Naina Sharma

I saw a woman walking towards the room through the railing of the cell. The woman figure stopped at the gate and opened the lock of the jail cell. It was dark at the jail and I was unable to see her face clearly. She walked forward in the cell, and stood in front of me. Now, her face was clearly visible through the small bulb present on the ceiling. “You’ll go for long, Kavita!” I angrily said.

I was tied on the chair inside the rope and I was naked. My clothes were present on the right side of the chair. She looked at them and said, “First, handle your respect, and then we’ll talk.”

“I know my rules, Kavita. I know that no investigator has the right to torture any citizen, accused or not, inhumanely!”

“I know my rules too,” She replied. “They’re gonna hang me up for this, but what if you deny for that in the court yourself?!” She started laughing devilishly. “Do you really think I’m gonna go easy on ya?! No, baby. NO! You’re gonna be beaten to pulp, so that you don’t even GET TO SPEAK IN THERE!”

“Oh really? I--”

She suddenly moved forward, kept a leg on my chair and said, “SHUT THE FUCK UP, GIRL!” She looked very angry, irritated and mad at me. It was enough to frighten me up. “Here, only I speak in loud voices. You only listen and answer questions.”

Manuel Levi

I was in the shooting area on top of my building. I had my target poster in front of me, and I had a shotgun in my hands. The wind blew as I looked at the poster again, especially at the red dot in the center. I, then, moved the shotgun up and positioned it at my cheeks, aiming at the center red dot. I concentrated and observed it carefully as the wind was blowing and my hair were moving. Then, for a second, the air stopped and I pulled the trigger. The gun jerked and the bullet moved and made a hole at the center of the poster. I moved it back down and stood casually. “Three years since I’m here, and I don’t even think twice now before pulling the trigger. What have I become.”

Suddenly, I heard the footsteps of a man entering through the gate behind me. I looked back and saw a slender man walking towards me with a thin rifle hung on his shoulder. He suddenly moved it up down from his shoulders and positioned it on his cheeks. Then, while walking in the same pace, he pulled the trigger and shot some ten to twenty bullets into the same target. I moved back when he shot the poster. Then, he stopped and said, “People vary greatly, right?”

“Right, brother,” I replied. “People vary greatly.”

“What happened to your escape plan, by the way?” He casually moved the gun down and stopped in front of me. “I heard that it failed.”

“Sure it did, but it’s not the end of our faction buddy,” I replied. “We’ll surely come back with yet another plan and get freedom.”

“What type of freedom, by the way?”

“I’m talking of the freedom to go outside the walls of TES HQ and see our faces in the mirror yet again, with pride, this time.”

“Ha!” He laughed and then again positioned the rifle at the target and aimed at it. “It’s all bullshit, pal. He’s just brainwashing y’all so that he can run away. He doesn’t care shit about you.”

“How do you know?” He shot a number of bullets at the target again.

“Well,” He again moved it below and looked at me. “I’ve seen shitheads like him. He’s nothing but something of Hitler, who’s brainwashing you to join his side so that he can complete his own dreams. Or, think what you don’t have here? You get food, water, rooms, and all that stuff for free. What else d’ya need to survive?”

“Freedom,” I replied.

He turned his head away with a “Tsk!” and looked towards the sky in front of us. “You all have been brainwashed well, I guess. I hope I had that power too to get people work for me. But, some people are just on another level.” We were quiet for a minute, glaring at the sky and occasional sparrows and pigeons flying. “Anyways,” He then turned to me, “Meetcha soon.” He turned back and left.

“Why the hell was he here if he wanted to shoot just a dozen of bullets or so? Maybe his main motive was to talk to me.”

I took out the magazine of my shotgun and kept it inside my pocket, from where I took out another magazine and reloaded it. I slid the forearm of the shogun and turned back at the poster behind me. I aimed again, when suddenly I heard a voice from behind. “Manny!” Someone shouted from behind. A woman was running towards me. “Manny!” She stopped in front of me as I turned back and moved my gun down. She breathed heavily.

“What happened, Siya?” I asked.

“Manny,” She said and breathed again. “I-I got to know about something just now!”

“What?”

“Y-You must have heard about that the plan has failed, right?”

“Obviously, Siya. I knew about it, you didn’t need to come all the way here to tell me that.”

“No, it’s not that. It’s something else.”

“What?”

“T-The faction’s leader has actually run away. It was all a lie so that he may not get in danger outside.”