I came no closer to solving the mystery of the girl as the weeks passed. I did finally reach Level Two, though, in the third week after my awakening. The day after I leveled up, so did Maxwell. Most of the kids who'd been on the island longest agreed it was the fastest Level Three they'd ever heard of! I was happy for him, of course, but the praise was starting to make Maxwell a little reckless. I found myself wishing that someone would beat him already so I wouldn't have to listen to so much gloating. He never tired of demonstrating all the things he was learning, things we mere Level Twos couldn't even dream of, from the way he carried on.
I didn't see Kayla so much now that I was no longer a Level One, no longer entitled to a mentor. We still made time to see each other, at lunch and when we'd finished with whatever classes we planned to take that day. She was doing well, well on her way to Level Five, and usually had points to spare at the end of the week. Still, though, she seemed so stressed. I seemed to see her coming from the Matriarch's office every day. That would be enough to stress anyone out, I was sure! When I asked her about it, she just became very interested in her pasta. "Enough about me, how's your training been going?" She asked. Alright...I thought. I decided to ignore the abrupt change of subject. I was very quickly learning that here, many things were best kept private.
"It's been going pretty well." I said. "I've started studying other teams' sections of the Resource Library, too. I'm hoping I could figure out something they need to do things and block it." I explained. Kayla made an approving noise. I'd gotten a lot more serious about my fighting lately. I did it for the same reason I suspected many people on the island did: The hope of being the one slamming the MATRIARCH into a wall during my next exam. Nevertheless, considering how hard I'd been working lately, I thought I deserved a break. My wallet was in no danger for now.
But what to do....I didn't want to just sit around the dorm. So I shot Lauren a message asking if she wanted to go explore the forest on the south side of the island one afternoon. I was pretty sure it was within the rules, as it was within the fence, but no one that I knew of had ever done so. When Lauren had accomplished what she wanted to do for the day, we headed over.
The rich, earthy smell of the forest was so familiar somehow that it made my heart ache. All was silent except for birdsong and the sound of our footsteps. It was so peaceful here, unlike anywhere else on this cursed island. "Look!" Lauren whispered, pointing. I looked, and found a squirrel sitting in an oak tree. It chittered as if offended and threw a nut at me. It bounced off of my head. I laughed. "See, even the squirrel knows it's not nice to point at people." I joked. Lauren rolled her eyes. "C'mon, I want to see how deep this thing goes. It can't be too far, it's all inside the fence." I agreed. I didn't like how much time I'd been spending in a chair lately. For all its' faults, the island was a lovely place. It'd be a shame not to explore it.
We hiked for about two hours, shoving our way through the undergrowth. This place bore no signs of people ever having been here. It was refreshing, considering all that I'd learned about human nature lately. But then, as we crested a hill, I saw something that made my heart sink a little. I held out a hand for Lauren to stop. "Do you see that?" I asked. "See what?" "Over there, there's a path." I said, pointing to the small, cleared dirt path. "Do you think it's a deer track, maybe?" Lauren asked. "There are no footprints." I pointed out. "We should see where it goes!" Lauren proposed. "What if the Matriarch made it? Do you really want to know what she's done that's so awful she has to hide it this deep in the woods?" Lauren was silent for a long moment, considering. "If she was going to put something really horrible out here, I think she'd make it completely off-limits. It's probably just a weapons shed or something, something she wants us to have to work for." I had to admit, that did seem like something the Matriarch would do. Hide weapons where only the most determined could get them. "Fine. Let's go. But if we die, it's your fault."
The path was a long one, always going further and further down the sloping hills. I was beginning to get tired after an hour of this. I checked my Connect; it was 3 o'clock. We had to make it back in about an hour. "This was a bad idea. I think we should turn back." I said. "No, wait!" Lauren said, gesturing ahead. At the base of the next hill, the path tapered out into a little meadow full of....rocks? I could see the fence at the bottom of the hill. We quickly made our way down to the meadow. "Why make a path all the way to this?" Lauren asked. All at once, it clicked. "I think I know why." I said quietly. "Look." On the nearest rock, the words 'Tyrone; Blue Team' were carved. Lauren stood next to one that said 'Emma; Red Team'. There were eight rocks in all, each of them carved with a name and team. Lauren had gone deathly pale. "You don't think this is...a cemetery, do you?" At the word 'cemetery', something flashed before my eyes. A sign that read 'Mount Pinebrook Cemetery'. I heard a man's voice yelling "Not you, you little monster! Go!"
"Hannah? Hannah!" Lauren's voice said. I snapped out of it. "Oh! Oh yeah, I do." I said distractedly. "Hannah, if she's killed people, she could do it again." Lauren said in a small voice. "Everybody always says at least she won't kill us, we're too valuable for her to do that. But we're not. We're not!" There was an edge of panic to her voice. What she was saying didn't quite register with me. I was still half-entranced by the strange vision I'd had. Maybe that was what allowed me to say, in such a calm voice, "She won't if we don't make her angry. Come on, we need to get back."
We ran down the hill, away from the most horrific discovery anyone on the island had ever made, a layer peeled away from the false sense of security it was so easy to get here.
