"I wonder what plan they will be able to come up with…" whispered Liro as he lay with his eyes closed on the bed. All the prisoners had already finished dinner and, as per their daily routine, they immediately had to return to their cells; it was time for sleep.
The whole hall was silent. Occasionally, you would see robot guards passing by, checking to see if the prisoners were awake. Right now, there wasn't anyone near the cell holding Liro and the others, so the group could speak safely.
"I hope that we will be able to kick someone's ass with this plan, especially these annoying robots…" whispered Vane, who found the robots walking around extremely irritating.
"I think that the robots are the last things we will be able to destroy, it feels like there are a lot of them," answered Lily as she looked up at the ceiling.
"Darian explained to me once how robots used to work. He told me the first time we arrived at his base that for most robots, especially in a place where there are a lot of them, there has to be a sort of place that controls all of them," said Liro. Hearing these words, Lily felt as if she remembered something.
"Hey, are you talking about that object called a server? I remember him saying something about that when we entered the old tower." Lily didn't notice that she had raised her voice. Metallic footsteps started walking in their direction.
"You three, it isn't time to speak. Fall asleep! Now!" the robot spoke with a commanding voice and pointed its rifle toward Lily, who immediately closed her eyes and turned her body to face the wall next to her.
Hearing that no one was speaking anymore, the robot turned away and started walking in another direction, as it had heard other voices.
"Then what if we destroy this ser…servant thing? Would that mean that all the robots would stop working?" proposed Vane. Hearing that he couldn't pronounce the word "server" perfectly, Lily and Liro let out soft laughs.
"It's 'server.' And yeah, if we understood correctly what Darian told us, if we were to destroy this server thing, all of the robots would stop working," answered Lily as she kept her eyes closed, slowly falling asleep.
"But if this Zrelekai is smart, he must have definitely hidden this server. I guess it isn't something we can do tomorrow," added Liro.
"First we need to think about ourselves… then we will be able to save Darian, Snowy, and Catripple too," said Vane as he clenched his fists together. Lily didn't add anything else, as she had fallen asleep. "Well, we will talk about this tomorrow with Tyel too. Good night, Liro." With that, Vane turned on his side and started to sleep. Without noticing, he fell asleep almost immediately, and Liro heard him snore before he could actually fall asleep himself.
'Tomorrow Tyel has a day off… why do you always forget about this stuff?' thought Liro as an amused smile appeared on his face, and he fell asleep with that thought.
While the prison was becoming silent, Tyel was currently walking out of a restaurant with his friends. "Man, I'm so happy that thanks to Zrelekai we're able to drink beer every day after work… AAAAHHH, it's so refreshing!" shouted one of the guards who had been speaking with Tyel earlier. He was with Tyel and another friend, and they had all come out of the prison after having dinner together.
"Hehe, he can't hold it," joked the other guard, amused at the sight of his friend who could barely stand on his feet. Next to him, Tyel, who could hold his alcohol well, was laughing softly too.
"I—I will never care what Zrelekai is doing with his experiments…" The drunk guard started walking by himself until he fell completely onto the ground, drunk, and looked up at the sky full of stars. "As long as he keeps giving us these things, I'm happy." After he finished the sentence, the guard emitted a loud burp that could be heard by the people sleeping in the houses nearby.
"It always ends like this… we tell you not to drink this much, Chud," said the other guard as he grabbed his friend's body. "I'll get him home, Tyel, don't worry."
"Are you sure you don't need help, Martheel?" asked Tyel. The other guard shook his head. "Don't worry, Tyel. He lives next to me, and you're on a totally different side of town. It is better for you this way, so don't worry," answered Martheel in a reassuring tone.
"Oh well, then we will see each other the day after tomorrow," said Tyel as he waved his hand.
"Oh right, tomorrow you have the day off. You're so lucky to have two days off in a week." While Martheel only had one day off normally, Chud always had to work non-stop. "You're so lucky… sigh… I wish I had some days off… WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?!" he shouted. Tyel and Martheel laughed softly.
"It's definitely because you always act like this after you drink too much beer." Martheel gave one last wave to Tyel and started walking away. Tyel looked at him with a happy face. The moment the two of them entered an alley and Tyel could no longer see them, his face suddenly turned more serious.
Tyel started walking nonchalantly as he tried to dodge all the security cameras in town. I'm safe, he thought the moment he entered a very small alley. 'There isn't anyone…' thought Tyel as he moved close to some old boxes and carefully shifted them.
The moment he moved them, a secret passage was revealed. Before the passage could close again, he slowly entered and began descending the old stairs. Once down, he noticed the lights were on. 'They're awake… better.' The moment Tyel entered the room with a huge table in the middle, he was finally in the rebels' base.
"Oh, you're here, Tyel…" said a guy with orange hair. His body was extremely small; in fact, it looked as if he had no muscles at all. He wore a small monocle over one of his eyes and spoke very carefully, sounding almost as if he were scared.
Sitting in front of him was another person with hair of three different colors, mainly blue, but with shades of red and green throughout. In his hands was a small green crystal. The moment he noticed Tyel, he immediately opened his eyes wider and smiled amusedly. "Ohhh, Tyel!! You're here!" he said, almost shouting with a huge smile on his face.
"Do you remember when I told you that Catripple had returned and that she might not be alone?" Hearing these words, both people in the base opened their eyes in surprise, as they couldn't believe what Tyel was about to say.
"Are you saying that…" whispered the man with orange hair as he watched Tyel come to sit next to him. The other man slowly left the crystal on the table and remained focused on Tyel.
"There are exactly four of them… and one of them is with Zrelekai." With this, Tyel slowly smashed his hand onto the table. "Is he in the same condition as Catripple?" asked the man with orange hair as he slowly touched his hands, sounding frightened.
"At first, no… but now it might be even worse…" answered Tyel as he bit his lower lip.
"But still, what about the others? Are they good people?" asked the man with the crystal next to him.
"They're great people, and trust me when I say their powers are useful for our escape. I've already thought of some ways, but I wanted to know your opinion too." With that, the whole night passed with the three men talking about their plan in their secret base.
The following day, Liro, Lily, and Vane woke up without any problems. They could now return to work normally, though unlike what they were used to, the prisoners here weren't able to have breakfast; they just went to work without an actual meal.
"We won't be able to speak with Tyel today… we will need to figure something out by ourselves," whispered Lily. Vane, who at first was confused because he didn't remember that Tyel couldn't speak with them today due to his day off, suddenly remembered what Tyel had told them yesterday.
As the day passed, the group was able to have lunch without any trouble. Luckily for them, today they were able to eat better food, as they received extremely juicy and great hamburgers like the other prisoners.
"It doesn't matter how bad this prison actually is; the food here is amazing!" said Vane as he took a big bite of the burger. Some of the juices fell onto his shirt, and the guards looked at him with annoyance, knowing that cleaning that shirt would be very tiring.
"Remember that this food is probably created by that scientist, Zrelekai…" whispered Liro.
"I don't care… it's just so great," added Lily as she bit into the hamburger again happily. "It tastes a bit too much like metal, I don't know…" Liro, a bit unsure, took another bite. "I agree… still, it's just so good." With that, the group, like every other prisoner, kept eating.
After the end of the lunch break, the group returned to work, and over five hours passed again before the prisoners had their free hour.
"And as we expected…" Lily searched with her eyes. Even though it was already 7:00 p.m., the sun was still strong in the sky. She searched for Tyel. "But he has his day off; we will actually have to wait," added Liro as he started walking.
Usually, in their past days, the group would sit on one of the benches and speak among themselves, as the other prisoners wouldn't approach them because they were new.
As they walked toward the benches, they found themselves near a small group of older prisoners who were talking together, and Liro and the others happened to overhear their conversation.
"I can't believe how much colder it has gotten in B-block." The first thing they heard was the voice of an old woman who had her eyes fixed on the ground; her whole body was shaking. She was keeping her hands warm by breathing on them. "The air has become so cold that I could barely keep up with all the work this morning. I got lucky that the guards didn't look at me."
"It feels like you caught a cold, Harlen… they always turn up the ventilation when they're doing a lot of bad experiments," spoke a man with a scarred neck, his voice no louder than a whisper. "Try to keep yourself warm with this heat. Remember that for them, it doesn't matter how you're feeling… you'll always be an object to them."
Hearing this conversation, Liro immediately turned quiet and looked at his two friends, who had also overheard. They both remained fixed on something, pretending to be doing something else while they listened instead.
"I happened to overhear some human guards saying that the quota has started to grow… damn, I wonder why the hell this happened…" said Harlen as she shook her head. "I guess it's just because of the new materials that Zrelekai has created. One wrong move and the guards will immediately shoot you; we're having less liberty," she added.
"I know… but we can't do anything anymore," answered the other old man as he clenched his fists tight.
"Is it true?" asked Lily as she took a step forward, getting closer to the prisoners. They jumped in both surprise and fear, but seeing that it was just another prisoner like them, they relaxed. "Is it true that the quotas are going up because of the new experiments?"
The old man with the scarred neck looked Lily up and down and noticed something. "Hey, you're the one from the lunch shift, the one who arrived late yesterday because they were kept in their cell."
Hearing these words, Liro and Vane took a step forward too. "We are," said Liro as he stepped beside Lily. "We've only been here a few days, but it actually feels like the atmosphere around here has changed. The guards are more… you know… they seem angrier."
"That's what we prisoners call the 'Zrelekai effect.' Whenever he receives a new experiment, the whole prison changes too. He becomes excited, the guards become more nervous, and we get the boots. You'll get used to this rhythm pretty fast."
"How long have you been here?" asked Vane as he noticed the multiple scars on the man's face.
"I've lost count of the years," the man replied. "Before, I was a builder in the city; now I just move rocks around." With that, the old man looked Vane in the eyes and smirked. "If you'd like some advice, don't look the robots in the eyes. I've heard they have a sensor that looks at your pupils and understands if you're scared or if you're plotting something. If they see that, you'll start to have more guards around you."
The old woman next to him shook with fear. "I did that once and… damn, I couldn't be free for a single moment," she said, her teeth chattering from the cold.
"Oh, and don't eat too much of that green thing they serve on Thursdays… while today we received hamburgers, yeah… but in that green thing, they always put weird stuff that keeps you awake. They want you working overtime without your heart giving out, but it makes your skin itch for days," added the other woman, speaking in a pitying tone to the newcomers.
"It's a wonder how people can remain sane here," muttered Liro as he looked around the garden at all the prisoners.
"In fact, you don't stay sane here," Harlen whispered before grabbing Liro's sleeve for just a second and then pulling back. "You just stay quiet."
"We aren't going to be here long enough to get used to this stupid rhythm," said Vane as he smirked while looking at the robotic guards.
The man with multiple scars chuckled darkly. "That's what all of us said the first week. Just keep your heads down and your mouth shut. You might not believe it, but even the walls have ears. We don't know how it is possible, but if you speak too loudly thinking you're alone, you're 100% wrong."
After he finished speaking, the bell rang, meaning it was time for everyone to go back for dinner and then to sleep again. "You five, the break is over," said a metallic voice behind them.
"Tch… as I told you…" whispered the man as he started walking away, followed by the old woman. Liro and the others remained still for a moment until they heard rifles clicking against each other behind them. "Don't make us repeat it again." And with that, the group headed toward the prison.