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She’d palmed it, and then taken the enraged yelling and the bruises down her back and shoulders. He wouldn’t ever injure her in a way anyone else could see, though.
When she left the room, she’d looked down into her hand and showed them. A keycard. One of her father’s personal cards, which meant it should open every door in Alpha.
All of that, and it still took another week before she could slip out of her room. This was her chance, if she didn’t take it now, then she might have to wait another two weeks to do this.
But she was done waiting. And she was done being here. Now that she’d had a taste of freedom, this life felt even more controlled. Anya was done with the cage. Now she wanted to go home.
Bitsy affixed to her head, she made sure that all of her black clothing covered her almost completely. She’d even torn a piece of black fabric off one of her dresses to wrap around her face. The only thing anyone would be able to see was her eyes, and the faint glow of the lens as Bitsy guided her through the city.
“Ready?” she whispered, knowing it was the last thing she would say until she was certain no one could overhear her.
Bitsy put a little thumbs up on the lens, and then they were off. The guard outside her door had fallen asleep. The poor man had been here three nights in a row, and she assumed that someone else had traded their shift so that he would be here yet again. There had been a second man, but he’d gone off to pee, which meant this one had fallen right into a deep sleep without the distraction.
All she had to do was open her door and creep past him. Not exactly easy when she couldn’t hear what she was doing, but it was simple enough. Sliding through the smallest crack, she relied on Bitsy to show her a small bar with the level of the sound she was making.
Down the street from her small home, she still had to keep being quiet. There were people here that her father had likely planted. So she yanked her black hood up over her face and made her way down the street like she was hurrying home.
“Quickly,” Bitsy said. “Go right, there’s another person coming your way.”
She didn’t hesitate. She turned every time her droid said to.
Anya made her way through Alpha in the dead of night, guided by Bitsy and all the schematics that she’d downloaded before they left. Every step, every sound, all of it was up to her droid.
Artificial starlight lit her way. All the twinkling lights on the top of her largest cage reminded her of why she was doing this. Everyone here was in a cage; they just didn’t know it yet. Soon, she would set them free.
They would join other cities. They would learn what it meant to work for what they had, and soon they would realize that life was so much more than indulgence and petty parties where everyone hated each other.
She was giving them a gift. They might not know it now, but soon enough, they would.
“Right again,” Bitsy said. “There’s a service entrance on the wall. Press the fourth flower on the mural.”
They’d discussed how this would go. If they wanted everything to run smoothly, she had to move like she wasn’t taking orders. Fluid and natural was the plan. Bitsy would tell her something just moments before she had to do it. If anyone was watching, they would think she was a service engineer if she didn’t hesitate. So she planted her palm on the fourth flower and a small door opened up to the right of it.
She had to plunge into the darkness while holding her breath, not knowing what waited for her on the other side.
And then she was in the depths of the city. She remembered these worn down corridors from the day she’d lost her hearing. They weren’t like the rest of Alpha. Bare metal bars overlapped over her head, faintly tinted orange with the bare bulbed lights that hung along the ceiling of the metal hall. Steam filled the room, making the fabric of her clothing cling to her skin. Already sweat dripped down her temples, but that could be nerves.
“Keycard,” Bitsy said.
She reached into her pocket for it, quickly pulling it out as though she knew there was a door coming up soon that would require her credentials.
“Head down, person coming.”
Ducking her face into the shadow of her hoodie, she nodded at the man who walked by her. He had a bandana around his neck as well, likely because he used it to wipe the sweat from his face. The man’s exhausted expression didn’t change as he returned her nod.
Some of the tension eased in her back as he walked away from her.
“Two doors down, pretend to be resting. Take the door on the left when the group of people walk by you. Be quick.”
Quick wasn’t easy the deeper they went into this place. Her footsteps likely echoed as she walked, boots clacking against the metal. But here she was supposed to make noise. After all, she was just another worker. Just another person who had come to Alpha hoping for utopia and instead had been thrown into the bowels of Hell itself.
Anya leaned against the wall, one foot pressed flat against it and her arms crossed over her chest. A group of people walked past her, all men heading home likely. Although their homes were nowhere near where she had come from.
One of them paused as he looked her up and down. The others continued moving, but he didn’t. No words appeared on her lens, so she had to read his lips. Thankfully, he was staring right at her. “You all right?”
She nodded, not sure if she should trust her voice.
“If you’re hurt, you’re supposed to go to the infirmary.” He hooked a finger in the direction the group had come from. “You need help getting there?”
