The Piece System

Chapter Twenty-Seven: JAKE

Jake drummed his fingers against Cricket's fur.

"Is it just me or has today gone ridiculously slow?" he asked. Piper looked up from the book she'd borrowed from Caleb's shelf and chuckled.

"Maybe because you've been stuck in a house worrying about how they're doing." she said. Jake looked out of the window.'

"I'm not worried."

Piper turned the page. "Sure."

Narrowing his eyes at her, Jake sighed. How long was this going to take? He was already on edge every time a car drove past. What if it was an arbiter car? Or when a person passed the window—what if they saw him?

Alex's phone rang. Jake scrambled to pick it up. She'd left it there so they could get in touch by Lisa or Caleb's phone. Piper put her book down and strained to listen.

"Hello?" Jake said.

"Jake!" Alex's voice rattled in his ear. "We screwed up."

Jake leant forward, glancing at Piper. "What do you mean you screwed up? What happened?"

His brain screamed What did you do?!

Hesitation from the other side.

"Well, we spoke to The King." Alex said.

"And?"

"She didn't listen. We thought she did, but she didn't."

Jake widened his eyes.

"She ordered for Pawns to be executed on Thursday, she's calling it The Hanging."

Jake's whole body went numb, his hand relaxing around the phone, almost dropping it. Thursday was a mere three days from now. Alex's rambling apology barely registered as he stared blankly ahead.

"I'm sorry, I, I thought we'd be able to help Pawns without fighting. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, we didn't mean to make it worse! I'll fix it. We're on our way back now, don't move."

Jake shuddered. He had three days to either fix their mistake or die.

"Jake?"

He pulled the phone away from his ear, looking at the ticking timer for the call, at the red button he could press to end it. He had nothing else to say, and he didn't want to hear her voice anymore.

"Jake are you there?"

He hung up and looked at Piper. Piper looked back.

"What happened?" she asked, closing the book. He said nothing, trying to find the words. Piper was a Pawn too and all the others in Rockfoot he'd met would be hung with him and Piper. And now that everyone knew about Ryan, he would be too.

We're going to die.

Jake steeled his gaze. He could fix this. His leg wasn't throbbing as much: he had painkillers. He had Piper and the others in the Rebellion.

"We," he said, "have a hell of a lot of stuff to do before we die." he stood up and grabbed his jacket. Piper watched him, face scrunched in confusion.

Jake paused at the door. "You coming?"

Piper grabbed her coat and followed him out, questioning him as they walked, wind blowing slightly. He told her what Alex had said and, shortly after, Piper's beaten-up phone rang.

"It's Charlie." She said as they headed to the South, breeze blowing her dirty blonde hair back.

"Answer it." Jake said. She did.