A gigantic mass of people arrived at the oasis. Unlike the group from Tardigrad, this group moved with chaos and confusion. Their clothes were torn, their faces caked in dust. Sobs hovered from the incoming crowd.
Voices rose in panic all around.
"From where?!"
"We don't have enough for everyone!"
"Help! Someone help!"
Vincent broke into a run, and I followed behind.
The Tardigrad group was already moving into action, organizing to receive and accommodate the mass of newcomers.
"More people from Tardigrad?" I asked Kira when I caught sight of her.
"No. Displaced communities," she answered. "Walking through the desert. They must've seen the lights... or the tracks of our vehicles. They've come here to ask for help."
Already, Kira shoved a bag into my hands.
"Give these to the children," she ordered, her voice clipped with urgency.
A quick look inside the bag confirmed that it was filled with nutrient bars from the City.
My chest tightened.
As much as I could see that these people needed help, I realized I was also scared to approach them.
They weren't like the patients in the clinic, quiet and orderly. These people carried their wounds openly, their torn clothes hung from their bodies, crusted with sand and blood. Their skin bore cuts and scars that hadn't healed correctly. Some limped, others coughed hard. The smell of sweat, dust, and infection clung to this group.
And then there were their eyes.
Eyes that seemed to strip me bare as I walked around the mass, afraid to approach it.
My stomach twisted. Part of me wanted to recoil, to hide behind Vincent or Firinne, to let someone braver handle this. These weren't people I knew how to care for.
A sharp voice cut through my hesitation.
"What are you standing there for?!"
A woman from Tardigrad had noticed my reluctance.
"They're not animals! Stop gawking. Do your job!"
Heat flared across my face. The words stung but because they were true. I had frozen in place.
Still, the bag of nutrient bars weighed heavily in my hands, pulling me forward. With each step, I was more terrified of their suffering, and yet, I couldn't bear to turn away from it.
I stepped into the crowd.
My stomach turned when I took in the vision of the children. At the clinic, we took great care of the younger ones, hoping to give them the same experience I and the older ones were lucky to have when I was their age. Most of them looked tired, not well-fed, and dirty. I began to distribute the nutrient bars, one by one.
I placed one in a small hand, then another. Some whispered words to me, but the syllables were strange, in a language I didn't know. I nodded anyway, offering a small smile to each of them.
"Shay fank yoo... fank yoo..." A mother spoke with her accent, encouraging her child to thank me for the bar.
Behind her, the little girl was too shy to even look at me. She clutched the bar to her chest, not daring to eat it yet, as if afraid someone might take it away.
I smiled and said thank you to her, because I didn't know what else to say. The little girl pulled on the hem of her t-shirt, her eyes fixed on the ground. Only then did I notice it.
Her left sleeve hung empty.
I had never seen a child missing a limb before.
Not even in the movies or in the books at the library.
Nausea prickled in my stomach.
What had these people been through?
Before I could keep on moving, the crowd surged.
A wave of shouting and shoving rippled through the crowd. Some yelled and pushed. Bodies pressed forward, hands reaching for the front line.
The bag felt suddenly fragile in my arms, and I tightened my grip as if I could anchor myself with it.
"Don't steal! No need to steal! We will share!" someone I recognized from Tardigrad shouted over the crowd crush.
Behind me, something tugged at my shirt.
"Are you from the City?"
I turned and found a teenage boy with dust all over him, looking up to me. His hand had caught one of my long braids as I turned around.
My hair still had a few crystals from the rain festival in it, and he stared at them as they caught the dim light around.
"Y-Yes," I stuttered, gently getting my braid out of his dusty hand.
In the next heartbeat, he dropped to his knees, wailing, hands clutching at my ankles.
"Take me with you! Please! God, have pity! I can pay the price! Please! God, have mercy!"
I would have stumbled back if strong hands hadn't closed around my arms and steadied me.
"From the City?" another voice growled behind me.
"Citizens!"
"Death to Citizens! Death to the debt lords!"
"Burn the chains! Burn the cities!"
More voices joined, in more languages I didn't understand, but all carried the same threat.
Hands got on me. My braids were yanked, my sleeves were pulled, and fingers clawed at my clothes. Bodies pressed around me so tightly I couldn't tell who was trying to pull me to safety and who was tugging at my hair for the crystals.
Then—bang! A sharp explosion split the air, echoing like thunder to the sky. The crowd froze, a collective gasp tearing through the chaos.
"They are not from the City!" a strong voice reverberated around us. "They are spies! They are the ones bringing the shipments!"
I turned and saw Vincent, arm raised high to the sky. He held what looked like a smoking stick. His voice cut clean across the panic.
"If you touch them, I won't be pointing at the sky next time!" he threatened the crowd, his hand still tight on the stick.
Before I could react, strong hands lifted me off my feet, and a few minutes later, I was shoved into the safety of the shed.
Firinne was already there, crouched low, her shirt torn and dust-covered, likely from the same chaos that had swept me. She looked smaller somehow. Her usual aura of authority seem weakened by exhaustion and grime. She must have been recognized, just like me, by her clothes from the City.
"What happened to these people?" I asked, my voice barely audible over the echo of cries and shouts fading into the distance.
"Life," Firinne breathed out. "War. Climate crisis. Ideologies."
She buried her face in her hands, her shoulders trembling.
"I should stay... I should..."
She was about to rise when the door slammed open violently, the force rattling the frame. We both spun toward it.
"Leave! Now!" a sharp voice barked.
Firinne was already about to step past, ignoring the warning. But out of nowhere, Kira appeared, grabbing her friend's arms and pushing her back into the shed.
"The sun is about to rise! Finn! Listen!" Kira urged, her voice shaking with urgency. "If your owner doesn't find you in the morning, the whole operation will blow! You have to go!" She pressed her further into the shed.
Firinne resisted for a moment, but then went limp in Kira's arms, sobbing. Kira held her tightly, her worried eyes flicking toward me.
"Go," Kira said, softly but firmly, to both of us. "When we meet again, we will all be free women."
Someone lifted Firinne through the tunnel trapdoor while I gripped the frame, ready to follow behind her. Just as my fingers were about to let go, a strong hand closed around mine.
Vincent's dark eyes met mine as I looked up. His face was streaked with dust and sweat, just like the first time I had met him.
"We'll meet again," he promised, squeezing my hand briefly before letting go. Then, without another word, he shut the trapdoor on us.
Firinne was still sobbing as I wrapped my arm around her, guiding us down the tunnel. It felt strange to see her like this. Usually, she was the strongest one.
We walked in silence, broken only by the occasional sniffle from her.
When we reached the tunnel that would split our paths, I lingered, waiting for her to compose herself. I had no idea how long it would take her to get back to her home in the City. I didn't even know where she lived. What her life there was like. Whether she suffered as Kira did.
Yet somehow, I felt closer to her in this shared silence.
As she straightened and seemed ready to continue alone, I stopped her. My thoughts had been spinning during the long walk back.
"Finn," I called softly.
"Yes?"
She looked up at me, not surprised to hear her nickname on my lips.
"Do you have that silver key you showed me last time?"
Her eyes widened slightly, but her hand went to fetch the silver rectangle from inside her bra, the one she showed me at the rain party.
"Are you sure?" she asked, placing it in my hand, fully aware of what it meant.
"Honestly..." I admitted with a sigh, tucking the key into my own bra. "I don't know."
"That's alright."
She hugged me briefly before slipping away to her side of the tunnel. I closed the door behind her and, alone now, I sank into the dark corners of my thoughts.
I couldn't remember how I left the tunnel, walked through the atrium, and got to the house.
All I remember was entering my bedroom, checking on a sleeping V, and noticing the small green light above my wardrobe door glowing.
A new order had been delivered.
As I didn't remember ordering anything, I pulled the door open and found the new packages stacked neatly inside.
I tore open the first package.
Inside lay a tiny piece of fabric: two delicate triangles connected by a thin thread. A matching floral panty rested under it.
My fingers trembled as I lifted them to my eyes' level.
The next package held a long, flowing dress in the same pattern. Then came a sun hat, followed by a sarong.
And another sarong.
Another.
And another.
Each package overwhelmed me more than the last.
The weight of it all hit me at once. My chest tightened, my vision blurred, and I felt tears burning their way down my cheeks. My breaths came in rough gasps. I couldn't hold them back anymore. The air felt too thin, the room too small, and the emotion too heavy to bear.
I sank to the floor, clutching the fabrics to my chest, letting the sobs come, letting the wave of feeling crash over me.
Sade.
The sound of my name came from far away, floating through the haze of my panic.
You're having a nightmare.
I struggled beneath the weight pressing down on me, my hands shaking, but it was too strong.
Slowly, I surrendered.
Sade.
His voice cut through the darkness, steady and familiar.
"I'm here."
It was him.
"Breathe. I'm here."
For the first time in what felt like forever, air filled my lungs. My chest eased, my heart slowed down.
"It's just a nightmare... Breathe..."
I collapsed into V's arms.
His warmth and presence grounded me back to reality.
Finally, I could breathe.
How many more nights until I would have to leave him? How many more days until I would wake from this dream?
Ignoring the answers, I let myself drift, feeling safe in the safety of his embrace.
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