Every morning a bell went off signaling that it was time for the prisoners to wake up. Silus stretched his long frame across his bunk, his feet hanging over the edge considerably. To say sleeping here was uncomfortable was an understatement. He looked at the wooden underside of his bunk for several seconds, crudely hammered nails betraying the haste witch which this prison was erected. Graffiti was carved into the wood. Names, dates, curse words, all stared back at Silus, promising special glimpses into long forgotten lives. He ran his finger along the grove of one of the deeper cut names, and enjoyed the rough contrast of the wood. This is how he went to sleep that night, rubbing the same spot while he thought. He grumbled and turned suddenly, looking out of the bunk as the prisoners put on clothes and started to move towards their allotted work areas. It was best to be out of the bunk area before the guards came and wrangled the stragglers.
Once Silus was certain no one would attack him he had the same thought he had every morning since his capture: "Well, I haven't been assonated yet."
It was coming. No matter how hard the NCR tried to hide him, Silus was a marked man, and he knew eventually a Frumentarri would figure out who he was. There were hundreds of spys in the NCR, all various ranks and positions, not even Caesar knew all of them by sight. At night Silus wondered how they'd do it. Pick a fight in the yard? Shoot him on the day he left? Slit his throat in his sleep? It didn't matter, one day he'd die at the hands of one of Caesar's loyal men, and his only hope was that he could see the land the NCR had promised him before it happened.
Pulling his shirt over his head, Silus shuffled out the door as the second bell rang. He reached the barrack's Aubrey occupied with enough time to lean against the wall and relax before the third bell rang and the last of the women erupted from the doors. Aubrey was in the first group, talking excitedly with several other females. She only acknowledged Silus's waiting by a side glance and a wave of her hand informing him it was time to follow her. He rolled his eyes and complained under his breath. Silus knew what to do. He'd known to wait for her then follow on the first day, and it had fallen into a routine rather fast.
Having received their allotted amount of breakfast from the line, Aubrey and Silus sat together at a table alone and began to stir their food looking for ugly surprises or notes. This morning Aubrey stirred up a rolled piece of paper, pealed it open, quickly read the insides, and then passed the paper to Frank who was sitting behind them. Today was the day Aubrey and Silus both started reeducation training and that meant they both had a month left in the slammer. Because of the shortness of their time, Aubrey had been turning some of her business over to Frank, who would be in jail for at least fifteen years.
As the piece of paper slipped from Aubrey's palm to Frank's, Silus turned his head to make sure no one was watching, and upon returning his attention to his breakfast Silus locked eyes with Frank only for a moment. It was always the same thing when Silus looked at Frank, he saw a threat. Frank was obviously an usurper who had taken Aubrey's offer to absorb more of her business because it was slightly more convenient then having to beat her to death himself. In the few seconds their eyes met Silus felt the same dare he always did on the few occasions Aubrey had talked to Frank around him. It was a challenge, and Silus was just smart enough not to try to meet it.
What Silus wanted more than anything was out of this place and as far from New Vegas, Arizona, Caesar, and Hoover Dam as he could possibly get. Fighting Frank was a threat to that, plus Silus knew he would win. These inmates might be fierce, some of them might even be murderers or ex military, but none of them had ever had to fight for his life the way Silus had to in the ranks of Legion.
After breakfast the members of the reeducation seminar were isolated from the men going to work hard labor and directed towards a newer looking metal building. Inside were several scavenged chairs and tables, none of them matching, all of them looking like they had seen better days. Aubrey and Silus moved to the back of the room, selecting a long thin conference table with a chipped white top to sit at, the rest of the room settling away from them before the last inside were force in closer to the two.
Watching the people avoid Aubrey and himself cause Silius to remark, "What are you going to do, Aubrey, when you're no longer the queen of the kingdom?"
Instantly Silus regretted his cold worlds, as Aubrey turned to look at him with a mixture of shock and hurt. She quickly masked this, however; and a cruelty settled into her eyes that seemed more fitting for her role as black market princess. Silus was grateful to be distracted by someone handing out packets of paper with well illustrated interiors.
Silus focused on the cover of the packet, assuming the presence of pictures were for the uneducated profligates all around him. He sneered a little and elbowed Aubrey, hoping to make up for putting his foot in his mouth by making her feel superior. "Look at the pictures in this book, I bet it's because half of the people in this room can't read."
"I can't read very well," Aubrey responded immediately, turning her head so she didn't have to look him in the eye. "Anyways I bet even fewer people than that can read in this room. It's not like schooling's important out in the wastes."
The redhead adjusted herself so that she locked eyes with Silus, giving him time to continue being a dip shit if that's what he was going to do. When he didn't say anything she looked at him with a gaze that would make Legate Lanius jealous, and said, "How did a scarred up mother fucker like you learn to read anyways? Those raider parents of your have more class than most?"
"My parents weren't raiders," Silus mumbled.
"Then what were your parents?" Aubrey asked with a cocky tone.
This caught Silus with no easy explanation. "I guess I don't know the answer to that."
"Mommy drop you at an NCR orphanage so she could keep doing jet and fucking whoever could pay," Aubrey responded coldly, her revenge for Silus's thoughtless words making her seem petty.
"No," Silus responded, "She was killed when I was about four or five. So was my father. So was my entire family and everyone in my…community." He congratulated himself on not saying tribe.
"Oh?" Aubrey said, "You make it sound mysterious, Simon. Let me guess, you really are a Legion spy."
The words Aubrey spoke were like a slap in Silus's face, but only because of how close to the truth she was. He looked inward for a moment, searching for the best way to respond to Aubrey's prompting, and that's when the side of Silus that had been taught his whole life that women were inferior took over and spoke for him.
"If I was a Legion spy," Silus said as he leaned in and spoke softly, "I promise you that as soon as I was released from jail, I'd see to it that you'd have a collar around my neck so you'd learn your true place, my darling slut."
As Silus spoke Aubrey leaned her head back a little bit like she couldn't believe what he was saying, and as soon as he was done talking she began laughing. The room turned and looked at the two in the back corner, leaving Silus to stare forward as in a rage. If he was the man he was just a month ago he'd have grabbed her by the hair, thrown her to the floor, beat her, then fucked her until she knew better than to ever laugh at him again. The armed guards by the door made Silus still his hand, and as he finally turned to face Aubrey –who was still snickering- she seemed to sense something dangerous in his eyes and sober up.
The look in her eyes made him feel bad again. He didn't want her to fear him, and he didn't understand why. To try to make amends he lifted his hand and patted her on the back a few times. He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes, the yellows of his iris meeting the dark green of hers, and he noticed she was smiling. He smiled back, and felt strangely at ease with the fact she seemed to forgive his brutish nature to the point of seeming ignorant of it. Aubrey wasn't your average woman. She was keener and more confident than most of the ones he'd met in this prison, but without seeming boorish or naive. It made him want to protect her all the more.
A small man in a lab coat stood at the front of the room. He raised his arms and welcomed everyone to the reeducation seminar. His high pitched voice directed them to open to page one of the packet they had been handed, and the room responded with the sound of a paper crumpling.
"Today we will begin with the history of the New California Republic," The teacher announced, "So that all of you will understand that you are part of a proud history dating back till just after the bombs fell."