It was a Carmor that did it first. Of that they were sure, but which Carmor no one really knew. But suddenly Scala's world blew apart. Fires spread quickly across the equipment and ground, Melceys and Neccos and Chevei and Lorriams were running everywhere. Carmors were flying at the slave masters, ripping and tearing as they all went mad within a matter of seconds. Screams came from all around at once as the stampede of creatures mobbed the doors. They all wanted out...wanted out now and they weren't going to stop until they were free. Scala crouched behind a shipment box, watching the madness. She frightened, but alive with that fear, and excitement. It kept that "flight or fight" urge at bay as her mind whirled through all the exits...even those unknown to the slavers. Numberous attempts she had planned inside her skull, but she needed the right moment. A moment when no would be watching her, no Masters or slavers or "loyal traitors" who would sell her out for the escape. Because they did do that...talk of fleeing was never done aloud or in groups because you never knew when a traitor was listening, ready to turn you in for a "day away" from the grind. It was a rather ingeous plan they had set up to create discord and tension among their slaves. But now the time was right. No one to see her go...no one paying attention as she slunk and ducked behind crates and trucks. Peering out from behind one machine before dashing to another, barely missed by the trampling footsteps of a Carmor as it roared past on a anger driven rage. The grime and sweat from 5 years of toil dripped from her fur into her eyes, but Scala pushed on as she always had. She would be free...tonight she would breathe in the stars and bathe in the moonlight. The loose air grate in the wall was finally forced free. In the hall between her station and the deficating platforms, it was a rather obvious place to work, but the bend put it in an angle where cameras could not see. As her breaks were timed she had never been able to get more than two minutes of work done on it at a time. Without restraints she jiggled the last bolt, the heavy steel falling with a crash of sound. The duct before her was dusty and dark...but it was freedom. At the end of this...there was a new life. But instead of making a break for that freedom, Scala turned, running from the duct. She had to find Fiffy. The poor girl...to see the world! Her heart would burst from the joy! She would see and she would be free, just like Scala had been once. As Scala appeared in the docks again, she was less secretive. She ran about, calling for the young red Melcey girl. Random creatures, asking if the little one had been seen...but none had noted the Fire in their flight. Scala was running out of time. There was only one other palce she could think that Fiffy would be, back in the holding rooms. She never had been very daring... "Fiffy! Fiffy, are you in here?" "Scala?" The sleek Melcey head poked up from behind the rubble of a broken cage. With a leapt Scala was on the other side, nudging her into a stand. "Come on, Fiffy. I can get us out of here! We'll be free, you won't have to stay here anymore!" "Scala! Scala, I'm frightened..." "I know, I am too...but that's ok. It's just by the deficating platforms, it's not that far." "No...Scala, I'm afraid of being free." "What?" The Frost Melcey looked down at the little Fire, shocked. With cloudy eyes, the little Fire looked up at the bigger female. "I'm afraid. I've never been out there. You don't even know if we're still on Faidia! What if...what if the stories are true? What if all that's out there is...more monsters? Like them? You'll go from one slave station to another. And you'll be all alone," Shaking her head, sending tears across the floor, Fiffy curled into another ball. "No...I will not work alone. If I must be a slave, I will be a slave here...where my family is. Where my friends are..." Scala was caught speechless. She had never thought...but then again she was not Fiffy. Slavery was all the girl new...and she supposed. Well, Scala supposed that being free to someone so sheltered (sheltered? Eh...for lack of a better word) would be frightened by it. She could force the small girl to go...she would not. That would make her no better than them... "You take care of yourself, little girl," She said, hugging Fiffy. "And be strong. Don't let them break you like they have others." "Be careful, Scala." With that, the large Frost was gone once again...steeling herself away to the duct. Her first breath of the outside world was one Scala had honestly thought she'd never take again. Already she saw some had escaped, heading to the west...and it was the opposite direction in which she fled in a full out gallop. And as she ran, a dark dot on the pale tundra snow with the roars of Carmors and the hot explosions of rebellion behind her, she cried. For Fiffy, for her friends...for those who had died and would die so that she could be free, and for herself. Scala had not cried in almost five years...five long years she had kept the pain and the anger, the sadness inside her. In rivers it poured from her soul onto the ice as it passed under her feet. |