The hours slide through the dawn until they meet the Sun.

  The cycle does not stop, the people above do not either.

  Cars begin to take over the streets shooting toward the most diverse corners of the periphery, limited, cornered, whether by the Wall of the Oppressed or by the Border with the Desert of Creation.

  In the immensity of this world, the human beings renegaded by their own species devote themselves resentfully to moving forward.

  Sarah, who had fallen asleep even in the face of such a situation, begins to wake upon hearing some noises around her. The stairs are lowered and at the back of her cell, well above her head, the light is on.

  Right in front of her, a head begins to emerge.

  That hair, that face.

  There is no doubt, deep down she already knew, even wanting it not to be true, she knows that it is.

  Brown hair combed back, low on the sides and almost shaved, thin and closed beard, greenish eyes that shine due to the light reflected in them. Broad shoulders, defined chest marked by his completely white and tight social shirt, accompanied by pants in the same tone.

  Leaning against the wall with her gaze turned toward him, Sarah stares at him in the same way she stared at the guards. The wound in her hand is not even felt anymore.

  Júlio sits in front of her and crosses his legs. He places his right elbow on his right thigh, resting his face on his right hand. Only one meter separates them.

  After a deep sigh he begins.

  “What do I do with you?” he asks himself out loud while staring at those cold eyes in front of him. His voice is strong and slightly thick.

  A staggering silence takes over the environment, not that it was not already silent by nature. No... this time it is different, even the hearts of the two guards who are on the ground seem to have renounced their functions. Their hands are colder than the rifles they hold. Only those two who stare at each other seem to be alive. One completely focused on every detail around him, and the other calm and relaxed as if it were just another casual situation of everyday life.

  “Well, it does not matter! Soon you will also be dead!” Júlio exclaims with a calm voice while looking at her. After some long seconds of silence, he speaks again. “You are not going to say anything?”

  Sarah pulls a handful of air into herself while closing her eyes, then empties her lungs like a strong and prolonged blow. Her eyes open again.

  “Nothing that needs to be said,” she proclaims such a sentence calmly while observing his pupils.

  “I do not know if you are this calm because you have already accepted your death, or I do not know what. I always knew you were more intelligent than your mother. High grades, performance bordering on perfection in all the sports you have ever practiced. Even with you getting into several fights at school and on the street, mainly with that little group of troublemakers you hang out with, nothing beyond scrapes. But now? Just look at you.”

  Sarah wonders mentally how he knows all of this.

  “Sometimes I thought you were something created in a laboratory, not a human being born from a womb. I wanted to meet your father, he must be a monster!”

  He interrupts his speech for a moment without stopping staring at her.

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  “You know... after you escaped I do not know how from the accident in the river, we decided to leave you aside, you looked like a zombie, our clients do not like that.” Then a slight smile appears on his face. “Your mother discovered my secret, you know? Well... a small part of it.”

  He directs his gaze to the light for a moment.

  “You are just a facade family, you know. To maintain my status in society as a successful man with a trustworthy image. That way no one will ever suspect me. But as the saying goes, ‘curiosity kills,’ and here you are. Soon you will know what happened to your mother. In fact, you will join her!” A new smile appears on his face. “At least to the remains.”

  In total silence, she only listens. The moment does not allow anything else. Her eyes remain fixed on him, who in turn begins to stand up and turns to leave the cell. Before that, he observes her one last time over his left shoulder.

  After making a slight expression of sadness, he utters his last words.

  “Waste!”

  “One,” Sarah whispers while wrapping a small portion of the chain around her hands.

  “Two,” another whisper while she stands up.

  “Three,” now she places the sole of her right foot on the wall behind her.

  “Four,” with a slight groan, she forces a small jump with her left leg also supporting on the wall. Her body stays completely horizontal above the floor of the cell. Her legs are flexed, and her position is sustained by the chains.

  “Five,” a very deep inhale accompanies her counting.

  “Six.” A groan much stronger than the last accompanies her counting now inside her mind. Her arms are completely stretched, with her hands holding the chain. Her flexed legs force themselves to extend.

  “Seven.” The counting continues in the subconscious, since her body and her mind are focused on a single objective. To take advantage of those few seconds in which the cell remains open.

  “Eight.” Her body is already almost halfway outside the cell. It is as if she were flying, when in truth she is falling, bringing with her a small piece of concrete stuck to the ring on the right.

  At that instant, Júlio and the guard closest to the cell hear the sound of something being ripped out. Turning his body back, he sees the ladder and a guard at the beginning of his climb. His head begins to lift following the ladder up to the top. When he is about to see half of it, a closed fist darkens his vision. What he feels next is an immense blow right in the middle of his nose. In truth, he does not even get to feel the pain, his consciousness leaves almost at the same instant of the shock.

  With the punch, Júlio is thrown approximately three meters backward and already falls knocked out on the ground colliding with one of the guards who has his back turned walking toward the red ladder, knocking him down.

  Sarah falls to the ground rolling, and getting up in an agile way, begins to run in the opposite direction, toward the cell and the ladder that leads to it while dragging the small piece of concrete attached to the ring on her right arm. In two seconds of running, she notices that the guard on the ladder is already turning and placing his hand on the rifle.

  At approximately two meters of distance from the guard, she takes one step to the left and another to the right while spinning her body counterclockwise bringing along the chain and the piece of concrete, which is redirected toward the head of the guard in front of her.

  He has the rifle’s aim fixed on Sarah, but for an instant he ceases his movements. His eyes freeze before the work of art that is in front of him. Sarah’s hair during the spin lifted, her spinning movement together with the loose chains moving in the air created the effect as if that person in front of him were a flower of black petals spinning with subtlety.

  In the instant after the concrete shatters with the impact on the side of the guard’s head, she begins to run in his direction jumping over the body. Her hands touch the rifle first, which is grabbed with force. In the fall she makes a roll, and finishes facing and close to the bars and the ladder. In the next instant, she spins back placing the sight on the guard who is finishing getting up at the back.

  Five seconds was the time that Júlio took to come down from the cell. Ten seconds was the time it would take to cross the hall and reach the red ladder, however, before he could complete half of the path, in the interval between the first and the third second after reaching the floor, it was the time that Sarah took to fall from the cell and knock him out. Another two seconds was the time of the run to the other guard. Another two seconds for the spin and the knockout with the concrete. Three seconds for the jump, the roll and the 180-degree spin, plus a fraction of a second for the trigger to be pulled.

  Fifteen seconds and a few fractions were what she needed to breathe again.

  “Done!” Sarah proclaims the end of her sentence.