Pick pocketing to be exact. Sara had become skilled at it on the streets of New York City. Now that Sara was stuck in the middle of another registration camps, Sara was back to old tricks.

Pilfering was an art form. One that Sara had quickly picked back up when she was captured. The only difference about picking pockets and stealing here, and stealing back at the US, was that getting caught here was a lot more dangerous. It was a test of thieving and stealth by fire.

Sara had been assigned to work with Alexandra today. They were delivering laundry witch gave Sara plenty of chances to collect information from different individuals. Every chance Sara had, when their guards weren’t paying enough attention, Sara was using slight of hand to check on card names, and today, she’d managed to collect some small pieces of metal. Paper clips, a couple of pins, and the head to a throwaway able razor, had been stashed in the folds of her camps clothing. Sara could try for more important things, like a card key, but that would be too dangerous with the guards paying this close attention to them.

Alexandra wondered… was there really someone who escaped from the damned Senate bombing event? There she was, carrying laundry around the camps, this time being assigned to work with Sara. Oh yes, speaking English and Romanian made her feel so damn good right now.

The molecule manipulator sighed, picking up a basket overflowing with fresh laundry. Well, as fresh one could make it in these conditions. Her eyes shifted to the guard Stix had assigned to watch her. She blinked casually when the guard looked back and let her eyes travel back to Sara.

“Are some paperclips really worth it?” Alexandra asked, lowering her voice to the point where only Sara could hear her. She tilted her head to the side, curiously. She’d seen Sara relieve the guards of some possessions in the short time she’d worked with her and made her wonder what good paperclips were gonna do to the cat mutant in the camps.

She sighed and gestured to another laundry basket for Sara to pick up.

Sara’s ears twitched once when Alexandra asked the question. Her voice was so quiet, and while Sara could hear it just fine, she hadn’t expected Alexandra to say anything to her. The mood wasn’t one that made people in the camps bubbly and great at conversation and up till that moment, Alexandra and herself hadn’t said anything to each other up until then.

“Are some paperclips really worth it?”

Her eyes flicked up making contact with Alexandra’s “Yes.” Sara mouthed. Her eyes flicked down and she let herself have a small smile. Hiding the emotion behind her shoulder so the guard couldn’t see it.

Sara moved closer to the laundry and she started explaining as she picked up the laundry. She leaned close to Alex with the movement so she could still speak quietly while making herself look busy. “If these guys are good enough to catch me when I’m stealing, I’d rather be caught stealing the small things. Plus you never know when you need a tool in places like these, paper clips can be fashioned into almost anything small. Plus they’re good for picking locks.”

Sara picked up her load, waiting to be told where to go by the guard. Her expression turning solemn completely. The camps weren’t something new to Sara. Just a new location. She knew what to expect all too well. She knew that, even she, who has the ability to heal, also has the ability to die. It’s a simple fact and one of the few things that Sara could relate to with the norms. It was a reality that she could do it here. It didn't mean Sara had to give in.

Picking locks with paperclips. Alexandra could almost snort at that. Maybe, if you were staying in one of the ‘normal’ cells. But for hers… well, she guessed that she needed to cut someone’s hand off to ‘lock pick’ the door.

Alexandra leaned in before turning around to request instructions from the guard. “I’d rather steal those stupid remotes. That… that would be useful.” Sighing, she turned around and parroted Sara’s solemn face. “Where to?” She asked in Romanian.

“Third floor. Use the stairs.”

Alexandra nodded, turning to Sara to offer the translation. “Third floor and we’re advised to use the stairs.”

“I’d rather steal those stupid remotes. That… that would be useful.”

Sara blinked at Alex for a moment. The time was bad to continue talking and Sara had to wait till they were on their way up the stairs. The guard kept the two of them in front of him as they climbed. The fact that he was still near meant that Sara’s voice had to remain low. But their facial expressions could relax for a few seconds. Sara didn’t really smile, but there was a noticeable difference in the way she held her eyes as she walked next to Alexandra.

“It’s not impossible to do.” Sara said with a shrug that was mixed with the same motion of lifting the laundry higher o her shoulders and angling it against her hip more. “Durring the camps in the US, another girl and I managed to pilfer a remote. We stowed one of the guards away with a collar around his neck and tortured him later. By the time we were finished, he believed he’d turned into one of us.” The camp guard’s name had been James, and her partner in crime during most of the pilfering had been Neena.

“At the moment, I’d much rather steal information.. .. ..”

Interesting.

So remotes could be stolen.

A smile made its way to the molecule manipulator’s lips as she glanced at the guard behind them with the corner of her eye. Blue eyes turned to Sara carefully as she smirked at the story the cat woman had told her. She had a feeling that she’d get along with Sara just fine.

“At the moment, I’d much rather steal information…

Blue eyes blinked curiously at the cat mutant and an eyebrow arched subtly. “What kind of information?” Alexandra asked keeping her voice low enough so that the guard wouldn’t hear. “And what for?” Her voice lowered even more as she asked the next question. “Break out?”

From where she stood, escape seemed impossible. But, then again, she was standing in an isolation cell, cut away from the others except for the forced labor hours. Sara on the other hand, had contact with the other prisoners. She blinked again, a thought making its way to her brain. If that was the reason Sara gathered information, then she might help. After all, she’d been walked around the camps more than any of the other prisoners, she was certain of that fact.

“What kind of information?”

Sara’s chin tilted down towards her collar bone for a moment. The effect cast deeper shadows around her eyes. “Anything. Information on the layout of the camps. Information on the guards. What they like, witch ones are actually more dangerous. Medical records would be absolutely wonderful but I know that one’s probably beyond my reach without either getting into the office, or being on the outside.” Sara shrugged.

And what for? Break out?”

“All the reasons I have lead up to a break out. Yes.” Sara reached the top of the stairs and hesitated for further directions. “I’ve been in situations like this twice in my life.” Sara said. Though the first situation lasted from her earliest memory, to when she was a teenager. For her own sanity she couldn’t concentrate on the time it took action to take place. “Logic, and the knowledge that I have of the other mutants here tells me that the camps won’t last forever.”

Sara heard their guard catching up to them on the stairs and she shifted her weight side ways so that she was against the wall allowing him space to move past, or give Alex further instructions for her to pass on.

Alexandra acknowledged the information Sara provided with a nod, quickly followed by a comment offered in a low voice as she leaned closer toward to the cat mutant while pretending to adjust the laundry basket. “I can help with the layout. Guards walk me around the camps more than anyone else.” After slightly shifting the position of the laundry basket, she straightened herself to keep up with the pretenses.

Medical files? Maybe, if she ever got the chance to work in the hospital wing. But where she worked was Stix’s decision and apparently she didn’t get the easy jobs and probably working in the hospital wing would be catalogued as an easy job.

Lost in thought, she climbed the stairs. Sara’s last sentence remained in her mind. She knew that at some point the camps would be closed, the easy way or the hard way. She knew that they wouldn’t last forever. But, other was her concern. It didn’t take forever to get crazy in here. To die, to disappear… no, none needed forever.

The guard brushed past them as they arrived on the third floor. Blue eyes focused back on the reality, and, to be more exact on the remote that hung on the man’s belt. She tilted her head pondering what would happen if she stole Stix’s remote during one of her visits? Without the remote to shock her, she’d have better chances of escaping, right?

The guard placed his palm on one of the scanners. The door slid away, making room for the two mutants to pass as the guard remained behind waiting for them to get in. Alexandra blinked lazily as she passed the guard, and glancing over her shoulder to catch a moment when the guard didn’t pay attention she leaned toward Sara again and spoke in low voice. “Sara. Teach me. Teach me how to steal stuff from the guards.” And then, she quickly straightened herself, just as the guard turned around and once again started to walk behind them.

Sara nodded when Circe offered for her assistance in the learning the layout of the camps. With Sara having laundry duty she had some way of getting this done, but she still wasn’t taken everywhere. Only where the laundry had to be delivered, and cleaned. Sure it provided her with a way of pilfering some things and memorizing the location of other routes through the camps, but it wasn’t enough. Not for her taste. Her and Circe would have to figure out a way to continue to communicate should Circe’s self enlisted help be any help. That could be done later though.

The guard had stepped around Sara and Alexandra. Sara let her eyes tilt down when he looked at her. Not looking like she was focusing on anything in particular. The moment he turned around to operate the door lock she paid careful attention to the buttons he pushed. She couldn’t read what they said, but she could remember the placement and rhythm of his fingers. Yes it took a hand print to open the door. That didn’t mean it was impossible to get when the time came.

“Sara. Teach me. Teach me how to steal stuff from the guards.”

Sara blinked for a moment. Her ear flicked back and forth making sure that Stix hadn’t heard the request. Nothing like teaching and learning under fire. So to speak. “alright.”

“The most important part is to make sure that they’re not paying attention.” Sara said simply and quietly. “use slight of hand, hide things up your sleeves if you’re lucky enough to have them, or use the laundry you carry. It’s more about common sense than anything.”

Sara’s eyes darted back and forth across the room quickly measuring the angles of it and where the cameras were located. “The papers on the table there are about to disappear.” Sara said as she moved to the right of the room and set her bundle down on the counter half way on top of a set of papers. She didn’t know what it was exactly, but she could find out later. She then opened a drawer that was located below the counter and started pulling out dirty hand towels.

Alexandra acknowledged the information with a short nod while Stix was busy typing the access code. Fortunately, due the fact that often Stix was the one who accompanied her around the camps she had become rather familiar with the code. A five digits number. Alexandra mentally smiled while following Sara to the counter.

She placed her own laundry basket on top of the counter and while doing her ‘job’ she kept an eye on what Sara was doing, anxious to learn this useful skill. Behind them, Stix moved, folding her arms as she stopped a meter away from the two mutants and watched them with a hawk’s eyes.