"Wife, Leo Luciano! You're out of your mind!"
"Do you have any other solution to hide her, Randall?!" Shouting at each other for nearly ten minutes, Leo and Randall paced back and forth on each side of his office.
The mansion was too big to even tour around. For sure, the rest of the Cassanos will take guard on Laina's door.
"Her name isn't Laina, Leo! You have to explain everything to her! How can you say she's your wife? You need proofs."
"I can say we're engaged. We're getting married. I proposed to her and an accident happen. I can make it out, Randall."
Leo brushed his hands on his scalp, and even wiped the sweat at the back of his hand.
Randall crossed his arms over his chest, knowing this might be a danger to him.
"The Cassanos are in danger if they find out this woman was disoriented of the place. We're going to be killed, Randall. So I'm doing anything to hide her. From the Telamur head sector and Calvorite's too. Please do cooperate with it."
Leo sat down on his swiveling chair, planning everything down, and Randall approached his desk.
"What exactly will we have to do, Leo? Do we have to fabricate evidence?"
"Like we do, Randall. We have to."
"Why are you letting her hide here?"
"I'm saying it on repeat. No one can know that she's from the other side of the homeland, Randall! We…"
"Why not kill her?"
Randall has been reflecting to their job, after all.
Leo furrowed his eyebrows, lowering down his hand, and pursed his lips.
The silence ensued to both of them.
"Did you kill her when you bump her on the way to Telamur? No, Randall, you didn't do it. You can't kill someone who's innocent. It's the same thing for me."
Leo leaned back on the chair, watching Randall's reaction.
He placed his hands on his hips, and traced the bottom of his lips.
"So what's your plan?"
"Find out everything about her," Leo ordered.
…
[A month ago.]
It read the name. It wasn't Laina, or any other name they had given to her.
Zella Albert, as her golden plate showed.
A fast food chain server, a commoner, and a normal citizen of Telamur who wore Tempus Moneda, a time chip their sector developed along the obliterated Gelcius.
It was the year of 2042, two decades after the second dictator stepped down to accept defeat. Before the country named Idris, it was once known as Emerald.
It was a rich country back then, until a second dictator sit down, similar to his father, a billionaire who wanted to claim another stash of gold underneath his pillow.
On the first year of the second dictator, a war began.
Not a war of bombs, of cannons, of enraging emotions exchanging between two lands, but of famine and protests.
A lot of people complained of buying things twice the price of it the moment the second dictator elected.
The change is coming, but not for the better, but for the downgrade of the economy, leading it to a substantial crisis no one knew how to solve.
The Emerald citizens noticed the elected president turning the people into slaves, forcing them to shut their mouths when the government had gone wrong in a decision, and unwanted reports of missing people left and right.
Before everything gets down the drain, the people saved its country.
The revolution began, ousting the dictator.
The people regretted upon choosing him.
The second dictator was stubborn, he even harmed the people in the front, but the people of Idris didn't give up.
They're born to fight back.
The second dictator became a cat, who was once known a tiger, mewled down the throne, giving the seat an empty, eerie space for the next president to claim.
The Emerald citizens decided to not let the dark past happen again.
The history repeat itself every once in a while.
President Tina Yunis, the elected president who changed the country's name from Emerald to Idris.
It was to learn.
Idris learned, and the citizens of it didn't forget the history of Emerald.
The revolution might happen again, but Yunis made sure it'll never spark again.
The people were happy once again, but… an irregularity happened, something that the people of Idris may doubt whether they chose the right president for the opposition.
President Tina Yunis proclaimed the division of the three lands.
Telamur. Calvorite. Gelcius.
The three of them rose from the country of Idris.
The people thought everything would be united, but their president drew a thin line between, making every citizen turn their backs on each other.
They weren't allowed to even go beyond the borders of where they live, or they'll be shot to death.
When Gelcius developed the time chips, ever since, it was called as Tempus Moneda, President Yunis were very fond of their land.
She showered them with a lot of grains and oils that's good for 5-years in stock, and even raised the companies' salaries to every department.
Gelcius loved her, too, but when Yunis started to abuse the production of time chips, eager to put some poisonous powder in it, proposing that the country has become abundant of criminals…
And coerced that the time chips were the only solution to this crisis…
Gelcius started rebelling.
Yunis have gone insane, as they said.
As the Gelcius revolt from the government piqued the interest of Telamur and Calvorite to organize an uprising, Yunis declared a state of war.
Telamur and Calvorite citizens heard the bombs detonating every house in Gelcius.
Yunis was clever.
She didn't use a common bomb.
It was to kill thousands of people living in Gelcius, to suffocate them, and die a bloodless death.
Telamur and Calvorite head sectors got frightened the ability Yunis have as a leader. They were wrong.
Idris was once three lands of home. Now they were only two.
What's worse is that Telamur adapted those chips.
Zella was a Telamur citizen. The time chip upgraded on her has the poisonous thing on it that the youth didn't know.
It's supposed to be confidential, but a lot of that information has spread nationwide.
Zella knew if she hadn't cared about the government, or the president who was sitting on the throne, or not even reacting to the decisions they made, and just remained neutral, the politicians wouldn't even tag her as a rebel.
A weakness of her… was to fight back.
The Emerald bloodline must have run out, and she got nothing left but fear.
"Ms. Zella Albert! There is an order here! You need to stop staring at your Tempus Moneda!"
Zella hid her Tempus Moneda inside her long-sleeved, black uniform, and hoisted her cap around her bun.
She shouted that she's coming, and sighed. Staring at her family's picture inside her locker, she hissed.
"I wished when I come home early later, they'd stop rebelling against the government." Zella soothed their faces one by one, and halted being dramatic.
She went inside the kitchen, checked the orders, and placed it on the trays.
Hour after hour, they finished 100 orders every half of the time. Zella flashed on a smile to her co-workers.
"Good job everyone!" The day was bright. But what she's looking for at the end of the day was the pay.
The amount inside her Tempus Moneda will increase again.
She can buy some roasted chicken down the town for her family to serve on.
As the late afternoon came, the skies turned to orange, there was an unexpected group of people who came inside the store.
Zella Albert, as curious as she was other than her co-workers, went outside of the counter, and stood beside the cashier.
"What was that?"
"I don't know. They're the police."
Looking at their uniforms, Zella confirmed it was the police.
More like police and soldiers combined. Here in Telamur, a lot of officers patrolled the area.
They're countless. Every time you popped a cigarette in your mouth, a police officer would be on standby.
They're afraid of the people starting a fire.
The flames were the symbol of uprising.
When an uprising sparked, there came a revolution. Tina Yunis was afraid of that. Of the people turning against her.
The leader shoved the paper in front of their faces, and it must be a warrant of arrest.
"Ms. Zella Albert. You're arrested for abetting your family's murder in a 2-storey residential house due to conflicts. Your family has been confirmed to be rebels. You may come silently along with us."
Right as he said those words, she raised her eyebrows. Abetted a murder? An accomplice, rather?
"Me?"
The police started to open the counter door and retrieved some cuffs.
They're all wearing gas masks, and she couldn't tell which is which.
Zella felt hopeless at that time, and there's nothing she can do but to wriggle.
"I'm not a murderer!" she shrieked.
The whole restaurant watched her captive.
Someone placed a sack around her neck, tightening it around, and Zella choked.
Coughing up with the smell of the sack, her body weakened.
Her eyes stung, and there was nothing she can do but to close it.
"I'm not…"