Chapter Three
Part One: Moments Before
Dart returned to her Living Quarters once her tasks were done. When she entered the building, she found Fives scrubbing the walls and Quill with a mop, handling the floor. Quill aggressively mopped away all of the muddy shoe prints, as her mauve hair bounced with each motion. They both looked up at their team leader.
“You’re done with your maintenance check already?!” Cried out Fives, shocked to see her returning so soon.
“Yeah. I am.” Dart was still unsettled by the disembodied voice she heard moments before, but she was positive it was in her head. What else could it be?
Quill dropped her mop and sat down on the dry part of the floor, and crossed her legs. She always wears her pink hoodie tied around her waist, so she didn’t want to get it wet.
“I can’t believe we’ve been reduced to just doing handy work… just because we've failed one to many tests.” She Frowned.
The two were exhausted from cleaning the entire hallway of the Living quarters. Dart leaned against the wall, and pulled out a device, like a phone. It was a thin screen of glass, called a Slate. With each tap, her Slate emitted a beep. Fives slowed his cleaning and pouted. He looked longingly at the floor.
“Our Batch’s performance is probably the worst in the whole Enclosure! No doubt!” He cried out.
“What will happen to us?” Asked Quill with a depressed tone. She looked down dejectedly as her turquoise eyes glistened.
Dart quickly shut off her Slate and faced her team. She exhaled heavily. “Listen you two. Nothing will happen. We’ll be just fine.” She stated, trying to ease her team's discomfort, but quite honestly she wasn’t sure they would be, herself.
“Are you sure Dart?” Fives slumped over. “You heard Intrinsic Dahlis… he said our team was a defect.”
“At this rate we’ll never become Abyssus units. Which means-” Fives eyes trailed off a bit- “We’ll never be able to leave the Enclosure, and I’ll never be able to see the rest of the other world.”
Quill nodded her head. “We work well together, yet we’ve never achieved anything. Sometimes... I feel like dead weight.”
Dart cleared her throat. There was a long pause. Dart had that same thought the day they were told about their failure, but she also knew something. That even if they did achieve something; the Intrinsic wouldn’t view them any differently.
“We were born to fulfill a single purpose in this world... and I will make sure we will fulfill it.” She gave her teammates a smile. “So, don’t worry!”
Fives and Quill exchanged looks and then they both looked at their teammate. Quill sighed and leaned back, while sitting. Seeing Dart's initial frustration at their failure before, really made her feel she could’ve done better. That she was dragging the team down. But the confidence in Dart’s voice now, was just enough to take the weight off her chest a bit. Quill faintly smiled.
“Okay I’ll try not to, Dart.” She claimed. Fives on the other hand, returned to scrubbing the walls. “Fine, fine.” He mumbled.
Dart chuckled to herself. “Hey I said don’t worry, Fives-” She pumped her arms up and flexed them- “Your fear of heights won’t even be enough to hold us back.” She mocked with a smirk.
He quickly looked at her, and she shot him a playful wink. Quill covered her mouth to hide her laugh, but it wasn’t concealed by much.
Fives turned away, all flustered. “Hey! I’m not afraid of heights! I just hate them! That’s all!” He cried out as he frantically began to scrub.
Just then, out of the blue, the doors to the Building bursted open with a loud bang. Dart, Fives and Quill all stopped what they were doing to turn and see what the commotion was for. About 10 people, armed with either guns or holding a pair of giant hooked weapons, stormed in. They all wore bullet proof vest with the Symbol of the Human Restoration Project. It was a squad of Abyssus Units.
A guy with bleach white hair, and freckles, glanced over at the three, who were just standing in the hall.
“You three units!” He called out. Fives stared upon the guy in complete awe. Quill hopped up off of the floor in a panic and stood at attention.
“Look! It’s the guy from yesterday! Awhh cool he’s an Abyssus Unit!” He exclaimed as he pointed.
Quill quickly pulled his arm down. “Stop! Pointing is rude, idiot!”
Dart remembered him. His name was Maze, although when she met him it was after they failed the perseverance test, so other than his name, she knew nothing. Maze stepped towards the three children with an urgent look on his face.
“Leave the premises at once-” He ran his finger across his throat as though he was slicing it- “This location is now an Official Rift site! You need to go. Now.”
Fives and Quills exchanged looks. They weren’t quite sure of what the warning meant. Dart was just as confused but she bounced back quickly.
“Maze, what do you mean an Official Rift site? Here? In our housing building?” Asked Dart.
“Yes-“ however Maze paused. He recognized Dart, he recalled that burning glare in her eye. “Ngh! I-it’s you three! Batch:26A! You guys need to get out of here.”
Although, deep down he was happy to see nothing bad happened to them between yesterday and today.
Meanwhile, his Abyssus squad began frantically unpacking weapons and ammo in the background. Some started knocking on doors of people’s Living quarters to get them out of the area.
Quill pushed her fingers together awkwardly. “By, “leave the premises...”where are we supposed to go??”
Maze ran his fingers through his porcelain colored hair. “Just get as far away from here as possible. Trust me you don’t want to see an Abyssiti.”
Dart nodded her head, after everything else that occurred today she wanted no part in this. Then one of his team members tapped him on his shoulder. Maze turned around and nodded his head, letting him know he was ready to listen. “We have 10 minutes before the rift opens, 392-I.” Informed the soldier.
He could feel his heart begin to pound. His hand began to shake profusely. With the final time inching closer and closer, Maze could feel himself losing confidence. Maze desperately turned to Batch:26A.
”You need to leave.”
