Mission 0

She was lost.

How? How did this happen?

Cami grumbled, looking at the directions on the piece of paper. Left at the cafeteria. She did that. A right by the gyms? Did that too. She navigated through the twisting hallways, running by plenty of rooms, her own room included. Getting directions from her room would have probably been easier and quicker, but with new members coming in, she supposed making custom maps for everyone would be quite costly and painful.

But still, she swore she had seen that green off colour door five times now! Either she was lost, or this place had way too many slightly off coloured green doors around. She preferred the latter option. She could navigate sewers without a map, so this should’ve been a walk in the park! She should’ve been able to do this with her eyes closed!

She was so busy reading the map and having an internal monologue with herself that she ended up walking face first into a door.

“Ow!”

Cami slid the map between her index and middle finger, rubbing her forehead, looking up at the large door, rather grumpily.

Who put that here?

Looking to the side, her eyes caught the carved out sign that hung from a nail. It was made of a piece of plywood, and had the words ‘Public Relations Office’ carved into it.

This was the place.

She thought she heard a slight snort, before someone called from beyond it.

“It’s open, come in”

Cami puffed out her cheeks slightly, before taking a breath.

Scrunching up the map, she held it in her palm as she used her fingers to open the door.

“Mornin’” A voice piped up as the door slowly pushed open.

Cami blinked as she walked into the office. Blue crystals which jutted out randomly around the room lit up the area. In front of her was a desk, with two chairs, one either side. Behind the desk was a whiteboard, with multiple sheets of paper stuck with magnets. And lastly, under that was a filing cabinet.

All in all, a small room. But it probably got the job done.

“Ah, hello,” she greeted the brown haired woman, who was sitting behind the desk with her arms crossed, an eye brow slightly raised.

“Cami Tremblay, right?”

“Uhh, yeah. . . How’d you-”

“We don’t get many new recruits, especially with the whole terrorist label”

“Ah, right.”

“Have a seat.”

Doing as she was told, Cami slid into the seat closest to her, leaning back a bit on the seat's slight padding.

“You comfy?”

“Yeah”

“Great. I’m Nikki. I’m in charge of public relations here in the Harmony,” she smiled, opening up the file. Having a quick read through of it. “Welcome to the Harmony”

“Thanks,” Cami smiled nervously. She’d never really been in a situation like this. Well, not for a while, at least.

“So,” Nikki started, leaning back in her seat, her fluro green eyes watching her. “How’d you end up here in the Harmony?”

“A lot of research,” Cami began explaining, trying to remember the events. “Searched and gained as much information as I could, before I managed to find a patrol”

“Who’d you ask about us?”

Cami shrugged. “A few residents of the slums. I’d lived there most of my life, so I knew who to go to for information.”

“And what about before that?”

“Before?”

“Your time with Hector Olivier”

Cami froze.

She didn’t think they’d know.

“How-”

“We make sure we’re very thorough with our background checks,” Nikki replied simply, flicking through a few pages, pulling one up to read it better. “Set upon by the Golden fanged cobra’s, Wanting to take you into their ranks. When you declined, you were ambushed by them. Held down and-”

“Alright” Cami piped up, rather loudly. Her left arm moved to her right stumb automatically, brushing it slightly. “I know what happens next. . .”

Nikki nodded, flipping the page over. “Once you woke from your infection, you went to Hector Olivier’s house for sanctuary, which he provided.” she finished, peering over her page at Cami. “Hector Olivier, One of the Public Relations officers of the Tamed. Good friend of mayor Mairo Prefeito. Seems to me you had all the right people to get into the tamed. Why not go there?”

Cami looked down slightly, clinking her two knees together as she thought. She slowly looked back up and Nikki. “I was. . . . . tempted.” She admitted, looking down to the side. “Hector has helped me a lot. . . but. . . . . but the Tamed just wasn’t for me” She admitted.

Nikki raised an eyebrow. “How?”

“Well, As I’ve mentioned before, I spent most of my life in the slums. I grew accustomed to how things worked down there. You could change a lot if you were in the slums. The tamed are up in the city. They don’t tend to go down to the slums. They don’t know how it works. And they can never get anything done quick enough to help. I always heard word of Harmony in the slums, helping out. I want to be able to do something, help, and have that choice. I don’t want to have to wear a collar and wait for the authorities to say yes before anything can be done. . . . It may be too late by then.”

“Hmmm” Nikki hummed, writing things down on a notepad nearby.

“I also think I wouldn’t fit in. I Don’t have the best track record with authority.”

Nikki snorted. “Neither do most here. So you’ll fit right in.”

“Good to know,” Cami smiled slightly, resting her hand in her lap.

“Still, how exactly did you get Hector to help you?” Nikki asked, resting one of her elbows on the table, as her cheek leaned forward to rest on her knuckles.

“It’s. . . a long story.”

“I have time,” She smiled. “You’re the only one I need to talk to today”

“Well, if you’re sure. . .” Cami rubbed her cheek, thinking. “We’ll have to go all the way back, when I was six. . . . .”