Spara steps wordlessly in the room, the door closing behind her.
She says, “It’d be in ya best interests ta a-hand this Taser over.”
Nobody moves, we all stare silently back. I sneak a glimpse at Bridget. She’s smirking, like she’s happy that I got us caught.
“Ya best a-give it ta me. Ya don’t a-want Nikolas a-findin’ out about yer lies.”
Spara probably wants the Taser so that she can take it to Nikolas and prove that we are liars. She wants it at evidence against us so she can get us kicked out of the village.
“I’s a-heard all that ya said. There be no a-hidin’ it. Now, which one of ya be Piper? I’s know ya have it.”
Bridget dramatically looks at Piper, making it clear who Piper really is. I can’t believe Bridget would sell Piper out so quickly. Not only is she getting Piper in trouble, but she’s giving away a chance for us to defend ourselves with the Taser.
What if they abandon us somewhere outside this village, without any supplies? We need the Taser to defend ourselves.
Piper lies, “It’s still in our bag.”
Bridget has the audacity to laugh when Piper says this.
Spara frowns at Bridget.
Why does Bridget have to choose now to fight?
“I’s a-know ya have it. Yer, uh, friend here has a-made that a-clear.”
Piper mutters so that only I can hear, “I’m not sure about friend….”
Spara holds out her hand. Piper sends me a look saying, Should I give it to her?
I look to Canton. He subtly nods.
We can’t risk getting hurt. It’s only going to make our situation worse if we fight back.
Piper slips the Taser out of the waistband of her skirt and reluctantly hands it over to Spara.
Spara flashes a triumphant, arrogant smile and leaves the building.
I immediately turn to Bridget, “What was that? Why would you do that? Don’t you want to survive?”
Bridget lets out a disdainful laugh, “I just showing Piper how easily her lies can be destroyed and shoved back in her face. Maybe, if Piper had let other people do the talking, we won’t be in this mess. Not to mention, you also need to practice keeping your mouth shut.”
“Maybe, if you realized that starting an argument would complicate things a lot more, we wouldn’t be on our way to dying.”
Bridget glares and takes a step closer, “Don’t you try to pin this on me. It’s your fault that Spara found out about the Taser.”
I shout, “It’s your fault that this argument is happening right now. We don’t need this. We have enough problems as is.”
Bridget crosses her arms, “You know what, I actually agree with you. We have a lot of problems, one of them being Piper thinking she’s better than everyone else.”
Piper rejoins the argument, “I don’t think that. At least I don’t purposefully sell out other people.”
Bridget stares her down, “I already explained that. I was showing you how horrible you are at lying.”
“By putting us even more at risk.” I yell.
Bridget rolls her eyes, “I can’t believe that you are being so dim. When you come to your senses, I’ll consider talking to you again.”
She strolls out of the room.
Brinn’s mouth hangs open, “What was thatall about?”
Tears spring up in Piper’s eyes again. Her voice shakes, “I have no idea. I’m so sorry, I didn’t know that it was bothering everyone so much.”
I shake my head, “Oh no, it wasn’t bothering me. I was glad you took the pressure of answering most of the questions.
Canton uncomfortably stands up. Out of everyone here, Canton knows Bridget the best. What does Canton think? Canton shifts from foot to foot, “I’ll go find her, make sure she doesn’t give away anything more. I’ll try to cool her down a bit…okay?”
We all nod and he leaves the room as well.
Brinn says, “She should have just said something, she didn’t need to blow up on Piper like that. But, what she did while Spara was in here…We might have been able to hide the Taser or something.”
I apologize, “I’m sorry for giving away the Taser. I may have put us all at risk by saying that.”
Piper brushes it aside, “Oh, I don’t think it’s your fault. You were defending me and you were angry. It’s difficult to keep what you say under control when someone’s accusing you of something. Besides, we probably wouldn’t have been able to keep it a secret for very long.”
Brinn adds, “If it’s anybody’s fault, it’s Bridget’s. She’s the one who randomly decided to start an argument.”
I sigh, “We need each other’s support and trust to survive. What if we are kicked out of the village?”
Brinn frowns, “You think they would do that? Just force us to leave?”
“They had no problem forcing knives to our throats.”
Piper says, “But they’d at least give us our supplies back, right?”
“They might, but they might not.”
Brinn questions, “Do you think that’s what Spara and Nikolas have been arguing about? Whether we should stay or leave?”
I nod my head.
Brinn softly says, “Do you ever wonder if it would have been better to have just been obedient and stayed in the Complex? I mean, it feels likes we’ve accomplished nothing, except get ourselves into complicated situations.”
“We escaped the Complex,” I offer.
Brinn nods, but argues, “But, that doesn’t help anybody. It doesn’t even help us. We aren’t helping the other kids still trapped inside the Complex. We aren’t at least going them hope or something.”
Piper says, “Miranda is telling people our story.”
Brinn shrugs, “What if no one even believes her? What if they all think she’s crazy?”
What have we done? We’ve run away. That’s what we’ve done. We’ve fled and hide. Like cowards.
The door slides open. I lift my head, expecting to see Canton and Bridget. Instead, James walks into the room, looking confused and slightly worried.
He asks, “Did I just a-see two of ya run past me? Where’s be the others?”
I just shrug, “I don’t know.”
James runs a hand through his hair, “Ya be supposed ta a-stay in this buildin’.”
Piper lies, “They had to go to the bathroom. They were looking for you to see if they could go to the Toilets and if not, where they should go.”
“Then why’d they a-run right a-past me? I’s a-sure they’s a-saw me.”
Piper shrugs, “I don’t know, maybe they didn’t see you.”
I ask, “Why you’re here though, where should we, you know, go to the bathroom?”
James shrugs, “Well, I a-guess that if ya be a-used ta a-goin’ in them things in that buildin’, ya can a-go. I’s just need ta be a-sure ta a-tell everybody that we’s should a-stop usin’ them. I’s be a-needin’ ta a-go find yer other friends. Make sure ya don’t a-leave here again unless ya are with someone a-from here. Unless ya need ta a-go ta the bathroom, of course.”
We nod to show we understand and James leaves.
Brinn sighs, “We’re once again locked up in a room with no freedom.”
I say, “I don’t even believe that there’s such a thing as freedom. It’s just an abstract idea created to give people hope.”
Piper stares at me, “That’s depressing.”
I laugh, “Sorry,”
Piper waves it aside and stands, “You know what’s been bothering me?”
“What?” Brinn asks.
Piper points to the fingerprint scanner on the wall. It’s just a black, shiny square, about the size of my palm. It sits on the wall, about as high as my shoulders.
I can see the thin outline of a door.
Brinn and I join Piper by the scanner, gathered in a semi-circle around it.
Piper continues, “I mean, what is it even for? What could possibly be behind that door? It can’t really be a room, the buildings too small to have another room inside. What’s the point of having a door there?”
Brinn suggest, “It could just be another door that leads outside the building, so that there are two exits.”
I glance at the other door. It’s on the opposite side of the building.
I say, “But then, why go through the trouble of having a fingerprint scanner? You can leave the out the other door by simply pushing a button? Here, you have to scan your fingerprint.”
Brinn agrees, “That’s true. It’d be pretty pointless to have a lock on the inside of a building.”
Piper says, “We need to get out of this building and see if there’s a door on the back wall.”
I nod in agreement, “Let’s go right now.”
Piper starts to nod, but Brinn reminds us, “James said not to leave the building unless we had to go to the bathroom.”
Piper counters, “But, James is looking for Bridget and Canton.”
Brinn says, “But what if he sees you? What if someone else sees you and reports you? I don’t think we should risk putting ourselves in even more danger.”
I respond, “But what if there’s a room or something behind that door and they’re hiding something in there?”
Brinn’s face pales, “Like what?”
I shrug, “I have no idea, but what if it’s something horrible? What if…I don’t know…what if there are people in there that they are holding captive or something?”
Piper grins, “Isn’t that a bit extreme?”
“Spara did drag a deer corpse all the way back to the village.”
Brinn nods, “True, that’s so creepy. What is that even for?”
“I have not even the slightest clue.” I say.
Brinn asks, “But didn’t James say that they didn’t know what the scanners were for?”
I shrug, “He could have been lying.”
Piper says, “I think we should just go see if there’s a door in the back wall. It’s probably just another door to get out of this room. But, I don’t think I’m going to relax, thinking that there could be people, or worse dead animal bodies, hidden behind that door.”
Brinn bites her lip, “I really want to know too, but what if you get caught?”
I say, “We’ll just lie and say that we were going to the bathroom.”
Brinn presses her lips together, “Fine. You two can go, but hurry right back and don’t let anyone see you.”
Piper adds, “I think we should actually go to the bathroom after we look. That way, if anyone sees us, we can just say that we got lost or whatever. Besides, I have to go to the Toilets anyway.”
I agree, “Sounds good.”
Brinn says, “I…kind-of…need to go to.”
Piper shrugs, “That’s fine. You come with us.”
Piper and I move to support Brinn. Although the cream that James has given us seems to be working, she still can’t walk on her own. She can manage to limp by herself a couple steps, but nothing more.
We hobble to the door and press the button on the door. It slides open and we step out.
Piper quietly advises, “The main thing is looking confident. If you look nervous, people will get suspicious.”
I try to keep my face emotionless. We scan the village. Nobody is in view.
We quickly dart behind the building, to the back wall where the door should be.
My eyes fly across the wall, looking for the seam or tiny crack in the steel signaling that the door simply is another exit.
There is no thin crack. The steel is completely seamless.
The door isn’t another exit out of the building. The door leads somewhere else.