Wrenfeather Saga Chapter 6

This chapter is from Wren's perspective

After a miserable night of forging all kinds of metal Mobrik appeared and said, “Follow me, the Overseer has a few questions.” I follow him and we walk to the Overseer’s office. We walk inside and see the Overseer sitting at a desk. He looks up from his work and says, “I need your full name. In case your parents ever find replacements for you.” I don’t answer, remembering Julie’s punch in the stomach the last time she spoke to the Overseer. “Oh, it’s all right,” said the man. “You’re allowed to tell me your name.” I look down and say, “Wren Black.” He writes in a big book and says, “What were the other girl's names?” 

“The girl my age is Julie Black, the youngest girl is Sylvia and I’m not sure what the other girl's name is.” 

The Overseer scratched the names into the book and says dismissively, “Mobrik show her to her bunk.”

We walk into a room filled with bunk beds, Mobrik shows me a cistern and I get a drink. He walks out and I walk between the bunks looking for an empty one. I hear a soft sob and see Sylvia curled up on a bunk in front of me, I quickly walk over to her. She looks up at me and throws herself into my arms. I look down at Sylvia and realize she has a bruise on her arm. I gently lift her arm to examine the bruise and ask concerned, “Are you ok, what happened?”

“He hit me 'cause I took too long cleaning a spill,” she starts to cry, “I wanna go home.”

I hold her tight in my arms and murmur, “I’m sure we will soon.” I hum a small melody and we fall asleep holding each other.

I wake up to a boy ringing a bell in my ear with a start. I look around and see Julie in the bunkbed next to ours, she is covering her head with her pillow. I lean over and shake her, “Come on Julie we have to get up.” I slide out of bed and lift Sylvia into my arms. Julie gets down and we follow the flow of children to a table. Julie and I sit at the table and I set Sylvia between us. A boy places a bowl and spoon in front of the three of us along with a cup of water. I suddenly realize I’m famished and quickly scoop spoonfuls of the soup into my mouth. I eat another bowl of soup and then stand, stretching. A voice from behind me says, “Back to work Tools, it’s my job to make the implements learn the system you eat soup, wash your face then head back to the factory floor to do your job understand?” I nod and start to walk away gesturing for the others to follow. Mobrik grabs Sylvia and walks her through a door. She looks back at us despairingly and I have to look away knowing there is nothing I can do.

I forge sword after sword, fork after fork but as I work I realize the boy who works with me is producing twice as many as I am. Every so often I notice he glances over at my pile, which is embarrassingly small, and his face darkens. As I work I notice people are swinging from rafter to rafter. I ask quietly the boy, “Who are those people up on the rafters?” The boy doesn’t look at me but says under his breath, “They’re Maintenance Managers, they make sure we are doing our jobs. Don’t get on their bad side.” He looks at me quickly then turns back to his work. I go back to work trying, and failing, to catch up.

A Maintenance Manager walks by our table and stops when he sees my pile of weapons. “Tool I haven’t seen a pile like that for a long time. Make quota or I’ll have to report you to the Overseer.” I just nod and try to work faster.

I walk between the bunks and find Sylvia fast asleep in her bunk. I crawl into the bed careful not to wake her and try to sleep. Julie walks in exhausted and climbs into her bed. I scoot closer to Julie and say, “How are you holding up?” She has a gleam in eye and my stomach sinks, “I think we can escape, run while we are heading to the factory floor.”

“Shh… we can’t escape Julie! We are outnumbered, haven’t you seen the Maintenence Managers, the people in the rafters?” 

“Maybe so but I think I can make it! I did see them, I thought they were monkeys or something.”

“Maybe you can escape but I don’t think I could. What about Sylvie, there’s no way we could get her and escape. We are not escaping.”

“What if-”

“No Julie we aren’t escaping! Go to bed,” I say exasperatedly and roll over to sleep.