Clockwork

Chapter Thirteen

The harsh winter sun shone through the cracked window, stirring Kyros from his sleep. Last night was one of the worst nights of his life, and the lack of sleep began to hinder his actions. For a good ten minutes, he couldn't remember where he was. Why he was there. Then reality came flooding back, leaving the young Prince feeling rather alone.

The children had promised that they were near the airstrip so that was a relief. Kyros was slightly worried about the airstrip not being in use. Nothing in Lebanon seemed to be in use.

Stuffing his penultimate protein bar into his mouth, he joined the children at the big table in the hall. Devyn was sitting on Daniella's lap singing to himself. However, Daniella was staring at the wall, a blank look on her face. Kyros waved at her but her eyes remained unfocused, glazed over, like nobody was home. Kyros coughed and awkwardly sat down at the table. Instantly, Devyn stopped singing and Daniella snapped out of her trance.

"Okay..." Kyros muttered. "Where's Aiden?"

"Here." The boy replied, carrying a disintegrating box. Heaving it onto the table, he produced a knife and attacked the pieces of tape holding the box together.

"Dani, give us a hand."

Daniella got up, a shard of glass materialising in her hand. Kyros made a mental note of this, just in case he got on her bad side.

"So what's in the box?" He spluttered as a cloud of dust billowed out from the recently opened box.

"Bits and bobs," Aiden said, shifting through the box's contents.

"Oh, and a telescreen!"

Kyros snatched the telescreen from Aiden's hands. The younger boy glared at him, then busied himself with sorting the remainder of the box's content into piles.

Devyn helped him, picking up bits up and inspecting them, before giving them a nod of approvement and handing it over to his brother. If the object did not pass the inspection, he handed it over to his sister who made quick work of destroying it with her glass shard.

Kyros eagerly turned the telescreen on, grateful for a connection to the outside world. He hadn't seen any news feeds for a while and was missing the daily banter. The glow of the telescreen soon lit up the room as it projected onto the empty wall. The children gasped, their eyes following the telescreen's movements, mesmerised.

"Welcome user. To bring up news feed, please identify yourself." The mechanical voice of the AI system spoke.

It wasn't quite human, but not robotic either; the voice's gender indistinguishable. Kyros looked worried for a second. Could he be tracked?

"Welcome user. To bring up news feed, please identify yourself." The AI repeated, this time a little louder. The children looked at Kyros, who hadn't moved. He nodded and faced the telescreen.

"Disable location." He said. The telescreen froze for a second before finally letting out a series of beeps.

"Location disabled."

"Okay, great. Umm, create privet network?"

"Error. Privet network not recognised." The telescreen flashed red.

"Create VPN? Create-"

"Encrypt network." Daniella cut in. There was a pause.

"Network encrypted."

Kyros looked at Daniella.

"Thanks."

She nodded.

"Welcome user. To bring up news feed, please identify yourself."

"If I do , will you stop bothering me?" Kyros groaned.

"Affirmative."

Pause.

"Welcome user. To bring up news feed, please identify yourself."

"Wait. Fine. Um, how do I do that?" Kyros asked the telescreen. He reasoned that the telescreen he owned had be pre-coded to recognise him.

"Please state your full name and title or identification number." The telescreen explained.

Kyros risked a glance at the children. They were all looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to speak. Gulping, Kyros cleared his throat.

"Crown Prince Kyros Andreas Sira." He muttered.

"Scanning."

A laser of green light surrounded Kyros. He closed his eyes, the harsh green light reminding him of unpleasant memories.

"Scanning complete. Identification confirmed: Crown Prince Kyros Sira. It is a pleasure to be of service, your highness."

"Thank you. Bring up news feeds."

"With pleasure, your highness"

Images flashed around the room, mostly of his face, with warnings on them. Huh, his mother did care about his absence after all. There she was, in her stupid fine clothing, shedding tears for the cameras. Kyros had learnt long ago that his mother felt no emotion so knew at once that they were fake. He let the feed run for a few minutes, catching up on the past two days. Sighing, he slumped back into the sofa.

"Telescreen off."

Daniella came up to Kyros, putting a frail hand on his shoulder.

"I think it is time for you to go" she said, motioning towards her brothers. Aiden had a snarl on his face, Devyn standing behind him. Kyros had forgotten about how people felt towards him and his family. Their friendship was appreciated while it lasted.

He walked towards the boys, hands outstretched in surrender.

"I didn't come here to hurt you." He said. Aiden's eyes flashed with hatred, causing Kyros to take a step back.

"I'm here to help, I promise. I know what my mothe- the queen is doing. I want to stop it. I want to help you."

"Go away." Devyn said. He only said two words but it told Kyros that he had been stupid to think that they would trust him.

"I'm sorry." He said. "I'll go then."

With that, Kyros climbed the steps to exit the building, shutting the door on the betrayed faces of the children.

                                                                                                      *

Felicity lay staring at the roof of the jet, thinking about the Prince. Would he recognise her? Did she want him to recognise her? Why did she care? What if he thought she'd stolen the telescreen? Oh, then she would be in trouble.

A voice called her name. Felicity groaned and pulled herself up from the comfort of the bed. There was only one bed in the jet and Felicity had collapsed on it before either of the boys had even thought of claiming it for themselves. She followed the sound of the voice until she found Austin in the control room.

"Good, you're here Scarlet."

"Felicity."

"Okay, Ruby. Slight problem."

"If it's anything to do with the jet, don't worry, I've got this."

"Nah, that wouldn't be a problem. No, it's about the Prince."

Felicity's ears perked up.

"What about him?"

"Little Princey has gone walkies."

"Come again?"

"Ran away from the palace. No-one has spotted him since Monday." Austin explained, his eyes shifting across his telescreen.

"Please tell me you disabled the location on that."

"No, I thought I'd send up a beacon telling the Iron Guard where we are. How stupid do you think I am, mate? Besides, you're missing the point. You wanted to go to the Palace? Well, no point because your precious prince ain't there."

Felicity's shoulders slumped. She punched her hand against the wall, earning a filthy look from Austin.

"Now what do we do?"

"I dunno. I'm just the pilot."

"Well, if you're not going to be helpful, I'm going to go and find Hunter."

"Careful now Scarlet." Austin called after her.

"Lose the lid on that temper and you'll set fire to that red hair of yours."

Ignoring him, Felicity stormed off. Bloody prick.

                                                                                                      *

She found Hunter in the boiler room, re-doing his bandages.

"How's the patient?"

"In pain. And having to play doctor as well as patient." Hunter said, fed up.

"A little help?"

Felicity sat down next to Hunter, grabbing hold of the bandage. She wrapped it around his arm, shuddering when her fingers brushed against his feverish skin. She felt his forehead and tutted.

"Hunts, you're burning up."

"Not surprising because of my red hot sexiness." Hunter smiled weakly, motioning to his body. Felicity laughed. Only Hunter would be so vain. He eyes focused on his torso where a patch of red had begun to grow.

"Take your shirt off." She ordered. Hunter smirked at her, that look in his eyes.

"No! Not that! Be serious!"

"I am serious."

"Hunter, you i***t, you're injured. Not just your arm." She shook her head as Hunter tried to lift his injured arm. He looked down at his torso.

"Oh."

"How exactly did you do that?"

"Saving your life."

"Fingers?"

"Fingers."

Grabbing the medical kit, Felicity cut Hunter's shirt open. She could feel his gaze on her. She was thankful for her long hair; thank God he couldn't see her blushing. Patching her friend up, she sank down next to him.

"Now don't you dare get injured again."

"Yes Ma'm. " Hunter agreed, putting his free arm around her. He let out a satisfied sigh.

The two stayed like this, nodding off, Hunter's head on Felicity's shoulders, her hand in his.