Secret Aversion

Chapter 3

*Ari's POV*

        I hadn’t seen Arian for a couple of days, and neither had I seen the Donegans. It was days of work, and not once have we stepped out of the Platforms. It was eat, work, eat, work, eat, sleep, and repeat. Basically, we were slave machines receiving a more respectful treatment.

          The food parcels weren’t enough for most of us, and we got hungrier every day. The squads patrolling us remained lenient for the first week, and I wondered if they had their own opinions on how the Project worked.

          Repetitions often made people get used to their circumstances, and by the first week, we had gotten used to sleeping, eating, and getting confined in a cell. In the bathrooms, there were a few introductions between the girls and more words were spoken with comfort.

          It was at work today I had finally found Crimson. She was the first person I met in school when I moved to Brilliant Cove, and the first friend I had made. She was about to scream in joy when she saw me but I put a finger to my lips. As usual, she managed to be stylish in her uniform, with her shirt tucked in and pants rolled up. The land she worked on was far away from mine, but we could meet each other after work or in the bathrooms.

          One of the squad members wandered around my land, and I glanced at her briefly. Her curly, black hair was braided to the side, she had a round piercing hooked to her nose, and four other piercings along her ear. With her green polo shirt and green pants, she wore a green hat shading half of her face.

          She caught me staring. “Yes?” she said. I had too many questions, but tried to make this easy for both of us.

          “Am I allowed to talk to you?” I asked, and she narrowed her eyes. “Um, in general, generally, normally.”

          “You can talk to me.” She adjusted the hat on her head. “I have orders to assist you and make sure you’re working.”

          I removed one of the weeds, tossing it into the pile I’d made next to my feet. “Don’t mind me asking, but…are you called the ‘squad’ or do you have a different name?”

          “Are you asking me because you’re curious?” Her sudden change of tone made me shut up instantly. “For your satisfaction, the ‘Green Squad’ is enough.”

          “The Green Squad. You guys are much nicer than the agents,” I murmured, wiping my forehead.

          “You’d think.” She began to move to the other Platform members. “This is only the second week.” It was, and it was such a drag. But talking to this woman didn’t kill me. In fact, talking among ourselves on the fields shouldn’t kill us either.

          In the bathrooms, Crimson complained nonstop about our imprisonment and the s******c Project leaders. The girls around us gave her weird looks, wondering if she had a death wish. That was Crimson, couldn’t hold onto her thoughts for long.

          “I’m so glad we found each other,” Crimson said, drying herself. “I was going crazy not being able to talk for literally an entire week. I couldn’t find my band members from music class, and I don’t get along with the rest of school.”

          “Give it some time,” I told her. “We could be going through worse. We're only making the land crop-worthy. Sure, we sweat buckets but it’s not that bad.”

          “For you, maybe.” We walked out the bathrooms, heading to our cells. “I’m dying slowly, every day. It sucks.” Crimson took the first left and I had to continue the other way.

          This was our first laundry day, and the day of replacing our supply packages and getting our paper and stationary. All clothes went into a single hamper, and I assumed they’d all get washed together and redistributed. It made no difference since they were the same size.

          My dinner arrived sometime later, and along with that, an agent came in to inspect the cell and give me the new supply package. The package was slightly wider than the one before, and it contained a tiny notebook with a single pen.

          What should I write? I pulled out my phone from my pocket. It had been dead for a few days now, but I had kept it with me at all times. It reminded me of Arian’s last message. It reminded me of him. He was right, they got us paper. What did he intend by telling me there were cracks under the wall?

          Pushing my food parcel back through the flap, I bent against the wall and looked through the cracks. Again, a thin line of light peeped out. If I slid a piece of paper through it, would it go to the cell beside mine?

          I couldn’t risk it, especially with agents inspecting our cells. But I wasn’t able to stop myself as I wrote on one of the pages. This could be a way to communicate with whoever was in that cell. For time-pass, fun, or to not feel alone.

          Hi, I’m Ari, the person beside your cell. I found cracks under my cell wall and thought you might see this if I made it go through. I had to squeeze in the last word and capped the pen. Praying this wasn’t a mistake, I flicked it through the cracks.

          Out of all the negatives and positives of being evacuated, sleeping was one of the most convenient. We had plenty of hours of sleep, and doing what we did on that damaged field, we needed it.

          It was completely dark, and there was no heat or air conditioning. These were a lot of adjustments, and we weren’t allowed to refuse them. If Mom was here…I didn’t know what she’d do. We’d have been separated,to separate Platforms.

          The memories of my family, and my experiences in Brilliant Cove put me to sleep everyday. There weren’t any nightmares, but the only fear of screwing up. It seemed all nice and friendly now, but Nightingale was unpredictable. No. The Donegans were unpredictable.

          In a half sleeping, half dreaming state, I heard a quiet beep and wasn’t sure if it was in my sleep or for real. Blinking my eyes open, it was hard to see who had come in. I heard no footsteps, yet the presence of someone else neared my bed.

          “Who is it?” I said in a jolt.

          “Shh. Come with me.” A rush of relief and happiness filled me, hearing Arian’s voice. It felt like an eternity since I’d heard him.

          I got off my bed, holding his hand tightly as he guided me through the dark. I heard another beep as he locked the door, and we followed the path that took us out of the tunnel.

          I saw more light out in the open, and a sky full of clouds. We didn’t wear helmets as we got on his bike. On the road with the wind slapping my cheeks, I never wanted this moment to end. Resting my head against Arian’s back, a sigh escaped my lips.

          “Where are we going?” I asked him with my eyes closed. If he said ‘out of here’, I knew I wouldn’t be surprised somehow.

          “A place to ourselves,” he answered instead. This sounded much better, more realistic. And it made my heart jump.

          We didn’t go to the great-wall-of-the-Donegans’-mansion, and neither did we pass by the border. Soon, I could neither see the Platforms, nor the fences. It was a vast area of trees, gnarled roots in the ground, and funky trails.

          We had to get off the bike and Arian put it next to one of the trees. It was one of the tallest, widest trees I’d ever seen before, considering the fact it was nighttime.

          “Look over there,” Arian said, and I faced the same direction as him.

          My blood ran cold at what I saw. The woods came to an end here, presenting a vast amount of land with hundreds of stumps scattered everywhere. In the dark, it was a complete murk of ruins. The space of the forest we’d went through was nothing compared to how much I could see cut down to the horizon.

          “Is this why not a lot of people live here?” I asked quietly. It was a mass of wasted space, and the expense to restore it would go through the roof.

          “One of the reasons," he said. I held the nearest tree branch and pulled myself up. “You’re not climbing a tree.”

          “I need to see properly.” I was a monkey grabbing branches and hoisting myself up to the branches before Arian could reach me. “If you’re worried, come with me.” I settled on a thick, hard branch that gave me a clear view of all the land below me. Arian climbed the tree in no time, standing on a branch behind me. “Was this part of the Project?” I said, my eyes skirting to millions of tree stumps all over the place like little pimples on the ground.

          “The Nightingale Amelioration Project is not a project to improve the city anymore,” Arian said, his breath hitting the top of my head. “It is to benefit from the city, and its natural resources. The Donegans are a huge family running multiple businesses internationally. But the tension between Nightingale and Brilliant Cove is their ancestral problem.”

          “Ancestral?” A whole chain of vengeance carried through generations—it sounded awful.

          “I don’t want to talk about this.” 

          Neither did I, but there was much to the story I didn’t know. “Did you see your family?” I asked, changing the topic.

          “Ally’s in Platform B Unit 3. She’s the only one I saw.” He held the branch I was sitting on. “Your phone’s dead?” I nodded and gave it to him. “I’ll recharge it.”

          “Where are you staying?” I had never gotten the opportunity to ask, but where did the Officials, the Green Squads, and the Agents live?

          “It doesn’t matter,” Arian said. I rubbed Mom’s necklace at the side of my neck. “The workload is going to grow. You have to be ready.”

          “I’m fine since I love gardening,” I said, and laughed a little. “I mean, this isn’t a-b-c-1-2-3 work, but I’m fine with it.” I wasn’t failing. “By the way, I met Crimson today and this weird squad lady.”

          “You met a…?” Arian caught on and he became serious. “You have to be careful. Knowing you, you’d get into trouble without even noticing.”

          I turned my head, frowning at him. “I’m not that bad. I survived for a whole week and obeyed the agents. Plus, I didn’t talk since I don’t have anyone to talk to anyway.” Then there was the paper. “But I did write a note. I used those cracks under the wall you messaged me about so I could communicate with my neighbour. Will I get into trouble for that?” My brows furrowed when he kept staring at me. “Arian?”

          His hand lifted, brushing my cheek as he tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. “We need to get you a comb.” What? There was no relation to what he said and what I was talking about. He didn't even answer my question.

          I touched my hair. “We have to use our fingers. There were rubber bands in the supply package.”

          He raised his eyebrows. “I don’t know whether I’m impressed or I should smash his skull.” He saw my perplexed expression and clarified. “Emerson. Both Donegans.”

        “You hate them that much?” I said, and he was silent for a minute. “I understand why you would. But you started hating them after what happened to Archie, right?” More silence. Archie’s family used to live in my house before I moved to Brilliant Cove as Arian’s neighbour. He was Arian’s childhood friend who had been killed in an evacuation held years ago. It was as if I took the beloved place of Archie by moving to that house, and Arian had always treated me like a stranger for that reason. “What’s running in your head?” I asked, hopeful he’d answer.

          “I get pissed when someone talks about Archie,” he said. He was in a trance, on memory-lane perhaps. “But when you bring him up, it’s odd how indulging it is.”

          “Because I replace him,” I said, suppressing a smile when Arian’s face hardened. Archie had nothing to do with why Arian chose to protect me from the city’s dangers, but I still didn’t know why exactly he did it. “I’m kidding! I’m kidding,” I said. “Really though, did you become an agent because of him? Are you here now because of him?”

          “He was the spark.” Arian nodded. “Right now, I’m here because of you.” Oh, well, I didn’t mean it like that. But either way, it sent a tingle down my spine. I wanted these little, peaceful moments with Arian, even if it wasn't for long. 

          “Won’t anybody see us?” I asked. He told me all the agents were off from work past midnight. “It’s past midnight?”

          “Yeah.” He started climbing down. “We should go.” .

          I didn’t want to leave, but went back towards the ground. Arian must’ve jumped off because he got there damn quickly. It made me nervous as he watch me struggle. He didn’t help out.

          On the way back, my eyes had adjusted to the dark and I was able to see the dirt path we drove on. I’d hate to go back to the forest in daylight, and clearly see the degree of destruction at that area. The Project shouldn’t be called the Nightingale ‘Amelioration’ Project. It was full of nasty irony.

          Once we got off the bike, we held hands as we went to my section. Was this going to happen all the time? Were we going to hold hands like a normal couple? Were we a couple? I wanted us to be. Although we were in enemy territory, stuck in a adverse situation, it amazed me to see how we could make this work.

          I didn’t let go when we reached my bed. “When will I see you again?” I asked, dreading to have him leave.

          “I don’t know,” he admitted, squeezing my hand in his. “As soon as I can.” And I’d wait for him as long as he took. Just a minute with him somehow put my mind to ease.

          For someone who thrived for a nice, loving family, there was no one here for me when I needed them the most. It fed on my isolation. I had Arian, though. Having someone to talk to and hold onto was replenishing. It gave me assurance and safety.

          You needed people in your life. It was impossible to run on your wheels. I could be as independent as I wanted, but where did my emotions come into play without another person?

          I promised myself to thank Arian. He had done a lot for me, and I’d try my best to repay him back.