We Are Our Keepers

Kaza glanced at her building’s information board as she strolled past it, turning her hand palm-side up at the scanner that would unseal the main doors for her. It was a ten foot tall LED reconstruction of her tower, outlined in white, and separating the building’s floors by colour; blue, yellow, purple, and green at the top. The colours demonstrated which floors had been designated for different demographics living in the building, and although they could change and shift as the population did, there was rarely a need for any change.

Today though, she noticed that the purple zone had increased by one floor. It really came as no surprise to her when she considered the relatively high population of young and middle-aged adults in the building, in comparison to the other towers in the area at least. She figured many had started to “find” each other and request a co-habitation space, just as her friends Wig and Streah had a month ago. She was happy that the two of them had finally admitted to the feelings they had developed for one another, as if they were somehow the last to know. However, their budding relationship and choice to co-habitate also meant that Kaza was dealing some small fracturing of the close bond she shared with her former pod-mate, and still best friend, Streah. The bump in co-habitation requests recently had pushed the families in the yellow zone up a floor, which likely would have meant the entire bottom floor of families being moved up onto the top floor of that zone sometime throughout the day. For all she knew, it could still be happening right now. It’s no easy thing to organize a mass move like that…. especially with kids involved, she thought to herself. Kids…. Definitely not something Kaza envisioned for herself in the near future, or any future for that matter.

The new shift in the tower’s zone layout worried Kaza though, as she expected that the green zone, her zone, might have to deal with a period of overcrowding. A worry that was quickly dismissed thanks to the LED display showing her that the entire building had actually gained an ‘open’ floor. There were only two left at the top of her building waiting to be retrofitted and turned into new living quarters, having formerly been offices before The Great Restructuring, but the change in the display indicated that one of them had been completed. Living on the second floor of the independent female zone, or IFZ, meant Kaza wouldn’t be required to move to accommodate all of the zone shifts taking place, but if they hadn’t started the IFZ’s shift yet, she would be able to volunteer to move to the top floor in order to save someone else the hassle. A thoughtful, responsible choice, especially considering the fact that she was young, independent, and capable protecting herself in circumstances others wouldn’t be. Admittedly, she was also somewhat excited to see how the newest floor was laid out.

Above the new green lights glowing on the information board, the top floor of the building remained blacked out, and the image for the sol-sat system on the roof of the building was a deeper, swampy green than the tower floors, which simply indicated that it was functioning at full capacity. As the giant sliding doors unsealed and opened in front of her, she was greeted by Wig’s warm smile from behind the security desk.

“Kazaaaaa! How’d the grunt work go today Mighty Mouse?”

Kaza smirked, “GRUNT work? The only ones grunting are the old men who can’t lift a bucket of turnips anymore! We need more grunts like me,” she said as she slapped his desk on her way past.

“That’s why you’re there Mighty Mouse….” Wig called after her. She enjoyed the nickname, no matter how many times she heard it. Or maybe she just enjoyed how she had earned it.

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A year earlier, shortly after Streah and Kaza had met Wig, the three of them had entered one of the z-lifts in the building, and a hulking man none of them had ever come across before began to unnerve Streah. He spoke in a low, intimidating tone, pawing at her arms and suggesting he could take care of her, and that she should “visit his floor sometime.” Wig was far from the most intimidating man in the world, but he was big enough to hold his own against most people if he needed to, and in this moment, especially since he had been hired to live and work in the building as a member of the security crew, he felt compelled to speak up. Despite how uncomfortable the situation had become, and how much worse he knew saying anything might make it, Wig turned to the man and put on his stern ‘security voice.’

“I’m going to need to ask you to stop bothering my friend sir. She’s clearly uninterested, but you don’t seem to understand that. You may think we would all be too uncomfortable to say anything…. because, well, you’re huge. But…..”

Before Wig could finish, the man spun around and, towering over Wig, responded with, “That’s right….. I am” before smashing Wig backwards into the z-lift’s wall.

As he hit the wall, he slid and fell onto his tailbone with a short burst of audible anguish, but before the man could make another move towards him, Kaza decided that she had seen enough. She leaned into her right leg, launching towards the wall on her left, and finally pushing herself off of it into the air with her left leg before lancing her right foot into the man’s jaw. As he stumbled back a step into the wall behind him, she landed, swung around, and smashed his right knee inwards, buckling him to the floor. As his right knee caved and he reached out with his arm to brace himself against the ground, Kaza drove herself upwards, kneeing him directly in the nose, almost assuredly breaking it, and sending blood spewing onto the wall of the lift to his right.

According to official records, fights inside of the towers are very rare occurrences, in fact, any serious disturbances are. So when the lift opened at Wig’s floor with a downed giant in it, Wig leaning against the back wall in some distress, and Kaza standing primed over the giant’s body, those in the nearest pods leaned their heads out from behind their walls and gawked at the scene. Wig and a few of the other men on his floor hauled the half-conscious man out of the z-lift, and Wig turned to wave the ladies on, saying “Don’t worry, I’ll call my S.C.L. and get this figured out.”

They never did find out what he was doing there, and just presumed that either he had recently moved into a spot on one of the lower IMZ floors, or had been hired as part of the Retrofit Crew working on the top of the building. Regardless, they never saw him again, as Wig had him flagged and barred from their building.

What Wig, and most of Kaza’s friends and acquaintances in the tower hadn’t known at the time, or would have even been able to guess just by looking at her, was that although she stood at just over five feet tall, Kaza had trained for most of her childhood and teenage years, before The Great Restructuring, in a variety of martial arts. Despite not having a program or a teacher anymore, she still used the meagre facilities on the basement level of the building to train 3-4 times a week. She figured her job as a ‘grower’ gave her more than enough physical activity in terms of resistance and strength, so she spent the majority of her time in that space working on her form, and practicing momentum-based self-defense techniques. Streah and Kaza knew everything, or almost everything about one another, but she had been just as shocked as Wig that day to see Kaza in action.

“K-k-kaza…. That was……… he was massive. You moved so fast. I never imagined…. Can you teach me to do that?” Streah’s soft voice asked as the z-lift rose towards their floor.

Kaza remained silent. It wasn’t that she didn’t hear the question, or that she was trying to be dismissive of the request from her friend, she was simply considering what it would mean to teach someone else to ‘do that.’ Regardless of how hesitant and uncertain she felt in that moment, from that day forward Kaza would, reluctantly, become known to the tower as both ‘Mighty Mouse,’ and ‘The Teacher.’

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Kaza had developed a following amongst the women on the upper floors in the IFZ. She found herself taking others to train and spar with her, which was great in one sense, because it meant she wasn’t doing it alone anymore. Being looked to as ‘The Teacher’ still troubled her though. She believed that she was not even close to being a ‘complete’ martial artist herself - A result of the mix of humility, perfectionism, and the understanding of the impossibility of ‘completeness’ as a reality, but the value of it as a goal. All born of her training in her younger years. - However, she also felt a growing responsibility for the safety, and proper preparation, of the women she had begun to help inspire confidence in. She knew that most were learning something like this for the very first time, and that although anyone could become capable, it would take years before they could, or at least should feel as confident and capable as her. Ultimately, she figured that some training, some technical and physical abilities…. Or whatever it was that she could provide for them…. At least having something to fall back on in a dire situation was better than nothing.

Kaza still fought with herself on a daily basis about her role, and her responsibility in teaching other women what she knew.

“You’re teaching these young girls TO fight you idiot. You are putting them in more danger than they would be without this” she chided herself one afternoon as she took a ‘class’ of seven teenagers down to the training rooms with her.

“No…. realistically, the world is so structured and secure now that the chances of them needing to use my training is…. like……. none. The tower system, the zones, members of security crews at each floor entrance, I’m just like a personal trainer, or an exercise coach. I’m not their ‘teacher,’ even if they call me that.”

She continued arguing with herself internally as the lift hit the basement and the girls started filing out in front of her. “Do you enjoy being the ‘older sister?’ You don’t want to be a mother…. Why bother being the one who is there for these girls then? What right do you even have…. Are you even sure you’re teaching the right stuff anymore? All the attention stems from that incident almost a YEAR ago. And weren’t you lucky the space was so tight? Weren’t you lucky he was distracted by Wig? Do you really think you’re strong enough to take someone that size in real combat? Are any of these gir….”

“Thank you so much for doing this every week” a quiet voice said from beside Kaza. She looked up from the floor of the z-lift to see the smallest of the seven, Lydis, with her hand on the lift door, waiting for Kaza to step out. “It’s fun! It…. It makes me happy. I feel so much bigger when we finish” she smiled.

Kaza flashed a brief grin as responded, “You do huh? Well then go hip-toss that heavy bag for a 10x10. We’ll see how big you feel when you’re exhausted!”

“Yes Teacher!” Lydis shot back before rushing onto the padded floor.

Kaza strolled casually into the training room, still pushing back against the self-doubt she faced each and every day. “You’re doing a good thing Kaza.” She told herself repeatedly. “Why are you always so unsure of this? Wig wouldn’t be if he were teaching guys from the IMZ. None of the security crew would be.”

Regardless of how Kaza felt inside, she had, reluctantly, become a community leader in the building. Requests were beginning to come from every floor for her to start regular sessions with groups of women from the IFZ. Some families and couples from the FLZ and CHZ had started to inquire about sessions too. She had begun to consider doing this as her service, rather than the work she was currently doing, but she actually loved leaving the building every day to work in the sun and provide as a grower. It was a physically demanding job that kept her active, and it was personally fulfilling to know she was a part of the sustenance program in her area. She figured that when she got a little older, she would be able to do the whole ‘teaching without being a teacher’ thing then…. possibly with fewer reservations as well, or at least she hoped so.

After the girls had finished their training session with her, Kaza travelled up the z-lift with them, dropping them off at their respective floors and waving to acknowledge each security crew member, before returning to her own floor. It had just become the first floor of the IFZ with the new movement taking place, and as she stepped off of the lift, a crew member she didn’t recognize greeted her from the security desk for her floor.

“Chip Up! I’m Reed, one of the new hires. Darcy is just in getting some of the, ummmm, ‘bump-ups’ he called them…. settled in.”

“Kaza” she nodded. “New hires? Did we lose a few staff? I can’t think of anyone who was ready to graduate to senior service….” Kaza added.

It wasn’t just because Kaza spent so much time dropping families and other women off around the building that she knew so much about the security. Everyone in the building knew all of the men on the building’s security crew. Early on in the building’s retrofitting, the men on the S.C. had established the practice of rotating between floors each cycle to ensure that everyone was familiar with each of them. It also demonstrated that they were invested in the health and well-being of everyone living there, not just certain floors or segments of the tower’s population. Thus, Kaza was a little surprised to see a new face, until his response made her feel ridiculous for asking….

“Well, no. As you know, a floor has been retrofitted and cleared for living, so there’s an entirely new shift that has been hired on. We’ve just been spread out between some of the more experienced S.C.’s in order to shadow them and train for the first few weeks of operation.”

“Oh…. Of course,” she shook her head, flicking the side of her temple with an ‘I should have known that’ gesture. “How stupid of me not to put that together! I was actually hoping to bump up to the top floor to make room for others who might rather not be moved all the way up there. Is Darcy really busy? Is there space up top?”

“Ya! Oh ya! Definitely!” Reed seemed to jump at the opportunity to help. “That would actually help us I think. Darcy said we are going to be pretty jammed for the first week or two until we can slowly bump some of the women up. Lots of requests to stay on lower levels from the group that’s been moved.”

“Perfect. Should I wait for him, or….”

“Ummmm. No. You know what…. I’ll take you?” Reed said, a little hesitantly.

Kaza could see he was trying his best to be helpful and endear himself to members of the community right away, despite his obvious uncertainty of what this process entailed.

“Alright. I’m down at 33-08. Come help me grab my things in say, an hour? I’ll be packed and ready by then.”

“Great! I’m glad to be of security. I mean servicity….. I’m happy to help.”

Kaza smiled, waved her wrist, and walked through the security barriers of her floor.

Exactly one hour later, a knock came at Kaza’s pod, and standing outside was both Reed and Darcy.

“Did this recruit tell you there was space for you on 41?” Darcy boomed.

“Well…. yeah, isn’t there?”

“Not a chance” Darcy smirked. “We barely want you on 33, let alone in some nice new retrofit.”

Kaza’s eyes tightened as she leaned in and pointed her finger up to his chin, slowly whispering, “You WISH you could tell me what to do…. But we both know what happens if you try” and she pointed towards her feet without breaking eye contact.

“If your feet could ever even make it above my knees…. I might be slightly worried……… Mighty Mouse.”

Reed stood wide-eyed as the two leaned even closer, and then, as Darcy cracked a smile, Kaza began to laugh and the two gave each other a quick hug. Utterly confused by what had just transpired, Reed was learning, for the first time, how close some of the S.C. actually were with the members of their community.

“This is Kaza, Reed” Darcy said.

“I know, she….”

“SHE is one of the most reliable, caring people in this tower. Did you know she helps train our members in self-defence techniques? Not as a service…. On her own time!”

“Well I uhhh”

“Yeah, you uhhh….” He mocked Reed. “You’ll see her a lot. You’ll get to know her, don’t worry. As of right now, pick up whatever she says, and get it upstairs!”

Kaza pointed around to a few boxes of personal items she had packed, which was all she really needed to bring, and nodded to Reed in thanks. The luxury of furniture ‘belonging’ to the pod you were assigned meant never having to move, or even purchase major, essential pieces, like a bed or a connection tablet. Showers were also in communal spaces, and each floor had a mess, so there was no need for personal appliances, or anything of that nature. This meant less waste, more cooperation and community-wide efforts to maintain the functionality and cleanliness of the towers, and most importantly, as long as you were providing a service, you would have your own pod, and the necessities that went along with it.

“I’ve got you in 41-21 Kaza. I think you’ll like it up there. It’s got that fresh, micro-bot scent.

Kaza laughed, “What exactly is a micro-bot scent?”

“Not sweat” Darcy shot back. “You know that multi-body stink that hangs around during the day in the 7-8 warm months of the year? Yeah, that’s not there. It’s freshhhhh.” He started to head back towards the security desk but stopped, turning back to glance at her. “But…. with you heading up there. I don’t think that’ll last long.”

Kaza kicked off the sandal she had on her foot and sent it sailing into his back.

As he continued to walk towards the desk, Darcy responded to the ‘assault’ with “That’s grounds for removal! No one hits an S.C…..” as he waved with the back of his hand.

Kaza smiled, collected her sandal, and headed towards the z-lift carrying her gym bag in her right hand, and a strap-bag full of training equipment on her back.

When she arrived on 41, she was pleased to see two of the girls she had been training with earlier that day had moved up to 41 as well. Although everyone knew each other as acquaintances at the very least, it was good to know some members she considered to be friends would be close by…. especially since Streah had moved down to the CHZ with Wig.

“Kazaaaaa!” Farah declared. “It’s so great that you’re moving up here! We figured since we’re a little younger…. and fitter now thanks to you, it’d be better for us to move up here than some others.”

“Oh, I don’t think it makes that much of a difference does it?” Kaza replied. “I mean, you can walk the service stairs and make it hard on yourself, but the z-lifts make one level just as accessible as the rest.”

“That’s true…. It’s just that….”

“Farah.” June said sharply. “It’s just that sometimes it feels more comfortable for people on lower floors. That’s all.”

“Sure. I guess” Kaza agreed, looking the women over with a slightly crooked, questioning glance. “To be honest with you, I’ve never been involved in a move before. I jumped into this building when it was first opened, and haven’t had to move from the second level of the IFZ since. But Reed, that new S.C., he did actually mention there had been a lot of requests to remain on the lower floors in our zone.”

“Yeah, everyone has their reasons I guess” June offered in a lowered voice.

“Here,” Farah said, holding out her hand, “this is a ‘Home Bell.’ Farah and I designed them. You stick it near your pod’s entrance, and when you come or go you can turn it on or off. It signals to others with bells that someone has left, or returned home.”

“Really? That’s pretty amazing you two. What made you design them though? Floors tend to be pretty open, it’s harder not to know if someone is around. Do we really need something like this?” Kaza asked.

“Well, it’s more…. Precautionary I guess?” June offered. “It’ll build community too. You know, like you’ve been teaching us. Always look after one another. Always be aware.”

“Yes but, I meant be aware if you’re…. you know, outside of your home. On your way to your service or something. I think we’re fine inside our building, especially with the S.C.'s we’ve got here.”

“We’ve just…. We’ve seen things happen in other buildings, that’s all” Farah explained. “We don’t want things to go wrong here. It’s been so terrific since we moved in a few months ago. Since we met you and started training.”

“Uhhmmmmm…… well, okay…. Sure. Why not right!?” Kaza didn’t want to disappoint the women by putting down their hard work, or refusing to use their new bell system. Besides, she was supposed to be a ‘community leader,’ how would it look if she didn’t want to participate in something like this!?

“Well, I’m starving, I haven’t eaten since before we went down for training. I literally showered, packed up my stuff, and moved up here. Should we see what the new mess looks like?”

“Absolutely! We can stick your bell on your pod entrance as we drop your bags off on the way by as well!” Farah exclaimed.

The three of them wandered down the main corridor, glancing into the white, glistening rooms as they passed. Each housed a fold-away sleeper, a brand new connectivity station with sensor chairs, tiered desks, and refurbished tablets, and a large organizer, about waist-height, that could double as seating.

As Kaza pulled down her sleeper and tossed her bags onto it, Farah and June fastened her new bell to the wall and gave it a test run. Farah triple-tapped it to activate the system, and then tapped once for ‘Home.’ The tiny light on the bell went green, but there was no sound.

“Girls….” Kaza said, “shouldn’t it ding?”

“Oh no silly, wouldn’t that be ridiculous!?!” Farah laughed, turning towards June. “With everyone’s differing schedules, we’d be dinging all day and night…. waking people up…. It’d be a disaster.”

“Well, what exactly is it good for then?” Kaza asked, slightly confused.

“Look” June said as she motioned to her wrist. “We have wristbands that vibrate enough to notify us of a change, and then highlight which bell has gone off, and what the change was.”

“Ohhhhhh. To be honest, that is actually kind of brilliant.” Kaza responded, growing seriously impressed with the young womens’ ingenuity. “How will I know when other people use their bells though?”

“Don’t worry,” offered June, “we’ll calibrate a wristband for you tonight and give it to you in the morning before you head off for your service.”

With that, the girls headed towards their floor’s mess, eager to stuff themselves with whatever had, or was currently being prepared by the members running the kitchen on 41.

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Kaza was awakened on her first night on level 41 with a hand covering her mouth, and deep warm breath whispering in her ear….

“Shhhhh. Don’t make a sound, or you won’t be able to inhale enough oxygen to make another. Ever. Again.”

Her pod was pitch black. The entire level was no brighter, save for the dim ‘guidance’ lights along the floor, which were intended to provide just enough light to be followed, not to see. As she wriggled a little, Kaza realized that the weight of the man covering her mouth and pinning her down with his forearm was too much for her to even attempt to shift, or throw off balance in any way.

“We are going to go up to the roof, quietly. You move without me. You push back. You make any sound…. and life ends for you. Immediately” he whispered. The man flashed what Kaza guessed to be an auto-wrench, in the darkness. It was a tool she knew would be light enough for him to swing easily, but heavy enough to do serious damage to her.

Kaza rose slowly, leading the man towards her pod entrance, uncertain of what exactly was going on, but feeling deep down inside, that her life was truly on the line. She lurched sideways a little, feigning a slight fall, and swept her hand down the wall of her pod entrance.

“Geeeeet uuuuup.” The man said in a forceful whisper. Yanking on Kaza’s arm to urge her to her feet. He pulled her close again and whispered through gritted teeth, “Be careful where you step. Don’t make a SINGLE sound.”

Kaza nodded, and began to walk toward the service stairwell with the man behind her. He had his hand wrapped around her mouth again, with the other pushing the wrench into the middle of her back, but he had failed to notice the tiny green light on the frame of her pod flicker to red.

They climbed the remaining two flights of stairs to the roof, because, as Kaza knew, calling the z-lift would have created both noise, and a record of use. At the top of the stairwell, Kaza pushed open the door that led to the rooftop, and stepped out into the humid air to stand among the field of solar panels on the top of the building. The man closed the door behind them and shoved Kaza forward into one of the supports for the solar panel field. She threw her hands out to brace herself as she ran into it, and noticed two more men step towards her from where they had been leaning up against another set of supports.

“What the fuck is this?” She demanded. “Are you…. Are you S.C.?” She stumbled, trying to sound as intimidating as she could, but fearing that this situation was far beyond her control.

“Is this a fucking joke that Darcy or Wig set up, because I’m not laughing.”

The men continued to lurch towards her, and then stopped, nodding to the one behind her. She slowly turned to face him as he started to speak again.

“Look.… You don’t need to know who or what we are. You aren’t going to fight us. You aren’t going to shout. You are just going to do what you’re told. Or you’re going to mysteriously ‘move out’ of this tower, and no one will ever see you again…. And no one will ever know why.”

A thousand thoughts raced through Kaza’s head.

Is this even really happening? In our tower? In our world? Where are the S.C.’s?

How did these men even get up here in off hours? Whether they are retrofit crew or maintenance, no one should have had access to any level beyond their own…. Definitely no one from outside of the tower.

Farah and June seemed uneasy today. They said they’d be better off on the top floor than others…. What was that vague comment……. They had ‘seen things' in other towers?

THIS was why they made the bell system! How common IS this?

They aren’t going to get what they want. If this is how I die, this is how I die.

As she stood in stunned silence, letting the mountains of thoughts and fears pour over her, the man in front of her put down his auto-wrench and moved towards her, starting to slide his service jacket off. As he dropped it to the roof, Kaza launched herself forward, slamming directly into his stomach and knocking him back a few steps. He stumbled, but managed to grab onto her shirt, turning as he did and hurling her sideways into one of the support beams for the solar field. She smashed into it, crying out in pain and landing on the roof with a hard slap.

“I TOLD YOU. DON’T. FIGHT.” He growled as he closed in on her.

Kaza wasn’t going to give in that easily. She spotted the auto-wrench leaning against a support a few feet away, immediately shooting herself upwards and over towards it. As she did, the other two men began to close in again towards Kaza and the big man who seemed to be in charge. She knew there wasn’t much time before she’d be facing impossible odds.

In one fluid motion, she snatched the auto-wrench from where it was resting and launched herself off of the support beam into the air. Twisting like a corkscrew, she swung the wrench around and smashed it directly into her first attacker’s face, sending him sprawling to the roof. As she landed, the other two had made it to within striking distance, while the original attacker was now rolling around on the ground dazed from the blow. Kaza decided that her only move was to let the remaining two come at her, and defend until she saw an opening.

The man on her left, shorter and skinnier than the other two, with a plain shirt, service pants, and heavy boots on, moved first. As he swung a fist in her direction, Kaza leaned back and out of his reach, cutting under his arm and coming up on the other side with the wrench whirling forward. Her blow struck his shoulder and she could hear a loud cracking sound, something had at least splintered in his skinny arm, if it hadn’t completely shattered. He grabbed at his shoulder, crying out in agony and glaring viciously at Kaza. He charged her again, with his left arm cocked to strike, and as he came at her, the third man, another large, domineering figure like the first, charged her as well. Kaza ducked under the smaller man’s laboured punch, and whirled towards the larger one with the wrench. Her blow caught him in the stomach, causing him to lean forward and release a short, pained grunt. But the beast of a man had also trapped the wrench, and her arm along with it, against his stomach with his massive arms. Suddenly, an arm was wrapped around her neck, hauling her to the ground, and slamming her head directly into the roof.

Kaza, laying on her stomach, with what felt like 10 tons pinning her shoulders to the ground, could only hear a high-pitched ringing in her ears, and tasted blood inside of her mouth. About 50 feet away, she could see the shadow of the first attacker as he finally began to rise from the ground, recovering from the crack she’d given him earlier.

“Oooooahhaha.” The laughter was faint behind the ringing going on inside of her head. “Nowwww you’re gonna get it girlie” the skinny one chided in her ear, as the leader of the trio edged closer.

The big man knelt down beside her head and whispered, “This will be much worse than it could have been now. Remember, that was YOUR choice.”

As he stood up again, to Kaza’s surprise, the weight that had been crushing her shoulders and neck into the roof also lifted. She still couldn’t fully hear, but it sounded like shuffling and shouting was coming from behind her. As she slowly rolled over, she looked back to see the smaller man laying unconscious on the ground, the larger man slumped against a support beam, and the leader being brought down by two slender figures.

Kaza strained her eyes against the moonlight, and through the shadows cast by the supports of the panels in the solar field she began to recognize the figures. “Farah?…… June?” she muttered.

As they toppled the big man to his knees, one of the figures delivered a full roundhouse to his temple, knocking him unconscious as well. The two walked solemnly over to Kaza, offered a hand each, and raised her to her feet.

“Your b—” Kaza spat blood to the ground. “Your bell system. It worked?”

“Instantly!” said Farah. “We were lucky that June was still awake actually, I don’t know if the vibration would have woken me up, but she saw you get marched into the stairwell and checked to see which direction you were headed, up or down, before waking me.”

“Girls. I…. I don’t know what to say. I owe you……. everything.”

“Consider it a service,” June replied. “For all you already do.”

The girls helped Kaza down to her pod, and the three of them contacted the S.C. Hub on the main level, specifically requesting that Wig come along with the other S.C.’s on duty. Kaza didn’t really know who else she could trust at this point.

“Girls,” Kaza started, “you said you had seen things in other buildings. Is this what you were talking about? This has never happened here…. Not to my knowledge at least.”

“That’s the problem” June answered in a stern, frustrated tone. “It doesn’t happen to anyone’s knowledge. No one talks about it.”

“What do you mean? I thought one of the reasons we went through The Great Restructuring was to rid ourselves of this type of thing?”

“Yeah but, Kaza…. Not everyone is on the same side” Farah said faintly, trying not to insult Kaza for her naive understanding of what had just happened. “Not everyone supported the restructuring. There are always cracks…. Cracks people can exploit. Even I know that.”

“But…. I swear, it hasn’t happened here. Wig would have known. Wig would have said something.”

“Would he have….?” June questioned her. “How can you be certain?”

“I…… I……….” Kaza had no response.

“You are older, wiser, kinder, and more gifted than us Kaza. You’ve taught us so much already, and we couldn’t be more grateful. What happened to us, will never happen to us again…. By sheer luck and circumstance, we were also able to stop it from happening to you. But let me teach you the one thing you haven’t had the opportunity to learn……… We are our keepers Kaza. No one will protect us, but us. Not the S.C. Not the tower. Not our community, or our work in our service. We are our keepers.”

Kaza looked up at the two of them slowly, and through gritted teeth and fiercely bright eyes said, “We’d better start training more keepers then.”