Zera

The lockdown alarms started going off, and I looked around watching everyone run to their places in a hurry. I rushed back to my room and went through multiple things. Time was ticking.

Of course my room was empty as usual. The suits always made it to where I didn't keep things in here for long. They just liked to keep their eye on me when I wasn't working. I need my pain pills and that key though. At any moment my legs would give out, and I knew what would happen next. I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror, and stared into my own blue eyes for a second wondering, and then looked away.

They got rid of the key. I should've known they would. I looked at the tablet on my bed and noticed something. Two people weren't accounted for in their places. Cassian and Dallas. I grabbed the tablet and rushed out my room. Knowing Cassian another body is to be found and my bet it is going to Dallas'.

I quickly grabbed my pills, swallowed them dry then left my room in a rush, Going down the hallway that led to to the Center. The higher level was empty, but as I looked over the railing, people were still trying to get to their places. These people. They were afraid. They knew we didn't care if they died or not, that's the sad thing about this system. You weren't supposed to care.

I sighed and turned around, going down another hallway back to the rank room. It was empty. Like any other room up here. I needed to get to my place, but by now the red suit would've locked the door. I looked back at the tablet to alert the red suit that there might be another death. Dallas Jones was his name and I was gonna find him.

I kept staring at the tablet. A tracker followed every suit, and one was moving in my direction. I took a key card out the side of my boot, putting it into one of the cabinets, opening it. I grabbed a dagger and closed the cabinet. The clicking made me sure that the cabinet had locked. I put the key card back, then put the dagger on the holster on the right side of my leg.

I left the room heading down a hallway. The lights started flickering on and off until they turned completely off. That's what the lockdown would do. That's what the system would do. Certain lights were on and, only certain ones. Just enough to know where people were going. There were some dark corners, but they didn't matter to me.

I kept walking until I stumbled against a body. I kneeled down beside the body and sighed, seeing a knife wound. I alerted the red suit that a grey suit had been killed. At this rate Cassian would kill the red suit next, but by the way he spoke earlier that wasn't his plan. I used the key card once again to a closet and grabbed an extra helmet. I put it on Dallas, "Just to make sure you were always kept secret, just like you were trained." I whispered to the dead and went back to the closet and closed the door putting the key card back into my boot, and kept walking down the hallway. I soon ended up back at the Center, still watching people scram around. It wasn't quiet, but it wasn't loud from all the way up here. From way up I could just fall. I closed my eyes seeing that same dream again and opened them, backing away from the railing.

I've spent too much time out. I found the body and now I needed to leave. While I was backing up, I ran into something. No, someone. I turned my head to see a grey suit. I narrowed my eyes trying to pick out certain details. There weren't any grey suits out. I backed away from this grey suit and the dagger on the side of my leg, "Cassian." I mumbled as I looked closely. I couldn't go against him. Not now. I got lucky only a few minutes ago. The decisions I make always have me in a sticky situation, so I did the one thing I hadn't done in years, since I started training. I ran.

Cassian 

"Hey wait!" God! the one time I'm not trying to kill someone, they run. Just my luck. " Zera, Zera! Goddammit, I'm not gonna kill you!" there was silence "Then what do you want?" I heard echo through the hall. " I want to talk, and maybe turn myself in." I replied, trying to bait her.

" Look Zera, I need to know who you really are, okay? Something's not right here." She stood quiet for a second. I couldn't even hear her walking. "Zera?" I asked. As I walked forward, I realized, I was at her room. I cracked the door open, and regretted it. She slashed through my left arm "Shiii-I deserved that didn't I?" I stepped back. "Look I'm coming in, okay? Don't stab me, jeez. I'm not gonna stab you, not yet." I dropped my now bloody knife and walked in.

What I saw wasn't fear. It was flourishing hatred. Raw, untamed, hatred, almost enough to scare me, and definitely enough to confirm a suspicion. "What do you want?" She said barely staying still. "Look, I think I know who you are okay? Or at least how you got here." Those words seemed to calm her down, but not a lot. "I'm Zeraphina, okay? I've lived my entire life here, raised by my family, living my life, and I'm just like everyone else okay? Just like everyone else."

"That's a lie and you know it Zera. You aren't from here, and you don't like this place anymore than I do." Suddenly she wasn't near fearsome. She was scared, more worried, but also scared. ¨I know that, it's all true but I still don't know. However I know killing the red suit won't solve this place's problems."

I chuckled, which turned into a laugh. "You think that was my plan, to kill him! That's hysterical! No, no, that's not my plan, trust me, I like to do things with style. Anyway I gotta go, see you later. Oh, and wipe that depressed ass face off. Life will be great when you get to see the outside world, and we find out who you are". As I tried to walk out, I rammed into the door, cracking my nose, remembering " Damn lock down! Guess I'm stuck here" Zera wasn't happy about that to say the least. But I was okay with it.

As I slept I thought, maybe not everyone is evil and weak. Maybe there are good people out there, like Zera.

As I woke up in Zera's room early, to go to "work" without her knowledge, but I found Zera was already gone. So I decided to go to my new job, as a grey suit, and walked outside. Shouldn't be hard to impersonate an egotistical idiot, right? As I walked to the grey suit quarters, I noticed people weren't talking. I walked to my "new" desk, but what I heard wasn't a hello, or just a dead monitor. It was a message. The red suit was dead, like dead dead.

"The hell!?" "What do you mean he's dead!" "Was it by the same guy as the last one?" I heard more ruckus like that for the next few minutes, confused myself as to what had happened. Who had the talent to do that, besides me of course. I mean props to them. I figured it just helps me even more, until I realized. Oh no that means Jake's the new red suit! Oh no! I remembered Zera's portfolio, and she is hated by one person more than anyone else here. One person she's fought with multiple times. The person who hates her, is the same person who's the new, fresh, Red Suit, his name, was Jake.