Breathing Blue
"Can you show me where my star is?" Walburga Black gazed down at her youngest son in sympathy. "Of course. Here," Walburga grabbed her son's hand and gently lifted it up to the sky, "Do you see that? The big blue one? That's the one."
Regulus gasped and looked up at her, "It's so pretty. Can we show Sirius? Where is he? I'm gonna be right back with him and- and show him." Regulus quickly stood up from the stairs on their back porch.
"Hey- wait, Reg, hey listen, sit back down we need to talk," Walburga grabbed her son's hand and he looked over at her in confusion.
"About what? Did I do something?"
"No, no you're perfect, just- just come sit back down, ok?"
Walburga gently put her hands on the sides of her son's face, her thumbs softly brushing against his cheeks, "Listen, Sirius isn't here."
"Where is he? Did he not come back from school yet?"
"No, no he- he went- me and your dad had to send him somewhere- he's sick right now, ok? We had to send him away so he wouldn't get the rest of us sick." Walburga answered, struggling to find the right words.
"Like when I got sick and we had to go to the doctor?"
"Yes! Exactly like that, you're correct." Walburga pushed some stray pieces of hair behind his ear.
"We can visit him though, right?"
"No, not until he gets better. Once he's better you can see him whenever you want and we can show him your star alright?"
"...Ok, will he be better soon? He said he was going to take me to see that new movie soon."
"He'll be back soon, promise." Walburga instinctively put out her pinky and Regulus linked his with hers.
"Ok! Come on, it's bedtime, you have school in the morning and we've already been out long enough." Walburga watched as her son groaned and begrudgingly got up to go inside.
"Can we get ice cream after school tomorrow?"
"Well I don't know, are you going to be good during school? No more fights with the other kids right?" She asked.
"Yep. No more fights, promise."
Walburga sat at the dinner table, her head resting on her arms. "I don't think I can do this."
"Do what?" Her husband asked from the kitchen.
"You know what,” She sighed heavily, sending him off to school knowing he's not coming back."
"It's for his safety. Our safety."
"They were safe!” She shakes her head, reminding herself to stay quiet, “Here, with us. We don't even know when they'll be back."
"We have no choice, you know that." Orion sat down beside her, grabbing her hand and giving it a small squeeze.
"There's always a choice. I cannot send him to school tomorrow."
"He was showing symptoms, so we have to send him."
"I don't care. I'll hide him."
"And risk jail time?"
Walburga sighed, "There's nowhere you can hide him, we already sent Sirius, all we can do is hope they end up in the same place."
Walburga thought back to the previous day when her husband first brought up the envelope her sons brought back from school.
HOW TO TELL IF YOUR CHILD IS AT RISK. Walburga didn't want to read it, she didn't even want to entertain the thought of either of her sons being sick with this new disease, IAAN, Idiopathic Adolescent Acute Neurodegeneration. Everyone's child who had this disease had already died, she didn't want to think of her child dying. She was in denial when she finally read it.
The flyer was orange and had the words, TO THE PARENTS OF REGULUS AND SIRIUS BLACK, on the front, underlined three times. It was a five-step list of symptoms to help parents know whether or not their children were symptomatic.
- Your child suddenly becomes sullen and withdrawn, and/or loses interest in activities they previously enjoyed.
- S/he begins to have abnormal difficulty in concentrating or suddenly becomes hyper-focused on tasks, resulting in s/he losing track of time and/or neglecting him/herself or others.
- S/he experiences hallucinations, vomiting, chronic migraines, memory loss, and/or fainting spells.
- S/he becomes prone to violent outbursts, unusually reckless behavior, or self-injury(burns, bruising, and cuts that cannot be explained).
- S/he develops behaviors or abilities that are inexplicable, dangerous, or cause you or others physical harm.
IF YOUR CHILD DEMONSTRATES ANY OF THE ABOVE SYMPTOMS, REGISTER HIM/HER AT IAAN.GOV AND WAIT TO BE CONTACTED ABOUT THE LOCAL HOSPITAL TO WHICH S/HE SHOULD BE TAKEN.
"Regulus, honey it's time to get up."
Regulus groaned and pulled the covers up over his face. "I don't wanna,"
"Reg, come on, we let you sleep in as long as we could." Orion watched as his son's head popped out from under the blankets and gave him the stink eye. "Can't I just stay home today?"
"No, I'm sorry, you have to go to school, besides, today is a really special day." Regulus perked up at that, every time his father said it was a special day it meant they might pick him up early and take him for ice cream or to the park.
"Fine," Regulus pushed the blankets off himself and got out of bed to get ready for school. Orion slowly closed the door to his son's room and walked towards his and his wife's room. Walburga was still lying in bed, refusing to get up and watch as her son got sent away for god knows how long. "Do you want me to take him to school?" He got no answer.
Taking that as a yes, Orion went to the kitchen to prepare his son's lunch, "Do you want any apple slices Reg?" He called out to his son's room.
"Yes, please! Can you also put some orange slices too?"
"Sure bud, are you almost ready? We have to leave soon."
"Yeah, I just have to put my shoes on!"
Regulus walked in right as Orion finished making his lunch, he was wearing a black long-sleeved shirt with a sweatshirt thrown over it and black sweatpants.
"That's what you wanna wear today bud?"
"Yep. It's supposed to rain today so I want to be extra comfortable."
"Alright, your lunch is finished, are you ready to go?"
"Mhm."
Regulus remembered when kids first started dying. Bertha Jorkins was the first to die in his fourth-grade class. They had been eating lunch when she froze up and fell to the floor. The teachers said she had a seizure and passed away. She had a funeral a week later and he watched as her father went up to give a speech about how good of a kid she was. Regulus disagreed. She wasn't a good kid. She was mean and hurtful and the teachers didn't bother to do anything about it. It didn’t bother him at first when she died, but then everyone called him a monster when he said that so he pretended it hurt. Pretended they were the best of friends and that he was horribly sad over her passing.
People left him alone after that.
Then more kids started dying and his class was getting smaller and smaller. The teacher just stopped teaching the kids that were left and quit. He remembers watching her pack up her stuff and walk out.
He didn’t even know why his parents insisted on sending him and Sirius to school.
Sirius. His mom said he was sick and had to be taken to the doctor. He told one of the fifth graders and they told him that his parents had sent him away because they were scared. Scared of him. That didn’t make any sense to him, why would they be scared of Sirius? He didn’t do anything.
The kid refused to say anything else.
Regulus sat by himself during lunch, there wasn’t anything special happening as his father said. It was like every other day. Nothing to do, no one to talk to. He was surprised there were even still kids at the school.
A bus came later that day and all the kids were ushered onto it. They weren’t allowed to talk and Regulus was sure he would pass out from how cramped it was. He couldn’t breathe. The bus was small and they cramped around 100 kids in it. Too many for one bus. The windows were fogging up and his legs were cramping, stiff from sitting in one spot for too long.
The kid sitting at the other end of his seat had wet his pants and Regulus wanted to move closer to the window even though there was still someone sitting in between them.
It was hard to focus, even harder to sit still after all the hours on the bus. Hunger was making his head feel weird and he was close to falling asleep. He hadn’t eaten since his lunch the previous day and he swore he was going to go mad from the crying from the kids in the back. He sank back into his seat, trying to make himself as small as possible. It didn’t work as well as he hoped because he got a sharp glare from the PSF standing at the end of his row.
Psi Special Forces-- that’s what the bus driver called himself and the others when they had gathered all the remaining students and seated them on the bus. You are to come with us on the authority of the Psi Special Forces commander, Joseph Traylor. He had held up a paper to prove it, so it had to be true.
Regulus watched as the bus took a dip onto a smaller, dirt road. The men and women stood straighter, and their attention went towards the windshield.
The towering fence was the first thing Regulus saw. The dark gray sky made everything a deep dark blue. Not the fence though, Regulus thought, The fence was practically glowing silver.
He glanced down out the window and saw dozens of men and women in full uniform, much like the ones currently on the bus, leading the bus through the gate at a brisk pace.
Regulus was still gazing out the window when the bus came to a stop, they weren’t the first bus, he observed. Would his brother be here?
There was a single breath of stillness before a soldier in a black rain poncho knocked on the bus door. The driver reached over and pulled the lever, letting the man in. He was huge, the kind you would expect to play the villain in a movie or cartoon. He kept everything hidden, his hair, eyes, face, anything that would let anyone recognize him in the future.
“You will stand and exit the bus in an orderly fashion,” he yelled, his voice was grating, annoying, like nails on a chalkboard, Regulus thought. “You will be divided into groups of ten, and you will be brought in for testing. Do not try to run. Do not speak. Do not do anything other than what is asked of you. Failure to follow these instructions will be met with punishment.”
Regulus shivered, he wanted to go home, back with his parents, back with Sirius.
At ten Regulus was one of the youngest on the bus, though he was sure there had to be kids younger than him. Most seemed to be twelve, maybe thirteen. Regulus shrunk farther back in his seat when someone yelled from the back of the bus, telling the man to go fuck himself, Regulus turned and watched as the Psf that had stood by his row turned around and launched the butt of her rifle into the boy’s mouth. He let out a shriek of pain as the soldier did it again and Regulus saw a faint spray of blood burst from his mouth the next time he took a breath.
They began moving kids off the bus soon after that and Regulus forced himself to stop trembling. Regulus didn’t turn back around. He continued to watch the kid, the way he took each breath as if it pained him, which it probably did. The air in the back of the bus felt heavy and toxic, and Regulus held his breath, scared that if he took a breath it would kill him.
Regulus knew he wasn't being discreet with his stare but somehow he was still surprised when the boy turned to him and smiled a bloody smile.
Regulus felt himself being hauled up but couldn't for the life of him take his eyes off this boy. This beautiful boy who looked as if he wasn't even the least bit scared despite everything going on.
Regulus wished he were brave. Wished he had convinced his parents to let him stay home. Wished he had his brother. There were a lot of things he wished for but he doubted any of them would come true.
The Psf yanked on his arm and he stumbled off the bus, almost falling down the steps and into the mud. A different PSF grabbed his arm and guided him to two other boys his age. His clothes were soaked from the rain and his shoes were caked in mud. No one took notice of course, and neither did they bother to cut the plastic ties on their wrists.
When Regulus looked back to the bus they were pulling the last groups of four off, including the boy with the bloody face. He was the last one off, right in front of him was a dark-haired girl with a blank stare. Regulus didn't know what happened between them on the bus but the next thing he knew she was bolting off the bus and towards the gates.
One of the PSFs barked out a terrifying, "Stop!" But she continues running, dodging the hands of the PSFs coming after her.
Regulus looked away from the girl, from the commotion, and to the boy with the bloody face. He was casually walking down the bus steps, the front of his white sweatshirt was stained with his blood.
The same Psf that had hit him is now helping him down the stairs like she had done for the rest of them. Regulus watched as her hand closed around his elbow in a tight grip and felt the echo of her grip on his own newly bruised skin.
Regulus watched as the boy turned and whispered something in her ear. She froze, not moving a muscle. Until she let go of his arm, the hand coming down to pull her gun out of her holster, he watched as she put the barrel of the gun into her mouth and--without blinking--pulled the trigger.
Regulus didn't know if the scream came from him or the PSF realizing what she had done. Whoever it was didn't matter anymore it seemed, the PSF was dead and Regulus couldn't move.
The image of her face--her slack jaw, eyes bulging out of her skull--stayed burned into his mind for longer than the explosion of pink, misty blood and clumps of hair and brains scattered on the bus.
The kid next to Regulus dropped, passed out and Regulus feared he would be next. The smell- God the smell was the worst part, he didn't think he'd ever be able to get the smell out of his nose.
The Psf hit the ground at the same time the girl was tackled into the mud. The rain washed away the soldiers' blood from the bus windows and yellow panels. It was gone in an instant.
The boy was looking only at Regulus' group, yelling at them to run.
"What are you doing? Run- run!" He yelled.
Regulus frantically looked around. There was nowhere to go, he thought. His eyes darted to the gun from the dead PSF. He was running out of time.
Regulus stumbled back, quickly turning into a run in the opposite direction
It was hard to see the stars here. That was the first thing Regulus noticed. He had tried to find Sirius’ but he couldn't find it, the next thing he did was look for his but he couldn't see it, no matter how much he searched.
"Reg?" Someone whispered from above him.
"What is it, Barty?"
"What're you thinking about?"
"It's nothing, and you know we're not supposed to be talking right now, it's after lights out."
"And? It's not like they let us talk at any other point during the day," he said and Regulus could practically hear his eye roll.
"You know what'll happen if we get caught." Evan went silent.
"Guess what?"
Regulus sighed, "What, Barty? I'm trying to sleep before I have to work for hours on end tomorrow." he grumbled, pulling his blanket up over his head.
"...It's your birthday tomorrow! You'll be 16!" He whispered,
Regulus didn't answer and instead turned towards the wall. 6 years.
6 goddamn years wasted in Thurmond.
He wanted to say he was surprised at how long he had been stuck there but he really wasn't.
"I know..." He whispered.
Six years in Thurmond also meant 6 years since the world was relatively normal. Two years into life at Thurmond the camp controllers decided the camp needed to be completely "Self-sufficient" and since then they were all made to grow and cook their own food to eat, clean the washrooms, make their own uniforms, and even sometimes the camp controllers uniforms.
Regulus and Barty had met during Regulus' first night at Thurmond, Barty had arrived a few days before on one of the first busses and had been assigned to cabin 27 along with a few others from his bus. When Regulus arrived and was assigned as a green he was also put into cabin 27 and looking back at it he was glad he hadn't been assigned anywhere else.
Barty and him became friends within the first week even with the restrictions on talking, really the only time they were allowed to talk was in the cabin, but never after lights out.
"You need to be more excited about this-"
"Barty I swear to god if you do not shut up I will suffocate you with this pillow, there are two guards stationed right outside those doors and if you get us caught I do not care that you are my best friend I will be throwing you under the bus." Regulus sat up and looked up at Barty who had leaned over the short railing on his bed to get a better look at Regulus who was looking at him with a scowl.
"No, you won't, you love me too much." Barty shot him a cheeky smile and a wink before plopping back down on his bed.
"Whatever you say," Regulus laid back down on the bed and pulled the small blanket up over his shoulders.
The punishment for speaking out of turn was a day's worth of isolation, handcuffed to one of the gate posts out in the garden. Regulus remembered seeing many different kids sitting sunburned in the sun with no water or trying desperately to scratch patches of bug bites on their arms and legs. Even more sitting in mounds of snow, blue in the face with no warmth.
A repeat offense was much worse, it was enough to make Regulus curl into a ball and vomit, never speak again for fear of it happening again. He didn't speak for the first week after the first time, he didn't know if it was different for each person or the same but he would never wish that upon someone else, not even someone he hated.
When he came back after two days, rain-soaked with almost zero sleep he couldn't even bring himself to speak to Barty, his voice was hoarse and it hurt to even think about talking.
He had only gotten that punishment three times in all his years at Thurmond. The last one had been during his fourth year, the most recent was just a few days ago, he really shouldn't have done anything.
"You just stood there."
"Reg- I'm sorry... I- I didn't know what to do, I wanted to say something, I did, I swear I did but then I looked over and- and I froze. I couldn't do anything. You-you shouldn't have-"
"You're right, I shouldn't have. But if I didn't what would've happened to you? You would've just stood there, letting him do- that."
Usually, it was the other way around, Barty speaking up for Regulus, but he couldn't- couldn't just stand there and watch, and Regulus always had his back when it came to those things.
"You don't stand up for yourself. You never do, it doesn't matter what they do, or what they say, you just sit there. Why can't you stand up for yourself, just once?" His voice was barely above a whisper.
Regulus wanted to scream, yell at him, make him understand. Was it selfish of him to want his best friend to understand something even he can't understand?
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I- I didn't mean to, I promise,"
It reminded Barty of before he was taken to Thurmond, apologizing for something as little as spilling cereal on the table, except this wasn't little, not in the slightest. He had gotten Regulus hurt, it was his fault and he didn't know how to fix it.
"I want- I want to be alone for a bit, please. Just for a few minutes." Regulus rasped out and Barty felt his heart break into tiny little pieces.
"Ok, alright. I'm sorry."
Regulus didn't think Barty stopped mumbling apologies for the rest of the night.
He wanted to tell him that it was ok, that everyone freezes up sometimes. But Barty wasn't there. It had never gotten to the point of having that punishment when it came to him, he always stopped after the first time and dealt with isolation.
It hurt. It did but Regulus didn't think he would ever be able to accurately describe the pain he was in, all he knew was that it was there and there was no getting rid of it.
Regulus didn't know when the resentment for his brother started. Probably sometime around his second year at Thurmond, maybe it was sooner than that, he really couldn't remember.
He remembers how he used to tell Sirius everything- from the kids he had small crushes on to how much he wished they could live with their grandmother.
But as of today, it was all he was able to think about. Maybe that's why they set the white noise off. Because he wasn't doing as good a job as he should've, because he wasn't working hard enough.
He had always reacted badly to it. It didn't matter where he was, when it came the shrieking tones blew up like a pipe bomb between his ears.
The other kids would be able to easily pick themselves back up after a few minutes, shaking off whatever was left of the nausea and disorientation. But it would take hours for the ringing to go away, for Regulus to be able to pick himself back up.
This time shouldn't have been any different, but it was.
The overhead speakers spurted out two warning blares: one short, and one long.
Regulus tried to prepare himself as well as he could but there was really nothing he could do to help. The skin on his neck crawled and he leaned forward, pressing the palms of his hands to his ears, pushing his forehead into the dirt. Regulus never knew how to explain the way it sounded, somewhere between a car alarm and a drill turned up high enough to make your ears bleed.
It was bad. Really really bad. Worse than any other time and Regulus tried desperately to smash his head into the ground, hoping to whatever God was out there to reach into his head and rip it all out.
His eyes flooded with tears and he could taste the blood and dirt in his mouth. A boy next to him fell forward, his mouth open in a scream he couldn't hear.
He tried to stay awake, tried to keep his eyes open, he faintly heard someone say his name, maybe Barty? He was too far gone to respond at this point, his body shaking in time with the bursts from the overhead speakers.
Regulus woke up to cold water and a woman's soft voice. "You're all right," She said, "You'll be fine."
She was lying. Regulus knew she was, he hadn't met anyone as sweet as she was acting since he was 10.
Regulus kept his eyes closed as she brought the towel back up to his face. She smelled of rosemary and lavender. For a second, Regulus let himself believe he was back home, his mother taking care of him when he was sick.
But he wasn't at home, and she wasn't his mother. She was just some random nurse trying to fool him into thinking she was some godsend.
"Are you in any pain?" She pulled Regulus' eyes open, one by one, flashing a small light into each one, he tried to bring his hands up to shield his eyes from the light but they had strapped his hands down with Velcro cuffs.
The woman clicked her tongue and stepped back and the smell of antiseptic and peroxide flooded the air.
He was in the infirmary.
"Regulus?"
The woman was wearing blue scrubs with a white overcoat. She had long dark curly hair and pale skin. "My name is Dr. Née. I'm a volunteer with the Leda Corporation."
Regulus nodded, glancing at the gold swan insignia on her coat pocket.
She leaned in a bit closer and Regulus saw something flash in her eyes but it was gone before he could figure it out. "We're a big medical company that does research and sends doctors in to help care for you guys at the camps. If it makes you feel any better, you're more than welcome to call me Bella and leave off the doctor's business."
Regulus stared at the hand she extended towards him. Silence hung between them and after an awkward moment, he watched her stuff her hand back into her pocket.
"Do you know why you're here? Do you remember what happened?"
Before or after they tried to turn my brain to mush? He wanted to ask, but he didn't. He knew what happened when he talked back to adults.
"They turned on the calm control after a fight broke out in the mess hall. Things got a bit- out of hand."
The white noise, or the Calm control, as the higher-ups called it, was used to 'calm them down' which was shit by the way. It didn't do anything for them except put the rest of them in pain.
They would turn it on for a multitude of reasons, such as a kid accidentally using their ability, or if there was a little too much talking in one of the cabins.
There was no hint of hesitation on Dr. Née's face as she unstrapped the Velcro on his wrists and ankles.
He reached his hands up to his face and was only half surprised to see they were coated with blood, it was crusted between his lips and nose.
"Yeah, looks like you took quite a fall, I would've washed it off but you were already waking up," She reached over to a small counter, pulled out a few alcohol wipes, and handed them to Regulus.
"Do you remember falling forward and hitting your face at all?" She asked once she was sure he had gotten most of the blood off his face.
"No. I was already on the ground." He answered, convincing himself that he was just being paranoid when she looked at him as if she knew his secret.
She smiled, looking a bit smug, maybe even proud of herself, "Do you ever experience this much pain and bleeding from the Calm Control?" Regulus tensed and suddenly the pain he was feeling wasn't from his chest.
She knows. She knows, she knowssheknowssheknows-
"I'll take that as a no."
Regulus kept his eyes on her, she was writing in her notebook, something he couldn't read from his position on the bed. She was humming something lightly under her breath that Regulus could distinctly remember was by Bowie but he couldn't for the life of himself remember the name.
Regulus wasn't sure what to think of her, she was with them, no way she was trustworthy. But he really couldn't tell, she trusted him to not use his abilities on her, had even got rid of the restraints, but he knew better, one wrong move from him and she'd be yelling for the camp controllers.
Regulus didn't look away from her, she seemed weirdly familiar, she looked pretty similar to his mother, from the black hair to the eyes and the way she held herself.
"It says on your chart that you were classified as 'abnormal intelligence' in sorting," She said after a few minutes of silence, "the scientist that sorted you... did he run all of the tests?"
"Of course, why wouldn't he?" He asked, leaning back in the uncomfortable bed, clenching his eyes shut when he felt the pain in his ribs flare up at the movement.
Regulus kept his face passive, but inside he was panicking, did she run tests while he was sleeping?
They sat there in silence, she was staring at him with a look he couldn't identify, maybe suspicion, but she definitely knew.
The click of boots on the floor brought him out of his thoughts and he instinctively tensed and looked down at his wrists where the restraints were supposed to be.
He didn't know what compelled him to do so, but he grabbed her wrist in a tight hold as she was getting up, "Don't tell anyone." He whispered. It was more of a command than a question and the words hung heavy in the air as she smiled and nodded. A second later a hand gripped the edge of the curtain and ripped it back. He had recognized this soldier, Barty kept him up all night talking about how he looked like the Grinch, but "without the green skin, obviously" he had said as if it wasn't obvious a human wouldn't have green skin.
The officer sent a look to Regulus, a sneer coming onto his face before waving the doctor forward. She let out a sigh, setting the clipboard on Regulus' lap, "thank you Regulus," She said with a smile, "If the pain gets any worse just call for help ok?"
Was she mad? Who was going to help him?
He nodded anyway and watched as she walked past the curtain, leaving and shutting the curtain back on her way out as if to give him some privacy, which was practically unheard of at Thurmond, there were times, when the cameras were off, not being able to watch a good 3,000 kids all at once, and Regulus was relieved to find that the camera in the corner of the small room had not been on, watching the whole time.
He watched as a doctor passed through, in a hurry, he assumed when the curtains pulled back enough for Regulus to see a familiar flash of blue when they passed by. It was a portrait of a young boy, no older than 12, he was smiling, as he always was, his hands clasped together tightly in his lap. Tom Riddle. Thurmonds first inmate.
There were at least 10 different portraits of him everywhere he went, the mess hall, the garden, the kitchens. His face was practically imprinted into Regulus' mind by now.
Regulus forced himself to look away from his face, he may have gotten out but they were still stuck there. It was only then that he remembered the clipboard. He quickly flipped over the clipboard, curious as to what was on it. Maybe his medical history?
It was a note.
New CC was testing for undetected Ys, Os, and Rs. Your bad reactions mean that they know you aren't G. Unless you do exactly as I say, they will kill you tomorrow.
Oh.
Barty was the first person he thought of when he read the note. Not himself, but Barty. He was a Red. Had they already killed him? The thought weighed heavy in his mind as he read the rest of the note.
I can get you out. Take the two pills under this note before bed. Don't let the PSFs see you. If you don't, will keep your secret but I can't protect you while in here. Destroy this.
It was signed, A friend, if you'd like.
He ripped the note off the clipboard, not bothering to reread it. The pills were stored in a small plastic baggy, underneath was his actual doctor's report stating that his nose was fractured when elbowed by someone beside him and that he may have a concussion. How fun.
He flipped the clipboard back over on his lap and tightly clenched the pills in his hand, his arm draped over his stomach to feign being in pain. He wasn’t feigning anything, he was seriously in pain but it was a good enough way to hide the pills, he assumed.
A Psf soldier was back not even a second later, ripping back the curtain as he did the second time and informing him that he'd be returning to his cabin. He followed the Psf out into the hallway, the world swaying under his feet. Regulus kept his eyes on the ground, forcing himself not to look in the other stalls where kids were being treated, he didn't know if he would be able to stomach it. He knew what happened to the first wave of kids in those rooms, they had been subjected to a whole array of electroshock and weird brain stuff. Regulus was lucky he had come during the second wave when they realized what they were doing wasn't working.
They soon came closer to where the cabins were held, the first was the greens, then blues, before they were taken away, a few reds and oranges lived not too far away from the rest closer to the tower, it was best. That's what the camp controllers thought, they'd be able to handle them better, but they were moved too after a red had blown up his cabin.
There had been five total escape attempts in the years Regulus had been at Thurmond, none were successful and always ended with them dead on the ground, a bullet in their head. He didn't know of any blues or greens that had attempted, when kids did try to break out it was in groups of reds, oranges, and yellows, but they were never successful.
But that was earlier, when they actually had interaction with each others before they moved everyone around. The empty Red, Orange, and Yellow cabins soon became Blue cabins.
When they reached cabin 27 the Psf walked him up and slid the access code through the lock on the door. The door opened and one of the older boys in his cabin grabbed his arm and pulled him through and nodded to the soldier who shut the door.
"Christ, they couldn't have kept you for at least another day? They just had to send you back early and- is that blood?!"
"It's not a big deal, I'm fine, just had a bad fall," He replied, going over to the middle of the cabin and sitting beside Barty in the small circle they had made.
"Just- tell me if you're not, ok?"
"Yeah, got it." He offered a weak smile and shrug before leaning back on Barty's shoulder, which was digging uncomfortably into his back. He didn't mind it honestly, he was just happy Barty was still alive and breathing, he had convinced himself on the way back to the cabin that he was dead, so that when he walked back and saw that he was gone, and everyone told him he was dead he would be prepared.
Barty didn't say anything, just sat there in silence as the rest of the cabin quietly talked about random stuff they remembered from before camp, mainly just the older boys telling stories they thought the others would enjoy.
It was soon lights out and Barty pulled a half-asleep Regulus over to his bed, where he laid there until he was sure everyone was asleep.
"Barty?"
He didn't answer for a few minutes and Regulus was scared that he had come to hate him in the hours, days? He was gone.
"Hm?"
"Do you want to leave?"
Barty huffed out a laugh, "And go where? You know what happened to the kids who tried to escape."
"What if I had a plan that I was sure would work?"
"Then I'd still ask if you were crazy, or- or suicidal,"
"But?"
"But," He heaved out a long sigh, "I would still go with you."
Barty leaned over the edge of his bunk to look at Regulus. "What's the plan, Superman?"
"I hate you. Y'know actually I think I'd rather die tomorrow than have to sit through this." Regulus turned the other way and shuffled closer to the wall.
"That's so cruel," He whined, clutching where his heart would be with his right hand, and fell back on his bed as quietly as he could to not alert the guard outside.
They lay there for a few minutes until Regulus felt a weight beside him, "Seriously though, what's the plan?"