Right then and there, Kenneth swung Clark around and pushed him through the door. I looked over at Lucas only to see him staring back at me with a worried expression. Even though he'd raped me, I knew he still was human. The door closed with a slam, and me and Lucas were left back in silence.
"I guess we've got a big day tomorrow."
I nodded, knowing that we'd probably be expended to our limits in going over a set plan.
"And the day after that as well."
We both sighed as we hit our racks, the deep sounds of breathing filling the empty room. It felt so calm and peaceful, yet in my mind I knew it wasn't going to last-- that this moment wasn't going to be here in this moment forever. I rolled over to face Lucas' rack, to notice his eyes still partially open. A slight glaze could then be seen rolling over his eyes, a soft glow coming from the cracks in the door illuminating his face.
"Are you… crying?"
He sniffled, rolling over to then wipe his nose.
"N- obviously not…"
I smirked, recalling the time I had gotten a bit sad, and he had come over to 'comfort' me. Then I felt cold, knowing that he was just farther than arm's reach. I shook my head, trying to shake the thoughts that I was thinking. I needed sleep, and tomorrow was going to be a very important day. So would be the next day after that, and I knew that any fault in my step during a mission could mean death for me. Closing my eyes, I felt the familiar blanket of warmth envelop me and my consciousness begin to fade.
Waking up, I saw trees and a bright blue sky around me. Kids playing with each other, girls and boys chasing and playing tag. I looked to my left and saw a small device showing a news station reporting economic boost and the decrease of economic inequality. Looking down, I saw that I was dressed in a pale yellow dress, flowing in the wind just above the geometrically patterned blanket that I rested on. The sun felt warm on my skin, and I looked up to see that it was an actual sun. My pupils burned when staring at it, yet I couldn't resist the temptation to look. Soon, the sun became a black dot and I re-awakened in my rack. The sun's rays no longer warmed me, I no longer saw the kids playing tag, and I no longer wore a flower dress. I got dressed and went out to the hallway, glancing at the time to find that it was just 05:43. I yawned, my body finally realizing time and its effect.
"Good morning, Laura."
Kenneth along with Kira and Erik stood behind me with their suits on, and a bunch of boxes in hand.
"What brought you to wake so early?"
Erik gestured, shrugging his shoulders a bit.
"I… I saw boys and girls playing together. And, I wasn't wearing a jumpsuit. Also, I could see the sun, and it felt warm!"
Kenneth laughed, and reached to pat my shoulder.
"Congratulations on having your lucid dream. What you probably saw is what people on the outside of this dome see on a good day."
As we walked to the dining hall, I began to pester him with questions.
"What does a bad day look like? Is the sun inside of the Earth? How hasn't this dome been destroyed?"
He calmly began to answer me as he grabbed a bunch of food trays from the counter.
"Well, bad days I guess are based off of the person's mood. And, outside of here, you can wear quite literally anything you wish. As for the sun, it's quite far away. You really think someone would destroy this dome knowing an entire country lives within it? Unless the person destroying it intends to harm, it's unlikely to happen anytime soon."
I beamed at his straightforward responses, my head now filling with more questions to ask that I had to hold on for later. Then we turned around, hearing a familiar voice approach from behind us.
"Already up so early? You do realize it's just about 06:00…"
Lucas walked towards us, dressed still in his pajama clothes and his hair un-brushed.
"I was wondering where you ran off to."
After pouring himself a cup of coffee, he sat down with the rest of us at a table. Erik began to speak about a plan that he'd thought up in a few hours late last night.
"Here's the deal: Clark is our decoy, so we don't have to worry about an innocent family being killed. The next thing is that our main priority is to disrupt the entire event without being caught."
He looked over at Kenneth and nodded.
"Me and Kenneth decided that our main goal was just that. In order to prevent casualties, we need minimal people on scene, with enough backup that would be able to get those people out. We will be equipped with the Maximum Critical Mission weapons. If you actually do your research, it means you'd also have a bulletproof vest to wear along with a few nifty weapons."
Lucas and I beamed at the idea of finally being able to use the weapons, only to be interrupted by less fun thoughts.
"Laura will go in with a .22 Glock and a silencer, along with the bulletproof vest. Lucas will be with Laura posing as her 'Master,' and myself and Kenneth will be on standby. Kira is on sniper duty, and will be at the bell tower with her 'St. Jude' on high alert. We go in, and we roll out. Laura will pretend to be 'rebelling against her Master,' and Lucas will create a scene, pulling out a rather large gun for a disobedient Laura. Once we get enough attention, Lucas will fire once, pretending to miss, and Kira will use 'St. Jude' to shoot the executioner. By the time we create a scene, there will already be enough chaos. At that point, it will be your time to get the hell out of there."
Next to me, Lucas was deep in thought while I took mental notes on what to expect.
"Dismissed. You better come to me with a plausible skit by the end of today. The weight of Clark rests on your hands."
Me and Lucas walked off still in thought, and our hearts beating fast for the rush that was to come for the next day. After stepping into the dorm, Lucas pinned me to the wall and threw me into a deep kiss.
"I don't want to lose you."
He broke down in front of me, finally resting his head on my shoulder. The tears soaked into my clothes, and his grip tightened around my frame-- seemingly afraid to let go. I patted his head for reassurance, not that I knew it would do much.
"You won't lose me."
"How do I know you aren't lying?"
"Because… because I'm Laura. And I'll stop the System myself if I have to."
Lucas then chuckled, tears still smudging his face.
"So damn poetic, you…"
I began to push him off of me, and make my way towards my bed.
"Let's practice this skit, shall we?"
He nodded, and went to dry his face with his shirt. He mimicked holding me by a collar and pretended to walk me into the courtyard. Turning to me, he spoke in a sarcastic tone.
"You better be a good Object… I paid a lot for you."
I shoved him away, pretending to 'rebel.'
"YOU'RE NOT MY MASTER. YOU'RE THE WORST! YOU PIG!"
He gasped, and spat on me.
"How dare you raise your voice AT ME?!"
"HOW DARE YOU BUY ME?! YOU SHOULD HAVE JUST BOUGHT A POUND OF DIRT. DIRT IS MORE VALUABLE THAN YOU ANYWAYS!"
Lucas scoffed, yanking my collar.
"YOU WANT SOME OF THIS?!?!"
He pretended to hold a large gun in his hands, priming the feed with ammo.
"SHOOT ME, SCUMBAG!"
Attempting to imitate firing off a round, his voice cracked, and we both lost it after that.
"You just went… pew!"
"Hahaha, I guess I did!"
We lay there, rolling around in laughter for a while. Obviously, we wouldn't be able to laugh like this during the event, because we knew that our life would be at risk. What was worse, I had the Royal's mark on my forehead, which a Royal might spot and see Lucas as an impersonator. We both knew the dangers, which is probably why we were laughing so much. My chest began to hurt from the laughter, and I began to lose my breath in the sheer joy of it all.
"Hahhh… that was fun…"
"Yeah…"
I rolled over to place by arms over his body, and we began to lay there. Still and motionless, yet our emotions were flowing out. We cried silent tears, and embraced each other in our arms, knowing that this day might be the last. It hurt me to see Lucas like he was. Seemingly a pained expression plastered onto his young face. Still lying on the floor, I could feel his arm slide up my back, giving me goosebumps. Our faces neared each other, and we finally embraced in a kiss that I wish would continue on forever. The heat from his body radiated off, and his touch ignited my senses. Closing my eyes, I could feel more. It was like I could 'see' him there, even though my eyes were shut. The sense of calmness combined with the slight arousal and adventure flooded my common sense, and we searched with our hands. Then I wanted to get creative, I began to move down his neck. He flinched when I stopped kissing him, and then Lucas began a deep moan.
"Nmmm"
A vibration came from his throat, which traveled directly to my ear. I lifted up his shirt, no longer wanting to wait. Seeming to follow my actions, he did the same, and as I kissed down the front of his body, he began to take off both his and my pants.
This type of action and following of the action continued, right until we lay resting completely naked on the floor, panting in sweat. The sounds of heavy breathing continued to fill the room, and soon our kissing continued. Our bodies were like a merging of an object, and we became one. It was sensual, memorable, and sure as hell pleasurable.
"Thank you for that…"
"No need to thank me… you realize we are both in the same boat, right?"
Lucas scratched his head, trying to find something to say.
"Ah… it just felt necessary."
"Alright. We just can't really let Erik know."
"I know… if he found out, imagine what he'd do to you-- wait. Imagine what he'd do to me. He'd probably strangle me and then put my head on a pike."
I chuckled, knowing that with Erik's sense of humor, he'd probably make a similar threat only to downgrade it to a warning.
"It's not like Erik can do anything, though. He can't reverse the past."
Lucas grimaced.
"Try telling that to him, then he'd really want to kill you."
My smile faded as I began to remember the past that I had been told by the staff that worked directly under Erik Copwin. After he had fallen in love with Jenna, in his eyes she committed suicide for no good reason. Contrary to what Erik thinks, the rest of the Rebellion practically praised Jenna for her bravery and action to kickstart the movement. Yet Erik never saw it as courageous. Then in a split moment, I had the need to really want to fight for the Rebellion. Before, it was more because of what they stood for and that I had similar thinking like they did. Now it had gotten personal. Personal in the sense that losing someone close to me, like Lucas, Erik, Kenneth, or Kira would make me lose my shit and completely go overboard. Sitting up, I frantically got dressed and looked Lucas in the eyes.
"Let's get back to work, this mission is tomorrow and someone will die if we keep fucking around."
He nodded his head, unclear as usual for what I was thinking. Lucas then got up and once changed, grabbed a few files from the top of the stack.
"These might come in handy, especially since we've been told our weapons, and the immediate goal."
Trying to look at the titles of the folders, I noticed one of the documents he held was titled to contain "Plan B Procedures" and "The Art of a Shootout." I chuckled, asking myself how there even could be an art in self defense or in killing, for that matter.
"Let's just redo the impromptu, and hopefully we can not die of laughter at the end of this one."
"Want me to get physical for this one?"
"I don't care, I mean, even if you bruised and beat me here, it would just make things look more realistic…"
Right then in about a flash of a second, his fist struck my face. But it wasn't a punch, it was some kind of hardened slap. Instinctively, I went to cover my cheek, and then he struck again on the other side of my face, this time a punch.
"Holy shit, go easy on me!"
At this point, my nose had begun to bleed from the blunt force trauma. Then he handed me a tissue, which I saw as a chance to strike.
"What the--"
Lucas didn't really see it coming, but we ended up in a bit of a fist fight, with me looking a bit worse than him. After we'd calmed down a bit, he held a mirror up to himself in order to look at the collateral damage. He, too, had begun to bleed a bit from a minor scrape in his forehead.
"Lemme patch this up…"
As he began walking over to the room-by-room med kit, I grabbed his arm short of reaching it.
"Just let it be, it'll look more realistic that way."
Once again nodding in agreement, he stopped the reach and went back to lay down in his rack. I climbed over to join him, and we snuggled close together after our long practice.
"What's the time?"
I looked behind me at the alarm clock I'd placed on my table, the clock reading 14:36.
"It's about 14:30. Either we had sex all day, or we actually practiced like we should've."
He cracked a smile, probably remembering that event.
"I mean, you did come before me, so I had to rush it… so I'd say we'd practiced more."
"Why you--!?"
I punched him in the face once again, this time not for the mission, but out of pure annoyance. Scoffing, I began to take myself away from him.
"Ah, come on! It was only a joke! Why are you leaving already?"
To make a short excuse, I looked back and smiled with a tall grin.
"I gotta' tell Kenneth about this."
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A/N: even though this is only the second release, I will not be continuing this book due to insufficient readers and insufficient funds. I hope you've enjoyed reading this novel so far, and I'll be starting a new one in a week or so, with the synopsis of a new sci-fi genre. Thanks again for reading!
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