"Look, how old are you?" said the voice. It was deep and resonating, although had a distinct spanish accent.
"I'm almost eighteen," Joshua said, "and my sister's fifteen."
"Well I'm thirteen," he offered, "so you'll fit right in here."
And then the siblings looked across at all the cells n the other side of the block. They saw face after face, one scared kid after another. All wearing too-big prison jumpsuits.
It looked like this whole jail was full of kids, nothing but kids.
Lissa gripped the bar harder. "I'll kill myself before
they even
try take me to wherever you're talking about," she muttered. Her sneaker grazed the bottom of the bars, and she looked down to the source of the
clanging. Green and purple against the silver bars.
Would look good in a painting, she thought. Her blue eyes caught sight of something she hadn't seen before- red dirt in the corner of the cell. A tiny puddle of water to go along with it.
Perfect. Lissa dipped her fingers into the water and stirred the dirt into thick, red mud. Her fingers danced across the whitewashed brick wall as she painted a scene.
"They don't take you anywhere. You leave. The One makes you leave. Gone in an instant. Just
poof, you're gone. Never to return again."
Seren was about to ask a question, but the voice stopped her.
"Yup, it's pretty much just us kids around here these days," said the voice from the far cell. "I've been here nine days-- I was one of the first. But in the last three days, this rat hole has really filled up."
"Do you have any idea what's going on?" Joshua asked softly, so as not to attract a guard's attention.
"Not a whole lot, jefe. But I heard some of the guards talking about a clean sweep," the voice said quietly, close to the bars. "You remember hearing about the New Order?"
"Yeah," Seren joined in, "but I wasn't really paying attention."
Okay, so you've been living inside your head... somewhere dark and nasty," said the voice. "But if it's any consolation, so was most of the rest of the country. See, the New Order is the political party that's been winning all the elections. They're in charge now. In just a few months they've gutted the old government and instituted the Council of Ones. Heard of them? The One In Command, The One Who Judges, The One Who Imprisons, The One Who Assigns Numbers, The One Who Is The One, blah, blah."
"Okay, so, the New Order. Politics," said Joshua. "What's that got to do with us?"
"They're the Law
and they're the Order, amigos. They're The Ones who put us here, and they're The Ones who decide what to do with us."
"But why are they doing these unspeakable things to
kids?" Seren spoke up again.
"Because we talk back? Because we're not brainwashed yet? Who knows? Why don't you ask The One Who Judges...
at your trial!"
The siblings were speechless, finally having an idea about what's going on.
Jenna had been listening to their conversation,
You won't get
a trial. She thought contentedly. She'd make sure of that.
