Chapter 27 #2
Rei is fighting Rigel. Kaia is helping her, sort of; she’s a mediocre fighter. I’m not quite sure what Spider saw in her when he picked her.
I turn the corner, boots slippery on the dusty floor. I spot a hidden corner a few feet away. I slide into the alcove, slowing down my breathing. My heart seizes in my chest as I wait for him to disappear.
Aric’s voice echoes behind me, frustration sharp in his tone.
“You can’t hide forever, Common!”
Once his footsteps fade, I push off the wall and break off into a sprint.
I bump into someone, nearly falling flat on my ass. Rei stares at me wide-eyed.
“Got the folder,” she says, waving it around proudly.
The word ‘confidential’ is written in big block letters. This must be the file we were supposed to retrieve.
“Where’s Kaia?” I ask.
“Rigel used his powers,” she says, pointing to her bleeding ears. “She passed out.”
I flinch. She left her behind.
“She’s not one of us,” Rei says. “Come on.”
Kaia would do the same, so I can’t feel too bad.
“Where’s Flint?” I ask. “We can’t leave without him.”
“Let’s search the lower floors.”
We find Flint when we turn right, standing over Odessa. Her neck is twisted at a crooked angle.
“I didn’t mean to…” he whispers. “She jumped out at me.”
His shoulder is bleeding, and his fingers are shaking. Sweat dampens his curls, and his skin is chalky white. There’s a silver blade stuck in his flesh.
“Come on,” Rei says. “We have to get to the extraction doors before Aric and the others find us.”
“Flint,” I breathe, staring at Odessa’s body.
Her eyes are glassy and unfocused. Empty.
“Hey.” I step closer to him. “Look at me.”
I know what this is like. It was the same way I felt the day I killed that girl. Flint’s hands are shaking. Blood slicks his fingers, gleaming in the dark.
“I didn’t mean to kill her,” he says again, voice hollow.
“You didn’t,” I insist. “You had no choice. It might not even be real.”
“This place isn’t real, but we are,” he says hoarsely. “We are all real. Flesh and bone.”
Rei passes me the folder and rips a strip of fabric from her waist. She wraps the cloth tightly around his wound. Flint hisses through his teeth.
“We move,” she says calmly. “Now.”
Rei does not flinch in the face of death.
She is a soldier to her core. I don’t know if I admire or despise that quality in her.
Or if the regime is to blame for it, for digging their miserable hands into our chest and yanking out our hearts, replacing them with nothing but the will to serve, blindly and obediently.
The passageway is tapered, closing in around us like a fist. As much as we want to dash to the exit, we can’t risk getting caught in a trap. At any moment, Aric and the others can dive out of the dark and attack us.
“What do we do about Kaia?” Flint asks.
“If we stop, we all die,” Rei says. “She never wanted to be a part of our alliance. She has no one to blame but herself.”
I hate that she has a point. Flint stumbles, and I grab his uninjured side to steady him.
“The extraction point is marked on the entry panel,” Rei pants. “We came in through the north wing. Ground level.”
I pause.
“We won,” I whisper.
“Not yet,” Rei says.
I grab her elbow.
“No, we won, Rei,” I say. “Aric is going to be at the exit waiting to steal this. They’re not chasing us because they plan to ambush us.”
Rei pauses before she curses under her breath.
“There were two doors,” I say. “Theirs and ours. Let’s go out through theirs.”
“We don’t even know where their door is.”
“South wing,” I say.
“How do you know?” Flint asks. “Those doors were right next to each other.”
There were only walls on either side of us. I doubt this place was built with any sort of logic.
“It’s a simulation wing,” I say. “It’s not supposed to make sense.”
“Let’s do what, Mercy says,” Rei says. “She’s got the brains.”
We round the corner and almost collide with Rigel.
He swings first. I duck, and his fist slams into Flint.
“Sorry!” I squeak.
I slam the folder into Rigel’s face. He’s with Tyson.
Aric is missing, probably waiting at our door for us.
Flint crashes into Tyson, shoving him into the wall.
“Go!” Flint roars.
“We’re not leaving you!” I shout back.
Tyson raises a hand, knocking me swiftly off my feet. My back slams into the wall, making my chest rattle. I wince, struggling to catch my bearings.
Tyson snatches the folder from my limp hand.
“Give it back,” I snap.
He waves it in my face with a mocking smile before he turns on his heels. I grab his ankle and bite his calf. Tyson howls, and the folder falls to the ground.
Rei snatches it and elbows Tyson in the face, breaking his nose. She offers me her hand, and I take it, scrambling to my feet.
Flint releases Rigel with a savage shove and barrels toward us. We sprint down the hallway.
The extraction doors are ahead. The twin steel slabs slowly begin to close. My theory was right. Aric was waiting by our door. And theirs was empty. Rigel and Tyson were going to lead us to him. They expected us to run in the opposite direction.
“Faster!” Rei gasps.
We throw ourselves through the narrowing gap just as the doors begin to close. Sweat drips down my hairline, clinging to my lashes.
We’ve made it to the opposite side.
“Wait!” Kaia calls.
She’s behind us. She must have just woken up. I take a step towards her when Rei grabs my elbow, fingers digging in tightly.
“The door will cut you in half,” Rei hisses. “Forget her. She was deadweight anyway.”
The door seals with finality. Kaia got her hand in before it came crushing down, and the howl of her pain makes my skin break out in goosebumps. I can see the crushed bones of her fingers. My stomach heaves as we are ushered into the training room.
Light floods the chamber, and I blink, adjusting to the brightness. My limbs shake from the adrenaline.
Tyson, Aric, and Rigel march into the room without Odessa. Aric’s team is staring at us with poison in their eyes, and Orion looks disappointed by the loss.
Ender stands above us on the observation deck, hands clasped behind his back.
“She needs a doctor.” I rush forward. “Kaia is alive, but—”
“Your teammate failed,” Ender says. “And as a result, she will die a slow, painful death. Hunger and pain will eat away at her.”
“No, we won,” I say. “But we have to help her.”
“I will grant her mercy,” Ender says.
The thud of his boots sounds like a drum as he makes his way down the stairs. His eyes gleam with cruelty.
“We won,” Rei whispers, shaking my shoulder. “Let it go.”
My pulse thunders in my ears. My limbs are shaking. Something inside me dislodged when Tyson nearly broke my spine on the wall. But I refuse to cower in the face of a monster. If this saves Kaia, then it will have been worth it.
Ender walks ahead of us, a sign to follow him. We all trail after him. Everyone looks miserable and sick. It doesn’t seem like he’s going to fix things. He hasn’t shown us a sliver of kindness since we joined, and I would have to be a fool to think he’s changed.
Ender reaches for his holster and yanks out his gun.
“I’ll open the doors,” he says. “Only long enough for you to put her out of her misery.”
A cold sweat breaks down my neck. My fingers twitch by my side, quick and erratic.
“Vale, please,” I whisper. “Fix her.”
He grabs my wrist and curls my fingers around the weapon.
“You must not be weak,” Ender says. “You must not falter.”
Ender walks to the door and jabs the button. The door rolls up, and Kaia whimpers. Blood soaks her mutilated hand, and my stomach churns. Bile crawls up my throat.
“Now, Warrick,” Ender says coldly.
My fingers shake around the hilt. For one small moment, I contemplate shooting him between the eyes and watching him crumble to his knees. He must sense the dark turn my thoughts took, because his mouth tilts, daring me to try.
“Just do it,” Rei says nervously. “Or I’ll do it.”
I shake my head. He’ll just punish her for it. Or worse, make me kill Rei to prove a point.
My finger squeezes the trigger, and I flinch as it lands straight between Kaia’s big brown eyes. Silence echoes around us.
“Excellently done,” Ender commends.
His praise makes my skin burn. Rage pours down my throat like scalding water, burning my insides. For a moment, my gun remains upright, pointed in his general vicinity.
A palm slides on top of mine, and Rei lowers my hand.
“Come on,” she says softly. “Let’s leave.”
Rei drags me away, Flint limping behind us.
It takes everything in me not to look back at him.
To not show him just how much I despise him.
Because I hate Ender Vale more than I ever thought possible.
He is no better than the Supreme Director.
His fingers may not have molded the regime, but his cruelty fuels it.
I know now with striking clarity that we are no longer being taught to survive.
I’m almost certain that we’re being taught to kill.