Fic: The Days We Break (part 9)

[myrimidryad]

Matty screamed through the gag until Grace lifted the hand holding the rod so that it didn’t touch his bare chest. He slumped and swallowed painfully, looking at Grace and blinking twice pointedly. She nodded and turned off the machine before pulling the gag from his mouth. “My turn.”

“Give me a second,” Matty said weakly, sitting up as she untied the ropes holding him down.

“Right, sorry.” Grace helped him up and handed him his shirt. “Ready yet?” Matty shot her a stern look and she shrugged unrepentantly. “It’s my turn.” He sighed.

“Yeah, alright, gimme a moment.”

Grace had been shocked already, but only briefly, and only at the lightest setting. She was sick of Matty dancing around the issue like a skittish child. She needed to feel the kind of pain Rich had felt. She needed to understand it.

So, “Same setting as you.” She insisted stubbornly before Matty slipped the gag between her teeth, glaring until he winced and adjusted it.

“Fine,” he muttered, turning it on. It hummed ominously. “This will hurt,” he warned her.

“No shit,” Grace mumbled through the gag, and screamed when he touched the tip to her side.

“Here we are.” Franky tugged the blindfold  from Katie’s eyes and smiled. They had brought her straight to the T, where they were the only ones there.

“Where are we?” Katie asked automatically staring at the poster-decorated and paint-spattered walls and mismatched armchairs and sofas and cushions.

“Can’t tell you.” Franky shook her head. “But this is like the living room. We call it the T.”

“Why?”

“Well,” Franky beckoned for her to follow her down the narrow passage between the ops and conference room and stopped at the closed door to the main corridor. “From here, if you ignore these bits,” she pointed to the gaps that led off to each side, revealing the doors to the rooms. “This is like the tall bit and the bit at the end is like the top of a letter T. A fat top,” she allowed, going back up to the main area. “But it’s still kind of like a T.”

“Hm.” Katie didn’t sound convinced, but she looked impressed. “Are we underground?”

“That would be telling.” Alo grinned.

“While you’re here,” Franky gestured for her to sit down on Alo’s old sofa and she sat opposite in one of their salvaged armchairs. “You’re going to have to play by our rules.”

“Which are?” Katie asked haughtily.

“No sneaking around,” Franky said instantly. “No trying to spy on us or anything like that. You’re not allowed to go anywhere without an escort. Sorry, but you understand why we can’t trust you.”

“I get it.” Katie nodded. “Uh…what about other things, like clothes and a toothbrush and shit?”

“You can borrow our clothes,” Franky decided on the spot. “You probably won’t like mine, but there’s Pink Lady and Shameless and Paperdoll.”

Katie glanced at Mini, who seemed to be intently resisting pulling a face. “Okay.”

“We’ve got spare toothbrushes, I think.” Mini looked at Alo, who shrugged.

“Not my department. Ask Captain or Paperdoll.”

“Cool. Right.” She looked back at Katie. “Okay, Farmboy, go round up the others. We need to introduce Katie.”

“Righto.” Alo grinned at Katie as he passed her. “Welcome aboard.”

The first to arrive were Matty, Grace and Liv. Their reactions to Katie were all along the lines of, “Who the fuck is that and what the fuck is she doing in our secret base?” But Franky told them to wait for everyone to arrive, so when Nick finally trailed in with Alo, it was Nick who Franky answered.

“Hello.” Nick stared at Katie, who waggled her fingers and smirked. “Um, who’re you?”

“This is Katie,” Franky said. “She’s a member of the BRM, which is apparently the Bristol Resistance Movement. It’s part of a larger organisation called the RM, and they’re like us, but bigger and probably better.”

“What’s wrong with us?” Grace asked, frowning.

“Well, we are kind of amateurs, aren’t we?” Liv raised an eyebrow and sized Katie up. “And how do we know this isn’t a massive trap and she’s leading the regime to us right now?”

“Well, it’s a bit of a long story.” Franky looked at Mini and Alo and then began to tell the others what had happened while they were out earlier.

“I don’t trust her,” Rich said darkly as soon as Katie had gone with Franky and Grace to get some clothes and things. “She looks like a bitch.”

“With you there.” Liv pursed her lips and stretched as she stood up. “And I don’t like the idea of sharing my shit with her either.”

“She’s not bad,” Nick protested. “She’s not arguing with us or anything, and all this BRM stuff sounds genuine.”

“Captain, you only want to believe that because you think she’s sexy,” Liv said witheringly.

“That’s not true!” Nick frowned, and Liv raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

“Whatever. I’m going to make sure Paperdoll doesn’t give away all my clothes.” She clattered down two levels until she heard voices coming from Franky’s room.

“So how did you get into the RM?” she heard Grace ask curiously, and Katie answered with that half-lisp she had.

“Oh, well, Naomi’s been in for ages, apparently, because of her mum or something, and when she started going out with my sister, I kind of got dragged in. Our whole group did, actually. Well,” she amended. “Most of us.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t talk about it.” Katie sounded like she liked being able to be the one withholding information for once that evening and Liv rolled her eyes as she came to lean against the doorway.

“Been to my room yet, guys?”

“Not yet.” Grace smiled and Franky looked up from her place on the floor. She was rummaging through the suitcase of things she’d brought with her.

“Cool.” Liv looked Katie up and down slowly. “Come on then. I don’t think Mannequin’s stuff is really your style, no offence, Mannequin.”

“None taken.” Franky shrugged easily and sat back on her heels. “Can you take over, Shameless? I need to check with Pink Lady - see if Naomi’s texted her yet.”

“Yeah.” Liv didn’t move as Katie returned her disdainful stare. “No problem.”

Katie didn’t feel comfortable wearing someone else’s clothes, especially their underwear. It was vaguely disgusting in a way that never was whenever she stole Emily’s bras or knickers. Then again, she never did that these days - how could she, knowing that Naomi had admired them, touched them, taken them off?

It was too gross to even contemplate.

Breakfast was toast. There wasn’t any butter because apparently no one had found any recently, and they tended to be warier of dairy products, but there was plenty of honey. Paperdoll was by far the nicest, but she was too nice for Katie to really like. Boys tended to be more her forte, but so far she had to conclude that the DN was made up of freaks. Psychonaut was a raging metal nut who hated her on sight, Farmboy was over-eager in a way she recognised as being over-friendly with his wanking hand and Teddy Sextramp was just downright creepy, not to mention short and in need of a serious name change. Captain was the only one with any potential, but even he looked like a meat-headed lout.

She had woken late, and luckily for her it looked like Saturday was the DN’s off-day. Mannequin explained it to her as they ate breakfast together in the dining area, Psychonaut at the table behind them, reading a book and crunching a green apple.

“Saturday’s the day when most people are out and about, shopping, meeting friends, you know.” She shrugged ruefully. “Normal people stuff.”

“Yeah.” Katie swallowed her mouthful. “So you never go out on Saturdays?”

“Well we sometimes do.” Mannequin pulled a face. “But we got a good haul yesterday and I figured we could use the morning off. I’ll get people to work in the afternoon.”

“What do you do?” Katie asked, curious.

Mannequin ducked her head and fiddled with her knife. “Well, today I need to make some music choices, go through the lists of requests we’ve had, make people do their jobs…”

“Jobs like what?”

“Well, like cleaning and stuff.” Mannequin stood up and carried her plate to the kitchen. Katie popped her last bit of toast in her mouth and followed her. “We’ve got a rota. But Saturday and Sunday are laundry days, so some of us need to do that, and there’s normal cleaning to do, like sweeping and shit, so we’re usually kept busy. Speaking of which,” she looked up at the ceiling as she rinsed her plate in the puddle of lukewarm water the others had left in the sink. “I need to get on with it, so…Psychonaut?”

“Mm?” He looked up through his curtain of hair.

“Can you show Katie around?” Mannequin put her plate and knife on the draining board and stepped aside to let Katie clean her things. “I’ve got work to do, and you look free.”

Psychonaut sighed and got to his feet. “Yeah, alright.”

“Thanks.” Mannequin smiled at Katie and left silently. Psychonaut waited until Katie was finished before clearing his throat to get her attention.

“Right,” he sighed, jerking his head at Katie. “Come on then.”

“Please, don’t bother to act polite on my behalf,” she said cuttingly as she followed him up the stairs.

“I won’t.” Psychonaut didn’t seem fazed. “No offence or anything, I just think this is a really stupid risk we’re taking.”

“Most of you seem to think that.”

“Probably because we’re right.” Psychonaut paused on the third level. “Right, you know who sleeps down here?”

“Nope.” Katie wasn’t overly impressed with his attitude.

“Right.” Psychonaut pointed. “Me and Paperdoll are in the one at the end on the right, Teddy Sextramp’s two doors down from us, and Captain’s just here.” He pointed to the closest bedroom on the left.

“I would never have guessed.” Katie looked pointedly at the piece of paper with ‘CAPTAIN’ written on it stuck to Nick’s door.

Psychonaut shrugged and started up the stairs to the next level. “Mannequin said to give you a tour. Right,” he pointed down the corridor. “You know where Mannequin and Shameless are.” Shameless was in the furthest bedroom away on the left and Mannequin slept in the middle room on the right. “Pink Lady’s next to Mannequin, second from the back, and Farmboy’s here.” He pointed to the closest door on the left. “Where are you again?”

“There.” Katie pointed down to the end. “Opposite Shameless, next to Pink Lady. It’s like you don’t trust me.”

“Can’t imagine why.” Psychonaut shook his head and moved on up. “Okay, we don’t really use these rooms - they’re offices. We put stuff in them, mostly.”

“Anything interesting?” Katie asked. Psychonaut started up the next set of stairs.

“Not really. Don’t go nosing around.”

“Like I’m going to get the chance.” Katie followed him up into the T, where Pink Lady, Farmboy, Shameless and Captain were playing a game of shithead.

“Giving her the tour?” Shameless grinned, looking up from the cards in her hand.

“Fuck off,” Psychonaut said easily. “You’ve seen the T,” he told Katie, leading her down between the ops and conference rooms. “There’s a storage room behind it, doesn’t have anything in it.”

“This place is pretty big, isn’t it?” Katie stared down the length of the main corridor and Psychonaut smirked.

“You could say that, yeah. Come on, Teddy Sextramp’s probably in the lab, right here.” He opened the door and they looked through the wall-sized window that looked into the main laboratory.

“What’s that sound?” Katie asked.

Psychonaut cocked his head and frowned. There was a sound - a kind of high-pitched, muffled keening. “Probably one of his experiments,” he decided, opening the glass door and walking in. “He’s always…” He fell silent as the keening grew louder and suddenly stopped to be replaced by a low hum, and the figure of Teddy Sextramp moved in front of the window at the very end. Psychonaut frowned. Teddy Sextramp said something, paused, and then the keening started again, the hum becoming a distant buzz.

Katie jumped as Psychonaut leapt forward, crossing the laboratory in less than a second and almost ripping the door at the end off its hinges. Katie ran after him, shocked, and she almost screamed as Psychonaut tore Teddy Sextramp bodily away from the figure of Paperdoll, strapped down and gagged on a table, and flung him against a wall.

Katie opened her mouth, but nothing came out but a squeak as Teddy Sextramp groaned and Psychonaut pulled the gag out of Paperdoll’s mouth. “Are you okay?” he asked furiously, and she nodded.

“R-Psychonaut,” she said, sitting up as he yanked the ropes holding her down undone. “It’s fine, I’m okay, you don’t have to -”

“I didn’t want to,” Teddy Sextramp said, getting to his feet, and Katie flinched back as Psychonaut turned on him with his eyes practically spitting flames.

“You,” he snarled, and crossed the distance between them with one step, grabbing Teddy Sextramp around the neck and slamming him against the wall. “What the hell do you think you were doing?” he bellowed, and Katie wondered hysterically whether he was called Psychonaut for a good reason.

“I asked him to!” Paperdoll shrieked, stumbling off the table and going to Psychonaut’s side. “Psychonaut, let him down! I asked him to!”

“You asked him to torture you?” Psychonaut clearly didn’t believe her, and Katie watched, mute, as he hoisted Teddy Sextramp up so his feet couldn’t quite touch the ground. His face began to turn puce.

“Yes!” Paperdoll screamed, grabbing Psychonaut’s arm and pulling it down so Teddy Sextramp could stand up properly. “I told him to do it! I made him! He didn’t want to, it wasn’t his fault.”

Psychonaut let go of Teddy Sextramp completely, and he slumped down against the wall, hacking painfully. Psychonaut ignored him and focused totally on Paperdoll. “You’re joking,” he said quietly. “Tell me, fucking, please tell me you’re joking.”

“I’m sorry.” Paperdoll had tears in her eyes, and Katie edged away from the door, closer to Teddy Sextramp to check if he was okay.

“You’re not joking,” Psychonaut said quietly, nodding. “Right. Right, so…so if you were so fucking desperate to get zapped, what the fuck was the point of what I did?” He looked at Teddy Sextramp, still coughing, and back at Paperdoll, who was crying quietly now. “What the fuck was the point?” he asked again, sounding hurt under his anger. Katie had to stop herself from flinching as he stalked out.

“Wait,” Paperdoll whispered, and Katie looked away, uncomfortable in the face of her tears. “Wait!” She ran out after Psychonaut, and Katie looked down at Teddy Sextramp.

“Are you alright?”

“Fine,” he rasped, hauling himself to his feet again. “I knew he’d kill me.”

“What the fuck just happened?” Katie demanded to know. “What were you doing to her? And why did he flip out?” When he just shook his head, she scowled. “Fine, I’ll find someone who will tell me.” She turned to leave.

“Don’t,” Teddy Sextramp said warningly. “You can’t go anywhere without an escort, remember?”

Katie whirled on him, frustrated. “Do I look like a fucking child?”

“It’s nothing personal.” He sat down on the table and rubbed his throat with a frown. “It’s so we can trust you, so don’t get all annoyed.” He looked at her as she narrowed her eyes and calmed herself down. “If it helps,” he said in a hoarse voice, “I don’t think you’re a spy.”

“Oh goodie.” Katie rolled her eyes. “I bet your word will count for loads now you’ve been found torturing one of your own team.”

Teddy sighed. “They were going to find out sooner or later,” he said regretfully. “This wasn’t exactly the way we planned it though.” He rolled his head on his neck and got up. “Come on then, I’ll take you to the T and tell Mannequin what happened.” He sighed again. “And everyone can go back to hating me.”

“Hm.” Katie wasn’t sure what to say to that. “What is going on between them then?” she asked, talking about Psychonaut and Paperdoll. She was annoyed, but not surprised when Teddy Sextramp shook his head.

“Can’t say. Not really my place, you know?”

“Yeah.” Katie sighed and let him lead her back to the T, her tour cut short. “I get it.”

“Okay,” Franky addressed everyone in the T that evening. “I’ve been talking to Naomi, and we’ve agreed that the only way we can trust each other is to, well, trust each other. We kind of stuck our necks out already by bringing Katie here, and she’s going to tell the RM all about us when she gets back, but Naomi’s given Katie permission to tell us some stuff about the RM as well, so this trust thing goes both ways. So, uh,” she sat down and gestured to Katie. “Go ahead.”

“Inspiring.” Katie stood up and put her hand on her hip. “Okay, Katie is actually my real name, Emily and I were recruited by Naomi along with most of our other friends. We move around pretty much constantly, living in different people’s houses and stuff. The BRM is a separate cell to the RM itself, if you get what I mean, and Naomi manages most of it. She gets orders from the leader of the RM and we keep in contact with other cells in other towns and cities as well to co-ordinate our actions.” She paused.

“What actions are these then?” Mini asked.

Katie cocked her head. “Well, mostly it’s subversive stuff and recruitment. Like, following people and mapping out their movements. But our main goal is to stay secret, so we can’t really do anything major, like attack the zapper platform.” She gave them a significant look. “I can’t talk about most of what we do, but we have contacts in Europe and America and one of the big things some of us are a part of is getting people out of the country. We find transport willing to take passengers and smuggle them on.”

“Cool.” Alo grinned.

“And what Naomi was proposing is that we do the stuff that entails the most risk, like breaking into buildings and starting protests,” Franky explained to the others. “And they help us in return by giving us information and maybe equipment. Speaking of equipment,” she looked at Matty, who ducked his head, and Rich and Grace, who were sitting at opposite ends of the T. “Apparently the zapping stuff is ready now, and we should all have a go so we know what to expect if we get caught.”

“Um,” Katie raised her hand with a sceptical look on her face. “You know that if you get caught, zapping is like, the least they’ll do?”

“Yes,” Franky nodded, “but we figured we’d start off small.”

Katie nodded slowly and frowned like she was thinking the better about criticising them.

“Okay then.” Mini clapped her hands together. “Who’s cooking tonight?”

Rich was waiting when Grace slipped into their room later that evening, and she winced when she saw him. He looked at her stonily and didn’t say anything. “I’m sorry,” she whispered finally. “You know I am.”

“I’m still pissed off,” Rich snapped. “Seriously, Paperdoll, what the fuck? Why would you do something that stupid?”

“I wanted to know how it felt.” Grace said quietly, shamefaced. “I just felt so bad about…when it happened to you, and I…”

“It happened to me because I didn’t want you to go through it,” Rich said tightly. “What was the point?”

Grace couldn’t answer him, but went to sit next to him on their mattresses. “Don’t blame Teddy,” she told him. “He really didn’t want to, honestly.”

“But he still did,” Rich said harshly. “You were screaming, Grace.” He turned to her and whispered intensely. “I heard you from the other end of the lab!”

“Paperdoll,” Grace corrected in a small voice. “And, well, it hurts. It was going to happen to all of us anyway!”

Rich turned away, letting his hair fall forward to hide his face. “Not zapping,” he said after a moment. “I’m not going anywhere near that thing. They can beat me halfway to hell, for all I care, I’m never doing that by choice again.”

“But -”

“I know that makes me more vulnerable to it,” Rich snapped. “I don’t care.”

Grace touched his shoulder so gently he barely felt it. “Can we make up?” she whispered. “Please? I’m sorry.”

“I know.” Rich turned and pressed his forehead against hers. “Just…can you promise to never do it again? Ever.”

“Okay.” She nodded and pressed a quick, chaste kiss to his lips. “I promise. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah.” Rich lifted a hand and pressed his fingertips against her cheek. “Good.”

Nick looked across at Katie and smiled crookedly. They were out together on the rounds, looking for donations, spreading their rubbish between different bins and checking the graffiti.

“So, how long have you been doing this?” he asked casually, stuffing a plastic bag full of rubbish in a public bin.

“You mean, like, be in the RM?” she asked in a low voice, and he nodded. “Oh, a while. Couple of years, maybe. We didn’t finish college.”

“How old are you?” Nick asked curiously.

“Rude.” She smirked. “You never ask a lady her age.”

Nick shrugged and grinned. “I’ll guess then.”

“Go on.” She laughed.

“Okay, so…older than us.” Nick narrowed his eyes. “So…nineteen?”

“Close.” Katie nodded, not giving anything away. “What about you?”

“Guess.” Nick told her cheerily as they crossed the road.

“Sixteen,” Katie teased.

“Come off it!” Nick protested.

“Fine, seventeen or eighteen, but definitely not older.” Katie shrugged. “And the rest of you must be roughly the same.”

“Not Teddy Sextramp.”

“Oh yeah, didn’t Paperdoll say he was your big brother?” Katie remembered.

“Only by a year or two.” Nick didn’t give her exact dates.

Katie snorted. “He doesn’t look it, does he?”

Nick laughed. “I call him my little brother.”

“Yeah, I can see why.”

“Oh hey,” Nick grabbed her wrist gently and pulled her down a narrow alley between two warehouses. “Watch out.”

“What?” Katie peeked round the edge before Nick tugged her away.

“Cop.”

Katie frowned. “I didn’t see anyone.”

“There’s a guy who just walked round the corner. He’s a plain-clothes cop, I’d bet my life on it.” He nodded for her to take another look, which she did.

“He looks normal to me,” she said, squinting at the man Nick had spotted. “Bit square, but that’s not so weird right now.”

“I can tell.” Nick shook his head. “Come on. There’s a talk wall round here somewhere anyway, we can have a look.”

“A talk wall?” Katie raised her eyebrows and jogged to catch up with him. “What’s that?”

“The walls we use for the graffiti,” Nick explained with a smile. “And normal people write back. It’s just round the corner, I think. Come on.”

It was around two more corners, but Katie couldn’t help but be impressed when she saw it. Nick noticed and nudged her playfully. “Pretty cool, huh?”

Katie shrugged one-shouldered, effortlessly graceful. “It’s alright. How’d you get the writing up so high?”

“We brought the van round on a few of these rounds to get the stencils up high,” Nick told her, both of them staring up at the painted bricks. Ten feet above the ground, DN AGAINST THE REGIME! was neatly stencilled in bright orange and red, and below that were a multitude of messages in varying colours.

“They don’t write in red or orange,” Katie noticed, scanning the badly-sprayed words. “How come?”

“That’s like, our colour, I guess.” Nick grinned crookedly. “It’s pretty cool, actually.” He stepped closer to read some of the messages. Most of them were asking how they could join and how they could help. Nick looked around, checking for passers-by. “Look out for me?” he asked Katie. When she nodded and shrugged, “Sure,” he pulled a can from his bag, shook it quickly and started to write.

Tune in to the DN Wave and donate to help, he wrote in reply to the messages asking how they could be of assistance. Not recruiting, sorry. Too dangerous, was his answer to those asking how they could join.

“Neat,” Katie admitted as they walked away.

“We reckon so.” Nick grinned.

“What about when they put up CCTV here though?” Katie asked. “You were really obvious about that just now - no hood up or mask or anything.”

“They’re putting CCTV up here?” Nick frowned.

“Everywhere.” Katie looked at him like he was an idiot. “It’s one of their policies. It’s to catch people like us, you know?”

“Shit.” Nick was flummoxed. “Shit, I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah, well now you do.” Katie rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “You guys, you’re so fucking raw, y’know? Like, you expect it to all work out and you’ll just skip ahead of the regime and not get caught.”

“No we don’t.” Nick’s tone became uncharacteristically serious and Katie stared at him disbelievingly.

“Really?”

“We know what they’re capable of,” Nick told her as he gestured for her to shove one of her rubbish bags in a wheelie bin. “And we all kind of expect to get caught in the end,” he looked down and rubbed his paint-smeared fingers together. “I reckon we’ll last a year if we’re lucky.” He admitted. “Someone will recognise our voices on the Wave or catch us pulling some stunt or another, and that’ll be it. If they catch one of us, it probably wouldn’t be too hard to make them talk. Like you said, the zapper’s the least they’ve got.”

“Speaking of that,” Katie said cautiously, shooting him a glance from under her lashes. “What was all that yesterday? With Paperdoll and your brother and Psychonaut? He, like, flipped out. I thought he was going to kill Teddy Sextramp.”

Nick pulled a face. “It’s complicated,” he said slowly. “I don’t know if I should tell you.”

“Come on, I was there,” Katie argued, curious now. “Psychonaut said something about what he’d done being pointless because Paperdoll had let Teddy Sextramp zap her. Come on.” She leaned in to Nick, sensing him weaken. “Please?”

Nick hesitated, then nodded. “Okay, well, the thing is, before we went underground, we were at that big protest against the land reclaims. You know the one?”

“Yeah.” Katie grinned. “A few of us were there too. I think we were behind it being organised too.”

“Cool.” Nick’s smile widened. “Well anyway, you know it went all shit?” At Katie’s nod, he continued. “Well, we got split up, and Paperdoll was caught by an RES officer. And she was taken to the zapper platform, but Psychonaut got there just before they started and made them switch her for him. You know, because of the volunteer thing?  He told them she had heart problems and couldn’t be zapped, and they did it to him instead. Like, twenty shocks or something.”

“Shit.” Katie was surprised despite herself. The number of shocks rarely went above ten.

“Yeah. He was a fucking wreck afterwards, he could barely walk. Took him about a week to get his voice back too. You know, because of the screaming.” He shivered despite the warm weather. “I guess Paperdoll wanted Teddy to zap her because she felt guilty.” He shrugged sadly. “It’s a bit fucked up.”

“That’s really sad,” Katie murmured. “So, they’re properly together then?”

“Yeah.” Nick smiled again. “The only couple since Teddy and Shameless broke up.”

“How come?” Katie asked. She’d always been nosy.

Nick shrugged awkwardly. “He kind of likes Mannequin,” he admitted. “And so does Pink Lady, we think.”

“Really?” Katie sounded almost disgusted, and Nick stared at her.

“You alright?”

“Yeah.” She ran a hand through her hair and sighed. “Just, you know, what is it with blondes and being lesbos?”

Nick raised his eyebrows. “Uh…I didn’t know there was a corro-thingy between them.”

“Correlation,” Katie corrected absently. “I’m not homophobic or anything,” she said defiantly. “It’s just Naomi gets on my nerves sometimes.”

“She got a crush on you or something?” Nick asked.

“No.” Katie shook her head and laughed. “As if! Gross. No, she’s with Emily, my sister. They’re fucking disgusting, you know? Like one of those couples that can’t just save it for the bedroom.”

“Yeah, I know the ones.” Nick looked down. “Me and Pink Lady were a bit like that.”

“Wait, you and her were going out?” Katie raised her eyebrows so high they disappeared under her fringe. “Fucking hell, you lot are like an episode of Hollyoaks or something!”

Nick laughed. “We’re a bit of a mess. Hormones and shit in a confined space, y’know?”

“Yeah.” Katie shook her head and snorted. “Jesus Christ. So why’d you split up?”

Nick pulled a shamed face. “I kind of cheated on her. With Shameless.”

Katie shook her head slowly. “Un-fucking-believable. You guys are all in each other’s pants, aren’t you?”

“Not anymore,” Nick protested. “Like I said, it’s just Psychonaut and Paperdoll now.”

Katie tutted. “You need to get drunk,” she said with a wise nod.

Nick grinned. “Right! That’s what I miss most about being up, you know? Like, parties and clubs and getting totally smashed and not having to worry about curfews or any shit like that.”

“Make up and decent clothes.” Katie sighed. “And just not being constantly on edge. Like, all the fucking time.”

“It’s shit,” Nick agreed wholeheartedly. “Even at home we’re not totally relaxed. We’re always worried, like, at the backs of our minds. Waiting for RES officers to tramp up the hall and find us.” He shuddered.

“Dancing,” Katie said wistfully.

“Decent food.” Nick sighed. “Like proper cooked meals.”

“Boys,” Katie said forcefully.

“Girls.” Nick grinned at her, and she laughed. They held each other’s gaze just a fraction too long and both looked away at the same time, a little flushed.

“Donation spot’s round here,” Nick said.

“Cool.” Katie didn’t look at him and he smiled. The beautiful new arrival was ruffled, and all because he had looked at her with what he liked to think was intent.

After they picked up a couple of canvas bags hidden in some shrubs in some scrubland next to the main road, they went and sat on some swings in an empty children’s park for a rest.

Nick sneaked a look at Katie and tried to figure out how to find out if she was up for some Nick-loving. They didn’t really have the time for the complicated tip-toe dance around each other, and she seemed to be the kind of girl who appreciated honesty, so maybe the best thing to do was just ask? The worst that could happen was rejection, after all. For a moment, Nick wished he had Alo’s happy-go-lucky approach to women. Alo had obviously asked out so many girls and been rejected so many times that he had formed a kind of impenetrable shield of good will around himself. If he was hurt by the constant rejections, it certainly didn’t show.

Be like Farmboy, Nick told himself firmly. Be a man.

“So, boys, huh?” He looked at her and raged inwardly at himself for not coming up with something better.

Katie looked like she was thinking something along the same lines, because the look she gave him was sceptically amused. “Well I’m not after girls, if that’s what you mean.”

“It’s not,” Nick assured her and swung on his swing slightly. “Just…well, I think you’re gorgeous,” he said bluntly, mentally appalled with himself. Well at least he hadn’t said shaggable, he reasoned hysterically.

“You’re not too bad yourself.” Katie shrugged easily. “But you know a relationship would never actually work, right? Because after I leave we’ll probably never see each other again?”

“Yeah, I know.” Nick looked over at her. “But maybe while you’re here, we could…you know.”

Katie looked him up and down appraisingly, and Nick suppressed the urge to curl in on himself like he was naked under her gaze. “Yeah, alright then,” she said, sounding casual but betrayed by the flattered smile hanging around her lips. Nick saw it and grinned.

“Cool.” He leaned closer, and she moved in a little, and they closed the last part together and kissed gently.

“Can I talk to you for a second?”

Mini looked up from the table in the ops room to see Katie standing in the doorway. “Um, sure,” she said, surprised. “You want to come in?”

“Yeah.” Katie shut the door behind her and sat down. Mini felt herself tense as she noticed how good Katie’s legs were, but forced herself to look away. “So, I have two things to ask you,” she said, tossing her shiny red hair over her shoulder in a move she had obviously perfected over the years. “One, what do you think about investing in fancy dress? And two, how do you feel about Captain?”

Mini stared at her. “Uh, what? What does Captain have to do with anything?”

“He told me you two used to go out,” Katie said unconcernedly. “And I was wondering how you felt about him. Like, do you still fancy him?”

“No!” Mini pulled a repulsed face. “God, no.”

“Good.” Katie smiled with a tilt of her head. “So, what do you think about fancy dress?”

“Oh my god, please tell me that isn’t related to Captain in any way.” Mini held up her hands.

“Uh, no.” Katie snorted. “No, it’s about all of you. When you go out to do your shit, like collecting these donations and doing the graffiti and stuff, you’re not careful enough. When the cameras spread, they’ll see you and that’ll be the end of it. So you should wear wigs and shit, and sunglasses.”

Mini nodded slowly. “That’s actually a pretty good idea.”

“I know.” Katie smirked. “I’m like a genius or whatever.” She stood up. “So we’re cool, yeah, babe?”

“Yeah.” Mini looked up at her, still surprised, and watched as Katie flounced out. College would have been a nightmare, she thought, if she and Katie had been in the same year. There would have been blood, she knew it. And she knew Katie knew it too. Either that, or they would have been ‘besties’ and ruled the school together. Before turning on one another and ripping each other to shreds.

And now it seemed Katie was going after Nick. Or Nick was going after her, it didn’t matter either way. They wouldn’t look as good together as she and Nick had, Mini thought haughtily. Or would they? Did it even matter? She didn’t care after all. Strange, really. She had been so in love with him.

Had she been in love with him? She’d thought of him all the time, that was true, and she had enjoyed being with him. He elevated her status, being captain of the rugby team and good-looking to boot. He was also cute, and funny, and he had cared, in a way. But she had avoided him too, she knew. Whenever Nick’s thoughts turned to sex, Mini had fled, making up ever more elaborate and ridiculous excuses.

She had never really loved him, she thought sadly. She had just gone through the motions so convincingly she had almost convinced herself. But she hadn’t been able to convince Liv, she remembered. Liv had always seemed like she was holding back an eye roll or a disbelieving smirk whenever she gushed about Nick, and then she had slept with him, like that proved that their relationship wasn’t anything special and it wasn’t true love at all.

And she still had no idea how she felt about Franky. Mini minimised their music folders and opened the photograph folders on the laptop in front of her, scrolling through them until she found some of Franky to look at. She stared at the frozen faces on the screen and rubbed her nails against the pads of her thumbs. What would Franky do if she touched her face? Ran her fingers through her hair? Kissed her? There was a sudden bang from the T and Mini jumped and closed the window.

“Fucking hell.” She ran her hands through her hair and grimaced at the greasy feel to it, refusing to acknowledge what she had just been doing. She needed to shower. She just hoped Katie hadn’t used all the shampoo - the girl’s hair had obviously been washed that morning. They hadn’t told her about the unofficial rule about only showering when you really needed to, and Mini certainly wasn’t going to clue her in. It would only make them all look like skanky, unwashed freaks, and she wasn’t going to let Katie go back to her RM friends and laugh about them, holed up in their bunker and begging for supplies from the ordinary citizens.

Grace frowned as Mini went downstairs, not looking at Franky, who looked confused and a little bit hurt. Mini had been acting strangely all day, removed and cold from Franky in particular, which was weird because they had become such good friends, or so Grace thought.

“I’m going to have a shower,” Franky said shortly, walking out of the T through the rarely-used side door.

“What the fuck?” Alo said bluntly, voicing everyone’s thoughts.

“They’re not always like that, are they?” Katie asked from her place on the sofa, her legs draped over Nick’s lap. Nick looked unbearably smug.

“No.” Grace shook her head unhappily. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”

“PMS?” Matty suggested.

“Why do boys always assume that’s the answer if a girl’s a bit down?” Liv rolled her eyes. “It’s obvious, you twats. Pink Lady’s got the hots for Mannequin and she’s having an identity crisis.”

“I thought it was just a little crush.” Nick raised his eyebrows. “She’s not actually gay, is she?”

Liv shrugged. “Who cares?”

“I think they’d be cute together.” Grace smiled, imagining it. Alo closed his eyes, obviously committing some imagined scenario to memory for later. A dreamy smile stole over his face and everyone pulled faces.

“Fucksake, Farmboy.” Rich leaned over and smacked the back of his head. “Could you be more obvious, you massive cunt?”

“Shut up!” Alo flapped his hand at him. “I’m concentrating.”

“That’s disgusting.” Katie shook her head with a snort and looked at Liv. “Is Mannequin a lezzer then?”

“She told me she just likes people.” Grace shrugged. “So maybe she’s bi?”

“Again,” Liv stood up and straightened her dress. “Who gives a shit? Emotions and shit like that were meant to go on the back burner remember? They’re being hypocrites.”

“I don’t think Mannequin is,” Rich argued. “Pink Lady’s the one with the problem.”

“Hm.” Liv rolled her head on her neck. “I’m going to the kitchen. Anyone want anything?”

“We got any crisps?” Alo asked, snapping out of his reverie.

“I think so.” Liv nodded, going down the stairs. “I’ll bring them up in a minute.”

“Cool.” He sank back into blissful fantasies and Rich threw a cushion at him.

“Pink Lady?” Liv knocked on Mini’s door. “Oi, Mins, let me in.”

“Fuck off.”

“Suit yourself.” Liv shrugged and opened the door anyway. Mini looked up from her mattress and scowled.

“I said fuck off!”

“And I don’t care.” Liv sat down next to her and raised an eyebrow. “Look, can you calm the fuck down and stop being such a dick about Mannequin, yeah? Because now everyone’s talking about it and everyone knows you like her.”

“I don’t like her!” Mini hissed furiously. “She’s a skinny spakko freak with stupid hair and shitty clothes and, I don’t like her!”

Liv snorted and relaxed on the mattress, kicking her shoes off and pulling her feet up. “Whatever, Mins. I’ve seen the way you look at her.”

“I don’t look at her!”

“Oh stop being such a bullshitter!” Liv snapped. “You’re only making her miserable, you idiot, and that’s not going to help you at all.”

“I don’t need help for anything!” Mini protested, and Liv rolled her eyes and sat up, looking her seriously in the eye.

“Look, Mini-moo. No one cares. No one gives a genuine shit what you are. You could be a lesbian, bi, straight or, I don’t know, whatever the other ones are, pansexual or whatever, and it wouldn’t matter because you’re still Mini. You’re still the Scottish Bitch and you’re still Pink Lady, and we’ll love you no matter what, okay?” She grabbed Mini’s hand and waited until Mini looked up at her. “Okay?”

“Okay,” Mini said in a small voice, and Liv smiled.

“Good. Quick hint though - you’d better get a move on if you want to get with Franks though, because she’s been checking Matty out.” She was feeling mostly okay with that situation now, she realised. That was quite nice. Still, she’d prefer Franky to go out with Mini than Matty any day.

“I don’t know what I want,” Mini admitted.

“Well I think you want her,” Liv said. “You keep looking at her, Mini. It’s dead obvious. Stop trying to be so normal and just let whatever you’re feeling flow. Go with it, you know? Live a little.” They both smiled at the pun. “But if you decide you really want Mannequin, you’ve got to make her see you as a romantic option. Not just a friend, okay? And say sorry for being such a cold bitch today too, that wouldn’t hurt.”

“I wasn’t being a cold bitch,” Mini protested weakly. At Liv’s raised eyebrow, she looked away and bit her lip. “Okay, maybe I was a little bit.”

“Just a little bit, yeah.” Liv snorted. “Come on, Pinky-poo. Let’s get some crisps and play some cards or something with the others.”

Mini paused and looked at her for a second before grabbing her and giving her a hug. “I’ve missed us,” She admitted quietly, and Liv smiled, hugging her back.

“Me too. Come on, slag.”

“Bitch.”

“Whore.”

“Trollop.”

Mannequin, hi. We were wondering if you might be up for something a little more dangerous than attacking the zapper platform?

What did you have in mind?

The BRB.

You mean the Bristol Regime Building?

Yes. How would you feel about the BDN breaking in and stealing a load of their secret documents?

Sounds like fun. Can I ask you a question?

Sure.

It’s a bit personal.

Go ahead.

Did you and Emily get on well before you started going out? Were you friends?

Not really. Katie hated me, still does a bit. I was a bit in denial for a while, but we’re good now. :) Why?

It doesn’t matter.

Okay. Talk to your guys about the BRB, get back to me.

Will do. Speak later.

Later.

Part 10

Diagrams for the bunker and tunnels are here.