The outside world was arctic and overly acidic, despite the fact I wore heavy gloves and a thick jacket. Piles of snow built around large chain link fences, and nothing but glittering white could be seen for miles onward. I realized that if I tried to escape, my tracks would be left for the Manticore guards to spot and follow; I would definitely need more training to elude the soldiers, which disappointed me.

I stood with my small group of blank faced X10 comrades who seemed oblivious to the cold, while I shivered with chattering teeth as Alec gave us directions. Eventually, when I began rubbing furiously at my arms and stomping my feet to get warmer, he turned quickly towards me and asked if I needed to use the bathroom. Naturally, none of the brainwashed X10s understood the joke, but I could have slapped him upside the head nonetheless.

"All right, guys," Alec said, glancing behind him as another group of children soldiers marched past, "here's the deal: You have direct orders from command to work in a large pit to dig out the main base for the new Manticore building. All you have to do is dig. There should be shovels already in the dirt or around the pit. Nobody rests until we're done with our assignment. We got the far north north east corner. Any questions?"

"Yeah, what if we freeze to death?" I asked, pausing from blowing hot air into my gloves.

"Freeze to death, sir," he corrected me.

"What if we freeze to death, sir?" I shot back with an angry glare.

"Hold on, 415…The rest of you guys can head on down to the site and get to work. I'll be there in a minute to keep an eye on you. Soldiers…Ah-ttention. Right face. Forward march 72 paces," he ordered, and obediently, the other X10s began moving away from Alec and I. Once they were out of listening rage, he leaned in close to me, clutching the collar of my jacket and held up a warning finger. "You got one shot at this, got it? You screw this one up, it's right back to psyops, and you'll have the laser through your eye, and they'll brainwash you until you can't tell your head from your ass. This is the best shot at freedom you got, and they won't give you another. Trust me, there." His breath was coming out in warm clouds of steam, and it appeared, for a brief moment, that he actually seemed to care about me. Yet, I had been inside Manticore long enough to know not to jump into the closest person's arms. "Do you understand me, Alanza? Don't. Screw. This. Up."

"Sure, I understand. Besides," I shrugged, "how could I get in trouble while doing such shit labor?" Then, quickly, without waiting for direction from him, I followed my colleagues' footprints to the dig site.

There, I found a pit that was so enormously huge that our entire apartment building back in Seattle could have fit into it with room left over. Hundreds of gray suited soldiers were down in the dark dirt, digging with rapid action. Around the border, older X5s watched their units intently, checking to make sure that no mistakes were being made, while feral X7s marched with stupid pride.

I grabbed a miscellaneous shovel that was lying on the snow covered ground and slid down the embankment of the pit, which was approximately ten to fifteen feet high at the time being, and went to join the remainder of my group. Figuring that if I appeared to be working, I could plan my escape then and slip off while the rest of the X10s were working like chipmunks prepping for winter. I blew some hot air into my hands and positioned the shovel under a clod of dirt and began to reluctantly dig, silently cursing to myself at the idiocy of the task we were doing.

Just as I had gotten a fairly good-sized chunk of dirt out of the way, I heard a low whisper to my left: "Alanza, is that you?" Freezing so rapidly that the shovel became entangled in my paralyzed fingers, I turned in the direction of the voice, fearing that I had finally gone psychotic and was now schizophrenic.

But, when I turned, to my utmost shock and pleasure, I saw not a mental thief or a soldier who was playing fiendish tricks; I saw Case.

He was dressed in the same type of uniform I was, with his dark hair shaved to the identical type of military cut. His face was smeared with dirt, while fingers that bore no gloves were tinged blue with the stark coldness. Heavy black circles were encrusted under his eyes, and the skin sagged off of his skinny, malnourished cheeks. Yet, what disgusted me the most was that his eyes that I once remembered being so vivid and dark, were now pale and bland, killed by the Manticorians…Monsters.

"It's me, Case," I whispered, trying not to cry. After so long I had found him, and I was no longer alone.

"It is you…I thought it was, but I couldn't be sure," he said, giving me a sad smile. Just as he was about to speak, an older stocky X5 pointed a thick finger down at us and told us to get back to work. Hesitantly, we began to prod the dirt once again, while continuing to talk in low murmurs out of the corners of our mouths.

"Where have you been?" I asked.

"Wyoming. Here. All around, I guess. Got shipped out with the convoy of X10s from three days ago."

"Me too." Pausing, I glanced up at the vulture like guards who weren't paying any attention to us, then back to Case. "Have you seen Max? Mom? Dad? Anybody?"

"I saw Zack back in Wyoming. He was just coming out of psyops and had the face of a damned madman. He had blood in the palms of his hands because he had made such tight fists to fight, and more coming out of his mouth where he had bit down on his lip. Lydecker was pissing and fuming that 'X5-599 won't say anything'. I was being taken back to my cell and couldn't even stop to say hi, and have a nice cup of coffee," he laughed cynically.

"You got a cell. How nice. I was kept under bonds for an entire week."

Case grimaced to the dirt. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be…Have you seen James?"

"No, I haven't. After our ambush, I haven't seen anybody but Zack, like I said."

"Not even Max?"

"Not even Max," he repeated solemnly.

There was a lull in the conversation as we both held back the hugs and the tears that we wanted to give and let go of. All I wanted to do was tell him that he had been warning me for this day all along, and I now regretted not listening to his words of wisdom.

"Why do they do this to us?" I asked, glancing up at the gray sky, smeared with black smoke.

"What? Make us work out in the bitter cold?"

"Yeah."

"Discipline. Soldiers can't march without it, after all. How else do you get slaves to do you bidding? Discipline them and put them through hard labor."

"We're the only ones who feel the cold, you realize that, don't you?"

"Of course. That's why Manticore can get away with doing this. The others are far too brainwashed to feel anything. They don't hate, they don't cry, they wouldn't even breathe had they not had direct orders to do so. It's what years of stupidity does to a person-in or out of a cell."

"This is asinine," I mumbled, shaking my bald head.

"I know," Case whispered as he blew hot air into his trembling fingers. Seeing how cold he was, I pulled off my gloves and handed them to him.

"Here."

"Alanza, no, I-"

"Case, take them. Please."

Reluctantly, he did so and gently slipped the cheap acrylic gloves over his numbed fingers. "Thanks," he smiled.

"No problem."

"Look, Alanza," he began in such a low voice that I had to strain to hear him over the clinking of the shovels, "things aren't looking good down at my end of the hall."

"What do you mean?"

"People are disappearing-and not coming back. I hear screams in the middle of the night. Horror movie type screams right outside my door, and when I march out in the morning, there's blood there."

"What do you want me to do?" I asked, feeling an instinctive chill vibrate up my spine.

"Be ready for battle."