The entire camp vowed to do their best to hide the child whenever the peacekeepers would decide to come. Despite this, Thya’s family prepared for the worst. In the event the peacekeepers came, Lance was to take baby Shell and a small bag packed with supplies and run as fast as he could away from the camp and city. Amelia tried to comfort Thya but she was pushed away. Thya closed herself off even in the city. She walked silently and a few steps away from Amelia. Amelia felt the distance in her soul and felt herself get annoyed with the distance between them.

“You can’t keep pushing me away, Thya.” She said one day as they were walking back to camp laden with food.

“I don’t know what you’re speaking of.”

Amelia set her food down in front of Thya causing her to stop. “Yes, you do. You’re pushing away from me and your family and everyone else. We will do our best to save your sister but you won’t even look at her!”

“I don’t want to get attached if she’s just going to be taken away,” Thya said stiffly. “Don’t tell me this shit that it’s not going to happen. It happened dozens of times in the past camp. Every time, the family planned to hide the baby. Every time, they failed and sometimes people were even killed! They don’t see us as people, Amelia! We are just pests that can be wiped out for their greater cause.”

“If rats can kill a third of our race with the plague then we can fight off some stupid triangles. Tomorrow we’ll go into the city and purchase swords. Two of them. One for you and one for me. We’ll fight them off. I won’t let them take Shell.”

“It’s no use, Amelia! Triangles are trained killers!”

“We have to do something!” Amelia said grabbing Thya’s wrist in her hand. “I can’t lose you and losing your family means losing you. Thya, have I ever failed you?”

Thya looked at Amelia, “No.”

“Then trust me.”

“Okay, I will.”

Amelia pulled the girl close to her and embraced her. She allowed Thya to burry her face in her shoulder. The two stood there for a few moments before gathering up their supplies and continued on their way to the camp. As the approached, they were stopped by one of the older women.

“Take the supplies and run to the river. The triangles are here,” she whispered urgently.

Thya froze but Amelia grabbed her arm and stopped her. “Grain, can you take the supplies to the river. Thya’s sister has just been born with a mark we need to protect her.”

Grain considered the supplies, “I’ll do my best, it's the least I can do for the two of you. Amelia, kick ‘em where it hurts.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Amelia smiled and handed off her burden and dragged Thya away.

“Amelia, Shell will be taken away,” Thya whispered brokenly.

“Shh, believe in me. When we get into the camp go for one of the cooking pans.” Amelia said. “The heavy ones that go straight into the fire.”

“Okay.”

“Aim for the head. Swing hard and protect yourself.” Amelia said. “If one of them starts running to you run. Just bolt into the woods.” Amelia pulled Thya to a stop and kissed her cheek. “Goodluck.”

The two started running. They sprinted into the camp Thya ran towards the cooking fires while Amelia headed straight towards the five triangles and jumped on the turned back of one. The triangle spun and tried to knock her off but Amelia kicked his knees in. Cal came running out of the medical tent with a chair and knocked it over one of the others. Thya came running and swung at the head of a female triangle who immediately collapsed to the ground. Soon every able man and woman of the camp had flooded over the triangles.

After a few minutes, Amelia lost sight of Thya.

“Stop! Stop it! We don’t kill here!” called a woman from the back and soon the fighting died down. Not because of that but because of someone else. Every head turned to face Thya her hair waving in the gentle breeze. Her head cover in the hand of a triangle. The circle on her forehead clear in the ray of sunlight.

Amelia ran towards her, pushing past the stunned faces of her people. She stood in front of Thya, forming a shield in front of her.

“Amelia, what is that on her forehead?” a man asked.

“It’s just a mark,” Thya whispered.

“She’s marked?” someone shouted from the back. “She’s been lying to us!”

“She’s just like the rest of them!” shouted a woman.

Whispers and shouts of anger began to start. The triangles ignored, as they slowly began to recover.

“She’s just like us!” Amelia shouted. “She doesn’t fit into the hierarchy that the other marks do. We’ve all been oppressed and forced to live outside of their cities.”

People in the back started to push forward and one of the triangles grabbed Thya before Amelia landed a solid kick in his arm. It was a mob. Amelia desperately trying to protect Thya not only from the people in their camp but also from the triangles. She was being attacked and dragged away from Thya. The faces of the people who she’d been raised with flashed past her. Cal was being pushed out of the mob and she could see him desperately trying to help her. Eventually, a heavy blow landed on her head and she fell to the ground, getting pinned by a triangle.

“Anyone else want to mess with us?” The triangle shouted. Amelia twisted to see Thya passed out on the ground. A triangle was beginning to tie her arms together. The camp backed away.

“Jeff, I think we’ve got everything we need. Let’s take these two traitors in and see what the King wants to be done with them.” said a female who had previously been knocked down.

The man she was talking too aimed a kick at Amelia’s head. She felt the impact and the last thing she saw was Lance running into the woods with a bundle in his arms his mother trailing after him.

She woke up with her hands and ankles tied together. Amelia’s head ached and opening her eyes caused a spike of pain to shoot through her head. She coughed, stirring the dust around her. She was in a small cell with bars and on the other side leaned a female triangle in dark clothes.

“Only one guard? Obviously, I didn’t do a very good job.” Amelia huffed with a smile.

“State your name, age, and symbology.” the guard said.

Amelia rolled her eyes. “My name is Amelia, I am eighteen, I’m unmarked.”

“Do you know why you are here?”

“I protected a child from being taken from its family.”

“You prevented the placement of a symbolized child into a proper family.” the guard said looking at a sheet of paper. “You also attacked a group of guards and knowingly hid an abnormal from the squares.”

“Do your leaders care as much about you as you do for them?” Amelia said, staring pityingly at the guard. “Why should some idiot be allowed to control you just because he has a square on his arm?”

The guard ignored Amelia. “Your sentence has yet to be determined.

“What did I do wrong though?” Amelia shot. “I was protecting an infant.” The guard took a deep breath but Amelia continued. “Aren’t we all just people? If we both got cut we would both bleed the same color. We have the same physical composure. The only reason you’re seen as above me is a triangle on your jaw. I was cast out of my family because I bore no mark. I don’t know what it’s like to have a mother or a father. My childhood was spent trying desperately to help the rest of camp. At the end of the day while you ate your family dinner I had watered down sprouts if there were any sprouts left. I didn’t have a mother to wash me when I got dirty. The women of my camp adopted me and took turns raising me. I had a patchwork family. You? You probably had a mother who taught you how to fight. A father who taught you the difference between right and wrong. I had ten mothers who taught me how to weave a sleeping mat. I had that many fathers that taught me how to climb the trees for the highest fruit. I had the members of camp cheer as I took my first steps. We aren’t so different.”

The guard looked at her before turning and beginning to walk away. She looked back at Amelia after taking a few steps. “At your camp was there a boy? He’d be around your age now. He had blonde hair when he was born. Striking blue eyes? He had one thumb that was shorter than the other.”

“Cal? He’s studying under our mediwitch. He was there for the delivery of the baby I was rescuing.” Amelia said carefully.

“They kept the name we gave him?” The girl said turning completely around.

“It was written on his arm when they found him.” She said recalling what Cal had told her when they were younger.

“I wrote it there. He was my little brother. I didn’t want to give him away.” The guard said softly. “We kept him for a month hoping each day we’d find a mark on him. Did he also have… What did you call it? A patchwork family?”

“Yeah, we were like siblings,” Amelia said with a smile.

“I’m glad he got to have a sister after all.”

“Why did you let him go? Why didn’t you fight for him?” Amelia asked.

The guard shook her head, “You wouldn’t understand. We can’t keep you here. It’s just the way things are.”

“You were his family!”

“I was four! I could barely reach the edge of his crib!” The guard shouted.

Amelia pushed her head through the bars. “You were four! He couldn’t even speak! He was just a baby! Your brother was a baby and your parent’s just tossed him out because he didn’t have a triangle on his left fucking arse cheek!”

“What was I supposed to do?”

“Be an older sister.”

The guard slammed her hand on the switch by the door and the lights went out. Amelia was thrown into darkness. There was no door slamming to be heard so she could only believe the guard was still in there with her. Amelia sighed and pulled her head back into her cell. She blindly began to search for an exit. She found the door with a heavy lock she couldn’t break. Pulling at a few of the bars, she found that one or two were loose. She took to slowly moving them back and forth. She pulled and pushed trying to wear them down. Amelia could almost hear the guards mind turning.

Amelia felt hands cover the ones she was holding the bar with. She looked up to see the barely lit up face of the guard. She put her finger to her lips and walked to the door softly sliding a key into the lock. Amelia walked to it.

“Promise me that if I help you and your abnormal out of here I will have a place in this camp of yours?”

“I promise to the best of my ability.”

The lock clicked. The guard immediately grabbed Amelia and cuffed her wrists behind her back. “Shut up and look angry,” was whispered into her ear.

Amelia struggled slightly as she walked alongside the triangle beside her. A few triangles passed them with looks of disgust towards Amelia and nods at her guard. Her guard led her to a heavy door with two stoic guards on either side of it.

“Officer Leann Yingly escorting prisoner 18904567.” her guard said clearly.

“No personnel are allowed in this area currently.”

Leann sighed, “This is where they’re testing the abnormal, right?”

“Correct, Officer Yingly.”

“I’ve been cleared to enter with prisoner 18904567 to see what affects the abnormal has on people she considers family.”

Amelia growled, “We both have names!”

The guard at the door considers the two of them. “I trust you, Leann. You can go in and see the abnormal.”

The door opened and the duo walked through. Amelia spat at the guard as they passed him. Leann tugged her down the hallway and pushed her through a door. Amelia landed hard on her face. She struggled to sit up.

“This the girl that came in with it?” Someone asked.

“Yes, sir,” Leann said.

“Good, strap her next to it.” The other voice responded. It sounded strangely familiar.

Amelia felt herself being thrown onto a gurney. “What? What’s going on?”

“Shut up, markless.” the doctor said. “If you want to survive this you’ll keep your mouth shut.”

Leann pulled a strap tightly over Amelia’s chest and whispered lowly in her ear. “Trust me. This is the only way I can get you both out.”

Amelia felt a needle enter her arm and the familiar voice began to count. She was out before it reached ten.