Elle looks stunned. "De-Dead? How can he be dead?" She asks, breathless.

"People die kid. Either get used to it or leave the Complex." Colonel Howell says to her. His voice conceals no annoyance. "Now, if there isn't anything else you would like to ridicule my time with, please leave."

Elle drops the stunned look. Now her face is a mask of anger. "Ridicule your time?" She repeats. "Ridicule your time? Guts is dead. Dead. And you think we are ridiculing your time? Well, I don't care who you are Colonel, but I would like to know how Phyre is dead." Even though she is 3 feet smaller than him and less than a quarter of his age, she still manages to look him in the eye and sound intimidating.

"Fine then kid. I'll tell you the story of how Evan Phyre died." He pauses. "But you aren't going to like it."

He sighs and beckons us into the office and we willingly follow. He gestures for us to sit down and we do so, then he looks out the corridor one last time and closes and locks the door. I hear a hiss and the room is suddenly completely silent. The only sounds I can hear are the sounds that Elle, Howell and I make.

"Your room is soundproof." Electra states pointedly to Howell who just nods.

He takes a deep breath then exhales.

"Alright. Let me just start by saying, Phyre was a nice guy. He was always joking around, kidding even with his students. The only problem was that that was a problem. He was a nice guy. Nice guys aren't capable of hatred, or even if they are, it isn't deep like it is for someone who isn't a nice guy.

If you hate something or someone, others can direct that hate and use it. But if you are a nice guy,"

"Then they can't use you." Electra finishes, a look of understanding crossing her face.

Howell nods. "So neither the complex or the CD could use him. The CD tried to make use of him, but of course, he already knew too much. Another thing about nice guys is that they can't keep secrets." He pauses and looks to see that we are following. I'm really not, but he continues anyway.

"So of course, Phyre spilled. And unfortunately, it was to the wrong person. The CD was jeopardised, so they took measures to extremes."

"And killed Phyre." Elle nods.

"Yes, they killed Phyre and four others, only one of which was a Complex Loyal."

"Only one?! Why the heck did they kill three, no FOUR including Phyre, on their own stupid side!" Elle shouts, but her words die off as soon as she says them.

"Scream all you want kid. It's a soundproof room, so the only one that can hear you is yourself."

"My. Name. Isn't. Kid." She hisses at him. "It's Electra."

"Ok then Electra, who's this." He eyes me.

"My name is Maedana." I tell him, pretending to act like Electra and intimidate him. I end up just looking more silly. He looks over me and then at Electra.

"You nursery kids?" He asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes." I answer and Elle clenches her teeth.

He considers this. "Funny. You," he points to Elle, "seem like an outsider. And you," he points to me, "seem like a child of a black."

A child of a black? An outsider? These terms confuse me but Elle seems used to them.

"Well no, we are children of whites and live here, inside the dome." She says to him sharply.

He shrugs and looks at something on his computer screen. "Anyways, you girls shouldn't be here. All insiders above in half an hour. That means you guys need to get back to the south entrance in approximately 10 minutes." He looks at us, raising his eyebrows. "Unless you want the complex on your case, kids, which I don't think you do, then my advice is to start running."

Elle curses, opens the door, grabs my arm and does exactly that.

-*-*-*-

"Maedana, wake up." Reese's voice comes to me through my small space of consciousness. I ignore her.

"Come on Maedana, get up!" She says and I groan but slowly open my eyes. The back of my shoulder blade still hurts, but not as much. I reach back to touch it and feel with my fingers a small, almost non-existent indent, like a scar. Reese is standing over me, frowning.

"What's up? You're almost never asleep when I wake up." She asks.

My head is fuzzy but I distinctly remember the conversation with Aril.

I hear you've taken a certain interest in Calix Theon.

My heart flips at the memory, but I calm myself.

"What do you mean what's up? Nothing's up. Is there a problem with being tired?" That's when I realise yes there is.

"Oh crap, I'm late for training!" I jump and reach for a clean t-shirt but Reese grabs my arm and stops me.

"Hey, it's fine. Training's cancelled until tomorrow." I go to say something but she keeps talking, butting in. "And before you ask, no one knows why. I picked up your schedule. You're on white area patrol. South East. Check in to bp4 at 8:50." She hands me the sheet of paper with my schedule on it.

Patrol to make sure the whites are safe. Bp4 is the Black point four, located close to the edge of town, just next to the cemetery. How the black system works is you are assigned a job, for example, mines training, then on days when you don't have that job you are given another duty, such as being what would have been called a police officer in the days before WW3. You have to do that job and then check into the set black point every hour or so, so they can make sure you are on task.

"I'm heading down there at 8:30, I'm scheduled for 9." Reese tells me.

Reese works down at the cemetery. No one knows the full extent of what she sees but the complex has her tightly wrapped around their finger. Whenever you ask her about her job, she quickly changes the subject.

After all, she sees everyone who dies.

"What are your check in times?" I ask, swapping the schedule in my hand for a brush and combing it through my knotted hair. She shrugs.

"9, 11, 1:30 and then 4 is my scheduled release time, but you never know, there's often a stream of whites that visit after their works over." She replies as I twist my dark hair into a bun and pin it with some bobby pins. I had started doing the hairdo when I was in the nursery, inspired by a princess in a story about space and weird robots from back in the 1990's or something, and although the original hairstyle has kind of been twisted slightly (it was originally a series of tiny buns all around my head at odd angles) it's stuck.

I pick up my sheet and look over it. "I have 23 check ins and then I'm released at 8." I tell her. She looks stunned.

"What?" I ask, putting the paper back down and scanning the room for my shoes.

"You have twenty three check ins and you get released at eight? Holy crap Maedana, don't you think that's a little hard?!"

I shrug. "I am the F. It's usually like this."

She rolls her eyes. "Maedana, a mark doesn't make you any different from me or anyone else."

I give her a look. "You might wanna watch out. You're starting to sound like part of the CD. Wouldn't want that."

She crinkles her nose and rolls her eyes once again. "CD is a load of-" she curses, an insult I don't exactly wish to repeat. "They're all about wanting freedom and all that-" she curses again, "when really all they want is 'down with the dome' and the Trey's blood all over the dead grass that's in this nuthouse." She tells me coldly.

"The Trey's? I thought there was only Aril. You know the story. Mother passed away about fifteen years ago, father died when he was doing a workplace check at a factory shortly before. There was the whole thing with Aril so distraught that she didn't show her face for about a year and only talked to her confidant and close staff."

"Yeah. Well, you clearly don't know your rumours." She says, but doesn't elaborate, so I have to push on.

"What rumours?"

She sighs. "Word on the street is that there is more than one Trey."

I stare at her in astonishment.

"Yeah. A child. A daughter to be precise. No one knows for sure but there's a girl who looks eerily similar to Aril. She's a white who is often seen going in and out of the Complex main building."

The complex main building. I'd been inside it multiple times. First level is Reception and general enquiries, second level is the medical center, third is politic's offices, fourth is the court, place of the devotions and also the place where a black is graded, fifth is the marking level, the place your mark is burned into your skin, and then sixth is the Trey's quarters. Aril's sitting area, her interrogation rooms, her bedroom and also where she eats, and where her mother and father once lived also.

"You're joking." I stutter. "There's no way Aril would have a daughter. How could she hide that?" Even as I say the words, I know I'm trying to convince myself.

She shrugs. How could she be so casual about this? "Think about it. It's not that hard to do. All she has to do is never be seen in public with her. No one asks questions because it's Aril Trey. Anyone who does ask questions would be hiding their shoulder for the rest of their lives."

I shake my head, but I know my heart isn't in it. I know that what she says is truth. She looks at me strangely, slightly cocking her head.

"Maedana, you know, you have a weird way of getting the truth out of people without them realising what they're saying." She tells me.

"What do you mean?" I ask, surprised.

"I mean, this is the first time I've properly talked to you in quite a while, and you've managed to open me up like someone in surgery. Honest, Aril should make you a private investigator or spy or something, you're so good."

My heart performs backflips at her words, but she smiles jokingly and I try to calm myself down.

She doesn't know anything. It's fine. Aril's words mean nothing.

"So, wanna head down to the cafeteria to have breakfast? It's only 7:30 so we're all good for the time factor."

I shrug. "Sure, lets go." As I leave the room, I sling my gun over my shoulder, just as a precaution. I don't know I'd be using it.

We talk about nothing in particular as we walk through the black-block halls towards the cafeteria and when we get there, the doors are open and the room is buzzing with conversation.

A group over in a far corner of the room wave to Reese as we walk in and she waves back.

"Maedana, would you mind if I sat with them? Tyke is over there." She asks with a begging look. I shrug.

"Sure. Go run off to your boyfriend, I don't mind." I reply, even though a large part of me wishes she would stay. She smiles.

"Cool, thanks. Oh, and speaking of boyfriends, bullet boy dropped by earlier while you were sleeping. He said he'd wait for you in the cafeteria." She smiles at me one last time and then walks off to the large group in the corner.

Just as she walks away, 'bullet boy' actually approaches me. I smile at him but he doesn't smile back.

"What's up?" I ask, slightly concerned.

He looks around, first at the 'black' people guarding the doors and moving through the crowds, but not really sitting down and eating (which are the sure signs they are a white spy), then at the ceiling that is dotted with 'smoke detectors'. Even if there was a fire, they wouldn't need smoke detectors to tell you it. No, these detectors were the ones that detect secrets. "Nothing at all. I'll tell you later." He looks me in the eyes and I nod in understanding.

"I got you a tray of food. It's just over at the table." He points to an empty table with two trays of dull, lifeless grey meat and soggy potato and peas.

The outsiders that live on farms with workers deliver food to the complex that isn't always like this, but upon arrival, the complex stores all the food and only dishes out monthly provisions to whites and the black block, although for the whites their provisions are usually enough to last six months, not one.

You can tell when the BB has been given their provision because the cooks that are seen around and behind the cafeteria bench top (that is continuously stocked up with trays of food) are happier than usual. Also because you can sometimes get a piece of non-grey beef and some occasional snow peas, although they're a luxury. Over the month the food gets steadily worse and everyone's moods slowly drop, as the food gets soggier and grey-er. None the less, I sit down and start eating.

"So what happened?" Calix asks, in between a mouthful. I shake my head.

"Nothing, just a little chat with,"at that moment I inconspicuously cough.

He nods. "Yeah, same. Told me to watch my back, blah blah blah, being a black is hard, blah blah blah."

I smile and nod. He looks up, smiles and waves at an approaching Tala with a tray of food. "So what are you scheduled for to-" at that moment I am interrupted by a commotion to our right.

Someone has rudely shoved Tala, causing her to upend her tray of food, that happened to have gravy on it, but didn't anymore. Her meal was all over the floor. And herself.

"Watch where you walk, b***h" the man that shoved her curses.

"Excuse me?" she says, her voice filled with rage. "Excuse me?"

"You're excused." He replies with a smirk and then turns to walk away. Tala makes a face that says 'ok, now I'm going to kill you' and then she lunges at him. She has him in a headlock in a few small seconds and she whispers angrily into his ear, "apologise and I'll let you go."

He struggles in her grasp but manages to kick her in the shin, causing her to loosen her grip and for him to twist out of her arms.

"I don't apologise to bi*ches." He says, smiling sarcastically.

This is when Calix stands up, despite me grabbing his arm and whispering "don't get involved."

"Hey dude." Calix says, tapping the guy on the shoulder. The man turns and Calix punches him square in the chin. In the confusion that follows, Tala manage to worm her way around to behind them and smacks the metal tray in her hand on the dudes head.

I stand up and step between the three, trying to break it up. "Hey guys stop or you're all going to-" before I can finish my sentence, the guy punches me in the jaw. Hard.

"OI you ass!" Calix shouts at him. "Don't punch the F!"

"It's fine Calix." I tell him, rubbing my jaw.

"No, it's not fine! This little piece of sh*t thinks it's okay to-" he is kicked in the 'lower region' by another guy behind him, clearly friends with the thug, interrupting his train of thought. Calix falls to his knees and the thugs friend kicks him again. He goes for another kick but I intercept it and it gets my foot. Although pain shoots through my ankle, I ignore it and punch the guy in the jaw.

Tala shouts a battle cry behind me and suddenly Reese is next to her, helping her beat up the original thug. Another four people join the fight, more friends of the thugs, but suddenly a group of others are in on the fight as well, including Reese's boyfriend Tyke and a few of her other friends, one or two of the trainers and a small crowd of girls giggling around Calix. Soon it's a full fledged battle, and there is no definite way to tell who is on who's side.

"STOP!" Shouts a voice sometime in the midst of me beating up a dude I didn't know.

"I said STOP!" The voice shouts again. Slowly, everyone stops fighting.

None other than Glore Dynast walks through the crowds, scattered food on the floor, abandoned trays that have been tipped onto people. The few people that didn't join in the fight are cowering in the corners of the cafeteria, trapped by all the commotion going on around them.

"Who started this?" Glore booms, and people look sheepishly at Calix, Tala, and I. Glore's gaze spins around and settles on us. Tala curses.

"Just my favourite guy." She whispers under her breath but only I hear it. Glore's gaze settles on my and he shakes his head.

"Maedana. The others are to be expected but you? I'd like to think you know better. None the less..." He makes a hand gesture and a troop of six white guards march in through the door behind him and approach the three of us. Before we can debate, they have our hands behind our backs, thick handcuffs binding them. Sometime in the fight my bun came undone, so now my long dark hair falls down my back in a now knotted mess.

Tala struggles in the guards grasp for a few seconds then gives up.

"Take them down to the lower level. Keep them in a holding room until we receive word from main building. Don't treat them kindly though." Glore instructs the guards, his voice ice cold. The lower level. The level below ground. The level where a black gets their scars. Commonly known as the torture level.

I gulp as the guards start pushing us along through the mess of a cafeteria. Reese bites her lip and when I look at her, she looks away.

Just as we are leaving, Glore turns to the rest of the room. "And for all of you, each of you get two mark against your tally. And before anyone asks, I mean ALL of you, whether you were fighting or not!"

A mark against their tally meant they were getting a cut on their arm. You had three cuts, you were taken to the torture level. You were taken to the torture level five times, you're given a public execution.

So you're given two? That's not a good thing.

"I feel bad now." Tala whispers to me quietly.

"Shut up black." One of the guards spits at her. She opens her mouth to give him a smart comment back but I nudge her and she closes it into a frown.

There's a sudden pulse of pain in my shoulder that tingles down my body, then as sudden as it started it's gone and I can almost imagine it was never there.

We are led down multiple sets of stairs and then through a dimly lit corridor lined with doors, all open except for one. It's thick steel, no window, with a single black marking on it. It's a D in a circle. As I look, I can see that there is another two doors after it, and when I glance back I can see another three doors behind us.

"One for each grade." I whisper to myself, realisation dawning on me. I look over and see Calix's face. It is as hard as the doors we pass.

"Yeah, take a good look. This is where your nightmares will be born again." A voice says. A man who I didn't notice until he spoke stands up from against the wall. "If you listen closely you can probably hear the crying from the D's room. He's off whipping at the moment. Two more days of his break, then I get to have more of my fun. Another round and he goes up, so I have to savour it."

"Who are you?" I ask him. He smirks at me.

"I am known as torture man, angry killer, the whipper, and sometimes simply 'the man downstairs'. But I go by Grief." He tells us with an evil smile.

"I've heard about you." Tala says. "You're an E. The murderer. Usually they would kill thugs like you but they needed someone to run the black torturing, because there last person backed out on them. So you kept your neck and-"

"Now I get to do what I love, legally may I add, which is, of course, hearing people's souls crushed. Both crying and screaming are satisfying." He says and smirks at our horrified expressions. He stands up fully and rubs his hands together. "So, what level intensity are you three on? What did you blacks do to get your sorry little A grade asses down here?"

"I'll have you know, I am a C." Tala says, her chin high.

"Oh yeah? And what did you do to get down here in the first place?"

She looks him in the eyes and says proudly, "I said no."

"Really? That's all you did? Girl, I murdered someone to get my mark. And that was just the person they could pinpoint that I killed them. All the rest they didn't have the evidence. And you just said no to the devotion!? You seriously take pride in that?" Tala drops her eyes to her feet.

"Wouldn't think so." He says doubtedly. "Now as I asked before, what did they do and what's their report." He asks the guards.

"We don't know yet sir. They're just currently being assessed by the main building. But Glore said to put them a holding room and do slight damage." The guard leading tells him.

"Slight damage huh?" Grief looks at us each in term, his eyes glistening. "Have they gotten tallies yet?" The guards shake their heads and Grief smiles widely and evilly.

"Well we better do that, shouldn't we." He whips a knife out of his belt and pulls my arm, then pulls up the sleeve and in the soft flesh on the inside of my arm he cuts into it deeply three times. I cry out in pain but quickly bite my lip, but it's enough to make him smile. He moves onto Tala and then Calix.

"Let's take them in then shall we." He says perkily. "What are your marks?"

"I'm a C, bullet boy's an E and Maedana is an F." Tala replies. Grief looks at me surprised.

"Maedana the F? Why my dear, I am so sorry I was so rude. Excuse me for asking but what did you do to get yourself back down here. Surely you of all people would avoid that most." He asks me and I sigh.

"Tala got into a baffle, Calix joined in, I tried to break it up an long story short, I'm back down here."

He nods in understanding and then turns and points to the two open doors past the D's room. "So 'bullet boy' is in this room, you're in that room F. You," he points to Tala, "are in that room." He points to the door before the D's. The guard leading me pushes me to the last door and I willingly enter. The iron door is pulled shut behind me and I am encased in the room. Blood stains the stone floors and walls and I can almost hear the despair that leaks from the walls. This was the birthplace of nightmares. This was hell.

I hear another two doors close and shocked silence as the reality creeps into the three of us.

"Take a good look now blacks. This is where you are going to wish you were shot. This is where you wish you'd have been executed."

His laugh echoes around the room. Still in handcuffs, I sit down and lean against the wall.

I was trapped.

I hated being trapped.