This Is Not The End.

Chapter 18

I was beginning to like the red. It became my subtle 'fuck you' to SWORD after everything they'd put me through.

Fuck you, SWORD.

I didn't want to leave the comfort of the mattress, so I let the morning pass me by. Compared to the old bunks at our facility, which resembled blocks of wood more than a bed, it was paradise in the form of a thin blanket and pillows. I could indulge in paradise for a little longer.

I only left my bed when I heard Kai crash into something outside and swear like a sailor. I laughed and he heard, yelling at me to shut up. I grinned to myself and threw the covers off, realising that, in my haste to collapse last night, I'd slept in my jeans. It took a different sort of tiredness to sleep in jeans.

My knife, however, was resting in its sheath on the floor next to me, so at least I didn't stab myself in the sides when I moved around.

I didn't care for the tent, I was pretty sure it was temporary accommodation anyway, so I pushed through the flap and re-met the world.

I saw it in another light, a better light.

Kai and a very shirtless Jack were talking absently by their tent. I saw the red of Kai's face and how he refused to break eye contact and I held back my sniggers.

"What time do you call this?" Kai joked, relieved to have me there.

"I didn't see the point in waking up – we're not under any stress,"

"Now SWORD thinks we're dead, and everything," Jack said.

I hadn't even thought of that. We were dead to them, and to Ariadne. I wondered how she would feel about that. SWORD didn't give a rat's ass about us. They'd sent us out to die and they'd got their wish. We were done.

It was the ending of a toxic relationship.

Ariadne wanted to help us, though. She'd paid attention to us, she'd made us feel like people and not just test subjects, and she'd got us out. No one had done so much for us since, well, I couldn't even remember the last time.

I'd find her eventually when we were sure we were safe, and I'd show her how much she'd done for me.

"So, what's the plan for today?" I asked, clearing my thoughts. "You putting a shirt on at all?"

Jack shrugged. For a nerdy-looking kid, he was surprisingly muscular. "It's pretty hot,"

"You literally manipulate fire, go put a shirt on," I chided.

Properly grinning for the first time in a while, he caved and headed back into their tent. Kai instantly relaxed, and I pushed his shoulder.

"Could you be any more obvious?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Don't even start,"

As no one came to find us, we figured we were on our own. Jack came out properly dressed and flicked the rim of Kai's bucket hat so it flew off his head jokingly, letting out a laugh as Kai pushed his shoulder in his haste to catch the hat. It was good to see him smile; I didn't think he'd had much of a chance to when we were still with SWORD.

We didn't bother remembering where our tents were, we knew that if it came down to it there would be someone to show us back, like that woman from yesterday – Tams. No matter what we did, though, I wanted to see my dad. Kai refused to leave my side, even when I repeatedly told him that I could look after myself – and he knew I could look after myself – but deep down I appreciated it; he'd never know it, though. Maybe I'd tell him on my eventual deathbed, maybe.

In the early afternoon, the base was nearly empty. Kids and a few elderly people roamed around, causing chaos and knitting blankets which were identical to the one in my tent. A boy who couldn't have been older than twelve crashed into my legs, dropping a stack of, thankfully, unloaded shotguns which caused a clatter to echo through the clearing. I saw the guards in the watchtowers sharpen their attention.