Chapter 2 (Arc 1: Rebels and The Hurricane)

Morning crept slowly for the prisoners. Or maybe that was just Sorin. He was used to having less sleep than most of everyone and he was an early riser. To him, of course, the night curfew's end seemed longer. So he tried to spend that time warming his body up for the day but that was difficult to do with the sleek marble floor still wet from the rainwater that had managed to come in. He had to try his best not to slip on the water while he did his routine warm-up exercises. He figured that this would be one way people might keep themselves sane while they were in prison.

Elliot woke up right before the guard opened the door to let them out for the day. Sorin found that it was 8 o'clock in the morning when they were let out. They were immediately made to line up once they got outside their cells and led to the showers. They were communal showers with no stalls or curtains to hide their bodies from each other. There were three bathrooms. One for males, one for females and one was gender neutral. Only the gender neutral one seemed to have stalls but it had only four stalls that meant there was a long queue for it. Those who finished showering were taken to the dining hall for breakfast.


The two cellmates got separated after the showers. Sorin tried to look for his cellmate but to no avail. So he gave up and went to the dining hall thinking he might find him there. However, more than three thousand people were seated in one place together. The chances of finding him or his squad members in this crowd were pretty slim. He sighed and decided to sit anywhere where there would be an empty spot. 

The line for getting the food was long and after that the time it took to look for an empty spot was longer. He couldn't even eat while standing up because then he would get a baton to his knees. When he did find a table to sit at, he found that it was a table filled with girls, and yet it was the quietest table in the entire hall.

"Excuse me, is it alright with you ladies if I sit here?" Sorin asked while smiling his best smile, trying to seem charming.

"Yeah," one of them said with a raspy voice that seemed as if it hadn't been used for ages. When that girl spoke, everyone turned to look at her as if in shock. Upon a closer look, Sorin found that there were marks on her face that resembled a muzzle. The marks were also recent.

Deciding not to question it, the brunette smiled politely and thanked them while sitting down. However, now the quiet was broken and a bout of whispers spread across the table.

"She spoke. She never speaks. Will the guards muzzle her again?"

"This is horrible."

"Why did she speak?"

Soon the girl finished her meal and a female guard left her position and came to stand behind the girl. She was then led away immediately. Sorin wondered what that was about and thought that it would be best to investigate this matter later.


After he was done with breakfast, he got to know that they had morning assemblies. In these morning assemblies, they took roll calls and also assigned everyone chores for the day. Everyone had been divided by various wards. Sorin was in Theta ward. Towards the end of the assembly, he hung onto the warden's words that might prove to be a good piece of information.

"For those who are newbies here, if you want a chance to reduce your sentence, you can join the fights. Assemble after 2030hrs for recruitment. You will also be exempted from doing chores. However, I do not guarantee you would walk out of there with your life in your hands. Good luck and dismissed."

Sorin frowned as he heard what the warden had to say. He didn't think that this was something that was supposed to be legal. If he was guessing right, this was definitely something related to the underworld. He would have to get recruited to know what this was about.


***

"Ah, I'm so tired," Sorin said as he walked towards his cell after dinner. He hadn't seen anyone he knew from the bus all day, much less his squadmates. He wondered how they were doing and if they found anything worth reporting.

While doing chores, Sorin found that there was literally too much security for them to plan an escape. Any possible escape route was either blocked or had regular patrolling. He would have to discuss the next course of action later with the rest.

The Rebellion leader walked into his cell and found his cellmate on the bed with a book in his hand. Only, he wasn't reading it. The book was closed and he was glaring at the ground.

"Hey, you okay?" Sorin asked as he leaned on the doorway. It seemed that until curfew, the cell doors would remain open.

Elliot didn’t even glance his way as he slumped his shoulders and sighed before he got up and walked towards him.

"This place is a nightmare."

The pale boy then walked out and disappeared down the hallway, going who knows where. His cellmate's actions confused him but they also made him curious as to what his mystery was. Sorin shook his head and instead went to look for his squad members. He found them all already waiting for him in the hallway.

"We have one hour before that recruitment starts. How was your first day?"

Sierra Festus, one of the people who had joined the Rebellion around the same time as Sorin answered. "The security of this place is good. If there's any chance for anyone to get out of this place, it's through the BattleFront," she reported.

"Before you ask what it is, let me remind you that we all already guessed that the underworld was active here. It seems that the BattleFront is more or less an underground fighting ring where people bet their money on the winners and those they like, they buy them." 


The look on Amber's face as she reported her findings to him was enough to tell them all that she thought this was an opportunity. 

"...You think-"

"It's the only way. And either way, we don’t know if anyone else would open up about anything if we talked to them," Will said, trying to back Amber.

Sorin sighed before looking at all three of them. "Fine then. We'll get recruited. Even though we can't be sure if there would be any of those guys there."

Will and Sierra smiled and looked hopeful, Amber gave a nod of approval. Sometimes, it seemed she was older than what she seemed, even if she was younger than anyone in their squad.

"Let's do this then."