Plans

“We’re sending something through, give us a moment Gab.”

He leaned back against the crumbling stone wall as he listened to Awa snore, her head on his lap.
“So…” The woman asked. “What do you want to do when you get back Gab?”

Her voice felt soothing.

“Dunno. See my family then.. probably just go back to school or something.” he said, closing his eyes as a breeze from the vents above them ruffled his hair.

“Your family.” The woman said. “Yes… yes of course.”

Gab could dimly make out a murmur of voices from behind the woman.

“...it’s coming, get ready.”

Before the radio a small round mirror appeared, catching the light before falling on Awa’s face and waking her up with a snort.

“Awa not appreciate attack.” She mumbled sleepily, grabbing a hold of the mirror and looking at it with drooping eyes.

“We need more information on that lock, use this to take a look.” Buzzed the radio.

He would but…

Awa was tilting the mirror in fascination, pulling open her mouth to look at her fangs and tilting her ears to see what they looked like.

“He he.” She grinned up at Gab, before pulling open her nostrils to look inside. “Awa majestic.”

“Yes, yes.” Gab said placatingly, plucking the mirror from her fingers. “Very majestic.”

“Awa look at self more later.” She declared, eyes drooping sleepily once more as she slumped back down on his lap.

“Majestic moon tribe...”

She grumbled in her sleep as he pulled her head off his lap, taking the radio with him as skulked across to the gate leading out of the pits, dangling the mirror on the other side.

“Compared to your thumbnail, how large is the keyway?” asked the woman.

“Two… no wait… maybe two and a half of my thumbnails in height, maybe one across, it’s shaped like the letter I.”

“Good, most likely a simple warded lock.” The voice on the radio sounded satisfied. “We’ll start sending keys for you to test, are you ready?”

Gab laid his shirt down around the radio, giving the pens one final check for any slaves still awake before assenting.
A key fell onto his shirt, muffling the thunk of metal on stone.

“If the key turns make sure you close it again, do not allow that door to open, we’re not nearly ready enough.”

He slid the key into the door with sweaty hands, struggling to turn it.

“It’s not working.” He whispered.

“No matter, there are only so many possibilities.” The woman reassured him, voice echoing through the quiet pens. “Try this.”
He tried the next key they sent through.

“It moved… but it’s getting stuck, about halfway at the bottom.”

“We’re close.” The radio paused. “This should do it”

As a key appeared before him Gab heard a tortured scream from the other side of the radio, the agonised howl continuing until he desperately turned down the radio, looking around to ensure none of the slaves had awoken.

“Flatlining…” A mess of voices sounded on the other side of the radio. “We lost one.”....

“What was that?” Gab asked in horror as the radio finally grew silent, the woman returning to the other side.

“Nothing. Just… a little trial and error.” She said calmly. “It appears we have found the limit of how much we can send over at a time.”

“Go on, give it a try.”

His heart raced as the key turned.

“It worked.”

…

“It’s ok.” Gab assured Awa. “You can give her some.”
Awa nodded happily, running over on all fours to hand a woman some bread and pat the head of the child she held in her arms.

The old beastman's woman.

He never returned from the last march.

Gab turned the volume on the radio up as he talked to the woman on the other side, drawing glances from the other slaves in the pen.

They probably thought him mad, yet something like that was all too common here.

“And when they interrogated you, they killed the girl with you?”

“Mhm.” Gab’s hand clenched down on the radio. “Mel.”

A voice whispered from behind the woman.

“Page 11 of his file. The neighbour's daughter, her sister attended the same school as him.”

“I see.” The woman paused. “We’ll… tell her family.”

In the corner of the pen Awa was playing with the baby, scrunching up her face and hiding her eyes to make the young boy giggle.

And yet, meters away from them a pair of slaves prodded an unmoving beast man, stripping the dead man naked before they began cutting away at his skin, tough and leathery, perfect for making the pouches they used to carry dust.

Gab leaned back against the pen wall, jagged stone digging into his back as a group of unfamiliar slaves entered the pen, one of them whispering as he passed, the tattoo of a flower on his neck.

“Tonight.”

“The twelfth?” Asked the radio once they had vanished.

“Yes.” Gab said, waving Awa back to his side.

The woman on the radio clicked her tongue in frustration.

“We’re not ready, but we can’t pass up an opportunity like this…. Gab, we’re going to have to send it in pieces. Be ready.”

A moment later a piece of paper materialized before him, Awa snatching it eagerly out of the air and squinting in confusion.

“Can’t read, what is it?” She asked eagerly, passing it to him.

“Instructions…” Gab muttered, eyes flickering over the paper in surprise. “For assembling a gun.”