"Silas." Arya paused for a second hesitantly, "Benji... He needs to know too. You cannot keep him in the dark for ever."

"Are you challenging my methods, child?" Silas leaned on to the desk again, his eyes gathering a smoke of assertiveness. "I knew this long before I planned it. You don't probably realise how important it is to do what we are doing."

Arya slowly shook her head, gaze drooping downward, "no, I do understand the pressure we have, trust me. Even then, you know how much difficult it is for me to lie to him."

Silas studied her, letting her slip what he was always afraid of, from her mouth.

"I don't know Silas, I... I don't understand the point of all this, we know we are all gonna die sooner than later."

"Arya." Silas groaned, "look around you, what do you see? Everywhere it is the calamity... The apocalypse. The Gods above are taking their sweet time to make sure we go through this pain. We have been stretching our limits for a century now. We cannot give up at this point, can we? This is your last chance, my last chance. This. Is. Our salvation."

Arya nodded a little approvingly this time, again looking away from the screen. "What do I do next?"

"Stick to 'our' plan. Now, when I sent you there, I didn't expect you guys to return until we have what's needed. This one is different than all of your other slum visits. Gather useful information, Arya. Look for what I'd told you. That thing is what I want, the authority wants and the whole fucking world wants."

"The chieftain -she seems a lot guarded." Arya scratched her neck, her eyes straining to analyse Oja in her mind. "She definitely needs something from us, too. There's no other reason for letting us in here otherwise. I sense something's wrong...very very wrong. The tribe, it's almost as if they're self sufficient enough. These incredible mud houses and her people seem well fed and well cared for. They trust her, loyal to her but also, at the same time, hate her. I can see it in their eyes. It's unlike any other slums or tribes I've seen."

"Did you say 'she'?" Silas wondered, "it's not how it works. These tribes and clans they are building since the initiation of apocalypse, have always had male dominance. Patriarchy ingrained in their dna. The Last time when I was recruited, the Hayal's tribe had a male chieftain. I forgot his na... Yeah, it was Idrif."

"She mentioned about closed doors, but upfront, warned not to sneak around or oversmart her." Arya honestly said, picturing Oja's every death stare in her head.

"Typical chieftains." Silas dismissingly laughed, playing sideways on his round-about office chair. "You said she wants something from us? That's our entry point. She is desperate, Arya. The walls of her tribe have been unbreakable otherwise till now."

"I do see that." Arya, double checked towards the direction of the door. The last thing she needed was somebody sneaking up on her and Silas's conversation, even if it was Benji, although he knew better than that.

"It'll take time to break her in. Being the chieftain, I guess she is one of the people who knows what we want."

"I'm counting on you child, do not disappoint me." Silas nodded. That look on his face sent shivers down her spine.

Why was she doing this? She could outright say that she was not comfortable with this, she could just listen to Benji for once and save the trouble for the lifetime, that was if they lived at all.

It all started when she was recruited from a tribe that she didn't even remember anymore. Faces were all blurry, she remembered a feminine voice that comforted her often, was she her sister? Or mother perhaps? No, it was her grandmother? May be a friend even? She was not sure anymore.

But Silas, she remembered him. Remembered the day he brought her holding her by little finger, the brown nameless biscuits he sneaked in for her in the nights at the underground APE school, while he wore military uniforms with lots of guns on it. He often said how much she reminded him of his lost daughter. She remembered when he started asking for little favours, usually it was - 'deliver this to him.' 'Gotta remember the streets she takes after her work to go home, alright?' 'Now be a good girl and slide this letter under his door.' That kind of stuff.

Now she was a biologist working in her dome and he was the programme lead at the scientific affairs department of the district. The dynamics remained the same, a father who wanted a good girl and the daughter who wanted to please her father.

"Yes, Silas." She looked away, not acknowledging the inner monologue, that fast-forwarded bitch of a thing inside her skull vault.

The screen blinked before going off.

Arya sat there in utter disbelief of what had just happened. She was falling into her own pit of self pity. 'You pathetic li'l twit. How long are we gonna play this game? Who's important to you, Benji or that damned Silas? What's important to you, your life or that fucked up map of a thing, good for god-knows-what?'

Suddenly something skittered away jolting her out of the misery, just out side of the mud house, or someone?

"Benji." She called softly, went over to the door and kept an ear on the door and hushed again. "Benji, is that you?"

No answer.

She reflexively retracted from the door and pulled the shooter out of the thermo-suit lying on the cot. She aimed it at the door and waited shifting weight on her legs nervously.

She listened to the sounds again.

Silence. Except for the wooshing of evening cold breeze through the cave ways. She lowered the gun, brows frowning.

She trusted Benji, or did she?

It was that girl in black, must be. She spied them then and she was spying on them now. That means the secret was compromised. In a minute or two, Oja and her tribesmen would barge in captivate her, break her in and cure her like a dead salmon like she thought earlier.

She wiped away some tiny beads of sweat pooled between her brows. That was it. That was how she was going to die.

Benji's voice brought a familiar wave of calmness into her. "Arya? Let me in."

Arya grabbed the door handle letting Benji in. She then dropped the shooter and wrapped her arms around him.

"Promise me you'll not leave me." She mumbled through his half undone thermal suit. "Not even when I'm not the person you thought I am."

'That's a lot to ask from anybody,' she thought.

"Wait, are you not the Ari that I thought, who slept with cannibalistic plants?"

"Funny." Arya looked up at his face. "Although, sleeping with cannibalistic plants is far more comforting than sleeping in this cave."

"Come on. I'll show you something." Benji grabbed her by hands and dragged her outside.

"What is it?"

"You'll be flabbergasted, trust me. It's your field of interest actually."

One right turn and a left one, opened the way into another cave system which was well lit from above skies but also well protected from the sandstorm outside.

There was a central system of wheels fixed to a tall central pole made of old world metal scraps, all of them covered by clothes or gunny rugs hung on them. A green layer covered all over the meters and meters of clothes. Microgreens.

Around the microgreen system, columns of water canals ran like spokes of a larger wheel. Over those water canals, a well planned hydroponic garden was grown, each spoke or canal dedicated to a particular type of plant or herb. Some canals had fruiting plants - cherry tomatoes or bell peppers.

Arya reached a canal where white flowers, which almost resembled to some sort of exotic spider, were grown. They smelled sweet too. She sat at them, drawing in a breath of olfactory organza. It took her back to the bio-lab, she deemed home.

She touched a bud, caressing it but also examining at the same time. The servant tribesmen who were picking up microgreen from the rugs shot a weird, cautionary glance at her.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The familiar voice jostled Arya making her fingers pull away from the plant.

Oja casually strolled towards them. The shadow girl following right beside her.

It made sense, she probably had eves-dropped all of their conversation. That skittered sound. End of time had finally arrived or so Arya thought.

"Sorry, we didn't mean intrude here. No closed doors, no oversmartness, no questions asked. We remember." Benji almost comically recited Oja's warnings.

Oja smiled, her cheeks flushing. Arya and Benji watched her, confusion clouding their thoughts.

"I take pride in this garden. We all do." Oja walked in between canals, "this is the Zoramaic way, taught by Joshin - the saint himself."

Arya and Benji followed her as Oja continued, "his teachings have made us survive through the moonfall, it will make us survive through the rebirth too."

Arya and Benji exchanged a glance, well Arya in particular made a mental note of rebirth. 'So this is what the authority is behind? The rebirth?.'

The shadow girl from before watched them standing far away, her slight grey eyes piercing and judging Arya in particular.

"But my friend," Oja walked back to the spider flowers, "outsiders are not supposed to touch this flower." Oja hung her head sideways, showing her villainy smile again.

"And why is that?" Arya questioned.

Benji rolled his eyes again. It was getting difficult dealing with Arya now. She made it seem like she deliberately wanted to get killed.

"Because it's poison, my dear." Oja almost sang musingly. "The poison that weaponizes our petty arrowheads, the poison that brings judgement to the defaulters and criminals alike inside the tribe. It's called 'Tezun' - it means 'balance'. Joshin's very own words."

Arya started wiping her fingers on her tights that she wore as undergarment for thermal suit. 'Yep! For a biologist, I'm fooler than I thought.'

"Who is this Joshin, the saint you talk about?" Benji asked.

"That's a story for another day."
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Wc -1650