Morning brought light, blazing life into the land. Clair awoke peacefully, having settled after her course of nightmares last night, although in the back of her mind, doubt gnawed at her. She dressed herself and yawned slightly, she had slept badly. Alex had been at the forefront of her thoughts the entire night.

It was as if some dark omen covered the slum house that they were hiding in, the news of Alex's capture had been a low blow to them all. Axel made his excuses and left early, muttering about needing to find some do-hickey or something like that. Sash was in a particularly cold mood, although she had at least had the good grace too lock herself in her room, which was typical of her sometimes. She had found coming to the Belt a big culture shock and was still adapting, and Alex had been her earliest friend, so she was taking his absence the hardest.

She absent-mindedly flicked the switch on the kettle, before she flopped herself down on the sofa-come-bed. She rummaged around in the sheets until she found the small, glossy remote, she turned the battered Television set on and began rapidly channel surfing, not really paying attention, just keeping her mind and fingers occupied, the Digital feed had been hacked in from New Domino, which gave them about 10,000 channels, if not more, although there was only 3 they used a lot, News, Turbo-Duelling and Movies, she deftly pushed the NEWS button, and the Presenter flashed onto the screen.

"… at the Scene of an amazing new story, occurring to our sources in the Security Forces, a Mass breakout was attempted at the Maximum Security Prison here at the Belts"

Clair felt her heart flutter slightly, her breathing quickened, that was where Axel said they'd taken Alex .. did he..?

"Regretfully there were several casualties on both the sides of the In-mates and the securities, although no exact figure is known, estimates of about 46 in-mate casualties inside of the prison and 1 outside of the prison, although 3 still remain at large." Clair held her breath, would Alex be among them, she watched carefully as three mug-shots appeared on the screen, and Alex's wasn't one of them. Then the screen suddenly changed before she had a chance to release her pent-up emotions, it showed a man in a brown suit inside of a helicopter, they were hovering over a gorge of some-kind.

"This is Peter Jennings with breaking news, a Duel-Runner has been discovered outside of the Centre, inside of the gorge we are now over"

As the camera began to zoom in towards the faint shapes on the ground, several thins happened at once: Firstly Axel and Sash came through the door, Axel was carrying a tray of 3 mugs of tea and Sash trailed behind him grumpily, Secondly the Pair of them stared at the TV screen, and Thirdly all three of them recognised the runner, and the person lying next to it.

The was a sudden crash! as both tea and tray smashed to the floor Axel stood their, his hands shakking, Clair felt tears suddenly spring from her eyes like a sudden rainstorm, she clutched at her heart as she felt is suddenly stop and Sash fainted dead away, Alex lay their, his pale blue hair moving in the wind, his face the pallor of snow, and in his hand grasped tightly around something, oblivious to everything that had occurred, there he lay … dead.

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Yes I know this is short, but the next one will A – be much longer and B – be MUCH better, P.S the Duel last time was crap, YES I KNOW!