"Hands behind your back." One of the masked soldiers said.
Bell did as she was told, grumbling profanities under her breath.
She was one of the last students to get handcuffed and pulled out of the shawarma shop. The alleyways were filled with all-terrain vehicles, with most of the other students already in the back of a few.
The all-terrain vehicle looked like a small buggy car, but Bell knew that they would soon take flight to the jailhouse where they would be stored.
'Yeah, they can't drive those things in the alleys.' Bell reasoned.
She saw Torm and Jude get pushed into one of the vehicles along with Strella. For some reason, Strella was also being arrested.
Bell began, "Hey, why is she-"
She was immediately silenced by the officer pushing her forward, "Silent! You may speak when in the jailhouse."
Bell turned to face the officer with a glare.
She couldn't do much, however, and simply followed her orders. In the next few minutes, all of the students were placed into four or so all-terrain vehicles. Bell was fortunate enough to be put in a vehicle with Pyralis and Hilia. The two seemed to have realized that they couldn't do much outside of greet her by nodding with a smile.
After they had all been put into the vehicles, the leading officer got in a personal vehicle. Almost immediately after, Bell felt the entire car shake and shift. Then, she felt a heavy force push her into her seat.
The slightly orange sunlight started to illuminate the inside of the ATV (All-Terrain Vehicle) and Bell had to squint under the intensity of the sun. Her vision was barely impacted by this, and that allowed her to slowly see the true scape of Vatican City as they continued to fly upwards.
Bell easily noticed the marble district that she, Mona, and Jude had run through. The district that they were leaving was basically right next to it, and the route that they had taken was a direct line.
'That's funny, it felt more like a winding maze than anything else.' Bell chuckled.
The officer in the passenger seat looked back at Bell through the chain with an intense aura around him. Bell couldn't see the officers face, but assumed that he was glaring at her with the wrath of one thousand supernovas.
She simply glanced at him before continuing to look out of the window.
Bell was just able to see the giant wall that surrounded Vatican City, but that was after a few more minutes of flying into the sky. At a certain point, Bell was wondering if the jailhouse was in space or something. But before Bell could ask anything, they evened out and started slowly hovering over the city.
Bell was able to make out thousands of districts over at least one hundred kilometers in each direction. The colors of the districts were as if a painter were to throw various paint buckets at their canvas.
Slowly, the lights were turning on, based on a few of them shining brightly into the sky.
If Bell didn't know better, she would have thought that this was the largest city in the world. But she did know better and knew that the title of largest city belonged to Shanghai.
Vatican City had to be the most intriguing city that Bell had ever visited, but it was also the only city that she had ever visited.
Bell looked up and saw a giant metallic eyeball in the sky, its iris pointing down towards the middle of the city. In the middle of the city was the train station, which was where Bell hoped to be before the end of the night.
Soon, however, Bell would realize that she felt sick to her stomach, as a growing sense of unease and a lack of a sense of balance took over her mind. Bell started to feel dizzy and woozy, but remained upright and awake.
Hilia looked at Bell and wordlessly examined her, then tried to motion drinking water, but looked like a fish out of water instead. The sight made Bell chuckle and forget the sickness that she felt.
The officer in the passenger seat then banged on the chain and yelled "Silent!"
Bell simply stopped smiling and glared at the officer who kept his eyes forward.
She then noticed that they were going through heavy ATV traffic high in the sky. There were several ATVs higher and lower than their current elevation, as well as a few around them. They all went in their separate directions while the caravan of police ATVs continued on their way to the Vatican City jailhouse.
Bell saw that they were growing more and more distant from the train station, her forehead started sweating as her stomach started to feel slightly funny. Whether it was from stress of sickness, Bell wasn't able to tell, all she knew was that she didn't feel one hundred percent.
However, the ATV had started to descend at a moderate pace, and would take a while before reaching the city again.
Bell didn't know why they had to fly so far up before traveling, but didn't complain, nor care all too much.
'It's better not to dwell on mysteries so much.' She thought, starting to intentionally forget some of the mysteries that plagued her life.
Except her dreams, she was always skeptical of them.
And also a few questions that she had since they had entered the ATV:
"Are we going to be stuck in jail?"
"Do we get a phone call or something?"
"Is Teacher Brutus going to kill us for this?"
"When are we going to get there?"
"I paid for the shawarma, will I ever get that?"
"Am I going to have to pay for the damages?"
"Is that fire-fist guy okay?"
"Is everyone okay?"
The ATV had descended to the point where Bell could see a giant cube of concrete. There wasn't a doubt in her heart that the concrete cube was, in fact, the jailhouse.
'Yay! I'm going to jail!' She sarcastically yelled in her mind with an entirely straight expression on her face.
The ATV then hovered over the ground over a certain spot before making contact with the ground. After doing so, the ground started to descend, and soon enough, they were on a type of car gondola.
There were hundreds of cars going from place to place in the giant jailhouse. Underneath the gondola network were giant concrete bookshelves, no doubt filled with criminals that were guilty of far worse crimes than Bell and her friends.
"You'll be brought to screening before getting into your jail cell." The driver spoke aloud.
Bell and the others nodded before the officer continued.
"You get access to phones, use them wisely, not because you get one or anything, but because they're expensive."
Bell was about to ask why, but the passenger seat officer spoke up while turned around.
"The reason you don't get a limited amount is because of the law. We're only telling you all this because you look like a bunch of kids who somehow never had a run-in with us." He then turned to face whatever was in front of the car. " We're doing you a favor." He muttered under his breath.
Bell wanted to speak, but was unwilling to risk any disciplinary action that the officers might take. Even though they were children in the eyes of the law, they were also "guilty" of committing seven crimes.
The rest of the uncomfortably long gondola ride was spent in awkward silence. The atmosphere was much different than when they were flying in the sky. It made Bell slightly squeamish, but at the same time, her flight sickness vanished.
Bell didn't know whether or not the flight sickness was gone due to her new squeamishness or from the fact that they were all no longer in the air. She had simply called it flight sickness because they were flying at the time, but the answer could easily be simply that she was hungry.
'I was looking forward to that shawarma wrap so badly...' Bell lamented internally.
The gondola finally reached the other side of the vast chasm filled with concrete jail-shelves. It didn't take long for the ATV to then drive around the facility in search of something.
Bell started to lose her sense of time. It didn't feel like too much time had passed since the beginning of the day where she and her friends ate breakfast together. At the same time, the sun was setting as they lowered into the giant concrete jailhouse.
That sense of time was further attacked when under any roof, and especially since she didn't possess a phone or any type of watch.
'I should have bought a watch or something at the Tarot shop...' Bell lampooned.
The ATV continued on a strange and winding path that led to several temporary stops where the driving officer had to show proof of identity or something of the sort. Each stop took only a few seconds, but they started to add up and blend together.
Over the next ten, twenty? minutes, the never-ending loop of driving to another station, stopping, providing proof of identity, then resuming the loop. Bell was getting sick and tired of it.
She tried her best not to show it, but she failed miserably. Hilia bumped shoulders with Bell and cocked her head sideways in question. Bell couldn't come up with a proper way to respond, so she simply decided not to.
The end of their torment was soon upon them, however. After what felt like an eternity in Bell's eyes, they, as well as the rest of the caravan, had reached a large set of doors that opened and allowed access to the inside.
The caravan quickly sped down a large concrete lane with an overhanging walkway far above. The walkway also had an overhanging set of rooms, and it all gave the illusion of entering a man-made cave system.
The air was cool and fresh, somehow, and that baffled Bell somewhat.
'Aren't prisoners supposed to be treated poorly? Or am I reading too many books and watching too many shows?' Bell thought, taking a deep breath of fresh, cool air.
In fact, the atmosphere was almost inviting, if one were to ignore the gray concrete brutalism of the entire structure. There were friendly people that often waved at you and friends, there was cool, refreshing air all around. Bell would go as far as to assume the quality of the food and drink here were also top notch.
They inevitably halted and the officers stepped out. The two officers opened the doors at the same time and ordered in unison, "Step out of the vehicle."
To which Bell, Pyralis, and Hilia obliged to. Their handcuffs made things slightly awkward, but the officers were so kind as to help out with a bit of excessive force. Nothing like punching and kicking and slapping, but their grip strength and lack of general care for the well-being of their prisoners was slightly saddening.
'Come on... we're all like, sixteen and seventeen...' Bell wailed inside of her mind.
Of course, the pain was minimal and really just felt like the strange pressure gauges that doctors and nurses sometimes used on one's arm. However, their gloves added grip and made the strange grip of the officers slightly pinch, which was slightly annoying.
The officers convened with their prisoners close behind, Bell saw that everyone was okay, even the other kids that had started the fight in the shawarma shop.
They were all silently led into a set of large double doors, which led down a winding set of hallways, and into a waiting room.
The waiting room was furnished with a window that let the setting suns light into the room, as well as a standing fan that oscillated around, blowing cool air all around the room. Bell wished that she weren't in shackles and was going to be imprisoned, because the vibe was immaculate to her.
The calm, quietness of the comfortable room only broken by the sound of a fan on a low setting. Sure, the walls and flooring could use a little bit of work, but it was alright enough for the time being.
The others started to sit down without the objections of the officers, who were talking to a person in a concrete box with a single glass pane. The conversation was quiet enough for Bell to not hear, so she looked around the room at her friends.
They looked like they desperately wanted to talk to one another, but all seemed scared enough by the officers that they stayed silent.
'Ah, I understand...' Bell tried to communicate to the others, but couldn't.
After a few moments of otherwise calm, the officer speaking to the person in the stall turned to face the teenagers and said, "Follow me."
The students all stood up, almost in unison, which would have been neat, but alas. They followed closely behind the officers like baby ducks following a mother duck.
The others tried to communicate with one another through hand signs, but with their hands behind their backs, as well as shackled, it was difficult. Not only was it difficult to convey their words to one another, it was even harder to read the strangely oriented English sign language.
However, they had finally reached their destination, where two officers held jail cells open, inviting the now prisoners into their cells. The four that had started the fight entered a room first, and that just led to the entirety of Bell's friend group to enter the other cell.
The cell was furnished with lesser-quality furniture, such as a toilet, sink, a handful of bunk beds, and some chairs. As they entered the room, an officer undid the handcuffs put on the future students of the Terrarium.
After the door closed, an officer spoke up, "The phone on the wall works, you better hope that you remember your parents phone numbers. The concrete blocks out cell service, and we aren't allowed to give you all yellow books." The officer then started to head down the hallway. "Good luck."
Bell then looked around at her friends who were sitting on the chairs and laying down on the beds.
"So what are we going to do now?" She asked.
Jude then suggested, "We can make a phone call, I guess."