This Is Not The End.

Chapter 2

The next day was back to normal.

First up was the shock, of course. There were three for every swear word, so I got nine, and then there were another five for the mixing of colours. it didn't take too long for the shocks to just feel like injections, and I'd had enough injections to be numb to that pain.

God bless the American way.

I fucking missed England. They may have been overrun with Hunters and

the Infected, but at least no one there had ever hooked me to a machine and shot volts into me.

'Order makes us survive'

Order would kill me before the Infected and the Hunters combined.

Rubbing my arm, I headed back into Snuff territory and found my classroom. Janet didn't take any notice of me from the front of the class – drilling the danger scale into the other kids heads again – but I didn't make the effort to get her to. I found my seat and lent back, egging her to bite.

No matter what they did to me, they wouldn't take my fight.

Some of the kids around me could've been as young as eight. I was sixteen, but I was older than them when I was brought here – twelve maybe? It was hard to be sure. I didn't want to believe that I'd been there for almost five years, that the world had been screwed to hell for five years. I didn't want the kids around me to have to be there for any longer – they were so young – but what could I do? Janet and her orderly crones were beginning to realise the shocks no longer worked on me – my arms being various shades of purple the only thing to show for it –so if I did try and help them, the bastards would start on the kids instead.

No. Kai and I had been trying to plan our escape for months now, and we needed to perfect it. Then we'd be able to make a break for it.

"C003 are you even listening to me?" Janet snarled at me, pointing her bony, white finger at the scale on the board.

"No," I said. Her face boiled red. "But I will now, Jan, don't you worry,"

"Recite the danger scale without looking at it," she snapped. "Now,"

I pulled a face, "I can hardly do it with looking at it,"

I could see her simmering, but I just leant back in my seat and pursed my lips. It didn't flash through my brain that she could probably do more than she was letting on, but I didn't care. The kids around me fuelled my anger for her. None of this was fair and I was done standing for it.

"03, be quiet!" someone hissed from behind me. I didn't turn so I wouldn't put them into trouble, but I felt myself smirk.

Janet let her arm fall to her side and glared at me, straight into the remains of my soul.

"Get out of my classroom," she said, her voice straight as a ruler.

"Gladly,"

I pushed the desk away from me, making as much noise as possible, and let my heels click against the tiled floor as I got to the door. I slammed it behind me for good measure and pressed my back against the cool wall.

My arms stung. Pulling up the orderly-issued jumper – with some sort of Latin inscription on the pocket which reminded me of school – I rubbed at the new forming bruises, sighing at the old ones. Sometimes it was worse than others, but I'd get over it.

A woman with heels taller and thinner than I'd ever seen before clicked towards me. She wasn't dressed like the orderlies. Instead of a long brown tunic like nurses would wear, she had a pristine cream shirt tucked into a black skirt like my mum used to wear to work – she was a secretary at a secondary school – and her hair was pulled as tight as she could into a bun. I pulled my sleeves back down before she could notice my arms.

She stopped right in front of me, peering over the top of her black rimmed glasses.

"I take it you're not Daniel Brown,"

Tucked under her arm was a tablet with a series of names in the different colours. What struck me was that it was our names, not our numbers.

"Uh, no,"

"Are you his replacement for the colours meeting? They did tell me nothing was final yet,"

My mind screamed 'ESCAPE'. I wouldn't let this go to waste.

"Yup, that's me,"

"Great! Let me just give you this," she passed me a lanyard and a pen. The lanyard had a space for me to write my number, age, and then my colour. I hesitated at the word.

"I'm a Snuff," I said, "A Colourless. You still gonna take me?"

She tapped something on her tablet and smiled at me. "Of course. We don't discriminate,"

I felt like making some rude but honest joke, but I kept my mouth shut. Scribbling down my details, I put the lanyard round my neck and passed her back the pen. She started walking and turned back to ask me if I was coming. I pulled at the hem of my tunic, suddenly conscious of my bruised arms and white legs. Pushing the hair from my face, I followed after her, trying not to trip on my undone laces.

She made some small talk about my lessons and I made myself seem like the perfect kid – if she saw the shock marks then she would've had all the rights to send me packing again. I had no idea what a 'colours meeting' was, but it sounded better than whatever Janet Bitchface was drilling into the others.

"I'm new here, you see," she told me, "My name's Ariadne,"

"Like that Greek girl?"

"She was Cretan, but yes. My father was a history teacher in Hawaii," she smiled, "What's your name?"

I let out a nervous laugh, "God, you must be new,"

"Why?"

"We're not supposed to give our names, just our numbers," I shrugged, "I'm 03 – C003,"

"Come on," Ariadne raised her eyebrows, "I won't tell,"

I grinned, "Skye Grace Jones,"

"See? That's a lot better than 'C003'," she lowered her voice, "Honestly, this place is... well, it's a miracle it's still going on. Some of the stuff they do here is inhumane – have you seen some of that old-fashioned shock equipment? I wonder what they use that for..."

I hid my hands in my sleeves, "Yeah, well..."

"How long have you been here for anyway?" we turned a corner, "And how come you're here instead of England – I guessed you're from there,"

"Four or five years," I felt weird telling her anything about me, as it was strictly prohibited, but she was the sort of person you could trust after one look. "Have you heard of the Hunters? They bring the immunes to places like this from all over the world,"

"What about your family and people at home?"

"My brother's here," I said, "I think... he should be twenty now, I think, so I'm not sure what happens after we reach eighteen,"

Ariadne checked her chart and shook her head, "What can you tell me about him?"

"Um, his first name is Harry, he's a Stringer – a pink... what else is there, here, really?"

She turned back to her tablet again, "There's nothing in my system, but I'll do some digging for you,"

"Thanks," I didn't know why she was so willing to help me, but I did appreciate it. Harry had been gone so long I'd almost forgotten about him. It was a shame, but if he'd been released or anything along those lines then it was better than him being here. I'd have killed to be free.

America and shit.

We turned down to a new wing. The walls shone brighter than my future ever would and I squinted, my eyes having spent years in the dark grey of the Snuff wing. I wondered if Suns had bright yellow walls – and if they did I wondered how they survived.

Ariadne unlocked a prison-like door and held it open for me. I was met with a large round table with a 'proper' boy in red and Kai. He grinned when he saw me, and I knew that whatever this whole meeting was for, it would be worthwhile.