Chapter Text
As I sat in the cell with my back against the metal wall, I felt the heat of the sun warm agsint the cold train car. In the three years I’d been on this moon, I had never seen outside. I felt the need for sunlight like a hunger no food could satisfy. The others have their backs on the walls too, there are eighteen cells that could hold five people each, they could fit 90 people and there are six of us. I thought of the 180 of us were sent as part of the RDA Re-Settlement Program. Once we landed, they gave us numbers 1-5. Ones and Two’s got apprenticeships, Three’s and Four’s were put into re-education and Five’s like me we went to site B. Twenty-four went in, only six were returning to Bridgehead. Dr. Yee had said, a twenty-five percent success rate was not what she hoped for. Quaritch said a new group would be here in six months; they would all go to site B no processing just 200 fresh bodies. At the current rate that would mean 50 it confirmed to me just how expendable how less orphans are that 150 could be killed with no morse or augment.
The plan now was to put us in a series of propaganda reels. Dr. Yee wanted us to stay so she could run more tests but Selfridge, corporate dog that he was stopped her mid-sentence. Apparently, we are a prime recruitment opportunity. If there were even a small chance to become an air breather. Air breather, which is a stupid name. The scientists’ official term for us was Homo sapiens Pandoraus. I don’t like that name either but no asked my opinion. Since the Navi where still killing RDA soldiers’ recruitment numbers were down especially since Francis Ardmore let Sully escape then died because space whales attacked her fleet. As far I knew the plan now was to make more people expand Bridgehead through re-settlement, not military campaigns.
“You think we’ll get paid?” A small, cheerful voice asked. Nina, the youngest at fourteen. For the first year and half we’d scrubbed toilets and pushed mops, sleeping in windowless rooms and ate rations that tasted like cardboard. Until they captured the wild boy Spider who could somehow survive the toxic environment.
He’s the reason we all got sent to site B the RDA was content to have use as slaves labor because no one ever cared on earth. It was sad pattern that I’d been apart of my whole life, you were useful and quiet if you spoke you got punishment. Then when you died you got thrown away like used up rag. A humorless chuckle raps out of my mouth “This whole deal is just bribery to make us complaints. They don’t give a damn about us.”
Nina huffed. I could practically see her crossing her arms. “Whatever.”
“Don’t listen to her, Nina” Elias said in a soft voice. He was sixteen and always writing in the journal they’d somehow allowed him to keep. Maybe they wanted a record that would use the reels heavily redacted of course the painful sounds as people died choking on their own lungs did not make for great content at least not in a public eye. Medically Dr. Yee said they'd be publishing journals for decades about us. of course. “That’s a really great wish,” he said. Then he says his words pointed at me. “And no one knows what’s going to happen.”
“I just want my guitar back,” Kai said, completely unbothered by the whole situation.
“I agree,” Micha said. The oldest of our little misfit group just wanted everyone to get along. “If we’re going to spend the rest of our lives as political tools, we should at least get something out of the deal.”
“Really? Do you think they’ll let me join the engineering teams?” Tessa asked. She was smart with gadgets. She could have been a Category One but the first day here she stole a knife from a Na’vi. Not in an escape attempt she was wanted to see how it had been made. They wanted to take her hand, but the colonel said that was too quick a punishment and made her Cat-5 like the rest of us.
“Maybe you don’t need a mask now they could have you on the roof’s fixing towers.” Micha offered. “And Reyes you can join Sec-ops.”
I stand slamming my hand against the glass so fast it makes him flinch. “The fuck I will. I’d rather take my chances outside.”
“Outside you wouldn’t last an hour.” Tessa says in know-it all tone.
I slide back down. “Its forest full of food and clean water.”
“And dangerous predators and hustle natives.” Tessa contours as if I wasn’t predator in my own right.
Kai make eh sound. “I wouldn’t be to sure about that.”
I look over at him giving him a smile, he smiles back tapping out melody singing. “All my life I’ve sitting at a table…”
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
The car jerked violently beneath us. Metal screamed against metal. Someone cursed. Then everything stopped.
The lights went out.
For a moment there was only darkness.
Back on Earth, night wasn't dark. People liked to pretend it was, but it wasn't. There were streetlights, advertisements, traffic, apartment windows, security lamps, and the endless glow of screens. Every corner of the world was illuminated by something. Darkness had become a commodity, packaged and sold like every other luxury.
People bought this darkness because they could be Anonymous to all the things that happened in dark rooms. I wasn’t pretty, in fact I am very plain looking that was something that saved me in the beginning. So, my darkness was sweat and the hot we sound of fists connecting to another human. The memories drifted through my mind without emotion, my past was far away light years away now.
Not forgotten I think as my skin starts to glow my past it will never go away completely. The blossoms appeared one by one. At first they were faint, pale outlines beneath the surface of my skin. But as the seconds passed and no emergency lights flickered on, they grew brighter. Soft blue-white petals unfolded across my arms, casting enough light to reveal the shape of my hands.
Around me I heard someone suck in a breath.
I stood my ears strained in the silence, my flowers continued to brighten. Putting my hands around my ears the other see it clearly. My right arm glowed brightest. That was where victories were recorded a silent testament to my abilities as a survivor or victim. The blossoms climbed from my wrist to my forearm, winding higher and higher until they disappeared beneath my sleeve. Layered petals overlapped one another, years of accomplishments etched into living skin.
My left arm carried defeats, when I was younger, no one won every battle especially when I was younger. But the blooms stopped lower.
I could feel them all looking at them now, Tessa recovers first. “Your arms?”
The flowers reached my shoulder there, spreading like a luminous vine.
I stared back at them and yes, this situation that we are in is dangerous, I hear gunfire but I can help but smirk at them. People always assumed I exaggerated or maybe they assumed I was being dramatic. Whenever someone learned my numbers, they looked at me differently not as fellow orphan I was different I’d spent years surviving things that should have killed me.
Survival wasn't heroic, it’s about doing whatever was necessary to see tomorrow.
Nina was staring.
Elias held his journal frantically writing.
Even Kye had stopped tapping his rhythm.
Eighteen kids had died. Six of us remained. In the beginning I would sit in my cell wondering what made me special. Strength? Luck? Cruelty? As more us lived I came to believe that the answer was Nothing. There was nothing special about me or any of us were just kept breathing when others didn’t. if that made us lucky or unlucky I couldn’t say.
Before I can answer there was boom closer than before I don’t have much time to think about it. The side of the train erupted inward in a shower of twisted metal and sparks. Whatever hit us had enough force threw me into the glass that due the shock also shatters. My shoulder slammed into the floor as screams echoed through the compartment.
Raw heat washed over us as smoke poured through the wreckage. The humid air wrapped around me immediately. It carried the scent of damp earth, flowering plants, and growing things. Compared to the sterile smell of metal corridors and recycled oxygen, it was overwhelming. Standing I look out at the scene before me. Moonlight spilled across enormous leaves. Bioluminescent plants glowed in shades of blue and violet. Massive tree trunks stretched upward into darkness, their branches disappearing high above the shattered train. “It’s Beautiful.”
I felt something stir deep in my chest.
Not hope. Hope was for children and people who hadn't had to fight for every meal or drink of water.
The air of Pandora was supposed to be toxic—too much carbon dioxide. Back when I first arrived, it smelled like rotten eggs. My clothes carried that stink for the first year. Now all I could smell was clean, pure air, and it lit a fire inside me.
I moved quickly. At the front of our train car were personal effects and weapons.
"What are you doing?" Micha asked, stepping through his own shattered cell.
"I'm leaving," I said as I pulled out the jewelry I had won.
Fighters like me weren't paid with money. We were given scraps of metal and string, maybe a piece of smoothed glass. It was garbage we never pretended otherwise but we made it beautiful.
Losing a battle meant losing a bracelet or necklace. It gave us something to fight for.
"You can stay and be a corporate puppet," I said, "But out there is something none of us ever had."
Micha steps out he was taller than me crossing his arms, he wasn’t a fighter he was a gang enforcer, meant to stand there and be intimating but in a real fight close to useless. "Please don't say freedom. You're not that stupid."
Ignoring him, I crossed to the guard station. The panel was damaged and hanging open for the taking.
I helped myself to a cattle prod and a knife. Actually, I take two knives. Then I found a rainslicker. It made sense this was a rainforest. I held it up. It would be useful. I would make it useful.
"It's not stupid," I said. "It's the only chance we'll ever get."
Kai found his guitar. "Hello, you glorious thing." He strummed the same tune as before and smiled at the sound. Finding some emergency cord, he fastened the instrument to his back.
"I'm going with you."
"Fuck, Kai." Micha says his voice weavers as the sound of gunfire drew closer. “We have good thing here.”
Hooking my foot under his leg he goes down I put my new knife to his throat. “This is pretty cage what’s gonna happen when the RDA gets what they want from you.” I threw his words back at him. “Come your not that stupid.”
Tessa and Nina looked toward the opening that led into the forest its beauty hypnotizes them. Then they joined me in pilfering the supplies, Nina pulls large bottle with what looks like water in it. Tessa grabbed a tablet. I stopped her with a few words.
"Can’t they track that?" I ask standing up keeping my foot on his chest not hard enough to be painful just to keep him down.
"Normally, yes. But I have a cheat code."
I considered it for half a beat. "If we get caught because of that thing, I'll break it over your head."
She met my eyes. "We won't.” Her face morphs into devious smile. “I was caught with stolen good they could never place me at crime scene."
“You ghost?” I ask pulling out a large pack with bright letters on the side. I handed it to Nina. "Make sure there's nothing in there that can track us."
“I am the ghost.” Her tone was nostalgic/ confident.
Nina looks up, “Its just rations a few flares and a solar charger.”
I smirk looking down at Micha I remove my foot and hold out my hand. “You stay here on your back or you can run beside me. I can’t guarantee anything we’ll get hurt and we’ll probably be hungry most days.”
Elias, who had been quietly recording us this whole time, speaks. “Sounds like life to me at least this hunger is something we get to choose.”
Micha takes my hand. “Do you have plan?”
“We go south towards the coast.” I pulled him up he was strong. “Far from any Na’vi clan and the RDA reach.”