||  Saturday, afternoon ||

The night had been rough, and Callum felt as if he hadn’t slept at all when he woke up in the morning because of people shouting outside. All three of them had gotten up to look through the window and down towards the street, where an angry group of people walked by, protesting the upcoming changes in their law.

Callum felt sick to his stomach, knowing his very own parents had a hand in it. They were part of the reason all these people were as angry as they were. Angry enough to go out and protest all night long.

While Ayla and Callum had still been standing in front of the window, Freddy had turned on the tv. He switched channels until he reached the political Channel 3, turning up the volume to hear what was being told.

But Callum already knew what was going on in town; and not just in town, but all around Terraqua. Elliot had continuously sent him messages, keeping him updated on how things were on the other side of town. In Hobtown, and other neighbourhoods, things were worse than they were outside the motel.

Compared to the angry but controlled mass of people walking through the streets in the richer parts of town, it was practically anarchy in Hobtown.

For shear measure, Elliot had even added some photo’s, showing how the angry people were throwing things on mass fires, destroying public property and according to Elliot, people were chanting things about segregation.

Things were bad, very bad. The news didn’t show anything different from the pictures Callum had already received, but it did offer him more information on how bad things exactly were a few hours after Elliot’s last text.

…are no leaders who seem to lead the protesting crowd, that grew much bigger overnight. As peacekeepers continue to try and disperse the groups to prevent escalation, politicians are escorted out of their houses and brought into safety as a precaution.

“Mom and Dad are being guided away too,” Freddy told Callum and Ayla, turning around to show them his phone. “Dad’s telling us to flee out of town, since we’re probably not safe either.”

“And where are we supposed to go?” Ayla asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest. With a small smile on her face she continued; “This is bullshit! Why do we have to suffer? I didn’t do shit and I’m just like them!” She gestured towards the tv, where they were currently showing footage of Hobtown. “I have a stupidly low EQ and I want to understand but I don’t and that’s not my fault—,”

“Calm down, Ay.” Callum got up to pull her in his arms. “You’ll get there. We’ll help you.”

“It’s not important right now,” Freddy said, kneeling in front of Ayla. “These riots are worldwide, and they could easily change the course of our future. People are sick and tired of segregation, and Elliot and Callum aren’t the only people who like people from a different class. But right now, we need to stay safe to stick around for that future.”

“And again, where  do we go?”

“I… don’t know,” Freddy sighed. “This isn’t contained to our city, so we won’t be safe anywhere near decent society. Maybe the news hasn’t reached the far outskirts of our civilization yet—”

“We go to aunt Martha,” Ayla cut him short, shrugging as if she didn’t care.

“We don’t know where any of our family lives, Ayla,” Freddy mumbled, biting his lip.

“She lives in the woods of Chester, I heard Mom and Dad talk about the fact she betrayed them by moving to some community there. Mom was angrily telling Dad that aunt Martha was dead to her because she joined—and I quote—a cult that hates everything about our government and how they should be considered outlaws.”

“Are you sure?” Callum asked, impressed Ayla had such information to begin with. But Ayla might have had a low EQ, she wasn’t…

“I’m not stupid,” she hissed at him. “I don’t control my fucking emotions, but I do have a set of brains. And Dad was trying to convince Mom things needed to change or else more people would follow aunt Martha. Those aren’t my words, those are his.”

“The woods of Chester are about two hours away. We should leave while people are still targeting politicians who haven’t been brought to safety yet.” Freddy stood up, grabbing the few items he had with him when they arrived. “We’ll get some food out of town and we won’t take any bathroom breaks until we’ve been out for at least an hour.”

“You’re acting as if they’re going to kill us,” Callum said, more to himself than to Freddy.

“I don’t know, but you kissing Elliot caused government to introduce those laws, Cal. I have no idea what people think of you right now.”

“A lot of people in lower classes admired him for doing it,” Ayla added with a smirk—one of the few times her emotions seem to really match her feelings—and she nudged Callum. “You loveee him.”

“I… don’t love him,” Callum said, rolling his eyes. “Nonetheless, Freddy is right. They might have liked me back then; they could easily hate me for causing this shit right now.”

“So, Chester it is,” Freddy said, gesturing towards the door. “We go to Aunt Martha; tell her we too hate government and settle quietly to come up with a plan on how to deal with all of this.”

“Or we just lay low and wait for enough people to kill each other and the rest surrenders.” Ayla blinked her eyes rapidly. The fact she showed no emotions was something Callum was used to. But this time it gave him the chills.

“We’ll think of a plan,” he told her, tapping her nose. “I hope nobody kills over this. Though I’m not sure how this will work out since one of the sides has issues controlling their anger, or any emotion for that matter.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Freddy grabbed his car keys, tossing them towards Callum. “You drive, it’s great practise and no sane peacekeeper is going to pull you over to check your license.”

“Really, Freddy? Now?” Callum laughed, still holding the keys to himself. He only needed to complete his driver’s test in a month to get his license anyway. This would be great practice indeed.

They all moved to the car, trying to keep a low profile by acting as normal as possible. Callum, however, had pulled the hood of his hoodie over his head like Giovanni always had, hoping people wouldn’t recognize them. But when they came outside, there was nobody there. Callum would’ve said he could hear a needle drop, but that would be a lie. There were plenty of sounds further away, by the sounds of it from a protest a few blocks away. Callum’s best guess was that people were protesting outside the neighbourhood’s community center—for whatever reason.

It was evident people had passed the motel after they had arrived the previous evening, but it wasn’t really a logical place for a protest anyway. There were no politicians here, nor was it an important place to the government. If any, government would’ve loved to tear the place down and build something fancy instead. But in that moment, Callum was glad that nobody was there, and they could drive out of town unseen. Because at the first stop they made for Ayla to make a quick bathroom break, he had three messages; from Arlon, Elliot and even Giovanni.

And they were all warning him that they were looking for anyone with family ties to the upper-class politicians; including Giovanni, who was being moved to a new location by peacekeepers to keep him safe.

They really needed to get to Chester and figure things out as soon as possible.