Epilogue

Water dripped against my back–soaking through the paperlike prison blanket covering me from my cold cell.

The officers hadn’t wasted a second tossing me in here without a single connection to the outside world. One hit to the head after Sky started to speak, next thing I knew two buff men were dragging me like a ragdoll before throwing me back in the same rusty damn cell I’d just escaped. Time truly was a circle.

It’d been a week, if that since. Time was so hard to calculate when my only symbol of time passing was the guard passing my food tray through the little hole halfway down the door.

I took a bit of today’s rassions–white bread and jam with a cup of water. At least the food was half decent.

Yet, I couldn’t help but be restless. Here I was wrapped in a blanket eating while Kat and Sky were who knows where. I’d tried asking the guards whenever they passed, yet all I’d get was a sneer at most. However, they did seem to stay awfully far away from my door.

Someone must have snitched—looser pig.

For being a prisoner locked away in such a secret place, everything sure felt boring. The movies never said the real punishment for committing a felony was boredom.

Saying that, I’d take this over getting my head immediately chopped off any day, so who was I to complain?”

I leaped up after finishing the last of my food and collapsed on the rickety bed. For being nothing but a set of broken springs and a thin layer of fabric I’d somehow still slept in worse. Anything beats the cold hard ground.

“BZZZ,” I glanced up, an officer stood at attention at my now open door–issued baton in hand. “Asta King, your presence is required at the exchange center.”

“Exchange what? Never mind,” I leaped back up. Long as he didn’t say execution center who was I to turn down a chance to get out of my suffocating box? “Lead the way. Oh, and you don’t need to worry about any punches this time around.”

He ignored me as I walked out, though I could see his shoulders relaxing ever so slightly. What had those cops said about me?

The walk wasn’t that long this time around. My thoughts wandered off as he led me through the rows of cells. Maybe before I’d bother to look around a bit. Not anymore, I didn’t need to know what kinds of people got thrown down here, good or bad I didn’t really want to have that knowledge.

“Asta,” Just as we reached the room Kat nearly tackled me to the ground.

“Kat! What… what the hell are you doing down here?”

“Getting you of course,” she said, grabbing my arm. “One week down here is enough to drive anyone crazy.”

“Wait wait wait, slow down Kat. Did they not lock you up as well?” I asked.

“Originally, just for a day. The protests got loud enough they had to release me before debates ended to quiet them down a bit.”

Protests? Debates? Damn how much had I missed? “Whatever, explain it to me later.”

Another guard came in carrying a familiar sack of clothes and objects. “There's a changing room next door. You have five minutes to get ready.”

“A–am I really getting out of here, just like that?”

“Those were my orders, part of the debate agreement from what I’ve heard. Some of the guards may disagree, but we're here to take orders and nothing else.”

“Thanks…” I quickly grabbed my stuff, throwing it on like my life depended on it.

I walked with Kat and the guards as they took the same paths I’d walked with Professor Juri just a week before. Only, this time there were no threats over my head.

We reached the exit leading to Protel’s underground without much in the way of fanfare. The guard left us with two different guys as we walked through the trash filled heap that lay under the school.

“All of this started here…” I muttered to Kat. “All this because of a glorified bloody trash heap.”

“Think about it, if we had never come down here, maybe Caspian never gets that video off, you never find out the truth and they murder him without a hint for you to follow.”

“Or maybe they never murder him.”

“That's true,” Kat paused, still staring straight ahead. “Or maybe they do. Even with all Iero’s tech we still can’t turn back the clock. No point wondering what could have been.”

“You know, that may be the most philosophical thing I’ve ever heard from your mouth Kat.”

“I design buildings not quotes, but are they really that different? Oh, and get ready, outside may be a little much.”

“A little much? What do you–”

The second the door leading back towards the surface opened, a roar of applause shot through the air. Students, teachers, random civilians, all of them cheered at my arrival. Police officers held back the crowds as I slowly walked through the student union–nice of them to do something productive for the first time in their lives.”

“Loud, right?”

“Crap!” I jumped back as Sky appeared right behind my shoulder. “Holy… don’t scare me like that.” Sky scaring me? Maybe my time in prison had changed me more than I thought.

“When you get through the crowds let’s meet at your apartment, I’m sure you're confused about everything going on.” He said.

                                                                      * * *

“Everything moved pretty fast once you got arrested.” Sky leaned back in my desk chair, glancing at some white screen to the left. “The officers took their sweet time. I was able to tell our whole story, as well as show a few of the videos before they finally took me down. But by then it was too late.”

“Cat’s out of the bag now,” Kat said, sipping on a coffee.

“Yep. I don’t know the whole details, but some influential banker stormed into the Prime Chancellor's office, demanding to hear everything. They called both me and Kat to his office to plead our case.”

“But not me?”
“You were considered too much of a security risk after shooting Professor Juri. Not that it mattered much. That debate ended the second I made that announcement.” Sky sighed. “I just… Do you think we made the right decision Asta?”

“Are you kidding me? This again?”

“How many people do you think are willingly going to sign up for voluntary torture, because its that or the exact same system we have now, but people know what’s coming. Face it Asta, no one wanted this.”

“But still–”

“It’s a trolly problem right? Pull the lever and a select group of people feel infinite pain, or let the trolly pass by and the whole of Iero has a power issue. I used to be on the same side as you two? But talking to the Prime Chancellor changed my views a bit.”

“We will just have to see.” I sighed. “I have faith in the people of Iero, we'll solve this somehow.”

All I can do is carry on Caspian’s legacy. I stood up, stretching my arms. “Enough said talk, prison food is great and all, but I could kill for some ice cream.”

“Allright,” Sky sighed, getting up with Kat right behind.

And with that we walked out the door, ready to face a new Iero.

                                                                          END