“Are you honestly that stupid?” I kicked the wall. “Are you that stupid to still believe that your father and cousins are good people?”
“They are,” her words held childlike wonder.
My head snapped to the side, looking at her awestruck face through the dark waves of hair around my shoulders.
“Sloane?” she whispered.
“What did you think, Hazel?” I barked, using my legs to push my back against the wall, I slid upwards into a standing position. “Tell me, are you really that naïve?”
“You can’t be one of those…things.” She shook her head, still kneeling in front of my cell.
“Hazel!” I screamed loudly. “Open your eyes. This isn’t kindergarten anymore, this is serious. Open these damn cells and let us out!”
“Sloane, I shouldn’t,” she whimpered, looking sideways.
“Hazel, look at me.” Her head slowly turned forward, looking at me once again with hesitant eyes. “None of us are going to hurt you. We want-no, we need to get back to our families. You remember Rush? He’s my mate, my ‘husband.’ He doesn’t know where I am. He’s probably worried sick. He has never hurt me in any way. He loves me. I need to get back to him.”
“Sloane.” Her brown eyes filled with tears. “I can’t.”
“I’m not asking!” My voice grew louder. The door down the hallway opened. “Open the door. Now Hazel!”
Three sets of footsteps quickly approached, grabbing Hazel’s arm, and pulling her upright.
“You know this one?” a short, stout guard asked her, holding her arm tightly.
Hazel nodded her lower lip wobbling. “She’s my friend.”
“These animals are not our friends, Hazel,” he scolded, tugging on her arm harshly. He pulled Hazel down the hall and out of the cellblock, her tray of food forgotten on the ground behind her. The thin human man from earlier remained behind, squinting into my cell.
“What is your name?”
“Luna,” I hissed.
“That’s your name?” He huffed.
“That’s what you can call me.”
“Fine,” he snarled. “Luna?”
A chorus of other women in their cells shouted, “Yes?” The guard looked to the side in confusion.
“You all can’t be name Luna.” He shook his head.
The other guard, a taller, broader man, shoved the thin one’s shoulder. “That’s what they call their head female.”
“What is your real name?” His voice was sharper.
“I said you may call me Luna.”
“I’ll call you bitch before I ever call you Luna,” he spat, a thick glob of spit splattering next to the bars of my cell.
“Well, they’re both accurate,” I smirked. “So, take your pick.”
The guard stepped forward, wrapping his meaty fingers around the bars. “How do you know, Hazel?”
“We’re best friends,” I smiled sarcastically. “We have sleepovers and paint each other’s toes.”
His hand reached through the bars, and before I could step back, his hand was gripping my throat.
“I expect a serious answer this time.”
“I met her in town,” I choked out. “We became friends. Started talking about a way to prevent the war.”
“You don’t talk to her anymore,” he warned, releasing my throat.
“Yes, sir.” I glared.
The men left, and I fell sadly onto the floor behind me. After two more days with only a small drink of water, the hysterics began to set in amongst us. The other Lunas started shouting, crying, and hitting themselves against the walls.
I stared at the same spot outside my cell where the human man had spit, leaving a small, lopsided stain on the concrete floors. After three days of pulling, I was able to slip one of my arms out of the metal brackets that encased my wrists.
Hazel returned with a tray of bananas and small cups of water. She set them down gently inside of the cells. I didn’t look at her when she came to mine, although her eyes never left my face. I was the last one in the row, and she set the tray down after she placed mine inside.
“Sloane, please look at me,” she pleaded. My head lazily tipped upward. I glared. “Sloane, I don’t know what to do.”
“Unlock the damn doors.” My voice was scratchy and weak, jutting out from chapped lips.
“Sloane,” she begged.
“Either unlock the doors or leave me alone.”
“It’s not that easy,” she fought.
I lurched forward as she spoke, reaching through the silver bars, and grabbing her arm. There was a burning on either side of my arm where the silver touched, but between the ache in my stomach, the pain in my arms and wrists, and the delirium of thirst and hunger, it seemed like a small issue. I pulled her roughly forward, her forehead smacked the metal.
She moaned as the skin on her forehead split in the middle. I kept my face close to hers.
“Hazel, listen to me. I am getting out of here today. Today. I will kill you myself if I have to. I don’t care. You will reach into your back pocket where I know you keep those keys, and you will hand them to me. If you don’t, I will rip your throat out with my other hand, and I will reach into your pocket and retrieve the keys myself.”
Her eyes were staunch and wide, breathing uneasy, face paling quickly. She reached back slowly and grabbed the ring of keys from her pocket. She held them out to me, and I greedily snatched them from her shaking hands.
As I fumbled with the keys, Hazel belted out a scream that sent four guards launching into the cell block.
In my dehydrated haze, I didn’t notice the guards approaching, and I continued to look through the keys. The brawny guard reached into the cell, grabbed the keys from my hand, and pushed my head back. I growled and reached for them again, but another guard shoved a long metal pole through the gaps in the bars and touched me with the rod.
An electric shock jolted up from my leg. My body fell quickly and rigidly onto the ground. My head smacked the concrete, and I was left lying on my back. There was nothing
