7.1

She couldn’t believe her eyes. She almost let out a yelp of disbelief. Both bottles had a code on it! Not the same one, but similar in looks. The new one had “8L1-55” on the bottom, whereas the old one had “1<3`/ ” on it – neither of which made any sense to Cass. She quickly scanned her room to find something to write with and found the rainbow pen everyone had received a few years ago during one of the Ascension Rites – a Rite after a deadly incident at one of the nuclear power plants, so everyone had gotten a little goody and a fancy snack on the particular day as compensation.
      The writing of the pen was horrible. Barely legible because of the yellow and mixing of the colours – perfect for her goal. She scribbled the weird notes on a piece of paper and looked around for something to put it in. No way was she putting this in a ration tin in her cupboard, she needed to keep this information on her person at all times. Pockets weren’t great either, because she’d definitely forget to take it out one time before washing the clothes.
      Cass kept pondering the perfect place to keep the secret, until she realised she was holding the most amazing spot for it. The pen. The rainbow gift-pen could just be lying around on her counter, no enforcer would ever take one of the goodies gifted by the Conqueron royalty – because it would be a sign of disrespect or something like that. She unscrewed the top of the pen with ease and emptied the top part of the pen before stuffing the piece of paper in there. It would render the utensil useless, but at least it would be of use to her.
      With the utmost care, she placed the pen on the counter. Somewhere in the corner of the small area she could store things to make it appear ‘out of the way’, but not invisible to the eye – as far as a glittery pen in a rainbow pattern could be invisible to the eye anyway. She gave it an extra little flick to make it appear “thrown” onto the counter before taking a few steps back to have a look.
      It feels out of place… If someone has a look, will they notice there’s a pen on the counter? What if someone wants to use it and it doesn’t work? Will they rat me out to the enforcers? Make a path to Conqueron for themselves by selling out a fellow worker who might be conspiring? Her paranoia started getting the better of her and she decided the pen would be better off next to her bed – on the floor or on the tiny nightstand, which didn’t matter to her so she just tossed the pen to the nightstand to see where it would land. Apparently, the pen decided that the best spot was ‘almost under the bed, but not quite’. As if it had been shoved from her nightstand in her sleep or by putting clothes on or walking past it too closely.
      Much better. She sighed. She was a mess right now. Her mind was definitely playing tricks on her – these combinations of letters, numbers and stripes couldn’t be anything useful, right? She was a hundred percent sure the codes were stamped onto her bottles, but why would it mean something? Nothing ever happens here. Not without a well-explained reason anyway – except for the periodic incidents at the factories.
      Slowly she dragged herself to the disorganised cupboard and put her empty pill bottle back in the ration tin before cleaning up. Her new bottle, however, had to stay in the open for now – unless…
      She grabbed a knife from the drawer – just sharp enough to saw through a piece of meat – and tried to stab her bottle. It took her more tries than she was willing to admit and stabbed herself multiple times in the process, but she had mangled the bottle just a little bit. Just a tiny crack to make it look like she had dropped it one too many times.
      Next step of her plan; find a new bottle. She went to room 1516 and knocked. Liyeva opened the door after a few minutes, rubbing sleep out of her eyes – she might have been napping by the looks of it.
      “What’s up, Cass? There’s no gathering today, it’s our resting day so we can have a break from each other and rest up properly,” she said softly, eyes opened only slightly. She was clearly trying to “keep the sleep”.
      “I broke my pill bottle. I’ve been dropping it and smashing it off the table or counter by accident a lot lately and it just cracked today, see?” Cass hovered the bottle in front of Liyeva’s face, showing her the cut quickly. “Do you have a spare bottle or an empty one lying around maybe?”
      “I might. Do you mind if I look for it tomorrow? I could really use–” She yawned. “–some sleep first.”
      “That’s fine, have a good rest.” Cass tried to keep her face straight, but she couldn’t help feel a little disappointed.
      “If you need it immediately, ask Sergei. He has a tendency to save up those bottles and then deposit them in one go. Weird hobby, but he likes bringing in a huge batch of empty bottles for some reason.” Liyeva yawned again. “Good night.”
      Before Cass could thank her, the door was already closed and she heard Liyeva stumbling back to bed. Without a second thought, she moved across the hallway and knocked on Sergei’s door.