"I have a starfruit with me now," I say cheerfully, already pulling open the button of my bag.
I carelessly reach into my bag to pull out the yellowish fruit and my pocket knife, but a paperclip from the file springs out with it. It vibrates over a microscopic crack in the concrete before falling still with everyone's attention over it.
Oop.
Marcus quickly reaches down to pick it up, drawing everyone's attention to the sewn bag at my side with an odd square shape.
"What's in there?" Lola asks, eyeing the bag.
My mind traces back to the file and how eager I was to show it to them in the first place.
I open us the bag and reach inside to show them the papers, "When we were searching I found this file-'
"Stop," Nayan blurts, taking an exaggerated step over to close the bag at my waist.
Marcus darts his eyes to the ground, like an uncomfortable elephant in the room. Though he still tries to catch a glimpse of the bag's contents. Lola bites her lip as if not knowing how to choose a side.
"What's wrong?"
Nayan looks between the three of us, for some kind of defense. A defense that Lola looks ready to give.
She walks up to me and leans in to whisper something in my ear, "Is the file something we wouldn't want a plant to know that we know?"
I don't think he's a plant. They wouldn't leave their agents to starve to death. And I may not like Marcus very much, but he seems too kind. Too good of a person to be a part of a global AND interdimensional kidnapping scheme.
"I don't think he-"
"Is it?"
I pull away and roll my eyes.
"I'm sorry Marcus," Lola begins walking to the door hesitantly, "we'll... be back in a minute."
I walk over to Marcus and pass him the starfruit and my pocketknife, "I'm sorry about all this."
He chuckles quietly, "It's alright, I get that I'm the new guy."
I nod and follow Nayan and Lola, both of which look pissed that I gave a stranger our only weapon.
We backtrack through the halls, following Nayan.
"Sorry for... Interrupting you," Nayan mumbles.
"It's ok."
We walk into the sleeping quarters where Nayan searched not long ago. Lola shuts the door behind us, leaving us in full darkness aside from the windows light shining onto the table like an eerie spotlight.
We all take a seat at different spots, Nayan and Lola on different bare mattresses and I sit at a stray pop-up table.
I don't fully know where to begin. It's clear that neither of them think he's just an abandoned prisoner. But it's unclear how far off from that they think. It would be far more difficult to convince someone that he's not a plant if they're already certain. All I can do is hope they can see him as a potential teammate.
"It's tough," My sister starts, "We should heir on the side of caution. I doubt he's a plant, but I know how funny you guys are about being captured."
I disregard the mockery, I think it's more aimed at Nayan anyways. Regardless, I have only one person to convince.
"I can agree with that, Nayan?"
"You guys are really ok with just..." He stumbles looking for the right phrase, "He could easily be here just finish what those agents couldn't at the river!"
I lean forward with empowerment "And if he isn't?"
"You guys really want to risk that?" He raises his voice in a way I haven't heard from him before, except maybe three days ago, "He could kill us in our sleep!"
"You saw him in there, how he gave us all a hug, oblivious to how weird that really is!" My voice begins to raise and Lola looks like she would rather crawl into her skin than be here a moment longer, "No, bad guys offer hugs like candy."
"Man-ip-u-la-tion," He spells out like I'm two, "What if he's already tricked you?"
"And what if it's like you when you first got here?" I lower my tone to an empathetic desperation, "What if he will be stuck here alone, just like you were?"
He takes a step back, I know I struck a nerve, but I can tell I'm getting to him. I swallow my guilt, knowing I have to convince him for Marcus.
"What if someone walked up to you the first day you got here- or a few months even. What if you could give him the chance you didn't have?"
Lola's lips part in a miniature gape, clearly knowing how shitty and unlike me it was that I said that.
I try not to bring up Nayan's life before we met him too often. Even though he mentions it on occasion, it sounds horrible and feels wrong to remind him of it. So yes, I crossed a moral boundary when I said that. And no, do not I feel ok with it.
"What's in bag?" Lola stands up and looks between the two of us, "Paper's I assume?"
I begin walking over to the table fitfully. Even though I hate leaving the topic unfinished, I hate arguing more.
"Uh, Yeah, it is," I mutter, pulling the file out of my bag and tossing it onto the table.
Nayan and Lola walk over and flip through the pages of Maurice's file.
"So it's a guy named Maurice, and he's still here?" Lola says under her breath.
"Yep, and I was starting to think it was only teenagers here!" I force out a laugh to try and lighten the mood but it quickly dies, "I think he's by the river where we were a few days ago."
"I think so," Nayan flips the page, to look at an image of him that is taken through a window, creepy. His voice lowers, "All of his family is dead, he's alone."
Further proving my point about Marcus, if anything. This guy is living in an apocalyptic world alone. If Lola wasn't here for me in those first months, I don't know if I'd still be sane.
Nayan's lips drop from their straight line into a deep frown, "Ok."
I cock my head to the side, "Ok, What?"
Lola smiles like she already knows what's coming next, what the hell about Maurice's story is ok? All of his family is dead. It's the apocalypse and he has nobody.
"About Marcus, you were right. It sucks being alone here, and odds are he's just as lost as the rest of us."
"Yessss!" Lola hoots
I pump a fist in the air, "I heard you say it, I'm right!"
"Don't let that go to your head," He snorts.
"Hehe too late."
Lola closes up the file and passes it to me, I stuff it into my bag and give her a high five. She slaps my hand noticeably harder than needed, omitting a slapping sound. I shake out my red palmed hand.
"You'll be fine," Lola bellows after seeing me on her way out.
I roll my eyes with a small laugh, for once Nayan is actually on board with our plans. I do my best to be a good person and be understanding, but sometimes Lola and I have a different outlook on risky plans. We ultimately just end up nagging him about it until he agrees halfheartedly. One of these days he will snap and won't go with us. But until then I'll try to be better.
I'm half out the doorway, barely behind Lola, when Nayan says something.
"Cass, wait a sec," He doesn't seem thrown off by using the shortened version of my name, and weirdly enough I'm not either.
I turn around quicker than needed and the bag at my side whips out of position, "What is it?"
He laughs, "God, you look so serious!"
He looks at the ground and I can tell his laugh is forced, like he has something to say but doesn't know how to word it. He's buying time.
"What's going on?" I repeat with concern thick in my tone.
"Maurice... how his family..." He pauses with his eyes set on the ground, but seems to shake off whatever was bothering him. With it, certainly whatever he was going to say, "It's sad."
"It is," I watch him closely, the deep blue in his eyes is set on the ground, showing no secret to the truth of what he was going to say.
I open my mouth to ask what he was really going to say, but he walks out with his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans.
As his footsteps grow further away, the room seems to grow darker than it was, which says a lot considering that the lights here don't work.
I watch out the door, embracing the near quiet, being broken only by Lola laughing way louder than necessary with Marcus. It's a flirty laugh that I doubt I'm hearing the end of.
I need to leave this room, go join Lola and Marcus in their happy chatter. Nayan will probably be there soon too, and nothing will be different.
I shake off whatever awkward fear was holding me back and quickly charge from the bunk filled room in a hurry to be with everyone.
I brush past rows of rooms until the tile floor shifts into a deadly concrete.
"There you are!" Lola says, walking towards me and away from Marcus, "I was starting to think you fell asleep or something."
I deadpan, "I didn't even lie down."
Marcus smiles brightly, even brighter than Lola. If he was a sun, I wouldn't just be blind, I'd be dead. And it's starting to bother me.
Nayan sits down on a swivel chair nearby that he must've pulled over from somewhere.
"Alright Lola, I waited for Cassie, now will you "allow","Marcus holds up air quotes in mockery, Lola just blushes, "Me to explain how I got here."
"You make me sound horrible for not letting you explain yourself twice," she teases.
Que retching. If it wasn't seriously rude, not even to my sister but for the sake of first impressions, I would be fake vomiting right now.
This is too fast. What has it been, twenty minutes? Ew.
The two of them keep looking at each other and laughing for no reason, distracted. Nayan fake heaves, I copy this even more dramatically by using my fingertips to show the puke. It's ok, they're well not paying attention.
With Lola's flirty giggle dying down, I snap back into reality and clear my throat, "So how did you get here?"
He scratches the back of his head, "From the looks of it, I have a feeling it isn't much different from how you guys ended up here. I was at my home, a city in super south Sicily. My mamma and papa were out, my little sister, Rosia was with them."
He seems to shudder at the memory with a strong flinch.
"They broke in while I was doing my homework. Stabbed me, but I didn't die."
Nayan and I meet each other's line of sight, Lola bites the corner of her lip. I figure that all three of us imagining the same thing, our own horrific version of that day. The dark storm of a glare they gave me and Lola after I revived flashes before me, just imagining it makes me want to hurl more than seeing Lola give Marcus googly eyes.
"I'm so sorry," Lola coos.
He dips his chin in sadness, "They kidnapped me, and then I woke up alone on the streets of wherever we are now. I haven't kept track of time, but I think it's been months."
He pauses and I take the chance to add in a question that's been on my mind the most, "But how did you end up alone in this cell?"
"I couldn't take it anymore, you must get it too, the solitude," I nod to show I understand which lets his attitude lighten, "I had seen this place before, and I had to go for it. Then, I didn't care what would happen to me. Maybe it was stupid, I wouldn't do it again."
I take in a hard gulp of spit, knowing this is the exact scenario and the reversed outcome. Nayan and I were lucky, he wasn't.
"It must've been ten minutes or so, I didn't find anything but when they asked they thought I was lying. They..." He trails off, but the yellowed stain of a bruise around his sad eye tells the rest of the story.
"-You don't have to finish," Nayan whispers.
Marcus does anyway, "After... that. I was put in a cell for around two weeks until-" He pauses abruptly and unnaturally, like constructing the right words, "The alarm went off. You two," His eyes dart between me and Nayan, "Were inside. I was surprised you made it out. I wasn't sure of course by I assumed you'd be in the cell next door if you hadn't."
"So did they clear the base out?" Lola dulls down her eagerness for an answer.
"Yes, everyone left. They took everything with them too," His line of sight travels down to my bag with curiosity, "But they left me. Said that my body could be a warning to whoever found this place next. And that's the end, I've been here for less than a day and here you three are now freeing me."
"We did the same thing days ago," Nayan mumbles, "I'm sorry your here."
He laughs, no joke, he laughs authentically, "I'm not!"
"What?" Lola snorts.
Excuse me? He was locked in a cell to die and he literally just said he would never put himself here again. What the hell does he mean that he's not upset about being here?
"You heard me! What happened sucks, but look where it got me," He waves to us all in one swift motion, "I could have a team. That is, if you accept me."
He takes a step back, as if telling us that he knows he isn't taking a part in the decision.
Lola smiles at me and Nayan, surely saying that she is one hundred percent on board. Go figure.
Nayan and I share a few looks, some shrugs that even though are meaningless. I know exactly what he means by them and I think he feels the same.
He's onboard, and so am I.