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Zack sits on a stone ‘bed’, head in his hands. Fear pulses through him like an alarm, shortening his breaths and quickening his heart.
On the opposite ‘bed’, Melissa sits ram rod straight, staring at the wall next to Zack. Her fists are clenched so tight that they are white, and even that can’t hide how much her hands are trembling.
Their cell is small, and bare. There are the beds, a metal sink, a metal toilet. That’s it. The walls are grey, there is no window.
This room might be the last place he ever sleeps.
“Melissa, what’s the plan?” He asks, voice shaking. She must have a plan. She must have an idea. She must have something, because this is Melissa and she always has a plan. She never gives up.
“There isn’t one.” Melissa says, after such a long silence that Zack wondered if she fell asleep. He blinks, certain he must’ve misheard. Desperate to have misheard. “We aren’t escaping, it’s not possible. Not in the week or so we have left to live.”
The fear, the despair in her voice, it stuns Zack. It sounds wrong. He wants to hug her, comfort her, reassure her, but he can’t think of any comfort that he could give. She’s right. They’re screwed.
———
He is taken to what seems to be an office, restrained to a chair. He sits and waits until someone comes in and sits down in front of him. “Zack Underwood.”
A woman with grey hair, wearing a neat suit with a D right above her heart. Zack fixes her with his coldest glare as he nods in greeting. She looks down at the paper in front of her. “You moved here with your family after the takeover. You- and your family- had entirely spotless records before you broke out three rebels from a custody van a month or so ago. Correct?”
He doesn’t say anything. She sighs. “We already know that, you don’t need to stay silent. But very well. I presume that you were helping those rebels for some time before that incident, and have been helping them since. We have evidence of this, we have evidence of several crimes you have committed. To be quite frank, Underwood, this all looks very bad for you and that friend of yours.”
He doesn’t say anything.
The woman turns over the paper. “Your accomplice, Melissa Chase, is well known to us. Countless crimes and so much rebellious behaviour I don’t even know where to start. Even if I lost 99% of the evidence against her, the 1% would be enough to send her to the grave. She has no chance.” Then she looks up at him, right in the eye. “But you may have one.”
Zack forces himself to meet her eyes, to glare with everything he has, and to stay completely silent.
“I am offering a deal, I suppose you could call it that.” She continues. “I want all the information you have. On Melissa Chase’s operations, of course, but also on whichever cell of the resistance you two are in contact with.” She shuffles the papers, hits them off of the desk to straighten them, then selects on and passes it over. “And in return, your freedom. You will be released to your parents, you will be allowed to continue your normal life. Under supervision, of course, but aren’t we all under supervision anyway?” She laughs, once. She has a very cold, humourless laugh.
Zack reads the paper in front of him. What she just said, repeated in formal language. A line at the end for him to sign.
A deal. Amnesty. Freedom.
He doesn’t have to die.
“And what if I say no?” He asks, breaking his silence. The woman looks satisfied by that.
“Then we will get the information out of you anyway, and then you will die.” The woman says simply. “The choice seems obvious, although perhaps view that simply comes with maturity. But take my personal advice- this is the best deal you will ever be given. Take it.”
Zack stares, mind racing. It is the best deal he has ever been given. He could go home, he could be safe, he could be free. He just has to… just has to give up Melissa. Give up the resistance. Give up Melissa. Give up Melissa, which he was always planning to do. Give up Melissa, which he only recently decided that he couldn’t go through
The way he is restrained, he can still move his hands and arms to an extent. He lifts his hands, moves them towards the paper.
Then, in one move, he tears the deal in half. “I won’t take it. I won’t betray them, and I won’t betray her.” He says. He doesn’t know if it is fear or anger shaking his voice. Maybe both, probably both.
The woman sighs, with no regret in her cold eyes. “I mistook you for a smart child. I rarely make mistakes, but I suppose even the best of us can be wrong. I will call the Normbots.”
———
Melissa jumps up when he comes back in, waits impatiently until they are alone. She grabs his shoulders, and he knows that she is scanning him from injuries. “What did they ask?” She asks when she sees nothing visible.
“I’m ok.” He says first, because he knows that she is still trying to figure that out, then he adds, “They offered me a deal. Give up any information I have on you and the resistance, in exchange for total amnesty.”
“Oh.” She says. “What did you say?”
“I said no.” He says. “And I tore the paper.”
“Oh.” She looks surprised, and that makes his stomach squirm because there had never really been an option other than sticking by her to the end, except she apparently didn’t expect him to. “You could’ve taken it. They’ll get that information either way.”
“I couldn’t take it.” He says simply.
———
“I need to tell you something.”
“I need to tell you something too.”
They look at each other from their stone ‘beds’, across the cell from each other. Fear and regret cloud the air like gas, choking them and weighing them down. Accepting their fate hasn’t made it easier.
“You go first.” Zack offers. So she does, taking a deep breath before she starts talking.
“I lied. About what I wanted to do.” She says. “The Murphy Weapon is my friend, Milo, they found a way to weaponise his condition. Milo isn’t dead, he’s alive, and I want to rescue him. That was the mission. And now I’m going to die and I won’t be able to rescue him so I’ve failed him.” She speaks quickly, the words burning her throat on the way out. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lied to you. Ok, lying to you was pretty fair when we first met and didn’t trust each other, but I should’ve come clean when we became friends.”
Zack stares at her for quite a while, and she takes a shuddering breath. Of course he is angry. Of course he is, he has every right. But she still knows that coming clean is the right decision, she just wishes that it wasn’t this situation that finally pushed her to making it.
Zack’s laugh surprises her. “That’s what you wanted to tell me? Mine’s is so much worse, that’s barely even bad.” He says, humourlessly amused. “I don’t understand why you didn’t tell me, obviously I would’ve been more inclined to help if I knew the weapon you wanted to steal was actually your best friend you want to rescue. But I’m not upset.”
“I don’t know why I didn’t tell you, I just… being open is hard.” Melissa admits. “After everything.”
“I know. I get it.” Zack says. He hesitates, staring at the ground. “My thing is worse.”
“I’ll understand. Whatever it is, I’ll understand.” Melissa promises. “We’re friends, Zack.”
“Maybe not for much longer.” Zack says dryly. “Alright. When I first met you, I lied. I said I wanted to join the resistance. I was actually planning to turn you in for a reward, so I could use the money to get out of the Tri-State Area. And then I kept planning to do that for ages afterwards. I’m a liar and I was going to betray you. I’m a traitor. I’m sorry.”
Silence can be loud. Silence can be extremely loud. Silence can worm into your ears and twist around your heart, pulling it tight so tears build up in your eyes and pain strikes your chest. Silence take over a whole room. Silence can be deafening. Silence is the worst noise Zack has heard in his entire life.
But he dreads the sound after the silence even more. Anger, yelling. Or tears, upset. Or confusion, heartbreak, betrayal. Emotions he never wanted to cause in anyone, least of all Melissa, who he cares about so much.
Maybe the worst possible noise is more silence, silence that stretches out for the rest of their short lives. Silence that is the last thing he hears from Melissa, because she never speaks to him again.
“You just threw away an opportunity to betray me and get away scot free.” Melissa’s tone is inscrutable. Which doesn’t stop Zack from trying to scrutinise it anyway. She must be furious, she must be heartbroken. She must be betrayed and confused and she must hate him. He hates himself, so she must hate him.
“I changed my mind about all of it ages ago.” His voice is so quiet it almost blends into the loud silence. “I could never betray you now. But when we first met, I was going to.”
“When did you change your mind?”
“I don’t know when exactly, I just… I just knew that I could never go through with it.” Zack closes his eyes. “I’m so sorry, Melissa. You don’t ever have to forgive me, I just needed to tell you if we’re not making it out.”
More silence, that sound that he hates. Then movement, then two footsteps. Two steps are all that is needed to get from her beds to his. She is standing right above him, most likely. He winces, drawing in a bit by instinct. She’ll punch him, most likely, and he’ll deserve it but the feeling behind it will hurt so much more than the punch.
“You big idiot.” Her voice has no anger behind is, and the hand that touches his shoulder is nothing but gentle. “You wanted to betray me once. So what? We’re friends now. You’d never do that now. So why wouldn’t I forgive you?”
He opens his eyes. She is sitting next to him on the stone bed, her hand is resting on his shoulder. He stares. “I lied to you, I-“
“And I lied to you." Melissa replies. "And what you lied about was much worse, but we both lied. And you don’t want to betray me anymore, so I’m not mad." She snorts.
"You should be." He murmurs, lowering his head.
"I’ve never let you tell me what to do before, why would I let you tell me now?" Melissa jokes, shoving him lightly. Suddenly, he turns and hugs her tightly. "Oh!"
"Thanks, Melissa." He says, voice tight with trying to hold back his tears. "I’m still sorry."
"I’m sorry too." She hugs him back. They sit in silence for a while, but a good silence filled with emotions that wraps around them like a blanket. A silence that is quiet and the closest to comforting you can get in a cell.
"I’m glad your friend his alive." Zack says suddenly. "Milo."
Melissa stiffens. "I’m glad he is too." She says quietly. "But now I can’t save him."
"Someone else will." Zack squeezes her tighter. "Cavendish and Dakota will probably keep trying to ‘steal the weapon’, and they’ll find him. And if they don’t- Sara and the resistance know, don’t they? That’s why they acted weird when we talked about it. So they’ll save him. And if they don’t, he’ll be freed when the resistance get rid of Doofensmirtz. You’re not the only one on his side, it’s not all on your shoulders."
Melissa’s breath is shuddering, her body is clearly trembling. "Thanks, Zack." He doesn’t know if she believed him. He doesn’t think so. But they both also know that there is nothing they can do now.
———
Melissa is carried away, and she has a feeling that she isn’t getting offered any deals. The room she is taken into confirms this, a small cell similar to the one they are being held in except entirely empty. No desk or paper.
She is left alone for a very long time. Silence fills the air, and it is both a good silence and a bad silence. Bad because she is isolated for hours, scared and alone. Good because she is even more frightened of what is to come.
She doesn’t like admitting that she is frightened, that is something she has tried to avoid for years. But she is frightened. Horribly, desperately so. She doesn’t want to get hurt, she doesn’t want to give away her friends and family in the resistance, she doesn’t want to die.
After she has been alone for along enough that she is definitely going nuts, two women come in. Short and tall, gleeful and serious, talkative and quiet. She tries to probe them- sending humans instead of Normbots was a mistake, humans can feel guilt while robots cannot. She quickly comes to realise that Normbots are much kinder than these woman. Are much more likely to feel guilt.
The taller pelts her with questions, over and over in rapid succession. The shorter taunts and cajoles her, grins a very punchable grin and speaks in a lilting voice that makes silence seem very welcome.
Silence is what she does, instead. She closes her mouth and sits crossed legged on the floor and completely ignores every question, every taunt. She stares into space, clenching her fists. She won’t give in.
They move to threats pretty soon after that. Threats of violence, threats to hurt her. Vague at first, then specific. They’re creative, she has to give them that. Still, she doesn’t give in. She won’t. She counts the lines on the ceiling, walls and floor, and she doesn’t answer anything. She stays silent, even when the threats make her shake.
She isn’t particularly surprised when they move on from threats. The taller woman grabs her arm and yanks her up. She hits at her hand and dodges out of the way. She is grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground. She tries to scrabble out of the way but she can’t.
Questions come, she doesn’t answer. She doesn’t answer, she won’t answer, she can’t answer. She isn’t silent but she won’t answer.
"Get away from her!"
A voice, then a cry from a voice that has been calm and even the whole time. A sound like a zap. A hand on her arm. "Melissa, are you alright?"
She looks up. Zack crouching next to her, something small and boxy and purple held in his hand. Behind him Dakota and Cavendish are fighting the shorter woman, a fierce and dirty fight. She nods. She is helped up, Zack yells something, and they start to run.