She wakes up early the next morning after not getting much sleep because of a nightmare she had of the bombing, not that a good night's sleep is something she's ever really cared about especially given that she wanted to leave the house to visit Nathan the moment the curfew hours were over for the morning. As soon as the curfew is announced over until the evening she leaves the house hoping the bus will be somewhat on time. The bus eventually arrives almost twenty minutes late which was to be expected given most people couldn't get to work until the curfew ended, she boards the bus with a handful of other people already on and sits while her mind buzzes as the bus crosses into the city.

Nathan was right there when the bomb went off... it all happened so fast but seeing him there on the ground before the soldiers arrested me...

Her mind flashes back to the brief moment she got to see him: back flat against the wall motionless. Despite knowing he's alive and recovering, the thought that he almost died is enough to send an uncomfortable feeling deep into her stomach. It takes almost forty minutes between the late bus, and traffic as a result of various security checks from the attack yesterday, she finally arrives at the hospital that has a moderately high security presence with soldiers, and a handful of ATTF members patrol the parking lot checking vehicles.

Really? Checking vehicles at a hospital for bombs? Nate was hurt yeah, but the rebels have always avoided civilian buildings, especially hospitals and care facilities. Guess it's understandable but still...

She enters the hospital and checks with reception to see if visiting hours are allowed currently, the black haired woman on the opposite of the glass tells her they were briefly suspended because of the bombing but were allowed to resume with the additional security measures, she just had to fill out an entry forum with various information needed: Full name, time and date of the visit, and name of who she's visiting. She scans over the forum and all the details she has to fill out and is just shocked by it.

Are you fucking kidding me? We basically live in a Police State as it is but this is stupid.

She fills out the forum, gives it back to the receptionist and proceeds to the elevator, she steps into and presses the floor Nathan is on. The elevator stops and the door opens and she's greeted with the sight of two lightly armed MP's, she walks past them not even acknowledging them and walks straight heart races slightly as she nears his room. She opens the door and without hesitation when she sees he's awake rushes over wrapping her arms around him, he silently winces but Katlyn still hears it and releases her borderline bear hug realizing he may be a little tender still. She pulls away expecting to see a painful expression but instead she sees a slight smile clearly happy to see her. She returns the smile and takes a seat beside his bed getting a good look at the cuts and scrapes on his face, her smile slowly fades when she thinks about how much worse it could have been.

"Eh it could have been a lot worse, ya know? They saw it's better to be funny than funny looking so it's a good thing I still have my humour." He says with a chuckle, Katlyn's smile returns, making his widen a bit.

There's that lovely smile of hers.

"Guess the blast didn't hurt you bad enough to stop you from making stupid jokes." She says still smiling.

"Nah, it'll take more than that to stop me. maybe a rhino would do it." Katlyn laughs slightly as the very stupid remark.

The two laugh for a while before going into a normal conversation before Katlyn's phone starts going off with text message notifications.

Message: Clara Thompson - OMG I JUST HEARD! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!! IS NATHAN OKAY??!! MEET ME AT ALICE'S WHEN YOU CAN!!

Nathan asks who it was with a semi sarcastic tone knowing there's only one person they both know who'd be blowing up her phone like that, Katlyn looks at him and jokingly says, I'll give you a guess. He laughed lightly knowing he was right.

"You better go before she explodes." Katlyn looks at him given what JUST happened to him. "Okay, bad choice of words."

"Yeah, you think? I'll talk to you later. Make sure you get some rest, okay?" She says with a tone that sounds like she's almost ordering him to get rest, he gives her a low effort two finger salute as she walks out the door, she gives him the middle finger as she shuts the door behind her.

She leaves the hospital to meet Clara at Cafe Alice even though they aren't Katlyn's favourite kind of place to hangout Clara enjoys them, and since they've known each other almost as long as she's known Nathan she doesn't mind going to the Cafe from time-to-time. Katlyn approaches the crosswalk and can see Clara across the street wearing a black T-shirt underneath a dark grey coat with jeans and white shoes, but she isn't alone: she's arguing with a man wearing a black beanie, dark green hoodie, tan cargo pants, and black runners. She watches them as she crosses the street but can't hear what they are arguing about, the man starts to walk away as Clara throws her arms in the air out of frustration,

Who was that? And what were they arguing about? Is she dating again? Uggh this girl's love life is worse than her taste in men.

She walks towards Clara and can see her stressed expression clearly but it quickly changes when she sees Katlyn approaching. She dashes over to her and throws her arms around Katlyn hugging her tight, obviously happy to see her, she releases Katlyn from the borderline bear hug looking her in the eyes: Katlyn can see the deep emotion in her eyes, they look scared.

"Are you okay? My mom told me Nathan was brought in when she got off work yesterday! Is he okay?" Clara asks frantically while scanning over Katlyn with her hands still on her shoulders.

"I'm fine, Clara! I'm Fine! Nate is fine. They're gonna release him tomorrow after the curfew hours are over." She replies with a calm tone hoping it'll help ease Clara's obvious worry, and it does when she sees her expression relax.

She sighs in relief before removing her hands from Katlyn's shoulders and smiles softly. The two walk into the Cafe and order a couple drinks, Clara who doesn't typically like coffee orders a vanilla cappuccino while Katlyn orders a straight black coffee, Clara insists they sit outside so they can get some fresh air. For a moment there's a silence between the two but Katlyn notices that Clara has questions so she asks what's on her mind.

"It's just the bombing... You and Nathan could have died yesterday. Does your dad have any leads? Any idea on who carried out the attack?" Clara asks with a curious tone before taking a sip of her drink.

Of course she'd wanna know about that.

"No. They have a suspect but nothing more than that." She replies with a relaxed tone not thinking much of the questions, taking a sip of her coffee. Clara simply asks, a suspect? clearly curious by this detail.

"Yeah, some woman who was seen at the scene is a Person-of-Interest. She's the reason I got detained in the first place! They thought I was an insurgent because of her." Katlyn explains with an irritated tone, Clara's expression quickly becomes anxious which catches Katlyn's attention.

Clara's phone vibrates on the table as the two sit in silence. She checks the message and immediately gets up to leave telling Katlyn she'll stop by the house later before curfew, before she can even say anything to Clara she takes off down the sidewalk. Katlyn is a little confused at her friend's sudden leave but doesn't think all that much of it. She finishes her coffee, disposes of the cup, and begins heading home since she doesn't have any reason to stay in the city any further today.

She returns home and orders some pizza since she's found herself alone for another night while her dad is out investigating. She does some light cleaning to pass time before sitting down in the later part of the afternoon going into the evening to watch one of her favourite movies after she ordered a couple pizzas, sides, and some dips for dinner and for her dad to have something to eat when he eventually gets home. Almost half-an-hour later there's a knock on the door, she pauses her movies and goes over to the door fully expecting it to be her dinner but it's not, it's Clara and the man she was with back at the Cafe.

"Told you I'd make it before curfew!" Clara says while just walking straight through the door followed by the man.

Why did she bring him?

The two take a seat on the couch that Clara was sitting on while she takes a seat on a chair just at the end of the glass top coffee table. The man now that she can see his face clearly has some rough facial hair, light brown eyes that seem almost hollow.

This guy looks like he's seen some shit. Wonder what his story is.

"This is Adam. We wanted to talk to you about the woman you saw at the bombing yesterday." Clara explains with a neutral tone, Katlyn is confused as to why she wants to talk about the bombing again and why she brought Adam.

"Why are you obsessing over this? Yeah, it was scary but we're both alive so it's nothing to worry about. Besides the ATTF have a street camera picture of her so there wasn't much for me to say. Not that I could get a word in over that asshole." She says leaning back into the chair not really showing much interest in this topic again, until she notices Clara's expression isn't showing concern for her or Nathan still but something else.

"It's more than that, Katlyn. We need to know what you could have told them about her." Clara says with a more urgent, higher tone of voice. The tone catches her off guard

"Just tell us everything you told the damn Blacks about her." Adam snaps, Katlyn's head snaps to him and quickly turns angry.

Who the fuck does this guy think he is to talk to me like that in my own house!

"Look asshole! I don't know who you think you-" Her words escape her as she notices a tattoo showing through the edge of his sleeve, a tattoo she recognizes.

Clara looks at where Katlyn is staring on Adam's arm. She sighs and remains silent for a moment before saying, show her. He pulls up his sleeve revealing the rest of his tattoo that is the initials, NVR. Her eyes widen knowing exactly what this tattoo is: the signature of the North Van Resistance, a local resistance cell who operates in Northern Vancouver.

What the fuck? He's part of the NVR? What the fuck is Clara hanging out with someone like him?

"What the hell, Clare? Why are you hanging out with an NVR member?" Katlyn snaps while shouting, launching herself out of the chair with a furious expression.

Clara stands up to put herself between Katlyn and Adam who remains seated on the couch as Katlyn clutches her fists looking more angry than before.

"He needs to leave! Now! If my dad comes back-" Clara cuts her off from shouting

"Calm down! He won't be back tonight! Okay?" She says with a calm voice, she stops and looks at the two still in confusion.

Katlyn walks away into the kitchen to get some air, and processes the fact that her second closest friend is a member, or at least, associated with one of the various rebel groups in the city. She rests her arms on the counter on the edge of the sink and runs her hands over her head while breathing deeply, she sighs heavily trying to figure out how and why Clara got involved with the NVR.

Claire a rebel? No! She can't be... she is a smart girl. Fucking top of our class in school, she's hella smart so why is she involved with these people?

Shortly after there's a gentle knocking on the wall behind her, it's Clara standing in the doorframe entering the kitchen telling Katlyn she asked Adam to leave them alone. Katlyn turns to face her but says nothing, only crossing her arms with a saddened expression. Clara rests her hands on the island counter and leans into them sighing not saying anything at first, just an awkward silence can be felt between the two as they wait for the other to say something.

"You think I'm an idiot, don't you?" Clara asks, breaking the tense silence.

"Idiot would be an understatement. Dumbass would be more like it." Katlyn replies with a somewhat irritated tone while looking up at her, Clara's head lowers slightly.

"Katie, you may not understand-"

"Your right! I don't understand! I don't understand how my best girlfriend got herself caught up with a group of Insurgents! Do you even understand how stupid that is? You are the dumbest smart person I know for this! You know what the worst part is? You didn't tell me! Me, Claire!" Katlyn shouts while gestures and pacing around in clear frustration.

"It's not like I didn't want to keep it from you Katie. But your dad is a Black, they were concerned you'd be a risk." Clara explains hoping that she can get Katlyn to hear her out but it has the opposite effect.

"Oh yeah! I'm a risk! Because being a terrorists is such a fucking risk free life choice! You know damn well I don't agree with my dads job, that I hate seeing innocent people get harassed by the soldiers for simply walking down the streets!" Katlyns snaps while scoffing at Clara's attempt at an explanation.

Clara stops talking knowing she's getting nowhere, and won't get anywhere with Katlyn being so pissed off. She pushes off of the island and sighs lightly.

"I'm tired of it too Katie, the only difference is I'm willing to take a stand and try to make a change, and not look the other way and cry about it. I told my boss about you, she knows you have spirit in you. She wanted us to try and convince you to meet with her at one of our safe houses to hear her out. Text me tomorrow with your answer, or turn me into your dad for being a traitor. The choice is yours." Clara says with her eyes locked with Katlyn's before she walks away, and out of the house with just an hour left before the new curfew hours begin.

The front door closes and Katlyn just stands in the kitchen at a loss for what to do or even make sense of this situation: her best friend almost dies in a bombing, and her second best friend being associated with the very group who carried out the attack and almost killed her friend. Eventually her dinner gets delivered but she's lost her appetite, after paying she puts it all in the fridge and starts getting ready for bed. She showers, changes into her night clothes, and lays in bed looking at her ceiling.

Claire is a rebel... and she didn't tell me. Why do they want to talk with me? Probably because of who my dad is if I go off of what Clara said tonight. Ugh I don't know what to do! This is so fucked up!