Omega Point

Evie stirred. She was dimly aware of something nudging her side. Her warm, plush duvet had fallen away slightly, leaving her feet exposed to the harsh, cold air of the night. The nudging gradually became more and more persistent, until she finally gave in and sat up, opening her eyes.

The first thing her gaze latched onto was a pale, aquiline face and sharp, wolf-like eyes. Her brother Christian was slouched against the wall at the end of her bed, his head resting on his left hand.

“It’s not polite to sit in someone’s room and watch them sleep, you know.” Evie grumbled, rubbing her eyes and frowning. Christian just smirked. She could never be angry, or even annoyed with him. Not properly, anyway. It had always been that way; Christian charmed everyone he met, and Evie was the one that had to pick up the pieces when he broke their hearts.

“Sorry. I hear you were looking for me.”

“Of course I was looking for you, you’re my brother and you just sodding vanished!” Evie had never been a morning person, and her brother certainly wasn’t helping. He gave a languid smile and stood up. She raised an eyebrow as she suddenly took in what he was wearing. A dark grey vest and some muddy joggers. His dark hair glistened with sweat in the moonlight shining from the window next to him. He looked exhausted, like he’d been running. But Christian never ran anywhere, even if his life depended on it.

“I had something to do.”

Evie mimicked his action and got up from the bed as well, still eyeing his unusual clothing. She picked up a satin dressing gown from a chair nearby and pulled it on over her nightclothes.

“That doesn’t sound good. Come into the kitchen and I’ll get you some breakfast.”

Christian laughed and followed her into the kitchen area, pulling back a chair from the table to sit down.

“I’ve had some, don’t worry yourself. I’m the oldest anyway, I should be the one getting you breakfast.”

“But you’re not. I’ve always had to look after you, Christian, that’s the way it’s always been and I doubt it’ll change anytime soon,” Evie yawned, picking up a bottle of pure water from a counter and sitting down opposite him. “So tell me, seriously, where were you?”

“Just... meeting some people.”

Evie maintained eye contact, arching a thin, brown eyebrow. The last time Christian had ‘met some people’, a house had been set on fire and he’d come home with a black eye. He’d always been getting into trouble, ever since he was little. It wasn’t that he started arguments purposefully, in fact around strangers he was normally quiet and observant, but if someone touched a nerve, he’d lash out at them without hesitation. During his time at school, he hadn’t been openly bullied, but he could sense people talking behind his back. All the Natural kids got it, but he was the only one that wouldn’t take it lying down. Evie often thought that this was the reason why their parents had chosen to make her Ficial; they didn’t want her to constantly be in fights like Christian. But she hated it. Christian was 100% himself, she wasn’t.

“Tell me the truth.”

“That is the truth, Evie,”

“Christian, please don’t get in trouble again. We’re fine here and I re-”

“I’m not going to get us in trouble, I’m not that stupid.”

“Prove it then. Tell me the truth.”

He opened his mouth again to retaliate, and then paused, his eyebrows knitting together in a frown. “Can I have some tea first?”

He was trying to make her laugh, trying to make her drop the subject. That was one of his famous charm tactics. Evie felt a smile tug at the corners of her mouth, struggling to suppress it.

“Oh alright, but I’m not dropping this.”

She got up, trying not to take her eyes off of him for very long in case he should disappear again, and fumbled around in one of the dark, varnished kitchen drawers for some tea cubes. Real tea leaves were very hard to come by in Sector 9. It was a lot cheaper, and mostly more practical, to use powdered tea in dissolvable casing – tea cubes. She glanced back at Christian again to make sure he was still there, before reaching up to the neglected mug shelf on the wall and selecting a generic, porcelain white model. Evie dropped a few of the murky coloured cubes into the mug and then picked out a bottle of purified water, zapped it in the microwave for a few seconds and poured it slowly over the cubes. She enjoyed watching the black swirls of tea staining the pure, clear water as they dissolved. She actually became quite entranced by it, and stared motionless for a couple of minutes until the water had truly turned into tea. She roused herself.

“You want it black, I assume?”

“Yes, cheers.”

She stirred the tea twice before setting it down in front of him and returning to her seat. Evie gave a sudden sigh and covered her face with her hands.

“Christian, what am I going to do with you?” She mumbled through her palms. He laughed as he blew on the tea to cool it.

“You sound just like mum.” He froze. She raised her head from her hands, eyes wide, and stared incredulously at him. “I’m sorry,” he said quickly, looking as shocked as she did. “It was a slip. Forget I said it.”

“Right.” Evie raised an eyebrow. A slip? Christian never slipped. Especially about something as important as that. Especially as he was the one that had made her swear that their parents would never be mentioned again. “So... anyway, these people that you were out meeting, who were they?”

“...Just some old friends.”

“Chris, you don’t have any old friends. You promised me the truth. You know you don’t need to protect me from things anymore.”

“Well...” He stared down into the mug as she had done minutes earlier, watching the steam rise from the dark liquid. “They’re... protesters, of sorts.”

Evie frowned. “And what exactly do you mean by protesters?”

“I mean that they don’t play by the rules. They don’t go to work Evie, they aren’t registered at any work stations in this Sector, they know things. In fact, you know that graffiti up by George Street in the New Town? They did that.”

“So you’ve been hanging out with unemployed vandals? Is that what you’re saying? I thought you’d changed, Christian. You promised me you’d stay out of trouble here.”

“C’mon Eves. I knew you’d be like this, this is exactly the reason why I didn’t want to tell you. You just don’t understand this sort of thing.”

“I don’t see that there’s much to understand, Christian. And what do they live off if they don’t work? I suppose they’re burglars too.”

“Well... I, um, I haven’t exactly asked them that yet, but I’m sure they’ve got a valid reason for it if they do steal things. It’s not like they’re dangerous, they really know about what’s going on around here. They know the underground of Sector 9.”

“I wasn’t aware that we had an underground,” Evie gave a sardonic smirk, leaning back on her chair. A sudden change had come over her. She no longer felt concerned for her brother, just fed up.

“Seriously, Evie, listen. I said I’d meet them again down in the suburbs tomorrow night. Since this is all out in the open now, I was wondering... maybe... if you’d like to come with me?”

“Come with you? To some dilapidated shed to listen to a group of balding middle-aged men rant about ‘the good old days’? No thanks, Chris.”

“If you met them, you’d understand. They’re planning something. Something huge.” He gave her a pleading look. When she remained firm, he changed tactics. “Don’t you ever get fed up of all this? Same routine everyday? Factory, home, factory, home. Is that going to be you for the rest of your life?”

That struck a nerve. The smirk dropped from Evie’s face. She let her chair fall forward again. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, that if their plan works, then we could be out of here.”

“If you want to leave, Christian, we can go anytime you want. But I’ll still have to work, because I know that you won’t. It’ll just be a factory somewhere else.”

“Not like that. Out of this system. Free.”

“Free? We’re not being held captive by anything.”

“Oh really? Well, The Confronters would say otherwise.” Evie had to laugh at a name like ‘The Confronters’. They sounded like some sort of super-hero league. Christian frowned at her reaction, taking a sip of his now almost cold tea.

“The Confronters? Who came up with that name?”

“I don’t know. But the name doesn’t matter. You’d be amazed by what’s going on around here, Evie. Just please, this once, trust me. Come with me.”

Evie chewed her lip. Worst case scenario: The Confronters turned out to be some sort of hardcore criminal gang who wanted to rob the nearest credit bank. Best case scenario: She managed to get out of the routine. Get out of the system.

Out of the system.

“Oh, alright. Just this once.” She smiled, her eyes drifting back to the ray of moonlight shining in through the window.

They could be free.