Breaking Free: Chapter 8

Vladimir snatched her tray away and with it the good looking piece of cake which she had saved up for last. Before she could reach for it, the piece had already disappeared in the huge trashcan.

“Why on earth did you do that?!”

She didn’t mean to shout but she hated it when people threw food away, especially good looking food.

“It’s not worth a week of labour.”

As soon as he lay down the trays on the long table, which was placed along one of the walls, the bell rang. Everyone around them immediately stood up and Ksenia had to struggle her way towards Vladimir. She wasn’t going to let this slip by so easily.

He looked down on her with his piercing grey eyes when she bumped into him.

“You had no right to throw away my food. I could have quickly shoved it into my mouth.”

Vladimir’s eyes turned cold and she could see him flexing his jaw.

Wow, someone’s got a bad temper…

“No.”

And with that short reply he pushed his way through the crowd and quickly disappeared out of view. People softly bumped into her as she stood still, eyes wide. She would need to get used to this kind of odd behavior.

A strong hand closed around her arm and pulled her through the crowd. She almost stumbled but found her balance back just in time. Ksenia quickly shot a look up the tattooed arm, to the cold grey eyes and the still flexed jaw. He wasn’t holding onto her arm too tight but after having the guards drag her all over the place this way, she really did not appreciate it. Even though he had come back for her…

She tried to pull her arm loose and to her surprise he let go. He did stay by her side though and an awkward silence followed while they made their way to the Fake Patriotic Hall.

Lily quickly joined them and the silence was gone immediately. They picked up their conversation about neon-green duct tape.

* * * * * *

The hall took away her breath when she first entered it. She had promised herself that the marble floors would no longer awe her, but that promise disappeared into thin air when she stared at the white-blue swirls underneath her navy blue all-stars. It was as if she was walking on a heavenly sea. Lily tugged softly at her arm and Ksenia followed her unwillingly.

The walls around them were plain white with portraits and flags all over the place. There was no other furniture than the marble stage with some comfortable black chairs on it. They were still empty.

Lily steered Ksenia after Vladimir and they stopped behind the second row. People filled up the space next to them and soon after that the fourth row was being formed. A soft chatter arose as they all waited for someone to show up. Ksenia leant towards Lily and made sure to keep her voice low.

“Does Vladimir have anger issues or does he just really dislike me?”

Lily seemed a bit taken aback by this question but quickly recovered.

“No, of course he doesn’t hate you. He barely knows you. He’s just…Vladimir, you know. Not really into wasting words; doesn’t really like it when people doubt his orders. I guess you could call him hardheaded but he always means well. I’m sure whatever he said to you had a good reason behind it. Don’t worry about it.”

Lily gave her a small reassuring smile. Ksenia was about to respond when a loud knocking sound made the entire hall go quiet. She forgot what she was about to say and focused her attention on the group of people that walked up the stage.

They were all adults, mostly man, and were dressed in perfectly fitting black suits.

The Camp Commission.

Ksenia shifted on her feet uncomfortably as she studied the hard faces in front of her. The commission took place in the leather chairs as a man parted himself from them and walked towards the glass pulpit.    

 Judging from the authority that roamed in his pitch-black eyes, Ksenia guessed that this was the director of the camp. Probably some ex-marine with a million medallions and a iron grip on everything that was in his power. That would include her.

 She dug her nails into the skin of her arms, trying to keep a little calm. She didn’t get an opportunity to hurt herself a lot however, because Vladimir yanked her hand away. She looked up with annoyance on her face but regretted it immediately after seeing the coldness in his eyes. His eyebrows were raised and he was obviously not pleased by the way she had been acting these past few moments.

He has anger issues for sure, no matter how convincing Lily sounded.

Ksenia pulled here eyes away from his and let her arms dangle next to her body like everyone else was doing at the moment.

The director folded his hands and let them rest on the pulpit. For a moment there was complete silence. No one dared to move a muscle while looking straight forward, trying to ignoring the pitch black eyes that could burn a hole through them. They wandered over the hundreds of faces as if to check whether they had all showed up.

It wasn’t likely that anyone would be able to memorize every face in this room, but Ksenia didn’t doubt about it that this man was probably able to, if he had his mind on it.

The torturing silence came to its end when the director cleared his throat confidently. He took a gulp of the glass with water and took his time doing that, as if to show off the power he had over them. Everyone waited patiently ‘til he was done.  

“Good evening, everyone. I hope that at the end of this special day, you can all say that you have been able to achieve something! I hope that when you are about to fall asleep, you will realize what good the TWC has brought you on this day! And I hope that you will keep it close to your heart and take it with you as the days of your life pass by!”

A short silence followed as if he wanted to give us the opportunity to applaud him, but the only approving sound came from the other commissionaires. The teens still looked straight forward, seeming dead to everything around them.

“Positions!!”

The entire room straightened up at the exact same moment and raised their right hands, placing them under their right eye. It was the same kind of gesture as the old salute, which she had seen in the hundreds of movies about the third world war. Ksenia quickly followed their example.

It wasn’t until the first notes sounded, when Ksenia noticed that there were musicians in the room. They looked nothing like the commissionaires in their Bordeaux colored tunics, but more like the normal village people.

She quickly recognized the first words of the anthem and joined in with the rest. After the TWC had taken over, they forced the schools to teach the new anthem to their students. Not a lot of students had bothered to pay any attention to it, but Ksenia had studied the lyrics out of curiosity. She was thankful for that now.

Almost a half hour had passed after they finished singing the anthem. The director had talked about some “major” improvements and about how awesome the TWC is, just as Lily had foretold. This hall surely did live up to its nickname. The teens didn’t show any emotions or any signs of patriotic pride during the entire speech. The other commissionaires looked rather bored and tired.

The director checked the time, decided he had done enough an returned to his comfortable leather chair. It looked rather odd when he tried to sit straight up while the chair was made to hang in.

Another man stood up and walked towards the pulpit. He was tall, with unnatural white hair. Between his thin fingers rested a sheet of paper which brought a certain tension over the room. He took his time unfolding it and cleared his throat lightly.

“Before I call out the names of the ones who will be punished, I want to say welcome to our newest member: Ksenia Lahnser. Can you please raise your hand?”

Ksenia did as she was told but almost no one was paying attention to her. They were frozen in their current position, muscles tense and eyes wide.

Unsure about how long she was expected to hold up her hand, she quickly dropped it and stared at the ground. The man wasn’t paying any attention to her anymore either and stared at his list instead.

Another creepy silence followed.

“Andrew Tayl, 5 months labour for being disrespectful to your teacher as well as to the honorable TWC; Michell Hansen, 5 weeks labour for ignoring the morning-bell; Matanja Gortio, 4 weeks labour for ignoring orders.”

Lily gasped softly and Vladimir’s hands turned into fists after hearing the last name. A soft curse rolled out of Vladimir’s mouth as the group was once more forced to sing the anthem.

This time it didn’t sound as good as it had the first time.  

* * * * * *

The cold water streamed down his back, relaxing his tensed muscles. Every now and then a soft cursing rolled from his lips. He seemed to be losing control over the things around him and it scared him more than he liked to admit.

The only power he had left over his own life, was to protect the people in it as much as he could. The TWC had taken control over his belongings and his body already, soon they would take over the fate of his beloved. And where would he be then? How was he supposed to fight when he had no hand in it anymore?

Vladimir scowled softly when the timer went off and the water stopped running. He quickly dried himself and put the navyblue overall back on. They wouldn’t get a clean one until after their morning shower. It had taken him quite a while to get used to this little detail, but after a while he just didn’t really care anymore.

There was already someone else waiting in front of his bathroom door when he stepped out. Vladimir gave the guy a short nod and slowly walked back to his room, enjoying this short silent walk in its own weird way. The blue door with the white “57” on it, soon came into view.

Vladimir sat on his bed and zipped open the upper part of the overall, leaving it down as if he was only wearing a jeans. He hated sleeping with a shirt on, he didn’t even try to get used to that. As he lay back, his mind wandered off to the day that lay behind him.

The new girl with the ocean waves in her hair and eyes had annoyed and scared him at the same time. She was so careless, as if she was actually looking for trouble. Seeing as she would stick around with his group, Lily wouldn’t let her slip out of her grip for sure, she was his responsibility now too. It was going to take quite some time for him to figure her out. One second she was trembling in fear and the other she was shouting at him for actually saving her from labour.

A deep sigh escaped his lips and he closed his eyes. Then there was Matanja’s punishment. She hadn’t done anything wrong, he was sure of it. It wouldn’t surprise him if they had punished her for being caught praying.

Those…jerks.

His roommate waltzed in and kicked his all stars out while laying down on the other bed. His normally light brown hair was now dark wet and left stains on his pillow. Dave let out an exhausted sigh and stared at him.

Vladimir stood up, feeling absolutely restless, and kicked his bed every time that he passed it. The sudden knocking on the door disrupted his old habit.

It was Lily; Lily with wide eyes who was panting.

Not good.

“I kind of really messed up.”

Oh great…