"What? Did you just say Catripple?" answered Liro, as he looked the chubby guard directly in the eyes.
The prisoners all looked at one another. "Should we trust him?" whispered Lily. The guard breathed heavily.
"I can still hear you…" he said as he adjusted his hat. "Tomorrow in the cafeteria, I'll call for you… until then, think wisely." With that, the guard looked around for a moment, and realizing that no one had seen him, he started to walk away.
"Hey, wait!" shouted Liro, as he immediately launched himself at the bars. As his body crashed against them, he reached his hand through to catch the guard's attention.
"Yes?" asked the guard, as he walked slowly back towards them.
"You work here, right? And if you know Catripple, I guess you must have heard something about someone called Darian?" asked Liro. His eyes were filled with hope.
"He's under Zrelekai's surveillance, most of us don't know much either." Suddenly, the chubby guard looked to his left as he heard footsteps. "Act like I've never been here." Liro wanted to ask another question, but the moment he saw the guard leaving, he grew sad and turned back to his companions.
"He definitely knows something…" whispered Vane, as he started to think about what the guard had said.
"It felt like he wanted to help us…" added Lily. Liro slowly returned to his bed and sat there, thinking.
"I wonder how he knew about Catripple… and he said, 'if we were the ones who arrived here with Catripple,' am I right?" asked Liro. The others nodded their heads.
"Is he someone who knows her?" asked Vane.
"Definitely… we just don't know which side he's on," pointed out Lily, wondering if they should trust him.
As the group spoke, they suddenly heard the voices of guards coming towards them. 'They're guards too, right?' thought Liro as he looked outside the cell. 'Let's try this…' Suddenly, Liro got off the bed, and the moment the guards passed, he called out to them.
"Hey, hey!" shouted Liro. The guards turned and saw Liro calling for them.
"What do you need, prisoner? They should already have told you: no coming out for today," said one of the guards, annoyed.
"I remember… but you know…" said Liro as he lowered his head, "we were wondering where our friend Darian has been put…"
The guards looked at them for a moment, and then one of them whispered something to his friend. "You're not supposed to know this information…" The guard slammed his foot against the metal bars, making them shake. Liro fell back, surprised by the sudden action. "This is none of your concern for now."
The guards, looking at Liro's reaction, laughed softly and then walked away.
"Hey, why did you ask that? The other guard had already told us where Darian is," whispered Vane, confused by Liro's seemingly useless question, while it felt like Lily had understood what Liro's plan was.
"They didn't say where Darian is exactly, unlike the other one…" pointed out Lily. Liro, returning to his bed, nodded his head while smirking.
"It's one of two things: either that guard before was testing us, or he really wanted to help us," said Liro, as he came to two conclusions.
"Test us? Why would he test us with such a question? Wouldn't it have been easier to tell us something totally different?" asked Vane, confused.
"I know… but he will definitely tell us more things tomorrow in the cafeteria," answered Liro.
"I don't think we should trust him… he could have easily made up a lie." Lily couldn't trust that first guard, as every single guard in this place treated them extremely poorly.
"Catripple was about to tell us something about this Zrelekai… but I don't remember hearing the name around yet…" said Liro, as he touched his forehead, trying to remember if he had already heard the name in this prison.
"Hey, now that I think about it, I've heard that name… if I'm correct…" whispered Vane, as he started to think about when he had heard Zrelekai's name. Suddenly he remembered. "Oh, right! It was yesterday in the cafeteria."
Both Liro and Lily turned their heads toward Vane. "When did you happen to hear that name, Vane?" asked Liro.
"It was right before I could grab the food… remember that it took a bit longer for me to receive it?"
Yesterday, when the group entered the cafeteria to eat, the first one to get food was Liro, then Lily; by the time Vane could get his, the food on display was already finished.
"Vane, we'll go pick a seat…" whispered Liro, as he glanced around and noticed that almost all the tables were already taken. "Or we might not eat together, as always…" In these last few days, the group had always eaten at a small table so they could talk about everything without anyone hearing them.
"Alright, I'll join you soon." The moment Liro and Lily went away, the two women serving the food whispered something that Vane happened to hear, though clearly he wasn't supposed to.
"Hey, we're running out of food… it's the last box Zrelekai created for us."
"Damn… since the arrival of that new experiment of Zrelekai's, he has completely forgotten about us."
Vane at first didn't give much weight to these words, as he was feeling extremely hungry and wanted to eat as soon as possible, but now he realized those words were more important than they seemed.
"Wait… were they referring to Darian?" Liro had yelled without noticing. The moment he realized what he had done, he immediately closed his mouth, scared that the guards might have heard him. But the hallway was quiet. "Ah…" Liro, realizing everything was safe, took a deep breath.
"I think so... if that guard said that Darian is under Zrelekai's surveillance, it means those two are definitely together…" Realizing this, it felt as if Lily had started to trust the chubby guard more.
"But the women called Darian 'Zrelekai's experiment'…" Hearing those words, everyone felt a shiver run down their spine. "Could he be a scientist, too?" suggested Liro.
"He definitely is… so he took Darian under his surveillance for that reason? Because he's a scientist like him?" added Liro.
"We don't know how much knowledge this Zrelekai might have… I wonder what Darian has told him about his scientific knowledge…" whispered Lily, as she looked down.
"I'm sure he hasn't told him much; Darian will never reveal that type of stuff to someone evil like him," said Liro, as he believed Darian would never give an enemy that much information.
The group remained silent for a moment when suddenly a guard popped out of nowhere with the cell keys. "What?" said Vane, surprised, sure that they had been told to remain there.
"There has been a change of plans, you can go out." The guard only said this and opened the cell. With that, Liro, Vane, and Lily went outside and started to follow the guard.
"It's lunch time right now, after that, you'll return to work at your usual places," said the guard. As the seconds passed, he received no answer. The moment he turned around, he noticed the prisoners were still confused by the sudden change. To gain their attention, the guard, clearly annoyed, coughed loudly. The others snapped back to attention. "Oh, right!" they all said together. Seeing this, the guard turned around again and kept walking.
The moment the group entered the cafeteria, they were the last ones there. People had already started to eat, and as they entered, they felt everyone's eyes on them. Some people were looking at them with anger in their eyes, as they would have loved to get a day off, while others were looking at them with sorrow, wondering what might have happened to them during those hours.
As they walked towards the serving counter, they spotted the same guard as before near the counter. It felt as if he were waiting for them. The moment they passed next to him, he whispered into their ears, "Be fast… I'll wait for you outside." The guard whispered in a nonchalant way so that no one would spot him.
Liro, who was the one who best understood the guard's words, nodded his head. "Alright," he whispered in answer. The guard smiled warmly at his response.
"We know it isn't your fault, but we don't have much left." Said one of the women at the cafeteria who gives food to prisoner, the group in fact, didn't receive much on their trays, only fruit remained, as the meat had already been taken by the others.
"Well, at least we still have our table free…" pointed out Vane jokingly, as he noticed their usual table was still empty.
The moment they sat down, the prisoners at the tables nearby tried to look away. It was clear they were curious to know what had happened to them, but because the cafeteria was full of guards, it was impossible to ask them directly.
"Liro, I couldn't hear well what the guard told us," said Lily, as she sat down at the small table. "I couldn't hear it well either, but you answered him, right?" asked Vane as he sat down too and, without waiting for Liro to sit, bit into the apple he had received.
"He told us to find him immediately after we finish eating… we must be fast. I don't think we have much time left for the lunch break," said Liro as he looked at the clock in the room. He couldn't read it perfectly, but he understood that in less than 10 minutes, the break would be over.
Everyone nodded, and in less than 3 minutes, the group had finished their apples. With that, they immediately got up. Seeing this, most of the prisoners lowered their heads, it was almost unheard of for someone to leave so early, as everyone always waited for the break to end.
All the prisoners thought there must be something wrong with these people and that soon they might not see them anymore.
"Hey, you three, are you going out already?" One of the guards blocked the exit, wanting to know where they were going.
"We, uhm…" murmured Vane, as he hadn't expected this.
"We need to use the bathroom if possible. You see, the one here in the cafeteria is busy…" said Liro. The guard looked at him with a confused expression and moved away. "I'll go and—" The guard was interrupted by the chubby guard, who placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of them, they can come with me," said the chubby guard with a serious expression. The moment the other guard looked at him, a more reassured expression appeared on his face. "Oh, Tyel! Thank you, I'd really appreciate it." With that, the guard didn't even care if the bathroom was actually busy or not; seeing Tyel there had reassured him.
Tyel smiled at him and waved to the others. "Follow me, prisoners!" he said in a commanding voice. The others nodded and followed him toward the other bathroom. "So his name is Tyel… I wonder what he needs to tell us," whispered Vane in Lily and Liro's ears.
'I wonder if he will actually speak or if he's waiting for something else…' Liro took a step forward, and rather than following from behind, he positioned himself next to the guard. Tyel glanced back first, and realizing they were far enough from the other guards, he looked back at Liro.
"So? What is your answer in the end?" Tyel whispered as the group stopped exactly at the entrance of the bathroom. Liro, understanding that someone might still be listening, decided to whisper his answer too.
"Yes, we're the ones who arrived here with Catripple after she was able to escape," Liro answered with a serious expression. Behind him, Lily and Vane had the same look on their faces. Tyel smiled warmly at the sight.
"Finally…" those were the only words that came out of his mouth the moment he realized what they said.