Nila awakes to the sound of running water and plates clattering together outside. The others must be up, whoever they are. She studies the aged ceiling above her and it's many cracks before even thinking about setting one foot off her bed. While she still has the time, she recaps everything that's happened to her. Two of her friends were murdered in cold blood, whatever crazy reason they may have had is still unknown, ever since they've been dragged or shoved from place to place like ragdolls to face ridiculous situations. Getting chased by a four meter Rhino for example.

Suddenly, a thought Nila's never considered before pops into her head. She's stuck down here, while the rest of her family is a whole light year away on Mars. Will she ever see them again? Do they even know what's happening? Of course not. It seems that even Mars' government is corrupt, whether voluntarily or not.

"Nila? Are you awake?.." whispers a familiar voice. Nila almost expects to see Dylan poking through her bedroom door, but instead its Riley's concerned face peeping inside.

"Yeah."

"We're having breakfast. Hey, are you alright?" her friends looks at her skeptically.

"I'm fine, why?"

"Nothing.." Riley mutters and gives Nila a sweet smile. "Um, Friday sent me to hand you these clothes as well," he adds, padding the pile of cotton and leather in his hands.

She rubs her eyes and flips her legs over her bed. The frames are metal and the bed creaks with her every movement. The mattress is as thin as can be, but still, last night has got to be the most peaceful sleep she's had since she arrived on this godforsaken planet.

She waddles towards the door and picks the clothes up before heading to her private bathroom to tidy up. The pile contains a black, cotton shirt with a leather jacket to go along with it and cotton shorts. The clothes aren't stitched together as professionally as it would be done on Mars but at least she's out of her dirty clothes from training. By now, they've basically been reduced to rags.

After a refreshing shower, she ties her hair chestnut brown hair, (which has grown a tad bit longer since a few weeks ago) back into a bun. She brushes her teeth with, well, what she assumes is a homemade toothbrush made from wood and animal hair with baking soda. Nila grimaces at the feeling of the hair brushing against her teeth but sucks it up until her teeth are decently clean. She sighs after she rinses her mouth out with water and looks at studies herself in the mirror. Her dark blue eyes have miraculously gotten even darker and the rims of her eyes are shaded a light red from sleepless nights, also shown by her dark under eyes.

Only a short time ago, she was determined, independent and reckless. There's no doubt in her mind that Friday would say that she still has her recklessness but other than that...she's not so sure of what she is. Her life is full way too many questions for her to count that she doesn't even know what her goal is anymore. What's there to look forward to? Her life couldn't possibly get more messed up than it already is. Then there is her independence. All she knows is, that's now pretty much nonexistent.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

'Oh well, maybe some things will finally get cleared up today anyway..' she thinks and tries to get her thoughts back into a positive mindset.

"I'm coming out now!" Nila yells and makes her way to the door.

She swings the door open in annoyance to be met with Naite's overly excited face. He smiles down at her joyfully, "Whatcha doing? The food will get cold!" he remarks and lays a hand on Nila's back to lead her to the dining room.

"How was your night?"

"Good, I guess."

"I hope you'll settle in alright. Everyone's great here..Oh! Goodmorning, Jeremy!" Naite speaks fastly as they stroll down a corridor, occasionally Naite would trail off and greet a person passing by. Normally, Nila would get annoyed by someone being so hyperactive and outgoing. But, she's got to admit, it's pretty refreshing having someone so carefree around.

Naite leads her over to one of many tables in a cafeteria-like room. About twenty other tables are sprawled around the room, though most of them are now vacant as people leave the room to do, whatever it is they do. It almost reminds her of the dining quarters back on Mars.

Suddenly, Nila is filled with joy when she spots Kaitlyn sitting in a wheelchair besides Friday and Riley.

"Kaitlyn!" she yells and sprints over, throwing her arms over Kaitlyn's shoulders. "How are you feeling?"

Kaitlyn giggles at Nila's reaction, "I'm fine. Nothing big, but you must be starving. Riley saved a bowl for you," she says and gestures towards a warm bowl of porridge on the table.

"Thanks," Nila pulls away from her friend and takes a seat in between Friday and Riley.

There's a minute of awkward silence as Nila eats, eventually she decides to strike up a conversation.

Nila clears her throat, "So um, is this like, some sort of resistance? Against Eden?"

"Resistance?!" says Friday, as if what Nila said was the most absurd thing in the universe. "Oh god, no! Think so this more as a Sancturary. Hence the name. No one can compete with Eden's power."

Nila breaks her gaze away from her half finished bowl of porridge and stares at Friday, flabbergasted. "W-why?! You have the people. You have the resources-"

"Why? Let's see....Point one, we are a group of about 300 people and if we dare to do anything rebellious than they'll come back ten times stronger. Point two, no one can compete against them because there is no one else to compete with. The rest of the world is unpopulated. The resources we have as of now is all we've got."

Friday ends her argument and stares back at Nila, as if it's some type of staring contest and whoever backs down and shuts up first is the loser. Meanwhile, Riley and Kaitlyn keep their eyes down and stay quiet, trying not to add more tension into the air.

"Oh, I see. You're just a coward," she spits back.

'With all of the horrible things Chaucer and her men have done, why wouldn't she want to do something!?' Nila thinks in fustration.

"Nila!" Kaitlyn blurts out and gently swats Nila's left arm. Kaitlyn may think that she's crossing the line but she doesn't care. She's got a bone to pick with Eden, shouldn't they as well?

After yet another long silence, Riley decides to butt in. "Uh, so you said that the rest of the world is unpopulated? How can that be?"

Friday sighs, "There's still so much that you don't know. But I suppose, you've all got to find out what they do at some point," She turns around in her seat to look at Naite who's behind a counter helping the cook clean up for lunch later on. "Hey Naite! Could you fetch the photos for me please?"

Naite looks up in suprise, "Oh! We're doing this now?"

Friday nods in reply and Naite jogs over to his office and walks back to place them on the table. The photos are inside a plain, white envelope that Friday starts to slowly unpack.

"How old exactly do you guys think Miss Chaucer is?"

"What do you mean? She looked to be around early thirties..." says Kaitlyn.

"Okay then, take a look at these images and tell me what time period they're from," Friday says and spreads the photos out across the table. Some big, some small but what all of them have in common is Earleen is apparent in all of them.

"She's driving a car? We don't have cars," Riley objects with a complexed look on his face.

Friday gives a small nod. "And when was the last time you saw an actual, unmutated horse?"

"Uh, never. Pure breed horses went extinct ever since the nuke messed everything up, same with all the other animals. Everybody...knows that.." Kaitlyn says matter of factly but as she finishes her sentence, she starts to trail off as all the dots start to align in her mind.

Riley chuckles. "You can't possibly be saying, t-that Earleen is from before Earth's fall?" He struggles to catch his breath as he laughs at Friday's theory. "That's stupid and impossible! Miss Chaucer is many things but she didn't look like a vampire to me."

"No, Riley. Miss Chaucer and all of the people working for her, are two millennium years old." Friday crosses her arms and stares at Riley with a stern face.

"Y-you're really serious about this aren't you?" Riley asks and stares back at her in disbelief.