Eleanor:

  It was the morning before the big fight.

  Eleanor stood on the landing one flight below the entry to the internal room. Behind her and overflowing down the steps were her companions. She pressed her lips together and tried to overcome her sense of doom.

  What am I doing? Am I really going against the Emperor of all the slaves? Just little old me and a tiny group of miscellaneous people.

  Lena, standing to her side, reached out and took her hand. Then she squeezed it hard.

  Oops, Lena is glaring at me. Right, no more negativity!

  "Let's go, friends."

  All eighteen walked up the final landing and moved into the room without a backward glance. They went as silently as possible, well aware that the Emperor's slaves, no doubt some with enhanced hearing, were listening somewhere up above them. Behind them were a dozen workers carrying buckets of freshly made cement and various tools.

  The internal room had been completely transformed. It used to be an empty fifteen-metre diameter circular room with a four-metre-high ceiling. Not anymore. Now, it was filled with steel-reinforced concrete blocks.

  Five hundred or so people, including most of the freed slaves, with fully maxed-out physical stats, had worked hard for a month or more, manufacturing the steel bars, preparing the concrete, and moving up tons and tons of rock. Eleanor was extremely grateful to the Misfits for their ability to transfer stat points. The whole endeavour would not have been possible without this.

  She was equally appreciative of all the farmers and food suppliers who gave her bargain rates; those workers consumed an enormous amount of food during that period.

  At the entrance to the room was a single three-metre wide, two-metre high passage leading slightly to the right. It narrowed down until it was only one metre wide and ended up in a circular area three metres in diameter. They named this the fighting room and the passage to it was called the funnel. To the left was a much smaller passage, only half a metre wide and a metre high. Everything else appeared filled with cemented rock.

  "OK, in you go, kids," said Eleanor.

  The two children, followed by Lena, crawled through the smaller passage. Esther and Evereena followed them.

  The Treasurer was the second last to enter, holding a folder containing the condensed battle plans.

  Wow, he looks totally out of it. He must be pushing himself to the max. I'm glad for his loyalty. Not to mention everybody else's, of course.

  And, finally, she crawled through herself. She wiggled and squirmed around a couple of corners and emerged into the command centre. She sat down on her designated bench. A small fireball, supplied by the Treasurer, lit up the cavity just in time as the light from the entranceway disappeared.

  This was the outside workers blocking it off. This was why they had to get here the day before to allow time for the concrete to set.

  "Well, children, it's time for breakfast!"

  "Yay!" said Becky.

  Mason nodded his head in agreement.

  This is going to be one Voice damned pain, waiting for midday tomorrow.

  Fortunately, they had brought some toys for the children to play with. And Evereena was happy to keep them occupied.

  As for the adults?

  Tough luck. They had no choice but to sit and wait.

  There were boxes of prepared meals and a couple of barrels of water.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Oh, and there was a small alcove with a wooden door. In it was one of the toilet buckets from the ship. The door, when closed, sealed off the little room. And, very fortunately, the standard internal Wall air conditioning worked here as well. A mere five minutes after 'use', the toilet alcove smelled of nothing but alpine fresh air.

  Eleanor sat down on a bench seat, which was along the left-hand side of their space. On her left, with a small spacing, was the Treasurer. Lena sat on her right-hand side, right up close to her. She held Lena's hand; she rested her other hand on a small pack attached securely to her waist.

  Jane:

  She watched as Eleanor and Co disappeared into their little hidey-hole. Then she took careful note as the workers sealed off the last half metre with a chunk of rock and concrete.

  "Yep, once the concrete dries, it should merge with the rest of the rock fill. Apart from the eye hole, of course. Hmm, it's not too obvious."

  Outside the room, on the staircase landing, there was more action as the workers left. They sealed off the staircase, one landing down from the fighting area.

  It was all planned out. The workers, now on the other side of the sealed-off section, would spend the next 24 hours packing as much rock, concrete, and steel into the staircase area as possible.

  We'll be lucky if it delays the invasion by more than half a day. I suppose it's better than nothing.

  I wonder how my daughter is doing. Ironically, she and her family are now living in that nobleman's spare house.

  What a waste of resources: having two luxurious houses to accommodate the occasional visitor.

  Plus all of the other properties they own.

  Still, it's quite a step up in her living arrangements.

  Until the invasion reaches her.

  She walked out to the landing. At this point on the Wall, the staircase that climbed from the ground to the top was enclosed. (Remember: the staircase alternated every kilometre, from open to the sky on one side to fully enclosed. The internal Wall room was precisely in the middle of an enclosed section.)

  Going down from Jane’s landing, the steps ended at the first landing beneath her, the landing now blocked off with a wall of concrete blocks. Going up from Jane was the stairway going up to the next landing. The light shone dimly on each step going up, with the landing fading into darkness.

  A small stack of boxes was stacked on the lowest step on the lower side. These contained their supplies.

  Sigh.

  "OK, you lot, Eleanor might be sitting down in comfort, but you will do some training!"

  Cassy:

  It was now evening. The Misfits had congregated at the end of the funnel in the fighting room.

  Cassy returned and sat down.

  "Uck, I hate these open toileting arrangements!"

  "But, they put a curtain around it!" said Drayden.

  "Yeah, sure."

  The toilet bucket was placed one step up from the landing. They figured that the Voice wouldn't complain about that, and it hadn't.

  "Say, are they going to leave that bucket there when the Emperor comes through?" said Alice.

  Drayden gave an evil giggle. "They sure are!"

  "Isn't that a little disrespectful towards our invited guest?" said Bronsen.

  "Hmm, I mean, he is a big shit... So maybe the toilet bucket won't be big enough?" said Cassy.

  Drayden giggled even harder.

  "Cassy! I can see you!"

  The voice was muffled and faint, but it was clearly Evereena's. So Cassy moved to the rock wall on the left-hand side of their space, where there was another eye hole, barely visible amongst the roughly finished concrete work. Evereena was inside another small access tunnel that reached from the command centre outwards towards the space where the Misfits were. It didn't make it all the way; the idea was that either Evereena or Esther could crawl through it, peak through the eye hole, and either Insta-Death someone or turn off their language ability.

  Cassy waved, then plonked herself down right next to the hole.

  "I hope you will remember everything I said in our private chat?"

  "Ah, yes, Cassy."

  "Good, good. And, is that Eleanor calling you?"

  "Ahh, I'm supposed to have a sleep now."

  Eleanor:

  Evereena's sleeping position was in that access tunnel. Esther's was in the other access tunnel. Due to their maxed-out physical stats, sleeping in such confined spaces was no problem.

  Eleanor was in the command centre. She looked up at the ceiling, where there was yet more steel-reinforced concrete and rock. And, just under it was slung a hammock. Currently wiggling a bit as the Treasurer made himself comfortable.

  The two children were sleeping on the bench seat, their heads towards each other. Eleanor and Lena were going to sleep on the floor. But first, Lena had to read a good night story to the kids.

  By the Voice, the Treasurer is listening to everything we say. No wonder he is so embarrassed.

  Eventually, Eleanor and Lena settled down on the floor, leaning against each other. They held hands but were perfectly silent.

  I want to tell her that I love her. But, bloody hell, not when the Treasurer can hear me!

  Lena must have been thinking similarly as she leaned in and softly kissed her.

  Jane:

  "Aragon, you can stop chatting up Esther now. It's time to sleep."

  "OK, yes."

  All the fighters settled down. Frannie, Reggie, and Hestia were in the passage from the entrance to the circular room where the Misfits were. Jane and Aragon were sleeping on the landing, while Adrian and Jacob were going to be on the lower side landing. There wasn't much room between the cramped quarters and their boxes of supplies.

  There is no privacy at all. Poor Misfits, they can't have any passion tonight. Nor, I guess, any other night in the future.