We were able to get back to the motel just in time for the late lunch being served at its dining area. The food had never tasted better as everyone lapsed into conversations that had to do with everything but what we were currently facing. With childhood memories, first high school parties, to embarrassing science fairs and so many other topics which could either get us cancelled or blackmailed in future, I found myself smiling and laughing harder for the first time in ages.

   I would be lying though if i said that my worries about Talise in Zavlon and my mum all alone at home had been dissipated by these conversations.

   Still, I wasn't sure whether it was because my weapons presentation went well or how much fun I was having with everyone here, but the warm sensation of optimism that rested within me just won't go away. I felt like one of the heroes and heroines in one of my comics. Like the Yunies could not possibly be a match for any of us. We were going to go in, find Mr Sacury's Lab and find the one thing that could put an end to all this, while looking incredible in the suits Dorian made–

   A sudden ding noise that I could identify with the notification sound on a phone brought me back to earth. My hands impulsively began to search my pockets until I remembered I hadn't seen my phone since Talise took it with her after those texts I received from the Yunies about my mum.

   My burning curiosity about whose phone the noise came from got stifled when Cami arose from the table and walked away after muttering something about her parents trying to contact her.

   Rav had barely gotten through one of his yet another funny stories that was interrupted by Camila's exit when she came rushing in.

"If you wanted to listen, you should have just told me to wait or something." Rav snickered at her.

   The look on her face however appeared to do anything but share his humour. It was at that moment that I realised the unstable rise and falls of Cami's chest which accompanied her wide, frantic brown eyes. She stayed silent while her eyes travelled across the table to stare at every one of us, my skin crawling when her glance reached mine before sailing toward the rest.

"Everyone should come with me," Those simple words were enough to make my stomach drop. "Now."

   Even though Camila's trip back to her room was anything but slow, the rest of us didn't share the same enthusiasm. Speaking for myself–and I'm pretty sure the others as well– the terror that came with what we were going to walk into was transferred to heavy weights on my feet.

   Upon finally getting to the room, my breath hitched without me meaning to as I glanced at Cami hunched over her laptop on her desk. Following Landon, Dorian and Rav, I braced myself for the worst as my eyes made contact with the laptop screen.

   I frowned.

"Camila," The confused tone Rav used to mention her name reflected on all our faces. "There's nothing here."

   He wasn't wrong. I was looking at a pitch black laptop screen. We all were. I directed my furrowed eyebrows toward Camila.

   Was she serious? As relieved as i was that her dramatic behaviour was merely that, it wasn't easy suppressing the heated fury that began to rise toward her for scaring us like–

   A sudden click jerked my sight back to the screen.

   I was starting to think my mind was screwing with me when a similar sound erupted from what I was now certain was the laptop. The click was not unfamiliar. As a matter of fact, it was the all too familiar click I had heard twice in real life and a thousand times in my dreams–no nightmares.

"I was waiting for everyone to be here before I did this," Camila said, right before placing her fingers on her device's mouse. "This is what our sixth camera in the vent is currently capturing."

   It seemed like the laptop had just been asleep because at her gesture, the screen came back to life–

   My blood ran cold as accompanying chills travelled down my spine. My eyes refused to leave the screen, even though every single part of my brain wouldn't stop screaming at me to look away. But what was the point in turning away now?

   Was there a way to unsee the almost twenty teenagers clustered in the same giant, cube shaped room, with red fluorescent lights and white padded walls we had seen some Zavolonians in just days ago, being subdued by the placement guns (hence the clicking sounds) used not by the Yunies, but mind-controlled Zavolonians themselves? Was there a way to unsee the pointless struggle that each victim put up as the Yunies pinned them down for the placement to occur? Was there a way to unsee the transition of these teenagers from defiance to zen, wide-eyed robots?

   At first, there was silence, as if everyone was still trying to take in what was currently showing on the screen before us or believe it or still being traumatised, what did I know?

"Turn it off," Landon spoke first, his words merely above a whisper. Until it got louder, "Turn it off!" and louder, "TURN IT OFF, NOW!!!"

   It was that last roar that made my head snap out of what i was seeing and toward him. The sight of Landon's dishevelled dreads falling over his teary eyes and sweat-drenched forehead made me reach out to him with a strength i didn't know i wielded.

"Landon..."

"Is this what–" He had to pause and ask his question again due to how choked up his initial words were. "Is this what happened to Talise? Did she have to go through this?"

   I simply looked at him, knowing that the expression I wore already gave an answer. But funny enough, I preferred that to telling him how much worse Tali's own was. How she had walked into a trap and been thrown across a room right before the placement.

   Especially since–and this realisation just came to me–this is Landon's first time witnessing this.

   The rest of us had received our fair share of trauma on the first day of Liberation Week. he now had his. There was no need to make it worse.

   Camila, by now, had turned the laptop and was putting it in her backpack.

"Those people," Dorian mused. While drowning in my reaction toward this whole thing, I had never stopped to consider that of everyone else's. The thoughtful expression Dorian now assumed had wiped off any evidence of his reaction. "Those on whom the placement was being performed. Do you guys recognise them from school?"

   After a few seconds of trying to remember, I shook my head. But I was certainly not the one you asked for these things, especially since I was technically still new and went through great lengths to avoid people.

"No," Camila said.

"That's because they are not Zavolonians." Rav shook his head.

"Rav, are you sure?" Dorian asked.

   The raised eyebrow Rav gave in response was enough for me to believe him. Well, that and the fact that one of the reasons everyone loved Rav was because he knew everyone as much as they knew him. Sure, he wasn't friends with every one of them, but he was good with first names and faces. Which was why if Rav did not recognize one face out of the almost twenty we just saw, I was going to take his word for it.

   Besides, the Yunies have had Liberation Week and the subsequent weeks to subdue every Zavolonian. But then if they were not Zavlonaians...

"Do you know what this means?" Dorian asked us with a stern expression.

"Yes." Cami nodded, her face equally grim. "It means that the Yunies have or are very close to having enough mind-control tech for everyone."

   A loud gulping noise made me wince.

   Until I realised it was me.

"We need to get into Zavlon Academia," Camila stated.

"Are you crazy?" Rav glanced at her. "Because I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who just saw what the Yunies were making our very own schoolmates do!"

"Rav, she's right." I regretted saying those words the moment they left my mouth. But I knew I wasn't wrong. "We can't stay here forever."

"We've given ourselves time to train everyday, build weapons and armour," Cami continued. "You and I, Rav, after many weeks, have come up with what you yourself called the perfect plan. So what are we waiting for? Sure, we might need a few days to go over the plan and train with our weapons and armour, but we can't stay here for more than a week. Anything could happen."

"It's time for us to do something," Landon agreed, sighing before saying, "It didn't really hit me how real this thing was until what I just witnessed with those people. This tech cannot get out there."

   Dorian placed one hand on Rav's shoulder, "Rav, I get that you're scared. So am I."

"Me too." my hand moved to Rav's free shoulder as I added.

"As am I." Cami walked over to my side.

"And I," Landon joined us to fill the circle we'd formed without meaning to. "I am still waiting for one of you to slap the shit out of me and tell me to wake the hell up... please?"

   That made us–even Rav–lose it.

"So..." Camila said, as our laughter died down.

"So..." I took her hand in mine, looking up to stare her square in the face as I responded. "We fight."

   Dorian moved from his position to stand beside me, taking my free hand into his and echoing my words, "We fight."

   Right before my mind could get lost in the feel of his hand over mine, the combined voices of Landon and Rav were unmistakable.

"We fight."

A/N: 'bout time!!! HAPPY NEW MONTH EVERYONE! 

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