The sound of keys fiddling in a lock woke Richard, giving him the sight of Alice standing at their cell door.
“Alice?” he asked in surprise, “What are you doing-”
“There’s no time,” was the answer she gave, “Hurry, we’re breaking you out.”
He stood up, looking over to see Helen standing up as well.
“Where are the others?” she asked as they looked out the door to see Adalene standing guard, one of her swords drawn.
“Skylar’s getting Luke,” Alice said, “And I think Peter’s looking for them. But come on, we have to go.”
They rushed through the halls, following Adalene as she navigated them through the labyrinth that was the prison. There were twists and turns, each few steps leading to a new hallway, a new staircase, but they finally made it to the bottom level.
Adalene held a finger up to her lips, shushing everyone and keeping herself close to a wall as a group of sentries passed.
“Yeah, I was thinking about trying the new military meal plan,” one of them nonchalantly said as they passed the openign to the hallway.
“Really?” the other asked, “I’ve heard it’s pretty gross.”
“Hmm…”
“I heard they took out some preservative that makes it taste better and that now it doesn’t give you the full nutrition.”
“Man,” the first sounded disappointed, “It sounded like such a good deal because it’s cheaper.”
“That’s the deal,” the second argued, “The government’s cutting costs, so they have to figure out a cheaper option. But I don’t know why they’re having such trouble. With the height of taxes, they should be getting plenty of-”
He was cut off by Adalene hitting him across the head with the hilt of her sword before kicking the other’s legs and punching him in the face.
“Alright,” she said, breathless, “Let’s go.”
They hurried through the hallway, but something was bugging Richard in the back of his mind. “What were those guys saying about the costs and meal plan? Is the government really taxing the people that much?”
Adalene sighed, sheathing one of her swords. “Zis government isn’t like ze others you may have seen, Richard,” a sad look passed her face as he listened to her wisdom, “Zey tax zeir citizens to make ze members of ze government rich, vile robbing ze people until zey are starving.”
“That’s…inhumane,” Richard said, his eyebrows knit in concern, “So…are the soldiers just as innocent as the citizens?”
Adalene’s own eyebrows grew close together, “I suppose some of zem,” she said, unsure, “But you must realize zat some of ze higher military officials profit from ze taxes as vell.”
Richard nodded, understanding to some extent of what she was telling him. But if the government was taxing its citizens to the brink of starvation, then what were they doing with that money? And what could they do with the rest of the world with that amount of power?
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