This Is Not The End.

Chapter 4

As soon as we agreed, she made us sign a document on her tablet to say that we understood everything that was going to happen. Then, two more orderlies – dressed respectively in vibrant yellow and red tunics – came in to take Kai and the Flame away. Ariadne accompanied me to an adjoining room which reminded me far too much of the place I went to for the shocks, but she gave me a reassuring smile and sat me on the dentist-type chair in the centre of the room.

Everything was white, or varying shades of it. I'd been with my brother to get his braces on, and the placement of mirrors and 'Stay Sane with these Ten PCD Tips!' posters reminded me far too much of his orthodontist.

A woman in a lab coat, face mask and shield, and bright blue gloves held my head down so she could prep the back of my neck with antibacterial wipes. I gathered my hair over my shoulder to help her out, but I don't think she cared.

"So, you're just letting us go?" I asked Ariadne, trying to keep my attention from the large needle filled with something blue. I winced as I felt it sink into my skin.

"Technically, yes," she smoothed out her skirt, "We, and the rest of the state, are depending on you three, and I need you to remember that,"

I have her a salute, but my doctor hit my arm down as she readied another injection for my muscles. As my jumper came off, Ariadne's eyes lingered on the various stages of bruising. I clenched my jaw and kept mine firmly on the tiled floor, feeling the heat rush to my ears.

She cleared her throat, "Skye, we are trusting you to check in with us every two days, do you understand?"

"Look, I wasn't even supposed to be going, I'm not going to waste my chance,"

My doctor told me to sit up. She tested my reactions and I waited patiently for her to be finished

"What's the odds we live for longer than a week out there?" I asked Ariadne, quietly changing the subject.

"With a mix of those two boys' powers and your general outlook to life, I have high hopes for you,"

My doctor finished up, pressing a small plaster to my bleeding injection mark. I pulled on my jumper at the first chance I got and prayed she wouldn't bring it up. Ariadne passed me a cardboard box and stepped back smugly as she waited for me to open it. The doctor showed her the clipboard and left without a word, shutting the door behind her. I heard the lock catch.

"What's this?"

"A gift," she said, sitting in my doctor's seat. "For your time in the world,"

My time in freedom, I thought.

"Alright," it had been so long since I'd opened anything, so I didn't hesitate. I ripped off the ribbon which kept it all together and threw out the tissue paper. I saw Ariadne smile at me from the corner of my eye.

Inside the box was a pair of black jeans, and a dark coloured denim jacket. Buried beneath them was a small knife with 'SNUFF' engraved on the sheath.

"The denim is for protection," she said, "PCD is spread for the meantime by human-to-human contact – blood, saliva, anything along those lines – and the infected are still human, though they may not seem it, and we have blunt teeth,"

"So, they can't get through denim," I finished for her.

"Exactly. If you get even the slightest tear in anything you wear I want you to find a new set of clothes immediately,"

"Got it," I took out the knife and thumbed the word. For some of the kids, it was like a burden, and honestly when I'd first got here I hated the fact that we were just ordinary. It wasn't fair that everyone we knew had either died to a fucking virus or gained superhero powers. It was every disaster movie since 2012, and I'd just been left out of it.

Now, I knew I was safer than they'd ever be. I'd heard whispers from the orderlies of Hunters missing out on saving Flames or Shifters – the Purples, they were fairly self-explanatory – because survivors had gotten to them first and were using them as a defence against the Infected. Kids younger than me being chained to bases across the world and forced to use their powers, sometimes without any training at all, against people desperate to rip their skin off. It had gotten to the point where survivors had to turn others away for lack of space, and I'd heard that they were starting to banish Snuffs too; after all, who'd want a useless kid when you could take a Flame, or even just a guy with a gun who knew how to use it.

I hated this place, but it was better than it was out there for me.

"I'll show you to your room, shall I?" Ariadne unlocked the door and held it open for me.

"My room?"

"It's too late tonight to send you out now, so we'll have to wait until the morning," she said, "You know the risk of the Infected at night,"

"They're zompires," I said. She gave a little laugh.

"I suppose you could call them that. Come on, you've got a big journey ahead of you,"

I nodded and left the orthodontist/dentist/doctor room behind me, hearing the door shut and bolt as soon as we let it. I'd never realised how big the facility was, but then again the only two places I'd ever been allowed was the Snuff wing and the lower bunker.

Everything was grey, the only colour they hadn't claimed for us. No one walked by us, but it wouldn't have surprised me if SWORD had been keeping a whole other type of mutation from everyone. Really, I don't know what would surprise me anymore. I tended to take everything as it came, life was easier that way.

Ariadne led me to a room not dissimilar to the one I shared with Lana and three other girls, but this one I had all to myself. The walls were grey instead of black, and it had enough beds for five of us, so I got a choice. Ariadne bid me goodnight and told me she'd wake me up in the morning, before shutting the door as she left. I didn't hear the lock click, and I found relief in seeing that it locked from the inside. Everywhere else we had no control over something as simple as that, it was nice to have a bit of security back.

On one of the beds was a simple, grey tunic, and I changed it immediately for my black one, throwing my old clothes onto another bed. Towards the back, right next to a silver wardrobe, there was a small bathroom with a toothbrush and two hairbands for me. In front of a sink and a mirror which spanned the back wall, I brushed my teeth quickly. My fingers remembering what to do, I plaited my hair tightly over my head and tucked it into the collar of my tunic, wondering if tomorrow that would be enough to keep the Infected from being able to grab it. I'd have to cut it off if it came down to it, but I really didn't want to.

My body visibly trembled, and I hadn't realised how damn scared I was until then. My legs weren't skinny, and I knew I could run for that long if it came down to it, but that didn't make it any easier. As a Snuff, my days were full of lectures and then training. We did stamina tests, weights, core – I was probably as fit as a football player, but I'd never actually left the facility. My reaction times were as perfect as they could be, after all I had nothing better to do, but I doubted I'd be as good if I were being chased by a horde of people trying to kill me.

Maybe it would be better if I just stayed with the safety of SWORD. Maybe I'd live a little longer and add a few more bruises and scars to the canvas that was my arms. Maybe someone else would be chosen – that Daniel kid – and they'd end up saving us all, they'd be the hero.

I gripped at my hair and slammed the bathroom door shut behind me as I retreated to my bed. No matter how many times I thought it, I knew I couldn't just sit back and let someone else take my place, not now I knew about it all. Not now I had the actual chance to be free from Janet and the shocks. I had a chance to save everyone – even the damn Flames – and I couldn't risk passing that up and ruining everything. It didn't matter how scared I was, fear kept me alive, because I was doing it.

I flicked off my light and clenched my eyes shut, wondering if this would really be my last night in a bed.