[Radioactive, Imagine Dragons]
The air feels strangely warm and smoky, like it's full of ash and dust and rust, and Gilbert finds himself regularly wiping the sweat from his brow and breathing heavily.
The prisoners file, surprisingly orderly for a series of delinquents, onto the prison buses, some manual labourers with licences to drive large vehicles, from vans to cranes, taking the drivers' seats. Gilbert hands out weapons, starting with the guards' guns, then hopping about the space-time continuum when he runs out. As much as the vortex fucks with your head, it's addictive.
Staring out the window, Gilbert realises why the air feels so strange; the sun isn't as bright as it should be. It seems dimmer and slightly darker in colour, painting their orange jumpsuits red. As he falls asleep, the hopping and riling making him incredibly tired, Gilbert wonders if the strange sun has something to do with those paradoxes Braginski and Birdie were on about.
[ABC cafe/Red and Black, Les Miserables]
Matthias cradles his lager, thoroughly impressed by his friend. As feisty as he knows she is, he never expected her to be this good at speaking.
There she stands on the bar, not a pàlinka in her, not a fear in her, as she speaks; "The time is near, so near it's stirring the blood in our veins! From Ukraine to Hong Kong, Scotland to Australia, the world is fighting, the world is rioting, the world is not taking this shit anymore! It's times we joined our cousins across the world, it's time we fought back against the system, the system that is supposed to be protecting us and keeping us safe, but is hurting us instead! The system that is taking away our loved ones to fill up their prisons!"
She continues to yelling her meaning, and Matthias downs that last of his drink, Raivis instantly swapping in a refill for him.
"Raivis, what's wrong?" Matthias asks the pale-faced man, "You look as if you've seen a ghost!"
"A ghost you say? A ghost maybe," Raivis says, "She was just like a ghost to me. One minute there, and she was gone!"
"I am agog! I am aghast! Is little Raivis in love at last?"
"No," Raivis answers, "She literally vanished. This blonde woman in a red dress walking around, looking about like she was observing something, and I was starting to worry she was some sort of inspector when she looked at her watch and vanished."
"So she was late for something?" Matthias asks, confused.
"No, she literally vanished. Into thin air. She touched her watch, and literally vanished. No doors. No moving. Vanished. Poof. Gone. Vanished."
"I think that wine's gone to your head," Matthias says, turning his attention back to Elizabeta.
"We need a sign," she says, partly to herself, partly to the room, "To rally the people."
"Like what?" Matthias asks, his sudden loudness making most of the room jump.
"Now that, I don't know," Elizabeta answers pathetically.
"How about that?" a woman, blond, in a red dress, with a soft voice heavy in it's Canadian accent, asks, pointing to the television exactly, perfectly timed, as the "Breaking news" slide appears.
"Prison breakout" reads the headline, and a shot filmed from a helicopter shows a series of red-clad prisoners causing havoc just a few miles from Gilbert's prison facility. Gilbert is there, and for a few seconds Elizabeta vaguely remembers Gilbert standing by her open safe, her father's neck chain in his hand before he jumped out of the window onto the fire escape. She has no idea where this 'memory' has come from.
She nods, "Yep, that'll do."
She turns to the thank the Canadian woman, but she has vanished. Literally vanished.
Laurel; This chapter comes with two apologies in one, for it's shortness and for not updating last week. Both of us are still at school, and I've had a shit storm of revision starters, coursework deadlines crop up, as well as driving lessons, as well as training to be an instructor. Recently, I haven't time to write, or school has left me too numb to writer. I can only imagine Weapons Frayer has a similar situation.
It shouldn't happen again, as Weapons Frayer has got a lot done recently, but if it does you will just have to bear with us, and we do apologise.
We own nothing.