TURQUOISE

"Dare! Dare!"

A slight vexation struck him as the bottle's head pointed in his direction again. He can't help but mentally roll his golden eyeballs and curse behind his mind while holding a fake smile and occasionally faking laughs in front of his pals.

"I'm not part of this game anymore!" he stood whining and slapping the plastic table, where all of them had gathered around to play.

"No. You are." Ochre nudges him with his elbow, and places his other hand on top of the bottle. Turquoise wanted to walk out and leave, instead of enjoying this truth or dare game he seemed to get a lot more irritated by it.

"You forced me to," Turquoise protested again. He came to join the game to know and dig issues that others "might" be keeping. You know, so that he can have reasons to attack someone, to laugh about, and reasons to bully. He wants an upper hand over the others and he hates it when it is the other way around.

"So...?," Indigo, another guy from his circle cut them out, wearing an impatient look. Everyone turned at him.

"So?," Turquoise repeated putting as much "fuck you" to his tone.

"Truth or Dare?," Indigo asked, raising his thin blue eyebrow.

All of the eyes traced back to Turquoise's direction. They all fell silent for a moment waiting both for his reaction and answer.

"It's a dare," Ochre decided. Turquoise glared at him, but that wasn't enough to stop him. He even asked the whole circle to cheer for a dare.

"Dare!" Ochre shouted pumping a fist in the air.

"Dare! Dare!" They all chorused.

"Fine!" He sighed in resignation, plopping back to his seat with crossed arms in front of him.

"Hooooo," the circle cheered loudly, and he got Ochre shaking him by his shoulder.

"...but, after this, I'm off," he cut them out, putting them to lower gears, after all, they are all so loud and noisy.

"Of course, because this will be our last game for today," Crimson butted in wearing a sly smile on her face. Turquoise kind of feels a sudden chill racing down his spinal cord. He's certain something won't go right starting now, and he bets himself to start reciting protection spells as soon as possible.

"You're not asking me to do suicide, aren't you?" he said half hesitant and uneasy. He knows his circle, they're all daring, all heads up to do things people are scared of. They think highly of themselves, that they could take on anything and would conquer it.

"Well... kind of," Indigo said clapping slowly. That confirmed Turquoise's feeling of uneasiness, his mentally imbalanced friends are scheming something again.

"Yo guys, no way," he gazed around with a fake disappointed look on his face. Of course, it's Turquoise. He's putting up a front again, but at the bottom of his system his adrenaline is already pumping, his nerves awakening and he's warming up for some new adventures.

"You heard about Lotus Island?," Crimson and her black curly bob-cut hair bounced, as she pounced and landed on top of the table. She imitates a Spiderman pose as she looks around the circle. She gives Turquoise a finger gun and mouthes the words 'pew-pew'.

"This game is just a pastime, there's no way we're going to travel in broad daylight with zombie-like creatures wandering everywhere around us," Lilac spoke up, she's the oldest person within their circle at the age of 22.

"Additionally, nobody mentioned this thing to me. Did you just plan this all by yourselves? Am I the only one who doesn't have any idea about this so-called plan?" she added looking around, meeting eye to eye with the rest of the circle. Even Turquoise fell silent, he's innocent, he tells himself since he knows nothing just like Lilac. But to him, the idea isn't half as bad as it seemed. There's no harm if he tries to escape this underground facility made for the apocalypse's survivors. For a while, he thought of himself breaking out of this facility that most survivors called, The Roof. He imagines himself conquering what most feared, finding some solution to the apocalypse, and becoming a hero. Everybody will bow before him to praise how mighty he has been for saving the whole wide world.

"Thought you said nobody will be left out, we're all in this?," Lilac questioned them again.

"Look, this is just a game. There's no way we're going to take this seriously. C'mon." Turquoise put his arms across Lilac's shoulder and gave her a gentle shoulder pat. He even gave her a "🙂" face. As if saying it's fine, we're good, I'm good, even if this situation clearly states the opposite, or perhaps, who knows. The gang is planning something but excluding somebody from it.

"Um. Thanks for that. I'm so much relieved," Lilac replied sarcastically slapping away his arm off her shoulder. She then silently walks off the circle and disappeared out of that room. Crimson who's on the top of the table shrugged as she watch Lilac walk out. The moment she vanished, the circle started to chatter.

"What?!," Ochre creased his brows.

"What what?" Turquoise asked with bitterness evident in his accent.

"That," Ochre pointed at the direction where Lilac vanished from.

"What's with the Lotus Land, by the way? We all know that anything outside The Roof is nothing but risk and peril," Turquoise questioned.

Once again the room fell silent and nobody attempted to open their mouths and speak a word. Turquoise watched every expression his circle wears. Indigo looked tensed, it's as if he's got something to do with the conspiracy that's going on. However, Turquoise feels some kind of uncertainty with such a thought. Ochre is playing mindless, which simply implies he knows something. Crimson, on the other hand, climbs slowly down the table, careful not to create a noise. Onyx and Silver stood muted on the corner. Turquoise knew it. They've been scheming such a dangerous thing and are planning to conceal it from the rest. One question popped after another.

What do they want from Lotus Land? Why do they have to hide their plan? Why exclude some of them from their plan?

Wait.

"You don't think of escaping here, don't you?," Turquoise queried again while examining each one of them. Crimson was the one to shake her head. After witnessing that, he mentally gritted his teeth, albeit remained his jaws tightly clenched. He glared hard at Indigo, and then Ochre.

"What?," Ochre cried defensively.

"Everybody piss off!" Turquoise shouted furiously.

"You! Both of you, stay here," he once again throws a stare of daggers toward Ochre and Indigo. Ochre furrowed his brow as if he can't believe what he just heard.

"What's wrong?," Ochre asked walking towards him while throwing his hands in the air.

Turquoise stared at him sternly. Sorting out the thoughts inside his mind, and his rage.

"Explain." He leaned forward to the table, his cold palms laid facing down the table.

"It's initially Crimson's idea not ours," Indigo said bitterly as he strode across the room and picked the farthest spot away from the table.

[ 4 years ago]

Footsteps echoed, filling in the whole facility. Personnel clad in white hazard suits walks in haste in long white hallways. At the end of the hallway is a heavily secured door, made of titanium, probably. One personnel pulled out a nano chip, swiped it on a seemed like a scanner then encoded a nine-digit code. The heavy titanium door slides open and viola! Another hallway.

"Room 16, faster!" One shouted as they walk-run along the hallway going to the said room.

"The kid is shaking out of control!" Another echo rang.

"Hurry! Hurry! Bring the 'organism', inject immediately to the patient." Another declared waving a hand in the air.

Machines started whirring and beeping, and personnel started running again to and fro.

"It's not taking effect, Rei," a mid-40s lady in a lab coat makes her way to the tall guy with a silver beard and hair.