The sound of heavy boots pounding against stone echos off the walls, loud enough to be heard over angry screaming, and I know my team is coming. Yongguk and I are at each others' throats again and to no one's surprise we are exchanging blows. Every time one of the new recruits is brought to the mines he gets upset, telling me to send them to do safer jobs, but I can't do that. Zelo knows who he is sending to me and I refuse to second guess him; he always could read people better than anyone else I know, than anyone Yongguk knows, and he would never send a recruit where they wouldn't excel. I'm sure Yongguk knows it too, but he is more gentle a person than I can give myself credit for; anyone Zelo sends to the mines isn't there to dig their own grave, even if they might not come back. My fist is inches from connecting with his temple when a strong arm wraps around my neck in a chokehold.

"Let it go!" I hear someone shout as I struggle to free myself.

I kick out and nearly break away when a thin young man grabs my legs and I find myself on the ground; I feel weight on my back as a couple of my team mates sit on me, Yongguk standing back to catch his breath. The chokehold slowly tightens until the dark walls and low lights begin to swim and I have to stop fighting before I pass out. My team mates step back cautiously and I am left coughing on the ground. I see dark droplets falling on the stone and I realize with no real surprise that my nose is bleeding; I touch my face gingerly. My nose isn't broken, but even if it was, it wouldn't be the first time. I've had to have Himchan fix me up before.

"How the hell did a loose cannon like you get to run the tunnels?" asks a voice dryly. A hand is extended to me and I look up to see my little brother.

"Ask yourself, Daehyun. You appointed me," I growl, nonplussed. I turn around to snarl at Yongguk. "And you. I don't care if you are in charge once Matoki are in the field – when you're in my mines, you follow my rules. We'll finish this talk later, but right now I'm going to see the new people Zelo is sending out."

I turn to stomp off when I suddenly remember something. "And Jongup?"

The auburn-haired young man looks at me immediately and opens his mouth to respond, but he never gets the chance. I grab his short hair with both hands and head- him; he won't bleed, but he'll have one hell of a headache. ping my drab grey overalls to tie the sleeves around my waist, I march into my so-called office wearing just my black sportsbra as a shirt. It isn't much of an office – it's just a make-shift wall and door built over a wide, supposedly dead-end tunnel. The privacy is good, though. The government may have us under their thumb when we're on the surface, but here in the underground, I'm queen.

"Bree!" a voice exclaims cheerfully. Long arms wrap around me and I find myself in a friendly scuffle with Zelo.

"Ah, get off me y'idiot!" I chuckle.

"Yes, mother," he sniggers. My face falls and I can see his immediate regret written all over his face. "I – I'm sorry."

"Don't call me that, Zelo. None of us have mothers – not anymore." He stands quietly, studying me; he's only eighteen and he can act like a goof, but he's wise beyond his years, even for someone in the Mato district. I pull my thoughts away from the depression of our reality and poke his cheek to get his thoughts back to the here and now. "I hear you've got some new people for me?"

"Oh. Yeah."

"For?"

"Piloting. Two of them. I heard the fighting, by the way; I'm surprised Yongguk got so worked up about new pilot recruits. They've got sturdy armour. Relatively speaking, they're probably safer than any of the rest of us."

"I know they are. I'm actually surprised you came down here yourself, this time. Normally you'd give them to one of my foremen and tip them off to come looking for me," I tell him as I turn to the two girls standing off to the side. They're quiet, probably scared after hearing the fight and seeing me come in bruised and bloody, my neck chafed red from the chokehold Jongup had on me.

"I wanted to see how you're doing," he smiled. "The mines are a lot tougher on a person's sense of self than anyone down here realizes. By the way, Himchan sends his regards from the medical ward and says for you and Yongguk to stop kicking the bejeezus out of each other. He's tired of seeing you guys there."

I scoff. "Sparring doesn't get that bad. It's when he gets stubborn about new recruits that the trouble starts." Without another word, I turn to the girls off to my left. "You two."

"M – Ma'am!"

"Relax. Has Junhong told you why he brought you here?" No reply and I sigh. "I don't know how much attention you pay to the news the government spreads, but I doubt you forget when they paraded around saying they won the civil war three years ago… If that were true, then don't you ever wonder why we're still forced to design and build weapons? Truth is, that war never ended. So I want to ask you this: if you were given the chance to fight for freedom, would you do it?"

One girl looks me straight on, her dark eyes burning with a warrior's passion. "That's no question at all. I may not have lived any differently, but I know this life isn't a life at all."

The other girl is quieter. "I want out of here…"

I nod sagely and smile to myself. "Then for the next month you'll be with me and the boys here in the rabbit holes."

"Don't you mean mines?"

Zelo laughs. "Mines are for the workers covering for us; we make rabbit holes with the help of the Matoki above ground. Once you're strong enough to make it through them, you'll go meet the boys upstairs and they'll get you to where you need to be."

Little else is spoken as I throw the girls overalls and heavy boots. With a friendly punch to the shoulder, Zelo moves to leave; I kick his on his way past me. He knows what I mean: don't be a stranger. He scratches behind his right ear lightly with a sheepish smile and I know exactly what he means as well. I scratch behind my own ear and sigh before turning back. I can't see it, but I'm very aware and proud of the black ink behind my right ear: a rabbit wearing a mask. The perfect symbol of our operation – stealth through the tunnels we dig. We are those of Mato fighting for freedom. We are Matoki.