Linnie didn’t answer me as the door swung shut behind me. Suddenly, the room was swathed in darkness, momentarily blinding me. I blinked, only the dull blinking light of my cheap Starla assistant lighting the room. She was sitting in standby mode, waiting for a command before she would spring to life.

I used her now. “Starla, please turn on the lights and level 2 dimness.”

The small cylindrical device filled with green light and the lights in the room turned on just a few shades brighter than pure darkness. It revealed the small little room that was the home shared with another of my sisters, Meryl. She was currently a rumpled mess of blankets on the far side of the rectangular room. She laid down facing away from me towards the wall. My own bed— a little twin mattress still bearing the unmade sheets from the night before— was shoved up alongside hers.

I gazed at Meril a long moment, then turned towards the kitchen, the rumble in my stomach something I could no longer ignore. Depending on the yellow-shirt overseeing us at Gage's, it was not uncommon for me to go a full day without eating at work. Easy to say, Reid was not one of Gage’s lackeys that made cure his clone workers were properly fed.

Even though I was certain Meryl was not sleeping, I quietly stepped towards the long kitchen counter that sat on one side of the room. A buzzing refrigerator sat beside it. It was short, but it wasn’t meant to hold much. I opened it and frowned, looking down at the two packets of rations that were left. Not only did that mean that Meryl hadn’t had hers yet tonight, but it also meant we hadn’t received new ones like we were supposed too. I grabbed one of the two and made sure to check with Linnie in the morning before heading to Gage’s for work.

I popped the packet into the Cooker, and grabbed out one of the last VenWaters, swigging back some of the blue liquid. Even though the ground out her in Drowner territory was covered half the time in water, the government was even less enthused to provide the Clones with any drinking water on top of the food they already gave us. Even though it tasted metallic and smelled like chlorine, I chugged the fake water down quickly, savoring the liquid.

The Cooker beeped, and I pulled out my ration. It was supposed to resemble mac n’ cheese, but it looked more like neon yellow much. However, I was too hungry to care. I pressed a button on the cutlery dispenser and received a small cardboard spoon. I ate quickly, the food burning the top of my mouth and my throat as swallowed it too fast. Far too soon, my little cardboard bowl was empty, and I stepped back up to the counter, stepping on a switch to open up the composter, throwing them in.

As I finished my meal I turned back to look at Meryl. She had shifted, and I could see her eyes were wide open, staring at the ceiling.

Just as I thought, she was having another one of her days. Meryl had taken Ari’s incident worse than the rest of us. I felt a small stab of guilt, as I realized she probably hadn’t shown up to work again today. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so harsh with Linnie. Between Rilyn breaking the law, and Meryl not showing up for her duties at her restaurant it was only a matter of time before Gage came to personally knock on our door.

And Gage was someone none of his clones ever wanted to see in person. Things far worse than a bruise on the cheek would come out of that.

I stared mutely at Meryl, at a loss for words. I had already tried everything I could think of before. Ask her questions, try getting her to talk. But by now I had learned that once she tuned out, there was no way of breaching her barrier. She was blinder to the world than I was when deeply immersed in my games. Only I could turn mine off, she couldn’t.

“Sorry if I woke you,” I muttered. She didn’t reply, just shifting again so she wasn’t facing me. Not that I had expected her too.

I sighed deeply but quickly moved back to Starla. If Meryl didn’t want to talk, there was no point standing around pointlessly. I grabbed my discarded sensors from the night before, attaching them to my arms and legs. That way not only could I see the V-World, I could feel it too. When it came to higher functioning games, an assistant like Starla was needed to plug in. I sat down on the only stiff chair in the room, and closed my eyes. From this point on, I didn’t need to have them open to see, nor would I need to use my lips to speak inside the game.

“Starla, activate Galactica.”