My pulse spikes, my grip automatically tight around my knives. I peer around the shelves, but I can’t see where the noise came from. There’s an open doorway in the back of the room, some type of hall veering off.
Piper raises her knives and stalks forward. She presses herself against the wall and peers around the corner. After a second, she motions that it’s all clear. We creep forward, into the hall. The hallway travels for several paces, a few doorways scattered along it.
An Ecru bursts from the door. I flinch and Christopher screams from behind me. Piper crouches, waiting for it to get closer. It five paces away. Four. A yell follows the Ecru. Derek bursts from the same doorway. He charges the Ecru, swinging a large, shiny metal pan through the air. The pan crashes into the Ecru’s head. It crumples to the floor.
He grins at us, “Well hello, lovely seeing you here. Piper, Christopher, it’s good to see you.”
Piper stares at him, her face unreadable.
Derek steps gingerly over the collapsed Ecru, “You must know that I had to do what I did. It’s a huge advantage for Ellen to think you’re dead.”
Piper presses her lips together and doesn’t say anything. Derek just shrugs, “Could I borrow your knife for a second? I’m afraid I lost mine a while back.”
Harry fishes one of his knives out if his waistband and hands it to Derek. Derek quick slits the Ecru’s throat. The black blood spills on to the floor.
Derek begins to hand the knife back to Harry, but Harry says, “Keep it, I’ve got plenty.”
Derek nods, holding a knife in one hand and the frying pan in the other. “Well, shall we be off? There are more Ecru creeping around here somewhere. The pack got broken up in the chaos.”
He motions with his arms. I notice that they are covered in nail marks. Is Derek immune as well? Whoever gave us immunity certainly wouldn’t give it to him. Maybe he came up with his own.
Piper seems to notice this as well, “Are you immune too?”
Derek begins walking, but he turns back to say, “Of course. Did you think I would create the immunity injection and not take advantage of it myself?”
“Wait,” Theo interrupts, “Derek created the immunity?”
Derek starts striding forward again, “Well, of course. Who else would have the power to not only experiment for hours in a lab but inject the carefully guarded children with it?”
Derek is the one who’s made my life so different from everyone else? He’s the reason I can remember things that everyone else has forgotten. Should I thank him or hate him? Why couldn’t I just be average like everyone else? Without the crushing responsibilities and high expectations.
Piper asks, “Are there any other survivors?”
Derek winces. “Not sure. Although I did…I…James…”
Tears gather in Piper’s eyes. “No. Not James…”
“I’m sorry. He was one of the closest ones to the door. He never had much of a chance.”
James. He was one of the leaders of the village. He never lived in the Complex. He didn’t know what he was truly fighting for, yet he still came. He gave up his life for everyone here. All these sacrifices are useless. What’s the point in sacrificing yourself for everyone, if everyone else is dead?
Harry asks, “What’s this immunity to thing? Are you immune to the Ecru’s way of killing?”
Derek glances at Piper, “Yes, there’s an injection that I’ve given people that give them immunity to all of Ellen’s poisons. I didn’t give a lot of people it because I wasn’t sure how it worked. I didn’t want to give an entire year the injection, only to have them die after three years. I’ve been doing a long scale experiment, and so far it’s working.”
“Who else is immune then? Officials?”
Derek points to Theo and I. “Actually, you may be looking at two immunes.”
Heat rises to my cheeks. Wasn’t that supposed to be a secret? Piper said that if anyone knew, I would certainly die. It doesn’t really matter anymore. Ellen already knows I’m immune. At the end of this, she’ll have a good idea of who’s immune by the survivors. Especially if everyone else is dead.
Harry raises his eyebrows at Piper, “Did you know about this? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I wasn’t sure who was a spy and who wasn’t. It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just that after what happened with,” her voice cracks, “Charlotte, I didn’t want to take any more risks or involve anyone else.”
“I get it. Charlotte was just…I can’t believe she was…” He takes a deep breath. “So then do the Ecru kill you with their fingernails?”
Derek nods, “From what I can gather, yes, although I’m not entirely sure. Ellen doesn’t always keep me informed, probably out of spite. I don’t know, it doesn’t really matter anymore.”
Theo says softly, “Do you think she is watching us now?”
Derek pauses for a second and shrugs. He tips his head up to the ceiling and smiles tightly, “Hello, Ellen. If you can hear this, you have no idea how happy I am right now. I hope you know you are a psychopath and that if I get out of here alive, I will not be very happy with you.”
Piper glares at him, “I’m sure that helped our situation. We definitely needed that attention. She’ll probably double her efforts to kill us all. Thank you so much.”
Derek appears to be unbothered by her comment, “I was already going to be murdered anyway. At least we have our threats clear now.”
We enter a room, doing our routine check. Something bangs within a cupboard along the wall. We all share a silent glance, forming a ring around it. We prepare for anything that might launch itself at us. Piper grabs the handle. She mouths the words, “One. Two. Three.”
She flings open the corner. Someone screams inside, hands shielding the face. Limbs are all folded up inside, knees pressing against the stomach, the head bent low. Red blood pools at the bottom, staining her skirt. The person hesitantly lowers her hands, revealing a tear stained cheeks.
Brinn.
Piper runs forward, dropping her knives to the ground, “Brinn, are you okay? What happened?”
Brinn grins wryly and half crawls, half limps out of the cupboard. Blood streaks down her legs. “Don’t worry about me, it’s a lot worse than it looks. It was so dark and I was running away. Since I’m incredibly graceful, I tripped over a stupid pot. I re-twisted that dumb ankle and somehow managed to stab myself with my knife. I crawled in here and hid in the cupboard. I didn’t know what was going on. I should have tried to help but I could barely walk and I’m sorry—”
Piper laughs and hugs her, “I’m just glad you’re okay. Can you walk on it at all?”
Brinn twists up her mouth, “I could try, I don’t know. I guess we need James, right?”
All the relieved humor falls from Piper’s face. Brinn’s gazes searches her face, “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Piper’s grave tears are her only answer.
Brinn whispers, “No, not James. Rose will…she already lost her mom…I…”
Piper nods, “I know, I know…”
Brinn takes a slow shaky breath, and wipes away the falling tears. “I guess we’ll just have to tie it up and someone will need to help me walk. Just like the old days, right?”
Piper smiles sadly and begins searching the room. She opens a cupboard and pulls out two towels. She wipes away most of the blood on Brinn’s leg with one towel. She discards that one and ties the other tightly around the leg. She pulls Brinn to her feet, wrapping her arm beneath Brinn’s armpit. Michelle hurries over and holds up Brinn’s other side.
Brinn slowly limps, tears prickling up in her eyes, but she still has a small smile on her face. After a few steps, she snorts, “This is just the price of being so graceful. You barely ever get to walk by yourself.”
We leave the room, our pace much slower than before. If Brinn’s still alive, who else is hidden away in the rooms? The other Councils? Spara and Nikolas? Bridget and Canton?
Brinn asks, “Where’s Nathan?”
A shadow crosses over Derek’s face. “He, uh, he didn’t make it either.”
Brinn breathes, “No…not Nathan.”
“He jumped in front of an Ecru to save me.” I’m surprised to hear Derek’s voice waver, a small tear prickling in the corner of his eye. “He didn’t know that…that I didn’t need saving.”
Piper whispers, “I’m sorry.”
Derek shakes his head, as though trying to rid himself of emotion. “Oh no, it’s okay. He, uh, was a loyal Official and he really did want to help you.”
Derek claps his hands together, moving himself even further away from his sadness. “We need to keep moving. We need to keep on looking for people and Ecru.”
“We don’t want Brinn or Kylee in the middle of an Ecru attack. Maybe we should split up in two groups and they could go back to the Complex.”
Brinn opens her mouth to argue, but Piper interrupts her, “Don’t you even try. You can’t get yourself more hurt than you already are.”
Brinn narrows her eyes, but doesn’t say anything.
Derek says, “Right now, we are all under the control of Ellen. At any seconds she could turn the lights back off, and we’d only get separated again. Maybe that’s part of her fun. Give us the feeling of safety, only to ruin it all.”
“Then what do you suggest we do? The Notices don’t work, we have no way of communication. How do we stay together and still survive?” Piper asks.
“We could find Ellen and confront her ourselves. Once we’re in power, we can save everyone. We’ll restore the power in the Notices and…”
Piper stops him, “How are we going to find Ellen?”
Derek grins, “Do you think I’m entirely vulnerable here? I’ve still got a few advantages yet.”
Piper stares at him, “You mean you have a way to find her?”
“Something like that.”
Piper tries to cross her arms, but one of them is supporting Brinn. She settles for just rolling her eyes. “Where is she then?”
Derek powers up something on his Notice. His is still running. He must have some type of extreme backup. He types something into the screen, scans it for a few minutes, and nods. “She’s currently in one of the Rivie Drop-off Rooms.”
“Wait,” he says, “she’s on the move. Maybe she does have some way of watching us.”
He waves to ceiling before glancing back at his Notice. “Oh look, how lovely. She’s coming straight towards us. Shall we go to meet her?”