The Inception (Book #1 of The Inception Trilogy)

chapter sixteen

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

THE KNOCK ON THE door is sharp, making Evelyn peel her eyes open. Robbie is curled into her side with Poppy at their feet. She decided to come out from under the bed when Robbie returned from his shower. Evelyn has to shift very gently out from under him, and even then he catches the side of her tank top in his hand.

The door opens without a second knock. Nick stands there, looking slightly disgruntled. "Come on," he says.

Evelyn groans, wanting nothing more than to close her eyes again.

"Come on," he repeats. "Quincy is waiting for your arrival. All of you."

"Quincy needs to learn patience," Evelyn mumbles. "He doesn't want to mess with someone who isn't a morning person. What time is it, anyways?"

"A quarter to seven."

She groans again, but gets up nonetheless. Robbie shudders awake, his eyes wide and Evelyn gives him a soft smile. Poppy crawls up to his chest and he scratches behind her ears. Evelyn then walks over to the bed Nive and Sasha are sharing, shaking each of them gently until they seem fully conscious. All five of them, including Poppy, are taking their time stretching and yawning, which aggravates Nick more.

"Today," he growls, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her out, instantly causing the other three to follow. Poppy is lounging in Robbie's arms.

"What is this fight?" Evelyn asks in a low tone, making sure the blonde guard trailing behind them can't hear.

"You'll find out soon enough," he grumbles. His crude demeanor surprises Evelyn a little compared to the Nick from the night before, but of course she knows better than to rely on only one side of someone.

He leads them out of a side door, putting them under the early morning sun. Evelyn's eyebrows pull together as she takes in the parking lot that used to be at the entrance of the store. They'd certainly mixed things up since they made camp. Nonetheless, the cracked pavement has grass and weeds growing within it. A tree had fallen down at the far side of the parking lot, yet it still lays there untouched. Almost for decoration were children not climbing along it.

But what really catches Evelyn's attention is the chained fence in the middle of the parking lot forming an awkward circle, similar to a wannabe octagon. Barbed wire lines the inside of the ring, and Evelyn wonders just how much of that stuff they have. The fence where they'd come in had been lined with layers of it.

"What is this?" she whispers, a bad feeling wrenching in her gut.

"The fight," Nick replies dully, leading her over to where Quincy sits on a sofa, looking annoyingly smug.

There were other bits of furniture extracted from indoors as well. Dining chairs, recliners, couches, benches, and even some tables. Evelyn realizes just how many people the camp has when she sees every piece of furniture occupied by someone. Some couches have more than than the limit of people, and every now and then she notices at least two or three people sharing a chair or recliner. She guesses there's about a hundred people. Where had they all been when Evelyn's group arrived yesterday?

Quincy walks over to her.

"What is this 'fight' about?" she asks before he has the chance to speak.

"Entertainment, of course."

She blinks at him, confused. "So you're going to put Harry up against one of your own?"

He laughs. "Oh, of course not. He'll be going up against his own kind. Can't risk the lives of my men."

"His own kind...?" It joins in her head, and she takes an instinctive step back. "You catch them just so they can fight each other?"