Arlo was seated before a wide table. Oren, Fern, and Iven also sat around it, conversing. Monitors covered the walls, each one showing a different room with a child within.

"As I’m sure you have all noticed, Kale seems to be a lot more obedient to us than past subjects. Hopefully this won’t backfire, but according to all the researchers here, this way of indoctrination has been the most successful," Oren said as he sifted through papers.

"Yeah, he seems to actually be enjoying himself lately," Arlo said.

"Arlo, if you don’t mind could you go check in on Kale? Mr. Nelto wants to know how individual city governments have been teaching the events from twenty years ago." Oren sat up straight. “I’m sure you understand why.”

"You want me to ask the boy what he knows of the Nimalstic War?"

"Yeah, come back and relay his answers when you're done."

Arlo stood up, pushed in the chair, and opened the intimidating steel door. The employee sector was a direct opposite from the children’s school sector. Signs plastered the wall, instructing how to interact with the children so you could gain their trust, and help the Nhajan government.

Upon leaving the depressing area, hallways with colorful drawings led him around on a hunt. He had trouble finding his way to Kale's room as everything looked the same, and the numbers on the rooms had nothing to do with where they were located, but after some time he finally found the room.

He peered into the one way window and found Kale comfortably laying underneath the blankets with the TV playing a cartoon.

"Hold it!" a voice shouted from down the hall.

"What?" Arlo turned as the guard approached him.

"We cannot allow entry to any door in this hallway without a guard at the entrance keeping watch," the guard said. "Plus, the door is locked." He took out keys and unlocked the door.

Arlo twisted the doorknob and entered the warm room, enveloped in childish wonder as the cartoon characters shouted out in victory. As soon as the door latched, the guard locked it behind him. Arlo turned around. What was the point of locking it now? Although, he already knew that during night hours every child’s door was to be locked.

Kale looked up, eyes drained. "Arlo, what are you doing here? It’s so nice here! They even left cookies for me!"

Arlo glanced around the room, side to side, and felt a small ounce of happiness for the first time in a long time. He knew what they were doing was wrong, but this was the happiest he had ever seen a subject, and he wanted to do all he could to let him enjoy his life as a kid.

"Hey Kale, I need to ask you a question."

Kale turned his body over and faced him. “Can it wait? I’ve never seen this episode before!”

"It’ll be quick.” Arlo sat at the foot of his bed. “How much do you know about the Nimalstic War?"

"They told us it was a long time ago. Like back hundreds of years ago. Why?"

"Oh, I see. Thank you, Kale. I was just wondering." Arlo nodded and turned for the door.

"Wait," Kale's mouth trembled as he spoke. "Thank you guys for saving me. I saw a commercial that a lot of people died from the chemical spill. I even saw a news update with information about me, my mom, and my dad!”

A commercial? There must have been special TV programming in this building.

“Yeah… No problem, Kale…”

Arlo's eyes twitched as he gave out a smile on the verge of breaking. He wished he didn’t hear those words from Kale’s mouth. What they were doing was the opposite of saving him. Arlo spun around and knocked on the door and the guard opened it. He broke out of the door, smashing through the guard and ran down the hall.

What kind of kid would actually believe that they were saved while they chained him up, and treated like a prisoner in the first place? Arlo understood how undeveloped a child’s brain was, but he wished Kale would think about everything further. But would he even come to the correct conclusion?

They now even had fake commercials fabricating the chemical spill? There was no way a child would find that fake. Arlo calmed his nerves a bit, and thought of all of the other fake stories that had been created just as easily to fool the public, especially with how the world handled the Nimalstic War.

It's true the Nimalstic War happened once before, hundreds of years ago, but no one except people involved in the actual incident, or government officials knew about the recent one. It went just as they wanted it. Arlo was baffled at how easy it was to fool everyone into thinking the Nimalstic War was just explosions from reactors blowing up.

The public wasn't allowed to observe, and they had everything cleaned up before any regular person had a chance at getting a view.

When would this perennial conflict ever end? The reason the original war started wasn't quite the same reason as why the most recent ones continued, but one could say it was only natural that things ended up like this.

*****

The next morning, Oren led Kale down the bright white hallways of smiling pictures, around many corners and turns, until finally they reached a large double door. Through the windows Kale could see the colorful concoctions of painted walls. He could see the silhouettes of other children running about the large room, and felt a tingle of excitement for the first time in a month.

“What is this?” Kale asked.

“It’s a classroom! These children are all contaminated with the same chemical as you, we thought it would be best to keep you in an environment that still felt familiar,” Oren said as he pushed on the doors.

They walked through the doors and all the kids halted their activities and stared at Kale.

"Children! This is Kale, he is new here please be kind to him," Oren said. "It'd be nice if you could make him feel welcome." He slipped out of the door.

A girl with dark skin and black hair approached him, "Hi! I'm Topaz! You are going to love it here! All the teachers are so nice and they give us lots of toys and snacks! And we play lots of games!"

Kale smiled and nodded, making his way closer to the center of the room. The floor was of fine polished wood; light bounced off the sleek surface. The walls were as if the children had all painted it, splotches of every color in random patterns drawn around the perimeter.

He walked around the desks and noticed each one had a name written on it. Was there one for his name? He started walking around the twenty-some desks in search of it.

"If you are looking for your desk, it's this one!" a boy with tan skin and grayish green hair shouted and then smiled. "You’ll sit next to me!"

Kale shyly smiled and headed towards the desk and sat down. He fished through the compartment at the side of the desk and noticed it was stocked full of pencils, folders, notebooks, crayons, markers, and books.

"I thought I would hate it here at first, but I really like it," the boy said.

"How did you end up here?" Kale asked.

"They saved me. If I would have been stuck back where I was I would have died… A lot of people in my neighborhood died," the boy said.

"Whoa, mine too..." Kale's eyes widened.

"Yeah, it's the same for everyone here, it’s sad what happened, but at least we are safe! Every day here is so great! They let us do lots of fun activities!" the boy smiled.

Kale felt a sense of belonging amidst the crowd of kids in similar situations.

The door shut behind the class, and everyone sat down. The boy looked over at Kale and whispered, "By the way, my name is Hage."