Chapter 13 #4
‘I’m sure you would,’ she replies.
‘It’s just business, sugar,’ he says, his eyes taking her in from the top of her head to the curve of her hips. ‘All those points we’ll get. But you do look good.’
‘Oh, just shut up,’ she says.
I move to Julian’s side, start rummaging through his backpack. It’s a mess of things tossed together, a thick layer of crumbs at the bottom of it all. ‘Where even is that bracelet?’ I ask.
He shrugs. ‘No clue. Keep looking. Chrissy, sugar, where’s the rest of your team?’
‘Like I’d tell you,’ she says. ‘But you might be in for a big surprise.’
‘Are we, now?’ says Julian, narrowing his eyes at her. ‘We have ways to make you talk, you know.’
Chrissy folds her arms, jutting out her hip. ‘Yeah. I bet nothing is beneath you.’
‘I would like you beneath me,’ Julian says, winking.
‘Cut the shit, Julian,’ I say. ‘She’s having none of it.’ I stick my hand underneath rolled, fresh underwear, that has been tossed into a metal bowl, and my fingers finally find something long and slim, that might qualify as a bracelet. I pull it out, victorious. ‘Got it,’ I say.
‘Now put it around her wrist. Careful, she might try something stupid,’ Julian warns.
Chrissy scoffs. ‘No, I won’t.’ She stretches her arm towards me, obviously having given up already. But what are the chances? There’s two of us, one of her; she’s a Healer and she’s obviously been given the task of guarding the backpacks.
I lock the bracelet around her wrist. ‘They left you behind, huh?’ My chest tightens. I’m hugely grateful that my team never left me behind. No matter how much I slowed them down. No matter how much they grumbled.
I’d be fucking terrified if I were in her shoes right now.
‘And they’re dragging you around?’ Chrissy says.
I shrug. ‘Nothing like the great outdoors, right?’ I find it wise not to mention that I can defend myself, though, because of the tactical advantage of secret weapons. Or so I’ve been told.
‘Now be a good girl and sit down on that rock,’ Julian says, and Chrissy complies. ‘Just until Stella directs you to the holding area. In case you didn’t know, you’re out.’
‘I know,’ Chrissy says, picking at her nails.
Julian and I plant the sensor and then we get to the task of finding a supply point nearby. ‘We can chuck in those backpacks,’ he says. ‘Get extra points and some extra items. All the packs of Team Silver. Can you imagine?’
‘Uh-huh,’ I say, distracted.
There’s something that makes my hair stand up about the way that Chrissy just keeps picking at her nails, unconcerned at the points that her team is losing. Julian finds the next supply point. We each pick up an extra backpack. He tries to get Chrissy to carry backpacks for us, as well.
‘I’d rather eat shit,’ she says, and I’m inclined to become more persuasive, but Julian obviously isn’t, so we leave it at that.
I might have to return to the Healers’ Quarter after this mission, and I don’t want to make more enemies there, and I especially don’t want to make an enemy of the most promising Apprentice.
We begin the long trek to a supply point.
Julian and I sort through the backpacks we stole from Team Silver, adding whatever items we can use – rations and knives and cutlery – to our own supplies.
When we’re done, I’m more than happy to dump the rest into the chute that Stella opens for us.
Chrissy follows our motions in silence, doesn’t say a word when Stella directs her where to go for her three days of time out. My skin prickles with awareness.
‘Where’s the rest of your team, Chrissy?’ I ask. It’s odd. They left her behind, with their supplies, and there hasn’t been a whiff of them ever since we found her. No one rushing to her rescue. No one rushing to capture us.
She gives me a cutting smile. ‘Wouldn’t you like to know?’
‘Julian,’ I say, ‘get her ART.’
Julian looks at me with wide eyes.
‘I don’t think so,’ Chrissy says.
‘Give him the ART,’ I growl. ‘Or I swear, you won’t like what’s about to happen.’
Chrissy must see that I mean it because she pulls the ART out of her back pocket and then hands it to me.
‘Open it,’ I say. ‘Show us your map.’ She hesitates, but I shout at her, ‘Just fucking do it.’ There’s a weight on my chest. Something’s wrong, something’s terribly wrong.
Chrissy unlocks the ART and shows us her map.
Stella hasn’t cut off their view of the other teams. In the valley near the lake, where we last left our teammates, there are silver and bronze dots, swarming, closing in around three shimmering golden dots.
‘It was a fucking trap,’ I say. ‘Just not for us.’
Julian takes a look, his eyebrows pinching. ‘Shit,’ he says. He adjusts the straps on his backpack and takes a deep breath. ‘Run, Ellie, run.’
We take off in their direction without a single word to Chrissy. ‘I’ll call the others,’ Julian says, and just then, my bean rings.
I take the call and Mace’s voice, slightly panicked, thrums in my skull. ‘I don’t know where you are but get back to the lake as fast as you can. We’ve been ambushed. Team Silver and Team Bronze are on to us.’