Trust

/trəst/

verb

firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something

I walked through the corridors, I began to notice a few things, one being the many hallways branching off. The other being the outstanding amount of doors in each hallway as they seemed as though there was an entire community settled down here.

The main hallway kept winding until it met back at the entrance area, which was now closed off, either because it was night time or nobody was out of the colony. The computer lab looked to be empty; the lights were off and no one was milling around it. They were all done their jobs, and the colony looked like a ghost town now.

All the lights were either out or dimmed. No one was walking around, and all you could hear was the rustling of trees outside and the frantic steps of those trying to get to their station on time. I just continued to wander aimlessly, bored out of my mind from the lack of human life surrounding me.

The corridor to my room was the same lighting as when I first arrived. Dim and dark, giving it a mysterious aura. Something about it just screamed run away, but in the morning it seemed so pleasant, welcoming almost. Now the walls looked murky and full of holes just as they had before when I had first seen it. I searched my mind for the memory of this morning as I walked down the hallway. Yes, there were a few holes in the walls, but not as many as there looked to be now.

"It's an illusion," a gruff voice spoke from behind me. I jumped in fear, anxiety creeping its way into my chest, but it disappeared when I saw the familiar, friendly face in front of me. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

I looked up at the boy who would probably never tell me his name. It brought a slight mystery to him; not knowing his name. His personality was soft and light, but his image was enough to scare anyone away with his lip piercing and slightly scruffy, blonde hair.

"What?" I somehow managed to say as my head swirls with these thoughts of him.

"The hallway," he stated, his voice accented and deep, "it was built to give the illusion of a regular hallway in the morning but a horrible corridor at night."

"Why?" I asked him, looking around the cobwebbed walls, fascinated by their change of appearance.

"To protect the people staying inside of the dome. These walls," he paused for a moment to go up to the wall. When he put his arm against it, the wall started to fade in and out like static.

"They're computer generated," I finished for him. He simply nodded and looked at me longer than usual before averting his eyes back to the wall and pulling his hand back.

"So what were you doing?" he asked as we began to walk into the dome shaped room.

"I was just thinking. Do you know a little girl named Riley?" His footsteps came to a halt abruptly. I stopped and looked up to his looming six foot figure.

"How do you know her?" he asked, teeth grinding together and hands forming into fists.

"I met her today. She's a very talented painter," I said barely above a whisper. He was scaring me with his overprotective nature. His breathing slowed down from the puffs he had been taking before and his eyes turned a warmer color of blue.

"Sorry," he mumbled, his eyes looking away from me. My eyebrows came together in confusion as he looked up at me to continue. "I tend to get a little overprotective of her. I'm sorry for scaring you."

"It's fine. I just wasn't expecting it is all," I told him honestly.

We began walking again, back to the rooms we had been staying in. "How long have you lived here?" I asked, trying to make a conversation. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I quickly added to assure him a few seconds later, realizing my question was completely nosy.

His loud laugh filled the hallways after I said that. "It's fine. I've been here for about five years," he answered. I nodded to him, finding the information astounding. He had been in this place for so long. "How long had you been at that lab?" he asked me with a smirk on his face as he looked down at me.

"Four years," I replied as we reach the end of the hallway. Confusion filled his features.

"Wouldn't that mean you are only six then?"

It was my turn to laugh at this point. As I did, he only looked more confused.

"I was transferred to the lab when I was thirteen to take over my twins microchip from the White Coats. They control it until I reach proper maturity level and am capable of controlling my twin," I explained. "So, no. I'm most definitely not six years old."

"Now it makes sense." Only a few seconds later, the blue eyed boy began laughing. I couldn't help but begin to laugh with him.

We were standing at the doorway of my room only a few steps later, both of us laughing at the misunderstanding still. We slowly stopped, and quiffie just stood there awkwardly.

"Did you want to come in and hang out for a while?" I asked him, starting to open my door. He looked at me, almost as if he wanted to make sure it was okay before coming in my room.

"Yeah. Sounds cool," he accepted my offer. I opened my door and motion for him to go in before me. Instead of heading in first, he held the door and motioned for me to enter first with his hand.

I shook my head slightly but entered first anyway. I took a seat on my bed and quiffie took his on the nearest chair, which happened to be at my desk near the bed, and faces it toward me.

"You never did tell me how you knew Riley," I brought up the subject again, genuinely interested in his relationship with the cute, brown haired girl.

"She's my mate's little sister. Always hangs around us because we are the 'Awesomest People Who Ever Walked The Earth," he said with air quotes. I laughed at that as she would be the kind of kid to do say that.

"She sounds adorable." He rolled his eyes when I said that, making me laugh even more.

"You say that now, but wait until she gets attached to you. She will never leave you alone!" he exclaimed. I rolled my eyes at him this time. How could he think the cute little girl was annoying?

"Maybe she just needs a friend," I told him, narrowing my eyes. It's now his turn to roll his eyes, and when he did, I threw a pillow at his face, tired of the mutual disrespect in the room.

"Hey!" the blonde boy exclaimed as the pillow hit him. "She doesn't really trust anyone though. You would be the first person she really talked to outside of my friends and I since she got here."

My heart plummeted. I felt sad for the little girl, probably feeling out of place. "Why won't she talk to anyone?" I asked, trying not to pry but being genuinely concerned and curious about the little girl.

"Trust issues I guess," he shrugged his shoulders.

We got off that subject quickly after, changing it to our experiences. Quiffie was telling me how he used to do some stupid stuff before he came here for shelter.

The blonde haired boy was excited to the recount the times he would run around and act like an idiot, or jump in his seat as his parents would fly him everywhere and say it was 'exhilarating' when anyone questioned him why he was jumping around and acting like a mad man.

"What about you?" he switched my previous question back toward me.

"Hmm?" I avoided answering him, trying to get out of this question.

"What did you do back at the laboratory?" he asked again. I won't be able to get out of this now. Truth be told, I didn't want to tell him about what I had done in the lab because it was no where near the excitement level of his stories.

"I didn't really do much. Besides, you know, control my twin."

"But that's the obvious! I want some insider information." He paused, thinking of a question to ask me. His eyes lit up when he figured out a question he wanted to ask. "Did you ever hack the system?"

My eyes widened twice their normal size. That was one of the many things forbidden in the lab. You couldn't hack any armored files in the computer. I was never one to follow the rules; so, of course, Janice and I had hacked five of the files.

"Like six times," I admitted to him. His eyes widened like saucers at the admittance. I coughed to try and relieve the tension.

"What did you find out?" he asked, leaning forward as if it was a huge secret that we would keep between us.

"Nothing useful. It was what they were going to do with the serum. Mathematic equations mostly," I responded quietly, still not believing that my lame experiences were better than his. He looked shocked, but at the same time hopeful, and I was left confused as to what he was thinking.

"If I could get you a computer, could you hack the system again and print off what you found?" My eyes widen again at the thought. I didn't know why, but this time I was terrified.

What were they going to do with it? Would they use it against me?

Quiffie seemed to notice what I was thinking and he shook his right away at my unasked question. "We won't hurt you. I promise," he assured me. "We are just trying to make everyone immune to the serum."

"You want to demolish the White Coats society and bring back the old one," I concluded. He nodded his head at me.

"So can you?" he asked me again.

I took a breathe in and released a heavy sigh. "I can't print it out without them getting the location and ID number I used to hack," I told him, feeling dejected that I couldn't get him exactly what he wanted.

"What ID number would you have to use?" His eyes were focused on mine, and I could see the wheels turning in his head.

"Janice and I used our computers to do the hack. Meaning our ID numbers were in the system. If I stayed in there too long, the headquarters will be contacted and told the number. Staying on for more than ten minutes means that my ID is leaked and they know exactly who hacked." I look down at the floor when I'm done speaking. I hear a sigh omit from his mouth. "But if you can get a team together to copy down the entire thing in under ten minutes, I can send the link to each computer in that glass room out front."

His eyes look up at mine after I say that. His mouth is in a smirk and his eyes sparkle with mischievousness. "So if I tell them to copy down specific lines-"

"Then I can get you the equations that are supposed to have all the information as to how they are changing the serum to fit specific genes," I finished for him, smirking at our genius plan that we had formed.

His eyes lit up even more than before when he discovered what I knew.

"When can you start getting them?" he asked, sitting up straight in the chair. He looked almost like a child on Christmas morning.

"When you have the team, I can start."

"I'll set up a meeting for us and Ben so we can tell him the good news then," he said before happily exiting my room.

Edited: 15 October 2016