The dry air inside the bulk machine, which somewhat looked like a car, was a temporary prison for the three musketeers.
Orette, a small, timid sixteen-year-old, found herself sitting before Rosabella Skylar and her cousin, Kenneth Wallace.
The three sat in silence as the bulk carried them swiftly across the sky towards the H.Q of the people controlling the bulk machine. Lorenzo and Morticia.
The atmosphere was too thick for our dear Orette to break from, she who once praises silence, now wished someone to entertain.
Kenneth Wallace, who was known as Kace by Rosabella (and the author), simply shifted his gaze from Orette and his cousin, knowing something would put oil to the flame.
Rosabella Skylar, short for Rosa, fiercely stared at Orette, as Orette was playing with the chains that restrained her.
She didn't match Rosa's gaze; in fact, she didn't even talk to Rosa when she got on the machine. Kace, desperately trying to get Orette's attention, failed to do so, when all of a sudden, Rosa said.
"Is there something you want to tell us?"
Kace and Orette both turned their attention towards her. Orette acted a bit stunned as she stared at her.
"Well?" Rosa continued, "Anything?"
Orette rested her back against the wall. "What do you want me to say?" she said, "I don't really think I have anything to say."
The blunt response made Rosa furious with rage. "Liar!" Rosa spat with anger. "I know they told you something; you were too long with them."
Orette gave it a second. A moment ago, she wished for some entertainment, but now she wished to go back to the sweet silence.
"Listen. Even if I tell you what they told me, you are just going to make a big deal about it."
"And why would I do that?"
"Because it is a big thing to make a deal about it."
...
"Dang it!"
Rose wrapped her chained hands on her face, covering her frustration with a thin line of tears. Her body shivered by the second, and at some point, she gave up trying to hide the hiccups of her crying.
"Does it include us risking our lives?"
Orette turns towards Kace, who was making the most pathetic face she had ever seen. Now this was the part where she gave a direct answer.
"Yes."
A small and simple word made them crumble even more than they already were.
Kace jerked her back against the wall. Rosa continued crying silently, and Orette sat in silence, knowing that Lorenzo and Morticia were listening to them.
She knew very well that, unlike Ivan, those two had some level of humanity left in them.
With a deep breath, she closed her eyes and let the impulse in her body take control of the other brain sectors in front of her.
Her body jerked at the sudden pain, but she knew a few tears were okay since the scene was already made.
"Nice acting, guys", Orette said mentally in her mind. "Knew it, you guys could pull it up."
"Before you do something like this again, make sure to give us a head start. I don't know how long I could fake cry", Rosa complained through utter chaos.
"Well, I'm sorry, but we clearly needed time before we go through this and miss Skylar, you look pretty normal with your tears."
"You haven't seen what I could pull if it weren't for these chains and this stupid collar. Why did they make it so uncomfortable?"
"I can't believe you are changing the subject."
"Who said I'm changing? I simply stated my opinion."
"Well, no one cares."
"I didn't ask you."
"You should."
"And why is that?"
"You are in my mind, this is how close you will ever get to touching me."
"Is that a challenge?_"
"Ladies, ladies!" Kace joined the chat box, "I think that's enough."
Both girls shrank in silence,
"Remember, Orette doesn't have much time; she is suffering with intense pain. Let's wrap this up quick." Kace turns to Orette.
She caught her signal and began to clear her throat. "As you might have guessed, those people are going to use us not as human beings but as soldiers."
"So they are going to make us fight some bad guys". Rosa interrupted.
"Worst. Apparently, what they explained to me is that there will be some unnamed portals that call themselves the Void. It brings out some creatures from another dimension that are harmful to the people. So in short, we have to fight and kill these monsters to protect the humans."
Kace took a minute to ask, "Did they tell you how to close the portal, knowing it's an unnamed portal? How does one control it?"
"Ivan did say something that the presence of void portals increased as soon as we escaped his grasp, so naturally, I believe we have something to do related to the source."
"More like it's the syrium that's the problem," Rosa argued when she suddenly changed the subject. "What about my mother? Is she okay?"
"Don't know. Ivan told me he made an excuse for my disappearance to my parents. I believe he did the same to your mother."
"And what was it?"
"Something about me going on a trip to a science fair."
"And they just believe it?" Kace asked with confusion.
Orette gave one look of defeat. "Yeah...they did."
"Really?" Rosa glared with her sarcastic glaze. "I mean, they must have noticed your absence for like_" She counted her fingers, "Two weeks."
"Yeah, well..." Orette hid her sulky face with her palms, "It's a complicated relationship!?"
Rosa and Kace stared at each other, then at the small, crumbling girl, who was sulking with her eyes cast out.
"You forgot about them, didn't you?" Rosa glared at her with sharp lashes.
"No~" Orette whispered in her child's voice.
"You definitely forgot about them." Kace stared down at Orette as he was looking at a forgetful child who forgot something; he shouldn't.
"I was busy, okay! Really, I was!" Orette got her stamina back. "There was sooo much going on, I didn't... I... I don't want them to see me like this." She extended her arms sideways to show her figure.
There was nothing but a slim girl with bloody and wet clothes.
Rosa and Kace, again, exchanged glances and came to a point where they sympathised with the girl in front of them. Enough to know she was lying to them, but they did recognise the fact that whatever was happening to them must be kept a secret.
"Fine, whatever." Rosa showed her frustration with a headache, "What about our school? I hope they have considered something about our education?"
"They did, in fact, they said that they were going to be in charge of it."
"Let's take that as a positive approach", added Kace. "At least they care for our education, or to keep us alive."
"As the next generation," Rosa whispered under her breath.
"As test subjects." Orette corrected her.
Rosa snared at her, "Yeah, yeah...what are we going to do? If we are going to be used like before, then we need a plan to avoid whatever comes our way."
...
"I don't think there is going to be a formative plan." Kace cuts the silence.
"He's right, we don't know what they are planning to do now", Orette agrees with him, "Let's play along for now, we aren't powerful enough to take them alone, and they are also familiar with the military."
"I hate it when a third party is involved, I mean, why bring the shitty military into this?" Asked Rosa.
"Oh! I don't know? Maybe they knew that a certain extraordinary someone was coming to save a damsel in distress." Answered Orette.
"Well, they should know that I don't need someone extraordinary to save me." Rosa protested against her.
"You kinda did."
"Tha_"
"Don't fight." Kace interrupted them, he turns to Rosa, "She's right, without her, saving you was not possible."
"Shit!"
Orette faces her and smiles, almost extending it to her eyes.
Rosa could already guess what the insufferable being was thinking.
"What we really need to talk about is the data I acquired when we were releasing you." (Kace)
Kace gave one look to Orette and then turned to Rosa. "When you were imprisoned, there was some data mentioned in the control panel."
"It displayed some information that we didn't know, but we believe is important to us," Orette further added.
"Do you think it has something to do with me?", Rosa asked with curiosity.
"That's the problem", Kace said, "We don't know if it's related to you or anyone we know. When I started to hack to unbuckel your chains, I used a personal code of my own, but it couldn't work to access that data."
"You still have the USB with you, right?" asked Orette.
"Yeah, I have it with me, but I'm still not confident that I could crack it. From what I had gathered, this is very delicate info that we stole, which means it's really hard to access."
"If it's hard, then it must be valuable. Hey!" Rosa turned to Orette, "Do you think they know about this whole thing?"
"The stealing part, yes. The telepathy part, no."
"Then what can we do to overcome it?" Kace interrupted.
"We could fake steal it?" Orette suggested.
"I don't know what it means, and I don't want to know what it means...we are not going to access the information...yet," Rosa commanded.
"You sure that's a good idea?" Kace said, "I mean, this could really be helpful in the future."
"I know that, I'm not an idiot, Kace, but right now we have to save ourselves, and not make things dirty for us."
"You mean helplessly giving in to their control until they think of you as their minion and erase the idea that you are planning for their downfall." Orette summarize to shock everyone.
"Yeah..." Rosa begins to stand firm, "That. That was just what I was thinking."
"And what if it doesn't work? What if they don't believe us?"
"Then we just have to be very good at being useless", Orette said with a huge smile, "And you know how very good we in doing that."
"We are gonna get ourselves killed." (Kace)
"No, we are not." (Rosa)
"The capital of Italy is Russia." (Orette)