SERRAMONTOYA
Led through one of the winding corridors she’d never seen before, Luna followed anxiously in a row of fellow refugees and devoted Kage enthusiasts. They stopped when they reached the closed door and waited, silent, for what felt like an insufferably long time to Luna. Finally the door opened, not gliding into the stone walls like all other doors, but unfolding themselves outwardly. The heavy dull metal scraped along the stone floor, assaulting their ears with a harsh, high-pitched screech. Luna winced, most people covered their ears out of reflex.
Wolf appeared then. His arms behind his back as he looked down the row of curious eyes. Luna thought he paused at her for a second, but the time was so minute only she could have noticed if he had. She shook her head. She had to focus. She was promised answers and she had to forget about the pain creeping up her body from withdrawal. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. I will not throw up, she willed her body to submit.
Someone behind her, a girl with white blonde hair and icy blue eyes completely surrounded by thick back makeup pushed her forward. She sneered and pushed Luna again. The gap ahead of her had grown large in her meditation and Luna walked briskly to catch up. She avoided eye contact with Wolf as she passed by him. His arms still pulled behind him. It made his chest look bigger, more muscular. It made her feel strange and the nauseous feeling tried to grow stronger.
They took their place in unassigned seats. No one sat near Luna except the girl with Husky eyes. She put her feet up on the back of Luna’s chair, kicking her in the head. Luna looked over her shoulder, the girl’s lip twisted upward into a snarl as she leaned back and got comfortable. Luna got up and moved to a different seat as far back as she could get so no one could sit behind her.
The lights dimmed and the film began. She couldn’t help remembering all the times she had presented a film to new employees of ESCD. How she and Acteon would stand, watching the crowd watch the movie. She would notice the realizations and epiphanies playing out on their faces as the information soaked into their brains. As if everything they’d noticed and wondered about the world made sense even though it had always been this way since they could remember.
She wondered what realizations she might have to because of this film.
As the opening credits ended, propaganda pieces throughout the past 100 years flashed for a few moments, a man’s smiling face appeared on the screen as she sat perched in a black leather wingback chair in a dorm room bigger than any others she had seen.
She gasped and the blonde girl shushed her. Wolf sat down beside her then. The younger face of her grandfather looked out at them. His hair was only slightly peppery, beginning to turn silver. She’d only remembered his hair being white, like the rest of Higher Class as if he’d been born with it.
“Welcome to Kage,” he said in his baritone that vibrated even through film. “I’m Thomas Pallas and I’m sure you have some idea of that name.
“I’m a politician, descended from a long line of councilmen.”
Luna was transfixed, she barely registered the woodsy scent of Wolf beside her.”
“The history of our supposed utopian society is nothing more than a fear tactic used to keep the masses at bay and under control. I’ve grown up knowing this fact and I’ve been working hard since before you were born to bring down the corruption.
“The ideas and basis for our world today were brought about by care and concern for the human race, it’s true. But man is a wicked, flawed, and fallible beast, easily corrupted by power and greed. I will get around to that as we continue. First, I want to let you in on our infrastructure here at Kage and make you keenly aware of just how deep our roots go.”
From there, Thomas broke down the hierarchy of Kage. The Elders, the ones who’d been around since its earliest inception and built the foundation (literally). These men and women made up of councilman, professionals, Police, street vendors, bar owners, all kinds of people in varying employment in all societal levels. He explained that while the Empresses were technically born into their rules, it was a democratic monarchy in which people could vote someone else to power, but never seemed to.
“In truth our empresses both past and present are not our enemy,” Thomas said. “They have their beginnings in Kage, you see. Including our present day empresses, of course. Born into their roles as rulers of each Epicenter, all seven of them have been raised by parents who were raised by parents who helped me begin Kage on the ideas that if we hold the top-most power we can make a change.
“But,” he paused. “Change is slow. We’ve spent the last thirty years building foot holds, a name for ourselves, and an army of followers. Only when we have the strongest possible unit can our movement come up from the shadows into the light and topple the system.
“The catalyst may not be far off. No one know exactly what or who could start our revolution.”
Luna was aware of the eyes turned towards her. The rumors in Kage were that she was working with The Elders to bring down the system she’d been a pawn for. She still didn’t know how to feel about that word, “pawn.”
Truly, she loved Zero and missed him. She wondered about him, her family, and her friends every day. But she couldn’t deny the facts: the medication had stopped working for her and there wasn’t a new one to replace it this time. As the withdrawals increased, so did visions (memories) of her past and her life didn’t add up every time they occurred.
What made more sense to her as the drug’s effects wore off and she became someone new (or rather, a previous version of herself), she had growing interest in Wolf and he always seemed to be in her path. Training was something he did for everyone, it made sense for him to be there with her for that. But as she’d gotten to know the Kage underground facility and a handful of people who didn’t avoid her or treat her like the general plague, he never spoke to anyone, let alone to find out how they were doing.
What was it Stellar had told her once, “We all know he cares about people, especially the ones ruined by The Healing, but he’s a fortress. He doesn’t let anyone in in order to protect himself.”
She glanced at him, realizing she hadn’t heard any of the movie for quite a while. She saw him turn to look at her when she shifted in her seat and she inhaled. Her fingers were twitching, something in her wanted to touch him, to hold his hand in the darkness of the theater.
She had seen humans touching all over this facility and nothing ever happened to them. No one became ill or died, and no one came to arrest them, strap them down to a cold metal bed and send electricity into their frontal lobes.
She uncrossed her legs, trading places so her right foot was close to his leg. He looked back to the movie and they both pretended to watch. Her stomach was fluttering, her mouth was dry, and she found it hard to breathe. She moved her foot further up her left thigh so it moved closer to his leg. She saw his leg move to meet her foot and even though the thick leather booth was between them, when they touched she thought she might explode into stardust.
She held her breath, her fingers begging to touch his skin just to see what would happen. He cleared his throat and shifted his wait onto his right arm on the armrest between them. His hand dangled over the point where his leg met her foot. Her left hand, itching in her lap, slid down her thigh and she turned it palm-down. She didn’t know if she was still holding her breath or not. She thought she must be breathing if she were still conscious. She saw his chest rise and fall against the light from the screen and she raised her hand slowly towards his, keeping her palm down.
His chest tightened and she wondered if he know what she were attempting, if he approved. When the tips of his fingers touched the back of her hand, they both went still all over, eyes fixed on the screen, breathing shallowed. Just as she thought to move her hand away, he grabbed hold of it, lacing his fingers with hers and she could feel the glittering universe inside of her awaken.
Just before the movie ended and the light came on, he let go of her hand and stood by the door, hands behind his back once again.