This Is Not The End.

Chapter 25

In the first five minutes of the meeting, it was apparent that we didn't even have an idea of a plan.

I couldn't see my father when he slipped to the middle of the room and opened the meeting. Even though Cara was on Beck's shoulders, she had to shift about. Where all these people had come from, I didn't know. In the middle of the room stood an extendable table. All the benches and the seats had been pushed to the sides or left outside and only the chairs Beck and I had used during my last meeting were left, filled by an angry man with a Skyrim worthy face-scar and an equally terrifying woman who couldn't have been older than twenty. Under one eye, she'd smeared a thick line of purple – a Shifter.

I'd always wanted to meet a Shifter. They were, well, self-explanatory, and arguably more dangerous than the Flames. Something about them spoke to me, although all the ones I'd met at SWORD – a total of three – were continually drugged and kept under surveillance so they didn't cause a riot. SWORD couldn't manipulate them as they had with the Flames, so they were destroyed.

I still didn't understand why SWORD hadn't just lined a handful of us up, blindfolded, and shot us. It saved the trauma of keeping us contained, and then the whole death-by-Infected which seemed to be their option B.

I clenched my jaw at the thought of it all. We hadn't deserved any of this.

"This raid is going to be the turning point in our war against SWORD!" David called to the room, pacing around at the table. His words stung like a million dripping knives. "This is when we take back the high ground, and we show all those captured kids what life is really about!"

I didn't know what he was planning. Between the vagueness of 'Project Noah's Ark' and Harry, I didn't trust a word that came out of his mouth. What bugged me was that he'd sent me to die. After all, he must've known SWORD's way of dealing with 'problem kids', and I was one of them.

My father rolled out a blueprint of our old facility – I grabbed snippets of the bold lettering and the plans as I scrambled to get a look. He pinned it to the oak table and a couple of higher-ranking council members murmured between themselves. Out of our row, Beck was the only official member, but we all had our reasons to be there.

"This isn't an easy job," David warned, "And we have no idea how to get through with it – but our main aim, and our only goal, is to rescue the children before the Infected get them,"

The room exploded. There couldn't have been more than twenty other people inside, but they didn't come without their fight. I shot back against the wall as someone raised their arm to hit the air, screaming at my father.

"SWORD have ruined our lives!" someone yelled, their voice resonating above the roar of anger.

"They killed my daughter!"

"Destroyed our homes!"

"Manipulated our kids!"

"Fuck SWORD!" that shout came from the Shifter girl beside me, and she grinned at me with a wink.

"We need a revolution!"

"We are the revolution!"

"SHUT UP!" Beck screamed, standing on the arm of the two armchairs and making himself known to the room. Cara pulled at my sleeve to let me know she was there. A wave of whispers crossed over the people, and they fell silent. "We're not getting a fucking revolution with thirty people in a stuffy room – this is for those kids who are being killed by SWORD. If you want to fight them, get in the goddamn line, but now is not the time!"

The Shifter girl fist-bumped him and he jumped down, shooting a nasty glare to one of the heavily tattooed tower guards, to which he merely got a grunt back.