This Is Not The End.

Chapter 19

"Welcome to boredom," he grinned at me. "Thought any more about my offer?"

I raised my eyebrow at him, "And what was your offer?"

"I'm gonna teach you what being a Snuff is really about," he smirked, "Who you really are,"

I scoffed, settling down properly into my chair, "Oh yeah? Who died and made you Snuff leader?"

"Who didn't die to make me Snuff leader," he corrected, "That's the real question,"

I scoffed.

"Could be worse," he went on, running a hand through his hair before replacing it with his sunglasses again, "I could be a Snuff dictator, then we'd all be in trouble,"

"I don't even know you," I said, "We met yesterday,"

"Alright, I'm Beckett, nice to meet you," he held out his hand for me to shake, but I just batted it away.

"Skye,"

"So, now we've been properly introduced, let me teach you about what you can do," he raised his eyebrows, "Then I don't have to be alone when they finally reach a verdict from this shitty counsil,"

"What're they talking about?"

"What you were supposed to do," he said, "Break into that old Westport-Lahey facility before the fuckers out there get to,"

He was talking about the Infected, and I let my jaw drop.

Holy shit. I'd forgotten about the kids. In my daze of safety, I'd been overwhelmed with selfishness and it hadn't even resonated in my mind that there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of kids still stuck in our old facility just waiting to be killed by SWORD, or by the Infected. How long did they have left? Ariadne hadn't said. They could've all been corpses by now, or they were under siege. I hated the thought of either.

It didn't matter, they were our responsibility and we had failed them. We had to go back.

"God, you turned white quickly," Beck grinned, "Don't worry about it. We've been planning a raid on the facility for weeks – then we're moving out, so you got here at a good time,"

"Moving out?" I asked, "Moving out where?"

"North," he shrugged, "David says there's fewer Infected up there – Canada had some sort of high-tech defence put in so it's basically the safest country left. That's basically what today's pointless council is about, when and how to do it all.

I always hated politics, my dad was bad enough,"

"Your dad?" I asked, taking my seat and running my fingers across the golden trim, "He was here?"

"Nah, he was the Prime Minister back in England,"

The ball dropped and I let out a gasp, "That's where I know you from!"

"Skye, please," my dad chided. I hissed an apology and turned back to Beck.

"Yeah! What was his name-"

"-Gordon Reyes," Beck finished for me, "The last Prime Minister, if you will,"

"It's got an apocalyptic feel to it," I joked. It felt nice to be able to joke with him.

"Yeah, well, we are kinda living throu- no way, Maryse! That's the worst decision since you wanted to use the rations for baking," he cut off, sitting bolt upright in his chair and yelling across the room.

Maryse huffed, "Why don't you give an opinion for the first time in your life!"

"Fuck it, I will!"

"Beckett!" my dad exclaimed again.

"Sorry, Dave," he tipped his imaginary hat and, after apologising to me, took the stage. I sat forward in my seat, glad to be at the back of the room, as he disregarded the microphone and just let himself shout at his audience, "Look, what we're forgetting here is that none of you have been with SWORD,"

"Neither have you!"

"That's true," he agreed, "And I thank whatever religious bastard there is that I haven't, but I lost my brother and Cara to them for a lot longer than I wanted, which also makes me the only person to have walked in and out of that facility alive,"

The front row – which I decided was full of the more important council members – murmured in agreement, but just enough so it looked like they could be criticising him. Those people put themselves on a sky-scraping pedestal, they'd never openly follow a seventeen-year-old boy. I didn't think I would, not Beck anyway. Not until he did something to make him worth following.

"So, what I propose is that we stop arguing about what day our calendars are free to pull off the damn raid, and start looking towards the actual kids we rescued from there to get us in," he raised his eyebrows at me, "Like our newest Snuff, Skye, for instance,"

'Snuff' slithered through the room like a venomous snake and I rolled my eyes.

"I'm hardly dangerous," I said, making my voice echo across the room. "Go back to your politics,"

"Sweetheart, do you have something to say?" Beck smirked, knowing it annoyed me.

"Yeah, don't call me 'sweetheart'," I felt heat rush to my cheeks, but I masked it in a coating of unbreakable confidence. I didn't know how much I had left. "Other than that, the facility we left was a fortress; more guards than I could count, all armed to the bone, patrol the half-mile of excess land twenty-four-seven. Unless you've got an army and a solid plan, you're never gonna get into there,"

"And that concludes my speech," Beck took a bow, "Start planning, fuckers,"

"Beckett!"

He didn't care. Sauntering back up to where we were sat, he collapsed into his chair and threw one leg over the arm, tilting his head back so I had to look at him upside down and catch his glasses as they fell from his head.

"So, when do I get to teach you our power?"

"When you tell me what it is," I said, keeping my voice quiet as my dad went up to the stage to end the meeting, "From what you've shown me it's just the ability to give Kai nightmares for the rest of his life,"

He let out a laugh and sat back properly, running a nonchalant hand through his hair, "Well, I thought it was obvious," he raised his eyebrows and grinned, "We can control the Infected,"