Dante, he wasn't looking at me. In fact, he was deliberately avoiding my eyes.
"Not quite there yet," he stammered. He reached over, placed a hand atop my hair and continued. "The point of this is to protect your head. When you went to roll you, uh, well you did a somersault." I could tell he was trying to explain this as nicely as possible. I must've looked ridiculous.
I sighed. If he wanted me to do this properly, he could try explaining it better than just doing it and expecting me to have it down in a heartbeat!
"Look, I'm sorry Dante. I don't quite understand what you expected me to do. Along with everything else we've done today. I'd never even heard of a precision jump until 20 minutes ago. Are you seriously saying you're teaching me this stuff or is this some sort of test I'm meant to ace when I have no idea what it is I'm meant to be doing?"
I felt bad for snapping at him but I was frustrated. Dante still wouldn't look at me.
"Yeah," he said eventually. "Yeah, it's a test. Wait, please let me finish-" he held up his hands pleadingly. My mouth hung open in protest. "It's to test your potential. Of course, anyone can acquire these skills, given enough time and effort but we have limited time. Prince wants to make sure you can learn everything you need to come with us quickly enough."
I calmed down. I guess that wasn't so bad then. I still felt somewhat miffed with Ferris since he most likely set up Dante to do this. My shoulders slumped and I let my head fall into my hands. Although I wanted to glare at Ferris for laughing at me before I knew how to do any of these things, I knew better than to look at him. I'd only end up gawking at him. Honestly, no one on base has ever looked so gorgeous. He was like an angel with a devil's heart. Wait, no the devil probably doesn't have a heart. I giggled to myself. The nuns would be proud.
It was a curse and a blessing that I wouldn't survive outside the compound without Ferris.
I drilled through rolling again and again. I couldn't tell if I was improving but I reckoned I was because we went from doing it stationary to dynamically. It was certainly easier to do when you had a run-up.
Ferris, Gabriel and Elijah approached us around 1300. I had only just completed the movement and was crouched on the ground. It was rather daunting to have them all towering over me so I stood up promptly. Gabriel turned to Dante and started whispering something I couldn't hear. His expression gave away no notion of anything he was saying. Dante clapped his shoulder and Gabriel motioned for Ferris. Once he was brought up to speed on whatever they were whispering about, Ferris made up his mind.
"Alright Pinks, brace yourself."
My immediate reaction was to pull a fighting stance. At least that's what Stevie did when someone told him to brace himself once. Evidently, that's what he meant since he ran at me and swept a leg under my feet. I jumped and threw a left hook. I missed by a mile. He'd thrown himself sideways and made his way behind me. Unfortunately for him, I was fast and spun my leg around to kick him. He once again threw himself sideways and connected his foot with my ankle. I stumbled and was about to face plant when I remembered to roll. The force of the impact was lost through it and I was able to pop up quickly. However, when I darted my eyes around, I realised I lost sight of Ferris.
I whipped around again and again, searching for Ferris when without warning; he planted a foot in my back. He'd caught me by surprise and I went sprawling to the ground. I flipped onto my back but he shoved his heel into my stomach.
"Aw, really Pinks? We were just getting started. What happened?"
I tried to get up but he just pressed his heel in deeper. I attempted to tip him off with little success. Fed up with my constant wriggling, he twisted his foot around, causing the spot to burn. I gritted my teeth, not wanting to show any signs of pain.
Dante came to the rescue. "Prince, let her up. Come on, this was a test, not a verdict."
Ferris glared at Dante. "I think someone's forgotten their place. Don't you reckon, Dog-catcher?"
Dante rolled his eyes. "Just let her up and tell her how she did. We're wasting time."
I wanted to give him a grateful look but I couldn't take my eyes off Ferris. Even when he was mad, he still had that elegance about him that made me want to just gaze at him for hours on end. I pinched myself. I had to stop fantasizing. It did make me feel different but it also annoyed me because I hated him and his sly attitude.
After contemplating Dante's proposal, he reluctantly removed his foot. Then, with careful grace, he held out a hand for me to take, his fingers unravelling out of his palm like flowing water. I took it gratefully but the pain on the surface of my abdomen took its toll. I stumbled. Ferris reached out and fluidly grabbed my waist to stop me from falling. My cheeks went pink at the sudden contact so I ducked my head. From underneath my eyelids, I could see he gave me a confident, sneaky smile.
"Ah, thanks," I faltered.
"You're welcome. Anyway, about your performance: you've demonstrated competent ability to learn our way in a small period of time. However, you are too dependent and this should all become second nature to you. I wasn't impressed with our little fight."
I nodded. Up until now, he was still holding me. I realised he was saying everything very quietly which gave away the position I was in. I let go of his hand and he let go of my waist one finger at a time. His eyes shifted to the group still standing by then shifted back to me. I wondered why he kept staring at me until I remembered that I had started staring first. I blushed, scratching the back of my neck and glanced at Dante. He looked extremely aggravated.
"Are you done?" He spat.
"What's wrong Dog–catcher?" Ferris asked innocently. He almost looked sincere but I reckoned he was being patronizing.
Dante gave me a sideways glance and sighed exasperatedly. "It's nothing. We're just wasting a lot of time. We've still got the 5k run and I'm sure Rose has to get back soon as to not arouse suspicion."
Ferris laughed. "Alright, have it your way then. Let's go!" Without warning, he took off at full pelt to the edge of the prison yard with Gabriel and Elijah following suit. Dante swore loudly. "Argh, I really hate that guy sometimes! Sorry Rose, all I can say is you really have to keep up or who knows what he'll do." Dante took off after them and I was still processing what happened.
"Hey! Come on, quickly!" Dante shouted. I sprinted after them. I made it into the middle of the group but I couldn't slow down. They were seriously fast.
The first three kilometres was fine but after the fourth, my lungs were burning. I was winded and everyone was still running pretty fast. I fought to keep up but I was inevitably falling behind. If they ran like this all the time, they could finish in less than 10 minutes.
"Keep up Rose!"
I must've started hallucinating because I was so tired. I thought I heard Stevie's voice. I looked up momentarily, fatigued from the run. My memory lapsed and I saw Stevie at the age of thirteen, sprinting away from the watchtower.
It was our fault that it fell down, I'll admit that. It was an accident though; we never intended it to happen. Also, it was a pretty weak structure anyway so technically we were doing everyone a favour by knocking it down when no one was up there.
Anyway, we had to run because while no one was hurt, my parents would be infuriated by the fact that I knocked down a structure that could have killed someone. I wasn't particularly fast back then so I fell behind. Suddenly, he'd twisted around and grabbed my wrist.
I woke up from the memory to find something binding my wrist. I resisted at first until I grasped the fact that it was just Dante, trying to make me catch up. I felt exhilarated, some sort of hidden stores of energy opening up deep within me.
I made it to the very edge of the guys, not quite falling behind but not quite in their group. It was only Dante's strong hold that kept me there.
The last 200 metres consisted of an obstacle course. They went single file, vaulting over the benches, hanging from the chin-up bars and inching along. I was relieved I wasn't in the middle because I would've slowed everyone down. Those strange reserves of energy weren't lasting for the strength part.
At the very end, I dropped down from the chin-up bar, absolutely shattered. Dante came over to me and placed a hand on my shoulder.
"You alright?" he asked.
I nodded, not quite got my breath back yet. Once I was able to inhale and exhale properly again, I smiled up at him.
"By the way, thank you for helping me earlier."
He stared at me, stunned. His cheeks went a little pink and he gave a feeble smile.
"You're welcome."
For a moment, we just stood there in silence. It was a nice silence, appreciative in a way. In the middle of our little moment, Ferris and the other two guys approached.
"Okay Pinks, time's up for today. You may leave."
"Sure," I responded. "Is it at the same time tomorrow?"
"Based on today, I guess you can come back. But I'd like to see some improvement or else."
I stared. "Or else what?"
Suddenly, Ferris' expression changed. I felt a shiver run up my spine and I knew I'd overstepped some sort of boundary. Before Ferris could advance, Dante placed a hand on his chest and gave him a meaningful look. "Prince, she didn't know. Calm down," he said. Ferris composed himself then turned and walked off with Gabriel and Elijah in tow.
"Prisoners! Time to move!"
I lifted my gaze to the voice. It was the guard. Dante looked at me worriedly.
"Has she seen you?"
I shrugged. "Doesn't matter if she has. As long as she counts four of you going in, it doesn't matter if she sees me here now."
"Why?" he asked, puzzled.
"She's an underage, one of the children who joined early. Probably barely over 13."
He handed me my jacket. "We need to talk later. I have some questions for you and I'm sure you have some for me right?"
I nodded. "Yeah. Just tell me when and I'll come by and sit outside your cell."
He contemplated for a moment. "Can't you get into our cell? Like I don't expect you'll have a key or anything but it'd be easier to convince Prince to let us talk if you're, well, within his grasp."
I nodded. "I understand. I'll see what I can do.
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