JR, Killer

Five

They found Jane first. He was only half-covered and whimpering.

With a cry, the officers ripped off sheets here and there, finding us all. My blood jumped when they pulled back our cloth. Alex was quiet, but the rest were screaming. Barney was trying to protect the youngest two, shielding them with his body until he was wrenched away.

Yet again, I felt myself being carried, struggling this time, away from something I knew. This time I could see more as there weren't flashing lights. I saw a great expanse of water, stretching beyond my vision in the night; I saw boats and sand and everything I'd dreamt of.

I let out a scream as Jane's flailing feet kicked my side. It would have been wonderful to go down to the sea, instead I was away from JR, away from my parents and everything I loved. The officer carrying me was tall, and he had me around my waist. My feet were lifted off the ground, and no matter how hard I wriggled out I couldn't feel anything.

I felt a blow to the head, and nothing more.

~~~

When I came round, I was on a cold, damp floor and there were several bodies next to me. I started breathing shallowly and fast - did they think I was dead too, and had put me in the mortuary?

Then I saw one moving, and realised I was not alone. Alex sat up, rubbing her forehead where a mark had appeared. She swore loudly, and made her way unsteadily towards me.

I was learning a lot of new words.

"Lola, you okay?" she asked, kneeling next to me. "My head hurts," she complained.

Slowly, one by one, the others in the room got to their feet.

"I think we were all knocked out," I touched Alex's head gently. "Does it hurt when I do this?"

She shook her head. "Not at all."

"And let me look in your eyes." I focused on her pupils. "They're the same size, and nothing's yellow, so I think you're okay."

Alex checked me, and declared me healthy also. We went to Barney's side and shook him. "Wake up."

Barney took a few moments waking up. I didn't realise I wasn't breathing until he opened his eyes.

"Where are we?" I demanded.

His head lifted, and he looked around us. Cold, breeze block walls, a single metal door and one slit of a window, barred. "No..." he groaned, squeezing his eyes back shut again. "No...kids...I didn't ever want this to happen."

"What does that mean?" Alex asked in a small voice, but I already knew the answer.

"It's a camp."

I heard Alex swear again.

Jane found us. His round face brimmed with tears. "I heard what you said," he sobbed. "People who get taken in the camps never come out. We're gonna die..." he wailed.

We'd already been caught; there was no point trying to quieten the boy.

"I ain't known anyone what's been taken in here," Alex said. "Have you, Lola? Are they nice in your district?"

They were - relatively. I couldn't say that, though, because all I was thinking was, I know where Greer and Indigo went.

I felt oddly lonely. Greer and Indigo were dead, then. There was nothing I could do about it.

The door opened, and three men stood there. Their uniform wasn't IPF, but it was nothing I'd seen before. It was blue, not white, and the logo had an arrow going through the infinity sign. Who were they?