I stare at Chieko's hand. There's a dribble of blood on her knuckles, but it otherwise looks fine. She's not even rubbing it as if it's sore. Behind her, Carl slumps against the wall, his head awkwardly angled on his neck.
A strangled gulp comes from my throat. He's dead, too.
"Where's Erin?" I gasp.
"Hiding in the bedroom with the beast," Chieko notes matter-of-factly. "I don't believe she was injured. But you look hurt."
I rub my neck. Everything cramps, and there's a jarring sharpness in my ribs. "I've been better. Is your hand okay?"
She turns her hand slowly as if examining it for scratches. "I will be fine. I don't take damage easily."
"Toughness power?" I ask.
"No. I cannot use powers without a spirit artifact."
I raise an eyebrow. That's an oddly specific way of saying she wasn't born with powers... and what's a spirit artifact? I struggle to my feet and lean against the overturned table to get my balance. "Thanks for your help."
"You are welcome. Though... I am perplexed."
"What do you mean?"
She twists her lips. "I was supposed to deliver these two the coordinates of where to take you, so David could get paid. But I don't want to do that."
She's in on this, too? I sigh. Either way, the answer is easy. "If you don't want to, then don't?"
She frowns as she heads toward the bedroom. "Normally, I don't have a choice. I do as I am told. But after meeting Erin yesterday, those choices have been made available. I see you as friends."
After meeting Erin yesterday... how puzzled she seemed before leaving us in the field...
Was there anyone whose head Erin didn't accidentally mess with?
I pinch my shoulders, popping my back to alleviate a tiny bit of the soreness. "You normally help David sell people back to the Camaraderie?"
"He does it to keep the Kariz clear of troublemakers, and to make a fortune on the side."
I grunt. "You don't see a problem with that?"
She turns, her head tilted so that her short back hair falls across the side of her face. It's uncannily... Erin-like. "Not until yesterday. I did as I was programmed."
"As you were..." My voice falters. "Programmed."
Do I even want to know what she means by that?
No. No, I don't. At this point I just want to clear up all these details and go home, pretend none of this happened, and promise Instructor Genrich I will be the straight-A student she wants as long as I never hear about any of this again.
Extra homework and twice the tests? Perfect.
Pretty sure it doesn't work that way.
"I am an android," Chieko confesses. "David bought me on the black market. He keeps my condition secret because he doesn't know how to explain me to the rest of the Kariz. But a few of the original members have noticed that I do not age. Maybe he will tell them I am a life-spirit elemental, or a shapeshifter. Shapeshifters can adjust their appearance as they choose."
I clear my throat. "Have you considered not going back? Or, I don't know, telling the rest of the people in the Kariz that David's lying to them? That he's selling us to raiders?"
Erin peeks out from the bedroom, and Leo sticks his goatish head out behind her. "Is it over?"
I nod.
YOU ARE READING
Betrayed
历险~ Part two of the Deceived series ~ Galina Maly escaped the terrible facility where students with powers were being turned into monsters. She arrives in a new Community, which promises security and transparency. A new home, where she can safely use...
