The Perfect Machine: Kingdom Of Glass (GxG

7. Surviving

"Are you alright?" I ask Harlow as she hasn't moved a piece on the chessboard for around fifteen minutes now. She has just been sitting in front of me in the library, lost in her thoughts. If only I could read her mind or make her open up more to me.

"What?" She asks, seeming confused as if she wasn't present here at all.

"Are you okay?

"Yes, I am okay," She nods as she moves the tower on the chessboard, which was a mistake. I raise my eyebrow at her but remember that she can't see me.

"Then, why are you intentionally losing?" I ask, but she stays quiet.

"Is there something wrong?" I try to dig through those dark caves of hers. I'm not sure that I am going in the right direction or following the right path, but it's better than standing still.

"No," She answers a bit harshly.

"Okay," I answer as I take out her queen with my horse, but it doesn't seem to bother her at all.

"Can I ask you something?" I wonder as I lean back in my seat and cross my arms over my chest.

"Sure," She huffs. I try to ignore the fact that she seems agitated with our conversation.

"How did you end up here?" I ask to find a new way to her caves. Perhaps I have been doing everything wrong.

"As everyone else did, I presume," She shrugs.

"And how is that?" I ask as I don't really understand. Everyone has a story and most like to talk about it, but some don't, like Harlow here. I still don't know anything about her, even though I have known her for a few weeks now.

"Surviving," She answers, and I chuckle at her answer.

"That is a way to describe it, I guess," I watch her move her tower again, but now a bit more tactical.

"Have you done that all your life?" I question to sneak out something out about her life.

"No," She shakes her head.

"I was born into wealth," She says, and I recline in my seat with extended eyes.

"What?" I say out loud, which makes a few inmates glare at me from the bookshelves.

"I am so confused," I tell her, baffled and lost.

"My father was a military man, and my mother is into politics," Her explanation sounds like a foreign language.

"I don't understand; I mean, how did this happen?" I'm trying to frame this into a picture. Perhaps I need a bigger frame at this point.

"My mother stayed at home until I was like six, but then my father had to quit the Army after they found out he was sick. So my mother decided to go back to politics. My father trained me from a young age to be in the military, but then he died." She sighs sadly.

"I crossed my mother and went into the military in 2084, I was sixteen, and she hated me for that. I was there until 2094, something happened, and I left," She shrugs, which makes me try to calculate how old she is. We are in 2096, and she was sixteen in 2084, making her twenty-eight now. I feel like a child by being twenty-one. It's not a particularly good age to go to prison, I presume.

"You lost your sight?" I question as I understand she wasn't going to proceed.

"You can call it that if you like. I left, and I knew I couldn't go back home. I didn't want to. So, I ended up like over half of the population, surviving," She completes the process and leaves me with my mouth open as I don't have any desire to accept this story. It's an excessive amount to take in and I didn't anticipate any of this.

"I'm sorry," Is all I can say at this moment.

"It's okay," She tells me, and I watch her make a move on the chessboard. I forgot that we were even playing.

"How about you?" She asks, and I watch her confused.

"What?" A little laugh comes out of her. I haven't heard her chuckle previously or look entertained before.

"Why are you here?" She asks and I blush as I understand her question now.

"I tried to feed my parents," I say as I look down at the chessboard to find out how to take down her king without her taking mine first. I miss my parents and I wish I could return home to get a warm embrace from them. However, I can't.

"The system is at fault, not you," She says, and her words make me smile a little. It's true, a long time ago it wasn't like this. The system has been at fault for decades now. The innocent and poor people are the ones suffering.

"Something should be done," I sigh.

"Yes, indeed,"

"Can I ask you something?" I wonder, and she nods as I move my pawn.

"What is going on with this country?" My question makes her raise her head at me.

"What do you mean?"

"Are there things our country is hiding from us? It's just your mother is in politics, and you were in the Army. Are there things our land doesn't want us to know?" I have asked a lot of questions at once, but I need to know. The people deserve to know what is going on with this country and what is happening. We have been left out for so many years now, not having anything to say about the matter. They keep pulling us down in the dirt, expecting us to live off scraps.

"Of course," She answers and sighs deeply.

"Like what?" I ask and lean forward.

"Things you don't want to know, River," She smiles lightly at me, almost apologetic.

"Want to play again?" Harlow asks, indicating at the game.

"Um,sure yeah," I say as I wonder what she is keeping away from me since sheis avoiding the topic. Maybe she saw things she wishes she didn't or perhapsdid something.