I stepped out of the hole, falling headfirst onto the floor of the roof. The bike fell with me, thankfully landing beside my head.

  Genieve hesitated, taking a frustratingly long amount of time to get outside.

  I offered to help—maybe they were scared of getting cut on the jagged edges. I had observed pain to be something a lot of people dreaded, fearing the possibility as if they couldn’t prevent it with the necessary preparations.

  But Genieve refused, and who was I to beg?

  The outside was incredibly windy, and above all, cold.

  This contradicted my original analysis of the slit just moments ago… The weather could certainly change, or perhaps my location had shifted. Elevation did make it colder, and I lacked a solid framework for the scale of the facilities. So for all I knew, we could be 100 meters in the air. It seemed unlikely, but never completely improbable.

  However, I couldn’t focus on the temperature at all, even if it would make good research to determine the facility with complete certainty.

  Because their name was something I’d never heard before—it wasn’t like an outsider’s. It felt like a name with no clear pattern, as if someone had just thrown a bunch of words together.

  Yet again, words had proved to be my biggest adversary.

  “Jennyvia?” I repeated, fumbling slightly as I realized it sounded nothing like how Genieve pronounced it.

  “Yes, Likan?” Genieve responded, finally emerging from the hole.

  “Just call me f-3 if you don’t know how to say it properly…”

  “No no, I just thought we were making up names now! Sorry.”

  “Why are you apologising? Next time you can just ask me for confirmation of my action before continuing so there’s no further confusion,” I explained, and Genieve suddenly stared at me for a profound amount of time.

  “It just confuses me on who gave you your name, I wasn’t trying to make anything up.” I continued, closely inspecting Genieve’s physical form.

  Genieve was slightly taller than me, with clothes huge in sheer volume. On their face lay a pair of glasses of familiar shape, since I had seen them on many daily buddies before.

  Around it, they had orange hair loosely tied—what I tried to observe for myself without seeming like an ignorant equalist, carefully inspecting it from a close by. Making sure just not to directly touch Genieve’s hair.

  My current hypothesis was that it was maybe a sticky liquid solution that worked like tape but could be easily washed out with the right equipment.

  I came closer, and Genieve still backed away.

  “My name didn’t come from someone, I picked it for myself,” they explained, and all my previous assumptions about the world were thrown aside.

  “YOU CAN DO THAT?!” I couldn’t help but yell. Today has certainly been a wonder of new information that brought me ever closer to the outside world. “I’m so glad I met you now—Tell me everything! Is it because you’re an outsider? An Equalist student? Or something in between I don’t even know about? Did you pick your name at birth or was there a long list you got to choose from?” For the first time today, the words fell out of my mouth comfortably.

  Genieve’s eyes widened, and they took a moment to respond. Staring aimlessly somewhere between my face and our surroundings, they finally began talking, sputtering. I could only hope they shared my enthusiasm at this very moment.

  “I’m an equalist student, at least I think…?”

  “Oh, I forgot some people use different terms. I meant like a person born in the equalist facilities,” I explained sheepishly. I should have been so subjective and explained it more objectively.

  Genieve shook their head. “Then yes, I’m an equalist student, umm textile-chemistry major.”

  “I assume, due to your body suit, you are as well..?” Genieve continued, and I nodded. “Climate behaviourist major.”

  “What’s it like in Textile Chemistry? All the previous daily buddies I asked said you make the same set of clothes over and over again.

  “That’s just flat out false—” Genieve said, hands on their hips and head held high. “Yes, we may create the clothes, but we also create the goddamn fabric!”

  “Really? How does that work? Does the fabric come from you or do you create the fabric out of multiple ingredients..?”

  “Well—” they began, before stopping and suddenly holding their hands inside their armpits. Was it a secret gesture only people in the host club knew?

  “What is the meaning behind the gesture..?”

  “Nothing—Let’s just move on before the guards come here. I’ve wasted enough time.” Genieve zipped past me, picking up the bike as they began dragging it.

  “But I didn’t even get to ask you how you picked your name!” I yelled after them.

  Genieve suddenly stopped after only a few steps, looking back at me while hiding their face in the crook of their neck.

  “Umm… come on, show the way to sector C already.”

  “Oh, I don’t know where that is,” I answered, truthfully.

  Yet Genieve still looked at me as if I were spewing lies.

  “WHAT! But you said—”

  “I said I know how to get there, which will take copious amounts of trial and error.”

  “Is there any way to do it faster..?” Genieve asked. I noticed how much they were shivering.

  “If it’s urgent, I think we can skip some of the usual steps.” I took off my body suit, putting it inside my bag for now. The only things I kept on were my inner layers and the gasmask, adding my military hat from my bag to the getup.

  “What are you doing..?” Genieve asked.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  I noticed them staring, but I wasn’t worried. The gasmask hid my face, and my inner layers concealed the details of my body. They couldn’t form much of an opinion on the vague idea of a silhouette.

  “It’s easier to move like this, plus any future guards we’ll encounter won’t think an equalist student—me—is missing from the facility.”

  Genieve nodded in what I hoped was understanding. Yet, I could never truly be certain. Once everything was prepared, Genieve and I began walking, the bike rolling beside us.

  “We’ll need another one of your bombs. We’ll probably encounter more guards, so just be prepared to hold on for your life.”

  “Ok—I’ll only allow you to drive because I don’t trust you with my bombs.” Though I was confused by their wariness, I nodded. They were obviously far more knowledgeable in the field, and I had only discovered that a few moments ago.

  It didn't take us long to come near the edge of the roof, what took long was figuring out how to come down.

  The facility was divided into three sectors: A through C. Sector A, the highest, housed classrooms and study areas—quiet, predictable, lightly patrolled. Sector B was the mid-level, filled with cafeterias, hallways, and temporary rooms. Storage for cleaning, gardening, and all the mundane tasks of the facility was tucked in here.

  overlapping with the outside border of the facility. That was where we needed to go. And it was by far the most monitored. Even without a current threat, guards were everywhere. Now, with the chaos from the evacuation, the number of patrols must have multiplied several times over.

  The fastest route would normally be the internal stairwells connecting the sectors, but those would also be the first places guards secured during an evacuation. Any student trying to flee would be expected to go there.

  Which meant the only viable path was one that ignored the facility’s intended infrastructure entirely.

  Getting down should have been the easy part, in theory. I studied the perimeter below us before making my suggestion.

  The trees surrounding the facility weren’t decorative—they were positioned to reduce wind pressure against the outer walls. Their height also interrupted sightlines from the ground patrols.

  Which meant if we moved through them instead of using the staircases, we could avoid the central security routes entirely.

  I suggested to Genieve that we could jump onto one of the many trees surrounding the facility.

  They didn’t look heavier than me, and if my previous research was correct, they could land unscathed. But that data was old. I had been eight, lighter, and infinitely more cautious. How the tree would hold now… I truly had no idea.

  Underneath us there were two observable guards patrolling. Only occasionally would they look around, getting dangerously close to finding us.

  I suggested dropping the bike on them, Genieve protested. Maybe they had some better ideas I hadn't even thought of. They had shown themselves to be quite resourceful themselves so I heard them out.

  “Ok look I have only one bomb left and it's a glitter bomb- the range is small and it disappears almost immediately so we have to be fast.” Genieve whispered to me, though I had questions I kept them to myself given the time.

  I took the liberty of being the first to jump since I didn't want Genieve to fail if my data was inconsistent. Taking a head start, I jumped from the roof and fell into the shapeless green leaves of the nearest tree.

  Instantly my body had been pierced with several branches. Thankfully I landed straight in the center, which meant while I was in great pain the tree had stayed hole. The guards' steps stopped just in front of the tree, and I heard the familiar click in both of their earbuds.

  Just then, Genieve threw the glitter bomb. It splattered and exploded on impact with the ground, and just a few moments later I felt another weight beside me on the tree.

  But only Genieve’s weight, the bike had been left behind on the roof. I understood logically that Genieve couldn't have brought it with them but I was still disappointed. That was the first time I had used a bike in years since my restriction.

  Quickly we moved between the different trees. We had assumed a natural holding hands position again, as we supported each other's weight and balance between the different jumps. I noticed their grip was weak, almost non-existent, randomly tightening out of nowhere. Their steps were also tight and completely tight, like they couldn't feel the branches beneath their feet.

  By the end, when we were sure the guards weren't going to find us any time soon, we climbed down. Me and Genieve were both breathing heavily, I took the opportunity to take off my gas mask to freely breath in the outside air. It hurt slightly but that was the true, unfiltered terms of the world.

  If I ever wanted to get used to it I needed to learn to live in it. I had been so focused on the escape that I hadn't gotten time to study my surroundings. There was so much going on- different animals roaming around, leaves fluttering in trees, stray branches that had fallen. I wondered if we were even still technically on equalist land right now…

  Genieve sat against the bark of a tree, doing some weird flexing motion with their hand.

  “What gesture is it this time?” I asked, plopping down beside them, trying to mirror it.

  Genieve answered my question this time, “It's just arthritis, sometimes my joints stiffen and become annoyingly hard to move.”

  “Athrtis?” I responded, “Is it like a medical condition?”

  “You could say that, I have had it basically since I was 4.”

  “Is that why you were limping before I saw you?” I asked, referring back to the hallway.

  “Ok, I wasn't limping,” Genieve corrected me, “I just fell and.. took a couple of seconds to catch my breath.”

  I nodded, I had no reason to disagree if Genevieve themselves told me the truth of their body. Maybe if I was a medical professional or inhabited the same body I could say otherwise.

  “Yeah, I get it, I have this thing myself where my heart doesn't pump enough blood.” I explained, Genieve eyes suddenly snapping towards me.

  “But how do you have so much stamina then?”

  “I don't, I just push against my limit constantly until my body forces me otherwise.”

  “And that’s just fine, for you? Isn't there any consequences if you try to push it?” Genevieve started talking with more urgency now, and I had no idea what kind of conclusion they were trying to get out of this information.

  Nethertheless I answered, “Well, so long as I stop before my heart explodes, I just need to rest for a couple of hours and breathe heavier afterwards.”

  The answer I gave didn't seem to quell any of Genieve’s questions, as they started listening to potential symptoms I crossed out one by one.

  “Lightheadedness?”

  “No.”

  “Frequent dizziness?"

  “Ehh.. Maybe, sometimes.”

  “Difficulty moving?”

  “Only in the first hour.”

  “Difficulty bending joints?!”

  “Only one documented occasion.”

  Genieve heaved a heavy sigh, muttering something under her breath as they looked at me. Their lips creased in a down turned line.

  Without another word they got up and we began moving in complete silence. I tried asking Genevieve more but only got silence or one word answers in return.

  Genieve showed me the way to the host club hide out, or what they called the current one.

  My expectations were endless.

  Would it be like the equalist facilities?

  Would it be hidden in nature? Like a bird’s nest in a tree but bigger?

  Would it be outside or inside the equalist facilities?

  Would we need to use a secret code to get inside?

  It turns out it was none of those things, as Genieve suddenly stopped me from walking further and pointed to a patch of what looked like mud. They knelt down and suddenly began digging, without a word I joined them.

  Without just a minute a small circle no bigger than the previous hole in the circle’s wall appeared. Genieve knocked on it precisely five times, the first three were loud and slow, the second two were fast and quiet.

  We waited for just a moment, and got nothing but silence in return. Genieve let out an exhale of air, leaning down with their mouth beside the circle.

  “GUYS IT'S ME! GENIEVE! OPEN UP ALREADY!” And just as Genieve yelled that, the circle suddenly began moving to reveal.