We waited. And waited but time was precious. Doran swore, Arno was just behind him. But Arno never came through the front entrance.

It was impossible to know what Fiori was thinking. At this very moment I hated the man. I understood now, this visit had never been about my arm. There was nothing Dr. Bari did that Fiori couldn’t have done himself. We could have gotten antibiotic elsewhere. The bullet didn’t even need to come out of my arm. Coming here was not about my well being. It was about the signals. Fiori wanted to destroy the signals, thus killing a good portion of the military force.

A chill ran down my spine.

Again, people had died.

That’s why we came here; to commit mass murder.

I was just a pretext.

But this was not the source of my anger. My anger laid elsewhere.

He did this, knowing very well Yuki and Doran might die.

That really pissed me off.

Even if Yuki and Doran were visibly alive. He still pissed me off.

His half-baked plan had killed Arno.

It was apparent, Fiori cared about no one.

I now knew.

Fiori is an island.

In Fiori’s eye, we were all disposable.

I turned and looked at Eli. She was processing some other kind of information. Fiori was the villain of my story. I was the villain of her story. I had killed her parents. I was her parent’s murderer.

I am a hurricane. I bring devastation everywhere I go.

I shook that thought out of my head. I could feel the heat building up inside of me again. I turned to Yuki. They were still visibly shaken by what had just happened. But they were alive and that was enough for me. I pushed a sigh of relief.

“He’s not coming out!” a worried Meyer finally voiced.

“We have to go back and get him,” Doran feebly suggested.

“We have to get going. If we stay here, we’re dead,” Yuki gibbered.

“No! NO! We can’t go without Arno! I am not leaving the University without him!”

“He’s not coming, Meyer…” Yuki pressed.

“You don’t get it! We promised each other. We promised to always stick together!” Meyer pleaded.

In the distance, sirens were blaring. Nearby, people were gathering. Nova Summus had been a relatively quiet city. But since the attack on Nova Terra, no one, any longer, felt safe in Antarticum.

“Start walking south. If we get separated, make your way to Doran’s parents. Here’s the address. Memorize it, then destroy the paper.” Fiori said without a treble in his voice. He had regained his composure. He was as calm as the eye of the storm.

Meyer cried silently, as he followed.

Two soldiers laid dead on the ground next to an armor vehicle. Fiori quickly stopped and took their jackets off them. Now we could all blend in.

We headed south until we reached the third arrondissement. There, the traffic was more regular. People seemed oblivious to what had happened at the University. We slowed down a little, joining the flow of pedestrians on the sidewalk.

What day of the week was it? I had no idea. The place reminded me of Nova Terra. Identical in so many ways. I was stricken by the conformity and homogeneity. Perhaps, they to were slaves to a system. Not dressed in red, not housed in orphanages and not inked on the cheek… but slaves none the less. What kind of freedom did they really have? I looked around. I remembered the first time I had seen Nova Terra… I had been amazed by the beauty of outside life. But now, all I saw were a bunch of pawns in immaculate white coats, being shepherd to their death by some God-wanna-be egocentric maniacs.

I bumped into a young mother holding her child.

“Excuse-me!” I mumbled as I moved away, sinking my face into my collar. By now the ink on my cheek was fully gone. Yet, I felt like the mark would never truly never leave my skin.

As I walked away, I heard the mother tell her daughter: “You see this young man, Marcia, he works hard keeping us safe from bad people…”

I guess the cloak spoke for itself…

I shrugged and walked on.

Eli still wasn’t talking to me. I was itching to have a good conversation with her. Surely, she couldn’t hold me responsible for her parent’s murder! I would never have done such a thing of my free will. She ought to know that.

Fiori suddenly stopped in his trek next to a parked vehicle. Instinctively we all followed his lead. He fiddled with the door handled and then made his way around to the driver’s side.

Yuki opened the passenger’s door and dropped on the front seat, still struggling. Fiori leaned in from the inside and unlocked our door. Meyer was the first to get in, Doran followed, I gently pushed Eli in and squeezed in the best I could. I had a hard time closing the door, but we managed.

A small crowd had gathered at the funny sight of six government guards trying to fit into a car. The mother and her daughter were there. I tried smiling and waved at the small child. She smiled back.

Good luck little girl. I’m sorry this is the only world you’ll ever know.

The car took off.

I kept my eyes on the little girl for as long as I could, desperately clinging on to her smile. But soon the distance snapped the thread of hope connecting us.

Bye Marcia.

Outside, the scenery scrolled before my eyes. An infinite loop of majestic white. I dozed on and off, swayed by the rumbling of the motor and the crevasses on the road. Exhaustion was overcoming me.

Everyone in the car was unusually quiet, or perhaps it was the void left behind by Arno.

Did you suffer Arno? Tell me, was it worth it?

I brushed that thought away and allowed my mind to wander freely halfway between dreams and memories, wishing I could escape reality. I was long gone in my thoughts, when we finally arrived at a little cottage sitting on the outskirt of the last suburb.

“It looks just like on the pictures my parents brought me when I was little,” a visibly emotional Doran said.

His voice brought me back to reality.

In the dark, I couldn’t notice the man shaking. Yet I knew just how hard it must have been for him to be here: a stranger in his own house.

“You guys wait here, I’ll go first… I don’t think they’ll be happy to see me.”

He sounded defeated; it stung my heart.

The family house. His family’s house. Not his house.

What is family? I wondered.

“It’s not too late, we can turn back, we can go somewhere else,” Meyer suggested without any real enthusiasm.

“You know whether we come here or not, they’ll be after your family…” said Fiori with a cold voice. Although he was addressing Doran, Fiori’s words had been geared towards all of us.

“I know. I know why we are here,” Doran interrupted him. “I just wished my homecoming was in different circumstances.”

“If it wasn’t for the circumstances… there would be no homecoming,” Fiori cut in.

Just as Doran was about to get out of the car, the porch light turned on and an older man came out, pointing a riffle at the car.

“Who are you?” the man screamed. “We have nothing to do with the attack! Go away! Leave us alone!”

As assertive as he was, there was terror in his voice.

Doran stepped out of the car very slowly, careful with his every moves.

“It’s me, your son,” he yelled with a quivering voice.

The sound of the gun cocking resonated in the night.

“It’s me, Doran,” he tried again.

“It’s a shame you didn’t die in the attack today,” said the man holding the riffle.

“Can we come in?” Doran asked amidst the animosity.

“The moment you arrived here; you signed our death warrant.”

“They would have come after you regardless…” Doran feebly said echoing Fiori’s words.

A woman arrived on the porch.

“Who is it?” she asked.

Before none could answer, she gasped and dropped a teacup she was holding in her hand.

The teacup hit the concrete and exploded in tiny fragments.

The sound awakened a memory buried deep within me: shattering porcelain, like a bad omen.

“Mom, it’s me. Your son… Doran.”

The woman moved as if ready to launch herself forward, but her husband stopped her.

“He’s here to kill us. Your son is here to kill us.” The man said as he turned around and walked back into his house.

“Let’s go,” Fiori said unmoved.

In complete disbelief, I followed Fiori inside. It didn’t make sense to me.

I mumbled a quick “thank you” as I passed in front of the woman. Her shocked expression was painful to watch. It made me think of my own mother. An image of her face flashed in front of my eyes. A thin woman with a pointy nose. Blond curly hair framing her tired face. Was that Hana’s or Evian’s memory? I brushed the thought away.

Inside, we found ourselves in a small living room. The man quickly pulled down all the blinds and lowered the lights.

“What do you want?” he bluntly asked.

Fiori started: “Mr. Fairfax, we need a place to hide for a little while. We need a computer…”

“… I wanted to see you. One last time,” suddenly interrupted Doran.

As Fiori struggled to hide the surprise on his face, the father slapped his son across the cheek.

Doran stood still and lowered his head.

“Don’t. Please stop!” the woman begged.

“It’s ok mom, I deserved it.”

There was tenderness in her eyes.

“Go make some tea,” the man ordered the fragile woman.

She swiftly obeyed her husband.

Doran took a deep breath and raised his head again, facing his father.

“It’s too late for me. It’s too late for you and mom. But it’s not too late for all the children working in those damn orphanages. It’s not too late for the babies born today and those that will be born tomorrow. This is for them. For all those kids and their parents. This is for their future, for their happiness, for their safety.”

“We did what we had to do to survive. We had no choice,” the man barked.

“You did what you had to do to survive? And how is surviving going for you? Happy? Living a good life? Is it fulfilling to live in fear of the government? And what about me? Did you even care about your son? My dignity? My safety? My well-being? Did you care if I was beaten, starved, abused? Did you ever wonder if I was happy? Living a good life as a government’s toy?”

Doran paused.

Yuki collapse on the couch.

Fiori discreetly had a talk with Meyer as Eli stood blocking the door.

And there was me, numbed by Arno’s loss and dumbfounded at the scene unrolling in front of me.