They had to be there for a few hours. The sun was starting to push over the horizon when it became apparent they should seek other accommodations so security wouldn’t be coming around to chase them off.

Iris’s legs shook as she got up and leaned against the fence. The ground felt very very far away and very close all at the same time as she leaned her head against her arm in an attempt to stabilize herself. She had drunk a lot. With some effort she managed to find the vodka bottle mostly empty in Levi’s hand. He didn’t look too good either.

Shit, they’d taken it too far.

She pulled in a breath, wishing it was cold out. But it was still warm and humid.

Could she just pass out here? She wondered.

John gently put a hand on her arm to pull her attention to him.

“Hm?” she asked.

“Your phone is ringing,” he said, pointing to her purse.

She came to a bit at the notion. Her legs shook but she crouched down and fumbled to get it out. John went over to Levi to rub his back as the poor kid was holding back the whirlpool of nausea.

The text blurred in and out of focus but she had seen enough of these in her time to know what it said.

“Fuck,” she managed and dropped her weight back against the fence, rattling the chain link.

Jaz got up and looked over her shoulder. She grabbed her own phone and checked an identical message that’d been sent to her.

“Fuck,” she agreed.

They looked at Levi who had stumbled his weight to the fence and leaned against it at a steep angle.

“We gotta get back quick,” Iris said. But Levi just heaved a few times.

John rubbed his back comfortingly as he did so and looked back at the girls with a concerned expression.

“Do you guys need a ride?” he asked.

Levi shook his head vigorously.

“We’ve got twenty minutes, Levi,” Iris explained. “They want… us there in twenty.” Her brain was still instinctively changing their normal dialect to be civvie-safe. She hoped Levi understood that what she meant was, our company’s been hit for a random inspection and if we aren’t there in twenty minutes we’re all gonna be shit on for a month.

Levi stared at the ground, drool creeping from his lips as his body fought intensely against whatever toxic waste they’d consumed that night.

“I’ll drive you guys,” John decided. “You just have to give me some directions.”

Jaz and Iris looked at each other. Then Levi threw up a reeking mess of alcohol and bile.

“We’ll take you up on that,” Iris decided as Levi wasn’t in any state to be rushing through the dim streets of the city.

John nodded and made a gesture to his car.

Iris grabbed the vodka bottle off the ground along with her purse and hurried to help support Levi. Jaz did the same on his other side and they brought him out of the fenced area through the gate John had parked outside of.

“We’re gonna get caught,” Levi moaned. “We can’t…” he trailed off as his body heaved again and they had to pause for the convulsions to pass.

“You’re not well enough to make that journey back,” Jaz explained. “We’ll stop before we get too close.”

John looked back as he held up his keys, standing outside of a small coupe that looked too expensive and too fancy for an eighteen-year-old to own.

But then again, the understanding they had of how civvies worked was limited. Outside of the cold, purely functional walls of the facility they could very easily get lost. That was why the higher ups didn’t stop them from free-roaming like this. It was better for them to get into trouble to understand the world than to wait until something disastrous happened.

Iris rode shotgun, somehow being a bit more together than anybody else in their group. She guided John through the city, and they stopped finally at a road that turned off into the woods surrounding the densely populated areas. With a glance back, she saw Levi half-awake, still looking pretty pale and Jaz with her eyes closed, leaning back against the headrest.A glance at the clock revealed they had a whole six minutes to get inside and ready for inspection.

She stole a final look behind her where the others weren’t paying attention.

“It’s down this road,” she said quietly. “Just follow itf to the end.”

John nodded. He was quiet, as if he instinctively knew he wasn’t supposed to be aware this road existed, let alone drive down it for any reason at all. Halfway down, there was a small loop off the side for people to turn around in, followed by two large, ‘no entry’ signs.

“Keep going?” John asked as he approached.

“Yeah. All the way to the end, ignore the signs,” Iris assured him.

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye.

Several meters later there was another set of signs that read, in big black letters against the red background ‘NO ENTRY WITHOUT PERMIT. VIOLATORS WILL BE PROSECUTED.’

John slowed here, because a large road-barrier hung in the way next to a card reader.

With another glance behind her, the others were still not paying attention so she quietly dug into her purse, pulling the bottom panel up and retrieving the ID there. It was a strange thing. A shiny grey, with matte black lettering and her image.

John didn’t look at it as he took it from her and waved it at the reader.

Iris winced, seeing him reach his upper torso out in front of the camera. It wasn’t like anybody would check though. Not unless there was a good reason, too. So they’d be fine.

Still… the rush of breaking some of the fundamental rules of this life left a surge of adrenaline in its wake and her stomach felt sick from more than just too-much-alcohol.

The barrier raised, and John continued driving, casually handing Iris her ID back. She slid it back into the false-bottom of her purse. Nobody would be any the wiser it had ever seen the light of day in front of a civvie.

Her fingers trembled as John pulled in front of the main building swinging his car around for an easy pull-out later.

Iris nudged Jaz awake and she helped her drag Levi out of the back of the vehicle. They gave John a wave and he drove off.

“Iris…” Jaz said.

“Shush,” Irish stopped her before she could start. “He doesn’t understand what’s going on. So there’s no need to worry about it.”

Levi grumbled about his head and they assisted him to his quarters. The single person apartment was almost spotless. Iris grabbed his few makeup things he’d left out and put them neatly in his bathroom’s mirror-cabinet before pushing him into the shower and started the cold water.

Jaz glanced anxiously at her phone clock.

“You can go,” Iris told her. “I’ll get him up.”

“Are you sure?” Jaz asked.

She nodded. “My room’s inspection-ready.” Levi was already awake now, and starting to struggle against her to get away from the cold.

“Thanks,” Jaz said and split from them.

Levi sat up in the cold water.

“Ooooh,” he groaned.

“You’ve got two minutes to be inspection ready,” Iris told him.

He got his feet underneath him. He leaned against the wall of the shower as his legs wobbled, but he nodded. “I’ll be good,” he said. He turned the water off. He looked pale still, and was now soggy, but he was awake and they all knew how to clean themselves up quick for this kind of thing. The superiors wouldn’t give them a hard time for wet hair, but wet clothes was another story.

Iris grabbed him a change and set it on the bathroom counter while he rubbed the sweat off his face with a towel.

“I’m gonna go,” Iris told him. “Don’t fall asleep.”

“I won’t,” he promised,” sounding very awake now.

She rushed down the hall to her own room, heeled out of her boots, straightened the laces and set them next to her door, according to protocol and ran her fingers through her hair just a few more times before straightening the sheets out from where she’d sat on them earlier.

The door opened and she snapped into attention, as per protocol as the superiors came in.

She passed the inspection. They all did, but it was a close call.