The Master Plan

Chapter 13 - I've Killed Faye!

Abbie’s POV

I can’t believe I just saw that. The guy went blue in the face. He was struggling, gasping for breath, clinging onto life and the Officer was telling me to just move on? I saved him, yeah, but that image is something I never want to see again. I completed the rest of the course with tears in my eyes, trying not to let the Officer see me about to cry.

“You’ve completed the course in 1 hour 45 minutes. Good, but not good enough. You’ll do it again in a few hours. I want it to be 1 hour on the dot.” The officer spat. I mumbled a ‘yes sir’ and ran off to our not so lush campsite – four tents I’m sure were from Tesco’s surrounding a campfire the size of a football. I jumped into my tent and zipped it up, pulling my legs up to my chest and burying my face in my knees as I finally let out the sobs I’d held in forever. My chest hurt from breathing in and out rapidly, my eyes hurt from crying too much, my throat hurt from the sobs. The image played in my head over and over and over. He was just stepping, like everyone was. One wrong move, one wrong step and there he was with a rope twisted round his neck. I screamed, I was shaking but nothing seemed to make the Officer give me sympathy. He told me to move on. He wanted me to step on this guy and carry on, he wanted me to let him die. I clenched my fists. The anger I felt for this Officer guy was unreal.

“Abbie?” It was Jonny. He must have followed me back. “Are- Are you alright?”

“Yeah.” I sniffled. I saw his shadow appear in front of the tent.

“There’s no point lying to me, Abbie.” He said firmly. He unzipped the tent and crawled in, looking at me sympathetically as soon as he saw my face.

“He almost died!” I sobbed, looking back down again. Jonny sat beside me and put one arm round my shoulders.

“But he didn’t. You saved him.” He squeezed my shoulder.

“Yeah…” I agreed. “It’s just horrible. HE’s horrible. How could he tell me to move on like it was no big deal?” My sobs made it difficult to talk, and I’m pretty sure it made it difficult for him to understand!

“I know he’s horrible. I can’t think of anyone worse… As long as he’s alright, we’re just pawns in his chess game…” Jonny shook his head. “He just wants the money and the safeness.” I looked up to him.

“Money for what?”

“Nothing.” He hesitated. “Well, for this training…” I raised one eyebrow, knowing he knew more than he let on. He said nothing more, and an awkward silence ensued.

“Money for WHAT?” I said harshly.

“The training!” He said, slightly more believably. “The government are paying him to train you. Us. He’s the one bossing us recruits around. He’s the one who decides when we have to become trainees like you guys. He’s the one with the power to wipe someone off this earth if they have a problem with him… I don’t think you understand the power this guy has behind him…”

“Why can’t you just tell me what’s going on?” I asked.

“I can’t. If I do, the Officer kills me.” He shrugged.

“But how does he know you’ve told me?” I looked around the tent and looked Jonny up and down trying to find a wire or hidden camera.

“I dunno, he just does. So I can’t say.” He shrugged again.

“He wants people to die. He could have killed us all.” I stated, getting annoyed.

“Yeah well you didn’t. Count your lucky stars, ok? I am.” He let out a sympathetic smile. Another silence filled the tent, I could have cut it with a knife. I looked down at my hands. This whole thing was weird, it didn’t make sense. The more I thought about it, the more I wish I’d paid attention when I read the contract – there must have been something in that! I try and replay the moment in my head where I signed it. I skim-read of course, but I didn’t read it properly. I just wanted to be more informed than Faye, you know, to make her look like an idiot when she asked loads of questions. Now I actually wished I’d read it. I’m sure I’ve signed away my life… Why couldn’t Jonny tell me? Why couldn’t he just say ‘Hey Abbie, you signed your life away, you’ll probably die but I’m telling you so you can attempt to save yourself.’ We’re all going to die aren’t we? Me, Luke, Faye, Jonny… I’m going to watch people die or die while people watch me… A sudden rush of guilt came over me. I put Faye up for this. I did a vote for her, I did put drama first but I put the army training second. I killed Faye. I’m killing her.

“Jonny?” I said, breaking the silence. He looked relieved.

“Yeah?” He squeezed me with the arm round my shoulders.

“You know what happened in the utility room…” I began. “Did you want that? Or was it just a-” He interrupted me, putting his finger on my lips to shush me.

“Of course I wanted it! I did it, didn’t I?” He smiled at me. I smiled a weak smile back.

“Yeah.” I smiled shyly. We gazed into each other’s eyes for a few seconds, the awkward tension in the air fading and turning into a longing feeling to be with each other. His hand moved from my shoulders and he grabbed hold of both my hands.

“You’re amazing, Abbie.” He smiled at me, looking away in embarrassment before biting his lip. “This is so stupid, I feel like a fucking child!” He laughed nervously. I grinned.

“You are a fucking child!” I joked back. I raised an eyebrow mischievously and pouted my lips before I leant forwards and gently placed a kiss on his lips. His eyes lit up as I moved back and seated myself comfortably with my legs crossed. He paused for a second, before pouncing at me, pushing me so I was lying on my back.

“You’re going to regret saying that!” He smirked as he straddled me and began kissing me. Firstly on the lips, then down my neck and along my collarbone.  My stomach was doing flips and I would feel my palms becoming sweaty. This was a moment I’d never witnessed before, I’d never kissed a guy and certainly not passionately while in a tent. Well I didn’t really care about the last bit. This was a moment I was wishing would never end, although secretly was because I had no idea what I was doing! Was I kissing right? Was I laying right? Was I holding him right? Was it passionate enough? Was I trying to hard? Was I- I heard footsteps and the two of us froze.

“Abbie?” Luke’s voice echoed the campsite. “Abbie, you here?”

“Don’t answer!” Jonny whispered, trying not to breathe heavily in case Luke heard.

“I can’t ignore him!” I rolled my eyes. I straightened myself out and unzipped the tent, poking my head out.

“You alright, Luke?” I asked, tilting my head and hoping Jonny was going to remain silent behind me.

“The Officer wants us to run the course again. We gotta do it in under an hour.” He shrugged. “I’m fed up already.”

“He said in a few hours! He thinks I can run that again after two minutes of rest?” I snapped.

“Welcome to hell!” Luke smiled sarcastically before walking off. “Meet you there, yeah?” he shouted as he walked off.

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a minute!” I shouted as Jonny pulled me back to him.

“They can wait a minute.” He said playfully, a smirk widening.