The rest of the morning Lana spent on carrying the guns backed up into the armory with many circuits. In the room, she also discovered an extra set of armor, a gun, and a dagger, arrange and clean to fit in the same way as the one she already took care of. For a short moment and a first time in a while, a hint of a smile formed on her lip.

Afterward, Lana made her way down onto the well hall, since the cook wouldn’t be delivering her food to the armory due to her task being for her alone. As she entered the large cavern, there were a few people around already, so she went to the head cook Toad where she stood with trey below the platform, the old lady handed Lana a piece of bread for her lunch.

But as Lana bit into her meal, she reached into a slice of ham hiding inside the bread. The meat was slightly salty, but it was still delicious and also strange as well. The cavern only had chicken, and only kept them for their eggs, not to mention she had not heard of anyone capturing a wild hog of this past week, so to have pork in her dough was very peculiar.

Toad saw Lana’s puzzlement and smiled “Courtesy of our Wall.”

After Lana took her final bite of the tasty bread of ham, she returned to her task, tidying up the armory and polishing any more equipment she hadn’t cleaned yet. It was near the break of dusk when she returned to the hall once again.

Tonight, Lana sat with Wall, along with a few of his friends around his age. The situation made Lana very uncomfortable, but at least she got a friend sitting next to her. She spied the supreme leader’s poster at the end of the room; a ball of dirt had been smeared on his face today, and she hoped she had the courage the person who did it had.

The dinner was simple but plentiful; a few slices of ham, boiled eggs, and chopped herb. Lana dined quietly, slicing up her food into pieces and stuffing her mouths with them all together. Wall rarely chatted with his friends, as if they were waiting for something, though he did from time to time made an attempt to converse with her, the attempt that she tried her best to respond, but without much progress.

“Look,” Wall said when they were near halfway done on their meal, pointing to one of the large tables “That’s Robin, the one I told you about.”

Lana turned toward the direction; sitting at the very front of the table was a teenage girl of about sixteen to seventeen years, which surprised her because when Wall said she was too young, she wasn’t expected her to be this young. The girl Lana assumed was Robin’s lock of hazelnut colored and well-combed hair was tied into a short ponytail, and though her face normal looking, there was something in it that captivated anyone who as much glanced at it, like a sort of mysterious charm in a way. She wore a simple yet outstanding outfit, consisting of an unfaded grey t-shirt, a thin black jacket with orange slash going through the fabric and hoodie attached to the back, came with them a loose legging and a pair of warmed boots, a sharp dagger slung from her belt, sheathed in leather holder. She was chatting with the members around her tables, which seemed to be all around her age, and self-confident seemed to as if radiated from the way her face moved and in her strange mismatched eyes.

“And see the two boys next to her?” Wall continued and turned his hand “The right’s Jacob, the pale one in the left is Marah.”

Lana nodded and followed Wall’s pointing finger, boarding the girl was two teenagers who could not be more different. The right had short black hair, solemn and handsome, cladded in an only dark vest and a tight pair of jeans. His body was more than well-muscles and could probably bend a band of metal with his bare hands. His gaze was fixing around the people on the table, especially Robin who was next to him, not speaking but simply observing and protecting, in a way. The left boy had a wavy and ashy blond hair, his handsome face decorated with an easy smile and sharp eyes, and though his body was made of thick build, he didn’t seem to be as strong as the right. His clothing consisted of a cream color coat and bottom-up shirt, his sagged pant buckled with a simple leather belt. The most peculiar thing about him was his skin though, it was near as pale as milk like the color was sucked out of him. The left boy was chatting to Robin, making her laughed through some jokes Lana couldn’t heard.

The two pretty boys sitting next to the girl was as different as night and day and sort of look like it too, contrasting each other like white and black. They were both handsome though, that much Lana could saw clearly.

After all of the members finished their food, the time had come for the election. One of them brought out a bucket filled with light grey stones from deep in the mine and handed them out to everyone, making sure each member had one and only one piece. When every singles people had it, the bucket was emptied onto the floor and crushed into tiny pieces as a way of avoiding any sneaky business.

“Free caverner!” Doc said from the raised platform, a stone clutching in his palm “As you all sadly know, our old leader has passed away. But life carries on, and so does this cavern, so we must have a new leader.”

“Unlike in the city we had all escaped from, however, it is not the duty of the last leader, but of all of us to pick the successor worthy of the old Castrill. You may vote for anyone you want, yourself, your friend, me, the stranger who you have never had spoken with before but secretly admire, anyone you wish. But know that our future is in our hands.”

At the end of Doc’s speech, the hall burst into chatting, some produced a dagger to chiseled their vote immediately, but many more waited to see if anything would happen before the voting closed. Lana clutched on her rusty coin, praying for god, then Sophia to give her courage.

“Everyone, may I have your attention.” The steward Thirteen spoke and stood up, everyone fell into silence when he did, listening on what he had to say “I have heard that some people wish for me to be the new leader, so I believe I have something to say regarding the matter…”

And so he did, Thirteen spoke of the duty he did every day, arranging tasks for every members, calculating food stock and keeping the cavern alive and its member as content as possible. The steward described how he became a member since he was barely a teen, escaping from the city with the rag on his back and nothing else, how he won the trust from the old leader and became the man’s trusted friend. He spoke that, if the duty of being a new leader did fall into his hand, everything would likely remain the same, and if there were members who did not like that, he would not hold anything against them.

“But if you pick me…” He said to finish his speech “I will try my best to keep this place the way it has always been, a home far from home, where we are all free.”

A small uproar of clapping rise across the hall as the steward lowered down back to his seat, where he received several pats on the back from the people sharing his table.

“A man of experience and not to mention unambitious. We cannot have a better leader than that!” One of Wall’s friends declared, and Lana could saw Wall nodding to it. And Lana supposed that was reasonable to assume.

“Members of the free cavern!” A voice went across the room, silencing other sound and turning the attention to the speaker, Lana did the same. It was Marah, who had stood up from his stone chair.

“Though I do like our old steward, surely we know that his duty will always remain the same, becoming leader or no, only he would have a ton less work on a former case.” Marah said to the members, his voice had a friendliness in him but a hidden edge as well, his way of speech was refined and Lana felt a strangely captivated from listening to him “Surely, wouldn’t it be better use of this rare opportunity to lead the cavern to a new direction?”

“Are you recommending yourself, Marah?” Some asked from inside the hall.

“A man who cannot bear even the sun cannot bear such a burden.” He said calmly, though Lana did not know what that meant “But a better man, a better woman rather, is sitting next to me.”

All gaze shifted to Robin, who smiled and gave Marah a peck on the cheek before he continued.

“She may be only here for less than a year, but Robin had proven herself to be a capable member.” Marah went on, a small smile was on his lip “She can think for herself, she can take intuitive, she can fight, and she can lead.”

“Just a few days ago she brought us back a large amount of weaponry.” Jacob joined in, still seated, his tone loud and commanding.

“You mean the thieving in broad daylight which led to one member death?” Wall muttered sarcastically under his breath, but Lana could hear it all the same. But her gaze was still fixed at Robin, who was giving Jacob a peck on the cheek as a thank.

‘Wait’ a small thought formed in her head ‘You’re not supposed to be kissing two boys at the same time…’

“So this is what I had to say, members of the free caverns.” Marah returned to his seat “You can pick Thirteen and keep things the way it is, or lets my girl Robin lead us to the brighter future.”

There was a large uproar after that, big part of it coming from the table around Robin’s, nearly as loud as one followed the old steward. Wall turned to speak with his friend, muttering grimly to each other. The hall waited for any more recommendation, but none come, so the voting officially started.

Wall handed Lana his knife by the handle after he finished chiseling his “Choose wisely” He said and smiled, and she nodded to that.

One by one, the members stood up, and placed their stone onto the foot of the raised platform, and slowly it piled up like a growing little mountain. When the last vote was placed, some of the designated members scooped up the stones and split into separate piles then count them. Some had one to two some had about ten; there were two piles that was near as big as each other.

“Now lets us see the vote.” Doc said as he climbed up on to the platform “There are one for Donal, two for Oak, one for Glass, four for Jacob, and I see about ten who want me to be the new leader for some reason, and one for Wall.”

Wall turned to face Lana when his name was called, anxiety flushed over her as she waited for his response. But to her delight, he gave her a warm smile before he returned to the announcing.

Doc made his way to the two biggest piles, where a member whispered something into his ears “And it seems that Thirteen and Robin are tied at sixty-one votes each.”

Several muttered of confusion rose around the room, as both members in question and their supporters made their way up to the platform, facing each other in an intense stare.

“How should we decide this, Thirteen.” Robin spoke for the first time; her voice was sweet and also filled with determination and humor “A hand-to-hand fight? A second voting? Shared leadership? Said it.”

“There is no need for none of that.” Jacob said with a growl, his eyes turned toward the rest of the members “The vote piled up to 141, but there is 142 of us. Meaning, someone hadn’t voted yet.”

“Aye” The steward replied with a warm smile, his hand reached into his pocket and produced a stone “And as it happens that someone is me.”

Confusion erupted across the hall, some members were shouting, some became utterly silent, but all of it ended when Thirteen chiseled something on his vote and threw it into the pile…Robin’s pile.

The old steward turned to meet the young girl’s face “I entrust our future to you, Robin.”

Chaos turned into an uproar as the hall became filled with cheer for their new girl leader, with nearly all the members joining in the chants. Lana had half a mind to do the same, to feel like a part of something, but the other half forced her not to.

“Win without saying a single word, what had we come into?” Wall muttered, and she wasn’t sure what to make of that.

After Thirteen and his friends took his leave from the stage, Robin turned to address her new followers, the grim Jacob on her right, the pale and smiling Marah on her left.

“Well…I guess you all are expecting a victory speech…” Robin said as she clutched her hands together, her tone had a small hint of happiness in it “But I don’t really have any planned.”

“I could almost remember the day I come here like it was just yesterday...” She started to say “It has been about a year ago, I think, I escaped from the clutch of the city with a few friends, in a promise of freedom and a better life, and this place had those…but just not the types I expected.”

“Sure, I wasn’t in a constant state of being oppressed anymore, and now I can sneeze whenever I want without being arrested by the menacing guard. It is certainly a better life here, but tells me, what freedom do we actually have?”

Robin spread her hand “Look around you, my brothers and sisters, and say with confidence that we are truly free. Free to live under the fear of scout? Free to wither away in this cave? Free to be buried when your life fade away?”

“At least we live free,” Wall muttered, but a hint of doubt had crept into Lana’s heart. Robin reminded her of Sophia, making speech and being brave.

“I cannot accept that, I will not accept that. So it is time for some changes, no longer shall we be hidden, now we must let the supreme leader known of our existence, and liberate our fellow commons! We shall become…a resistance!”

As the word went across the hall, members took up the chant. Some shout “Robin!” some shout “Resistance!” But one thing for sure was that all of them were shouting, and the cavern had never before seemed so energetic or so alive for something.

“Bloody hell, this bitch gonna kill us all,” Wall said out loud when he saw some of his friends were taking up the shout as well. When the cry died down, he stood up in defiance and asked: “And how do you intend to accomplish that!?”

“First…” Robin drew her dagger, and with a gracious movement threw it across the room. For a moment, Lana was graved afraid that she was aiming for Wall, but it soared across the air like a bird of prey and stabbed into the supreme leader’s forehead across the room.

“…we must increase our numbers.”