Maya was lying on her bed in her small row house apartment in the living quarters of the Nullbounders camp. She hadn't slept. She couldn't. The small candle on the table had burned, its tiny flame trembling like it was afraid of the decision she would make. Just like she was afraid of the weight of her decisions.
If she chose to side with Medea, Hexa would never forgive her. If she chose to side with Hexa, someone else might burn for it. Nullfire always demands a sacrifise, and she knows it.
She put out the candle in attempt to get some rest, but her thoughts were raiding her head. She needed to make her decision before it was too late.
The morning sunlight hit her though the window of the terraced house she was assigned to live in durign her workdays as a Nullbounder.
Then she heard a knock on the door. With a groan, she got up and walked to the door. She looked through the peephole. Another Nullbounder. She opened the door with a creak.
"Upper rank soldier Maya, I'm here to inform you that you'll have two days off duty. It starts from today," the man in the Nullbounder uniform said.
"Thank you," Maya answered, then shut the door before it escalated into a bigger chat.
Freetime, finally. Now I don't have to decide so soon, she thought to herself.
She flopped of a soft, padded chair, but got off quickly. She grabbed her gun, strapped it on her waist, put some essentials in her backpack and put it on.
Hexa really made a mess. But was it really her fault? I know the Nullfire is dangerous, and there's several records of it affecting people's actions, but it has never been like this. What if I looked further into it? It wouldn't hurt much if I went in to check, right? Maya thought as she walked out of the door, heading towards the Null research facility.
Before Maya got to that laboratory, the dull, blank fire fell over like it heard someone was coming, lighting a fire somehwere else.
Deep in the Eternal forest, Remy, Aatos, Althea, Amber, Ocean and Aurora were enjoying their time in the cottage, before Remy smelled smoke.
"Did someone leave the campfire lit?" Remy asked.
Althea looked around, realizing it was fire. Right outside the front door.
"Fire! We need to get out of here!" She shouted to everyone in the room.
Panic rammed through the room as as they tried to find a window that opens. The poisoneus black smoke was already coming inside.
"Get down!" Althea screamed, trying to get the kids as safe as possible.
All of them went to the floor level, but the fire had already gotten though the front door and was heading towards the room. They were coughing, covering their mouths and desperately trying to find a way out.
At the same time, Hexa was in the canteen of the prison in the dungeon she was kept in. That's where people who could cooperate with the guards ate. She was sitting alone in a table, munching on a piece of dry bread, before two fellow prisoners, men, came to her.
"This is our table," one of them said.
"I don't think so. I was here first," Hexa retorted.
The other man slammed his fists on the table.
"Leave, before this gets dirty, little girl," he warned.
Hexa's eyes narrowed. She opened the bag, that luckily nobody had noticed and taken away, curled her fingers around a random item inside it, taking it out.
It was her dead smartphone, one of the last few pieces of her own world she had with her. But now, it didn't matter. She held it up like a weapon. Not to attack, for now at least. But to scare the other prisoners.
The two men quickly backed up. They clearly had no idea what a phone was, and didn't want to find out if it was actually dangerous.
The guards noticed the scene and quickly pointed guns at Hexa, who still had the phone in her hand.
Maya finally arrived at the laboratory. They had added guards to secure the front door. With a flash of her Nullbounder badge, she got in.
Entering the place, the first thing she noticed was that the lights were off. Not even the light switch worked. The only light source was sunlight. It was understandable, since the facility wasn't in active use anymore, though there was still some people who visited it to do their own experiments.
She walked through the dark halls of the facility, looking for the Nullfire. It was hard for her to find. Instead of the fire, she saw a shadow of something moving.