The Defiant

Our first indication of visitors was the sound of heels clicking on the floor. Silently, we scrambled back to our feet and stood at the bars as Eight walked into view.

She looked like she’d gotten a promotion, wearing shiny black leather boots and a red jumpsuit that looked like a uniform, with insignias and medals hanging off it, and a name stitched in black thread in the collar. I craned my neck and squinted my eyes to read it: Jin Ka.

That was Eight’s real name. Jin. I pictured her as a little girl, running around the streets of Korea. Little Jin. The girl that was now buried under layers of hatred and vengeance.

Eight sneered at me as she walked by. She stopped in the center of our cells.

“Well, look who’s locked up now,” she gloated.

“Eight?” Five said weakly from the cell to my left.

She ignored him. “I’m sure you’re wondering where you are. This is the Sunchon Aerzhu compound in Korea. Where I spent much of my childhood. We brought you all the way to Earth. You should feel honored.”

“Earth?” Three asked tremulously. I couldn’t blame her. Earth was over two weeks from Sorhna. We’d been knocked out for that long?

“Yes, Earth. We brought you back to return your memories, just like we promised.” She smiled wickedly. “And if you don’t like what you remember, well, that’s not really our problem, is it?

“Four gets to go first, since she’s the baby.” Four’s door clicked and swung open. She raced out into the hallway and was immediately grabbed by a huge guard who had seemingly materialized from nowhere. He held her still while she screamed and fought. I yelled out, but he carried her out of view. Her cries echoed down the hallway.

Eight turned to follow them, but Five’s hand darted out through the bars, quick as a snake, and grabbed a handful of her shirt. She waved dismissively behind her shoulder, no doubt at another guard, so that he wouldn’t intervene. The bitch still had that much faith that Five wouldn’t hurt her.

“Was it all a lie?” Five’s voice broke pathetically. “Everything?”

“Of course,” Eight scoffed, yanking her shirt out of his grip and straightening it. “What other use could I have for you?”

But as she left, I saw her look back, an odd expression on her face, like sorrow, or regret.

Five retreated from the door. I heard muffled sobs from his side of the wall.

Food trays were shoved through the door slits a few minutes after Four was taken. I jumped up from bed and screamed at the man who delivered them, but he studiously ignored me and continued on with his cart.

The meal consisted of a small cup of metallic-tasting water, a hard crust of bread, and a chunk of extremely salty mystery meat so solid you could knock a nail in with it.

I was too unsettled to eat, but I forced myself to choke down the water. I then began to pace. Three steps to one wall, three steps back to the other wall. Three steps to, three steps back. Three steps to, three steps back.

I worked myself into a rhythm, and had taken a few hundred steps when Four returned.

Something was wrong. The guard carried her just as he had before, but she was slumped forward as if barely conscious, her head lolling to the side, not fighting at all. The last part scared me more than anything. Four always fought, even when there was nothing to fight about.

Four’s cell door clicked open, and the guard deposited Four inside. She barely moved. The door closed again, and Two’s popped open.

He darted away from the advancing guard, but another appeared from the direction he was headed and pulled him into a painful-looking half nelson, then dragged him back past us.

“Two!” Five called out as they passed.

“Don’t worry, Nancy, I’ll be right as r—”

“No talking,” the guard said gruffly and yanked Two’s arm further up between his shoulder blades. I heard a loud pop and Two shrieked in pain. The other guard joined them and they hauled Two bodily from the cell block.

As soon as they were out of earshot, I darted up to my cell door.

“Four!” I hissed. “Are you all right?”

She groaned and didn’t answer.

“What happened? What did they do to you?”

“No!” she screamed suddenly. “No! Stop! Mum! Declan! No!”

Her cries were heartbreaking. She screamed for people who weren’t there, then broke into tears. The crying eventually subsided into silence, which was even more unsettling than the screams.

“Four, are you okay?” Three asked, pressing her face to her bars in a vain attempt to catch of the younger girl.

“They took them,” Four said quietly. “They took my family.”

Encouraged by this brief venture into lucidity, or at least the responsiveness to Three’s voice, I asked,

“Who, Four? Who took them?”

“The Aerzhu. They took them, and they won’t come back.” She broke into sobs again, the tears of a damaged little girl.

“They took our families?” Three hissed at me.

“Must be how they got us to agree to this mission. They kidnap our families, and we do the Aerzhu’s bidding to guarantee their safety,” I realized, feeling sick. Which of my loved ones had they taken? My mother? My grandparents? Someone else I couldn’t even remember?

Four abruptly stopped crying and whispered something.

“What was that, Four?” Five asked kindly.

“Niamh. Niamh Cassidy. Not Four. I’m Niamh,” she said, almost in wonder. I wished I could see her facial expression.

“Niamh. I like that name,” I said.

“My mum called me Nixie. Short for Phoenix. ’Cos my hair. And Declan, he called me Knee-High. Nobody called me Niamh,” Four said, sounding like a young child.

“Is Declan your brother?” Three prodded gently.

“No, just mum and me, and all them on the ship. All the boys, an’ me the only girl… They’d pull my pigtails and make fun of me… But Declan never did, he was always nice to me, tol’ me they were all just jealous ’cos I was so good with engines…” she trailed off. I was terrified for her. What if whatever technology they used to remove and replace memories had damaged her mind?

Four had fallen silent and wouldn’t respond to any more questions. A knot of worry grew in my stomach, next to one of anger. Who could do this to a child?

Just then, Two came back. He was walking by himself, with one arm in a sling and a guard at his back. His eyes stared off into nothing, not even glancing at me as he walked by. He walked complacently into his open cell and made no noise.

Three’s door unlocked and opened. Unlike the other two, she didn’t run, but left of her own volition with the guards at her back and her chin high. I gave her a small, encouraging smile as she passed. Two began to mutter.

I waited with bated breath for Three’s return. When she was finally brought back, a guard’s hand on either arm, shivering like she’d been doused in cold water, I heard my own door unlock and swing open.