Traitors

I stare at the back door leading into The Tunnel. I was gone for three days, longer than I anticipated. I didn't know what would await me inside, but there's no use in putting it off any longer. I push down the handle and open the door slipping in quietly. I seal the door quickly to keep the cold air from entering. I hear fighting grunts from down the hall giggling to myself thinking nothing has changed. I grip my bag on my shoulder and head toward the training room.

I shuffle inside where I witness Hunter and Quela training again. Those two are like clockwork as he trains her everyday before everyone else. I smile at the two of them knowing Hunter favourites her and is very protective of her. Whether she knows it or not, he genuinely cares for her.

Even though she is blindfolded, a huge disadvantage, Hunter doesn't hold back. He launches his fists briskly toward her. I watch in awe as she dodges all of them. She retaliates with a couple jabs into his stomach. He fumbles backward and she rolls forward swiping her leg around dropping him to the floor. He lands on his back with a laugh. She crawls on top of him with her fist set back ready to strike. She holds an intimidating position before revealing a cheeky smile.

"How was that, coach?" She giggles. Hunter joins her laughter.

"Perfect." He utters to her. Even though it was a mere whisper, it shocked my ears. He spoke. He lifts her off of him. "Good work, Quela." She blushes at the sound of her name. Hunter nods toward me with a smile before exiting the room.

Quela bites her bottom lip still sitting on the floor mat. She unravels her blindfold giving her eyes a rub. She opens them and blinks a few times. I become hypnotized seeing her eyes for the first time. They're a bright icy blue colour looking almost white in the center, but dark blue appears around the rims of her irises. She squints in my direction finally realizing someone is here.

"Hello?" She asks fumbling to her feet. "Who are you?" I sit back appalled. That's right, she's never seen what I look like.

"It's Phoe." I call to her.

"Phoe? Wow!" She giggles. "I didn't picture you with such bright red hair. You look like Ariel." She gets off the mat and heads toward me. "You know from that old Disney movie." She plops down next to me. "I used to watch that all the time before," she stops, "well you know." She fakes a smile. "I don't watch much of anything anymore, really." A laugh bubbles from her throat, but I can't even force a chuckle. The room falls quiet and I try to think of something to say.

"I've never heard Hunter speak before." I nudge her slightly.

"Really?" She laughs. "He's a chatterbox. Sometimes I can't get him to shut up." She smiles, making me unsure if she's being sarcastic or not. "It's weird how shy he gets around other people, but with me he seems comfortable enough to create full sentences. I guess because I can't really see him and he needs to talk to me." She shrugs wrapping her blindfold around her eyes and tying it behind her head. "I like not being able to see." I scrunch my face in confusion. "I get to see the world for what it really is and I pick up on things that others are too blind to see sitting right in front of them." She walks toward the door, but stops before leaving. She turns to face me. "So talk to him, okay?"

"Talk to who?" I ask terribly discombobulated.

"He cares more than he's letting on." She sneers walking out of the room.

I brush some loose hair behind my ear as I digest everything she just said to me. Did she mean Fierce? If he actually did care, he had a funny way of showing it. He threw me to the mat more than anyone else just because I wouldn't cut my hair. I tried to do different things with it like putting it in a bun, but it would fall out. I would rather him yell at me for it than cut my hair, but I digress.

The room suddenly swarms with pumped up bodies ready for training. I pull my hair back into my typical ponytail and head over to the mat Lia and I normally practice on. I place my hands on my hips as I rock back and forth on my feet, trying to psyche myself up. Lia walks in with Gabe who is laughing. Her cheeks are flushed from embarrassment until she glances my way, surprised to see me. She tosses her bag over onto the bench next to mine running toward me. She wraps her arms around my body embracing me in a tight hug.

"You're alive!" She exclaims in a squeal. "No one has heard from you in a few days. You weren't answering your phone. We all thought you were being taken care of by those government rats." I pull her off of me due to the fact she is cutting off my circulation.

"I'm okay," I mumble to her, "I just needed a few days away from here." I sigh softly.

"You missed quite a bit actually." Lia jumps back readying her stance to begin. I follow her actions. "Simmons was taken in for questioning yesterday. We have no idea why or what exactly happened." We begin to spar as she continues. "It left the boys," she motions to Hunter and Gabe who are stationed by the door, "freaking out." She swings her fist toward me, but I dodge by ducking. "I mean, not out in the open. They locked themselves in Gabe's office for a few hours and didn't say a word to anyone once they left."

"That's weird." I huff out. Lia nods in agreement.

Isaac Simmons is one of the few rebels sent out to infiltrate the buildings we have our sights on to burn down. If he was taken in for questioning, it must mean they're suspicious of him about something, or maybe it was entirely different reason as to why they brought him in. It's hard to tell when you don't have all the facts which I can see why the guys were a bit shaken about it. I'm sure they had to discuss what they were going to do about it or where to go from there. Lia forcefully strikes my jaw catching me off guard.

"Oh my God!" She squeals. "Are you okay? I'm so sorry." I wave her off.

"I'm distracted." I confess shrugging. I allow Lia to continue to throw more punches in my direction.

Fierce stalks in with his arms folded. He eyes me down, but casually makes his rounds to other mats knocking people down as he goes. As I suspect when he reaches us, he pulls on my hair and I tumble to the ground. I huff in frustration climbing back onto my feet. I launch a kick towards Lia who blocks it easily. Fierce stands on our mat refusing to leave. I block Lia's combination of three punches and a kick. I take a hit to the thigh before turning to Fierce.

"Can we help you with something?" I hiss. "It's hard to focus when you're hovering."

"You haven't been focused at all today." Lia whispers to me.

"What did I tell you a few days ago?" He appears calm, but I can hear in his voice that he's pissed.

"That I'm a great listener and I never ignore anything you say." I glare up, testing him.

"Do you think this is a joke?" He snarls at me growing madder by the minute.

"Am I laughing?" I hear Lia snicker behind me which she tends to do when she's uncomfortable. "You know me well enough to know I take everything seriously." I smirk adding to the sarcastic remark.

Fierce shifts his gaze toward Lia and then back to me. He shakes his head pointing toward the bench. My first day back and he's benching me. I roll my eyes and march my way to the bench I was previously sitting on. I rest my elbows on my knees as I watch the other rebels train.

Fierce ignores me the entire time as he instructs everyone else. He's not so hard on them, not the way he is with me. It might because he privately trained me for awhile and feels responsible for me as far as combat goes. He tries to be intimidating and he may have everyone else fooled, but I can see right through it. I've spent enough time with him to know what he's really like and he's not someone to fear. I watch the clock tick slower than normal, but eventually the training session is over. I gather my things like everyone else and head for the door.

"Detope!" So close. "Come here." I turn back around and face Fierce. His normally stern face appears softer than earlier. "Out with it. What's your damage?" He keeps his arms folded across his chest. I shake my head at him. "Still mad at me because I made an example out of you?" I suck in my lip and bite down on the skin. "Not going to talk?" I roll my eyes and look away from him. "Fine, if you won't talk then we have to get the issue out some other way." He strides towards a practice mat. "Drop your stuff and c'mere."

I toss my belongings to the bench and drag my feet over to the mat. I don't know what this has to do with anything, but I go along with it. He readies his stance and waits for me. I sigh already exhausted, but I feel fire deep within me begin to ignite. I don't wait to see if he wants to take the offensive or defensive first. I charge, thrusting my fists toward him with power. He jerks back knocking my hands to the side. I swing my right fist under and catch the bottom of his chin. He takes a few steps back and grips his jaw. My adrenaline beginning to take over.

"You only pick on me," I grunt out as he takes the time to pop his jaw, "and I'm sick of it."

He regains his stance and swings his arms frantically, but I deflect them with ease. I quickly duck under his arm, but when I readjust he plants his fist into my cheek. I skid back away from him, but he continues to charge toward me. His eyes wild with intensity. I block his fists twice, noticing he's keeping his torso unguarded. I dodge his arm swinging toward me and I jab my fist into his stomach. He fumbles and I force my foot up into his chest. He crashes into the wall behind him hunching over his knees. I run up to him and jam my elbow down into his back.

I stare down at him, wondering if he is giving up. Instead, he shifts his legs around in an attempt to trip me. I jump up avoiding it. He climbs back onto his feet not ready for the fight to be over. He rushes toward me flicking his feet up at me. I successfully block his one foot, but his other whips across my cheek plowing me into the mat. Fierce towers over me shaking his head.

"I don't pick on you." He barks down at me. "I want you to be the best, but you won't be the best without discipline." He rests his hands on his knees. "Sometimes I don't even think you know what you're fighting for or that all of this is a joke to you."

He turns away with a disappointed look on his face, but I kick my legs around like he did earlier causing him to land on his back. I push off my hands lifting my body up to swing my right leg up and over, nailing my kneecap into his stomach. He lets out a groan and I force my body up and straddle his. I stare down into his eyes as I thrust my fist into his cheek. His head moves with the blow. He doesn't have time to recover before I do it again. He catches my wrist the third time forcing me to stop. I struggle in his grip, but he won't let up. I raise my other hand to knock some sense into him, but he latches onto that one too.

"You know damn well why I'm fighting. You were there when it happened." He looks away from me knowing I'm right. "So don't tell me that I'm not taking this seriously when I am." I get my hand free and don't hesitate punching him a third time.

"Detope," he growls at me, "that's enough. You won." I stare down at him for what feels like an eternity before I get off of him. I've never known him to admit defeat, especially from me. I walk over to my stuff on the bench and start packing up. "You used to like me." He admits from the floor. I stop fussing with my belongings and look over at him. "Fuck, I used to like me." He rises to his feet. "What happened, Detope?" I sigh not really knowing the answer. "I don't want to be like my father."

"You won't be." I try to reassure him, but he shrugs.

"But I'm an asshole just like him." I nod not denying it.

"Yeah, but you're a different kind of asshole." I say which gets a laugh out of him.

"Thanks, Detope." He says sarcastically walking toward me. "You know I'm sorry, right? I should not have said the majority of things I've said to you the past few days."

"I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have provoked you when I know you've been pretty stressed out." I smirk. "But I want you to know that I'm just apologizing because I know I did the wrong thing, but I will continue to do it anyway." Fierce steps closer to me laughing under his breath while shaking his head at me.

"Only you, Phoenix." He smiles at me as I express a surprised, stunned face. "What?" He asks noticing the expression.

"You never call me by my first name." I hide my smile. "I wasn't ready for it." He's within arms length now.

"I wasn't ready for you to beat me today. It's been awhile since you've won against me." He grins down at me. "Can I let you in on a little secret?" He says quietly before leaning closer toward me. His warm breath sending goosebumps over my entire body. "I didn't let you win." He whispers into my ear before backing away.

I stare up into his eyes as I notice their locked on mine. His golden brown irises hypnotizing me into a trance. He makes no effort to move making me think he's lost too. I feel his hand gently caress my arm suddenly paralyzing me. This was something else I wasn't ready for. I've been incredibly done with his bullshit the past few days and now I'm frozen just by a single touch. He's the only one who I can completely hate one minute then absolutely adore the next. He softly places his hands on my hips tugging me closer to him; our eyes never breaking contact. My heart beats wildly against my chest and I'm pretty sure he can hear it. He moves one of his hands up from my hip to drag my face closer to his until we are sharing one breath. My head spins hoping this moment is real.

A sound echoes in the hallway. Our heads shoot nervously towards the door which is wide open. Fierce steps away from me in a panic. I curl some loose hair behind my ear releasing a sigh before I turn back around to grab my stuff. Fierce stares at me as I pull my bag up and onto my shoulder. I give him a look of despondency, not because he was going to kiss me, but because it didn't happen. I bite my lip heading toward the door. Adding onto my disappointment, he doesn't follow me.