"Mhm… so what do you need to tell us?" whispered Liro, as he looked over at Tyel, who was hiding his face under his hat.
Tyel, snapping back to reality, spoke with a commanding tone, "Come with me." Tyel signaled for the group to enter the bathroom, as not far from them there was a security camera pointing exactly at them. Tyel gave one last look before entering the bathroom. 'No one here… maybe they haven't spotted us,' he thought.
"So? What do you need to tell us, guard?" asked Vane as he was pushed into the bathroom. Before answering, Tyel looked inside both the female and male bathrooms, no one was there.
"First, let me introduce myself. I'm called Tyel, and as you've already understood, I work here." Tyel started to explain his story before Liro interrupted him.
"But if you're a guard and you work here, why are you acting like this?" asked Liro, confused.
"Exactly. You even asked us if we knew Catripple… but if she has escaped, wouldn't you hate her or… I don't know, something like that?" asked Lily.
"Everyone else definitely hates her, but I and some other people are different. Actually, I was one of the people who helped her escape a few days ago." Hearing these words, everyone's eyes opened in surprise. "I'm sure she must have told you about us," added Tyel while smirking.
"Are you part of the rebels…?" asked Liro, as his heart had started to beat faster.
"Exactly. In fact, the moment I knew some people were taken outside the city… I immediately understood it was Catripple… and she was finally able to bring someone." Tyel smashed his fist against the wall next to him the moment he finished the sentence; with this, tears started to flow down his cheeks.
"Then, if I understood correctly," Tyel slowly wiped away the tears from his cheeks and looked at the others once again, "You're here to help us. I can fully trust you?" he asked with a warm smile. The three of them nodded their heads.
"Count us in!" said Vane, as he smashed his fist against his chest with a proud look.
"You can trust us," said Lily with a warm smile.
"We'll help you… but we don't know anything about this place. Catripple told us some things, but not everything," said Liro with a serious expression. Tyel nodded.
"Thank you…" Tyel checked the clock in the bathroom and noticed they only had a few minutes left before the end of the break. "I'll be short, as we don't have much time left. After the recent loss the rebels suffered, we're in a really bad situation."
"Loss? Wait, what are you talking about?" asked Vane, confused.
"Catripple told us about this. The eleven people all killed by him…" whispered Liro, as he remembered what Catripple had told them some days before.
Tyel nodded his head. "I wasn't in the rebels yet at that time, so I've heard this story from the others."
"Are you a new member of the rebels?" asked Lily.
"Exactly. I joined a few days after that attack," answered Tyel. Hearing this answer, Lily seemed a bit unsure about Tyel's trustworthiness.
"But why would you join after almost all of them we—" Lily couldn't even finish speaking before a bell started to ring. "We're out of time; you have to return to work," said Tyel as he started to walk out of the bathroom, followed by the others.
"When will we be able to talk again?" asked Lily, as she now wanted to actually understand more about this person and the rebels.
"We will meet again during the break before dinner. For now, I'll go and gather some information about your friend Darian." After he answered, Tyel started to walk back to the other guards. "That took a while, Tyel," joked one of the guards as he noticed Tyel returning with the prisoners.
"One of the dummies was shitting the whole time… it's so annoying," Tyel answered, sounding irritated as he looked over at Vane, who was returning to work. "Tch… oh well, at least it doesn't seem like they caused you much trouble, right?" asked the other guard.
"Because I wondered how you would have been able to defend against three of them all by yourself," joked the guard.
"Hey, just because I've never used my power in front of y'all doesn't mean I don't actually have one," Tyel answered amusedly, as he playfully punched the other guard's shoulder.
'I wonder why he decided to join the rebels if they were more than decimated…' Lily was stuck with this thought as she returned to her work position. Being far from both Liro and Vane meant she couldn't speak with them about this directly.
'Like, why would someone even join their group?' Lily wondered how it was possible that someone, seeing a group dying against a stronger enemy, would join them. She couldn't understand it.
'Maybe he wants to get revenge like I do?' Lily started to think about what this Ashikunz might have done to Tyel or his family in general, but because she didn't know Ashikunz at all, she couldn't actually find an answer to her doubt.
'I wonder if he was working here before joining the rebels, or if it was the opposite…' Lily's work currently consisted of putting gunpowder inside what looked like bullets, as the bullets kept arriving on the conveyor belt.
'I guess I'll just ask him later. He told us we will meet again in the garden during the break… I wonder if he actually knows a good place for us to hide without getting spotted… or if he will be able to create one with his power?' With this, Lily, like many other people, kept working for over four hours nonstop; and like her, everyone else did their work without any problems, always keeping their heads low.
The tension in the room was heavy. In fact, there were a lot of guards; Liro, Vane, and Lily noticed there were more than on other days. 'Definitely something must have happened this morning while we weren't here,' thought all of them. In fact, that morning, one of the prisoners had gone crazy and the guards had killed him immediately, the same scene Darian had seen from above, which couldn't be seen by the others as they weren't there.
After the following four hours, all the prisoners were escorted outside by the robot guards. The humans were already outside, checking if everything was alright and ensuring there were no places for prisoners to escape.
This garden wasn't very big. The first things that caught your eye were the multiple benches in the middle of the garden. In this place, the prisoners would always spend their time talking to each other. Because the prisoners might talk about a revolution or something related to it, there were always human and robot guards walking around the benches, never giving the prisoners actual free time to be truly free.
There were some trees and bushes all around the garden, but the prisoners couldn't hide there and talk with each other because guards were placed in spots that made it impossible for prisoners to hide and talk.
The sections of the garden were divided for each guard, and they would always remain still in case a prisoner arrived. The prisoners could walk around the bushes or trees, but they would always have a guard watching them, so there was never an actual free space for them to be alone.
"He said he would speak with us here, but I wonder where he is…" whispered Liro, as he started to search around with his eyes while all the prisoners, always remaining silent, slowly went to the benches.
"Hey, he's there," whispered Vane, as he pointed his finger toward a corner of the garden. There stood Tyel, looking at them.
"I don't think the other guards will spot us…" whispered Lily as she started to walk toward Tyel, followed by the others. The air in the garden was the same as when they were working; there weren't the usual smiles of other days. The few groups were talking with their voices extremely low.
The moment they entered Tyel's territory, he waved for them to stop against a tree. The moment they did, he did the same but on the other side of the tree. By looking against the wall, he ensured no one would understand he was speaking with them, but rather that he was listening to them.
"I've discovered why you had to remain in your cell today," Tyel began to speak in a serious tone. "It's something related to your friend," he added. Hearing this, the others all opened their eyes in surprise.
"Darian?" whispered Liro, not expecting that. "Would you mind explaining?" he added, while looking at the sky to avoid giving the impression that he was speaking with Tyel.
"Let's start by explaining that your friend was doing alright. Yesterday, he spoke with Zrelekai about his past and explained various things to him. Most of the guards understood that it was because of this that Zrelekai was extremely happy yesterday."
"What? Darian really told Zrelekai about his past? About what he knew?" whispered Lily, as her stomach began to twist. she didn't expect Darian to betray them like this. Tyel, before speaking, looked for a moment at the others and noticed their sad faces.
"He didn't do it because he wanted to. Zrelekai was walking around with his pistol, think it that he was forced to speak, it might help you," added Tyel.
"Yeah… Darian would have never explained these things to the enemy… but we've got another question, Tyel," said Liro. "Go ahead," answered Tyel.
"Is that Zrelekai supposed to be a scientist?" asked Liro. Even if they couldn't see him, Tyel nodded his head. "Yeah, and from what I was able to understand… your friend is one of those, too, right?"
"Yeah… but there is another thing bothering me about what you said before…" said Lily as she looked at the ground. "You said our friend was doing alright? Not is doing alright? What happened to him now?" Hearing this question, Tyel suddenly fell silent.
"And this is what I was about to tell you. The reason you remained in your cell was because Zrelekai let him see the workers from above, and if he had seen you from there, he might have gone crazy, and Zrelekai wanted to prevent that… but in the end, it was useless."
"Useless? Did he go crazy even if we weren't there?" asked Liro in surprise.
"No, it happened because of something else. You see, I've heard from other guards that after seeing the workers, Darian was lost in his thoughts and didn't even notice all the people in the laboratory. But the moment Zrelekai stopped him to show him something… that was really the end."
The others remained silent as they waited for Tyel to keep explaining.
"He saw both Catripple and Snowy there. Zrelekai always wanted to perform experiments on her, as he was curious about her power and the wings on her back… and well, about Snowy, it isn't common to find an animal who can fuse with a person. Seeing the experiments on Catripple, Darian's face had already turned pale, but the moment he noticed Snowy, he completely went crazy. He started to insult Zrelekai and wanted to enter the room… but the moment he went inside…" Tyel fell silent as he looked down at the ground. The others could feel their hearts beating extremely fast inside their chests.
"Zrelekai released a gas that made him fall asleep. If there is something Zrelekai hates, it's when people don't agree with him. He wanted to make Darian work with him, but because he completely declined, Zrelekai understood it was time to break the pact and… he has started to perform experiments on Darian. I don't know when, but he hasn't come out of the room for over five hours."
Hearing this explanation, the others felt terrified. "Darian…" whispered Liro, as he gripped his chest while his heart began to beat very fast.
"When will we be able to see him again?" asked Lily, as her whole body began to shake.
"I suggest you first think about yourselves and how to escape from here… I don't want to say that for Darian it is over… but things definitely aren't easy," said Tyel as he clenched his fist in anger.