by Karen Carr
I hold my hands up and step in front of Jack.
“We’re turquoise,” I say. “See my jacket.”
“What about him?” the kid gestures with his gun toward Jack.
“Same as me,” I say. I glare at the kid, willing him to go away, refusing to move. I am defenseless against a gun.
The kid steps around me to get a better look at Jack.
“He’s wearing green pajamas,” the kid raises his gun. “You lied to me. I’ll kill you both if you don’t duck.”
“You can only kill one,” I step cautiously toward the boy. “If you kill me, you’ll have to kill more. I know you don’t want to.”
“I want to kill him,” the boy says with a wavering gun.
“I won’t let you do it,” I say, making sure to keep myself in between him and Jack.
“Fine,” the boy says. He raises his gun and aims it at my head.
“Aria, no,” Jack says behind me.
I hear footsteps and turn my head slightly to see Jack staggering away. The boy aims his gun at Jack and pulls the trigger. The gun flies back in the kid’s hands and Jack lurches forward at the same time.
Jack takes a few more steps and falls to his knees. In the dim moonlight, I can see the bright red blood pool in the wound in the center of his back. The kid raises his gun for another shot. I can’t let Jack die.
I scream as I run toward Jack, bracing myself for my own bullet in the back. I take five long strides to Jack and catch him as he crumbles to the ground.
I hear Burke’s voice and turn to see Burke wrestle the gun away from the boy. I pull Jack into my arms and tell him that we are safe. He moves his lips, but no words come out.
Burke aims the gun at the boy.
The boy drops to his knees and raises his shaking hands.
“You can’t kill me,” the boy says. “Or you’ll be a murderer.” He points to Jack. “He’s my token kill. Emerald replaces turquoise. I’ll go kill an old lady and then I am done.”
The boy starts sobbing and runs away.
Burke lowers the gun.
“Do something,” I scream. “Shoot him. He shot Jack.”
Jack’s blood is pooling on my pants. I can feel the warmth. His breathing is weak, but he is still alive.
“I can’t,” Burke says. He watches the kid run away. “He was one of the graduates. I’ll be sent to control if I do anything.”
“Then help me with Jack,” I shriek. I feel him fading in my arms.
Burke comes to my side and picks Jack up.
“You have to be quiet, Aria,” Burke says. “There are others. We are both targets. I have to get Jack to the infirmary. It’s not safe for you. Get to the woods with the rest of your team. Be with them. They need you more than I do.”
“I can’t leave you,” I say. “You’ll need my help.”
“You did your part,” Burke says. “You are worth more alive. Now go.”
He runs off toward campus carrying Jack in his arms. I am stuck alone in the dark covered with Jack’s blood. It doesn’t feel real to me. I want to scream. I want to cry. I want someone to tell me this was just another inclination test.
Another masked figure approaches me. This time I know it’s my brother. I don’t move. Ice grows in my veins. My brother is a part of the raid that injured Jack. If Jack dies, I’ll never be able to forgive Sebastian.
Sebastian stops in front of me and catches his breath.
“Aria, I’m so glad I found you,” he says.
Sebastian sees the blood all over me and grabs my arm.
“Your blood?” he asks. His voice is desperate.
“No,” I say.
I rip my arm out of his grasp and back away from him.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Sebastian says. “We were just going to torch the campus. Not the cabins. No kills, they told me. The end of Kill School. That’s what they said.”
A group of kids with torches jogs toward us. Sebastian steps in front of me and waves them on.
“She’s mine,” he says.
Once they are out of sight, he turns towards me with such fierceness that I almost fall to the ground.
“Get out of here,” he says. “Or you’ll be dead.”
Sebastian runs off before I can tell him what a big jerk he is.
“Wait until I tell Viviane,” I yell after him even though I know he can’t hear me.
Suddenly, a figure runs toward me.
I hear a swish by my ear and see a knife slide through the snow. I pick it up and almost trip as a gun sounds behind me. A puff of snow explodes on the ground near me. Someone is shooting at me.
I am a target.
Before I can get to any knife, someone tackles me to the ground.
A girl flips me over and crams her knees into my shoulder. She’s sitting on top of my sore ribs, making it almost impossible to breath.
She takes off her mask.
“I want you to see my face,” she says.
I recognize her. The senior that trapped me in the caldron. The senior that graduated a few short days ago. Snatch sits on top of me.
“Don’t struggle,” she says. “I have to do this.”
Snatch pins my shoulders to the ground with her knees and pulls out a long dagger.
“I am turquoise,” she says. “And I get to terminate you.”
She hesitates. I can tell she really doesn’t want to do it. Her hesitation is all I need. I press my knees against my chest and flip my legs around her shoulder.
Her knife goes flying. She rolls away from me.
We both crawl after the knife.
I grab her ankle, but it’s too late. She reaches the knife and swings it at me, slashing at my fingers.
I dig out my switchblade just as she lunges at me again. This time, I end up on top of her. I stick the point of my knife under her chin. She is helpless. I could kill her by a short shove of the blade.
I am not a murderer.
I push her away and knee her in the gut in the process. She jumps to her feet and looks like she’s going to lunge at me again.
A helicopter shines its bright light down on us.
“You are not going to kill me today,” I say.
“I still can,” Snatch says.
Instead of lunging at me, Snatch runs away. She could have killed me. She could have legally tried right in front of the helicopter. I sink to the ground, grateful that I am still alive.
Swarms of helicopters hover all around camp, shining their lights in the woods, on the cabins, and across campus. They must have come from the Northern Outpost, arriving here so fast. Some of the copters land on the ground and uniformed troops disembark. The raid is over.
I want to collapse on the ground in a ball of tears. I want to run away into the woods and never come back. All around me, I hear cries of pain and shouts of anguish. The raid is over but the suffering has just begun.
A voice comes over the loudspeaker telling us to report to the auditorium. I cannot move. I do not want to face anyone, to see the horror in his or her eyes. Death is everywhere. I can smell burning corpses in the air and see the blood on the snow. I have to walk. I have to get the others. I have to find out if Jack survived.
I turn to go back in the woods, to go to Burke’s private spot across the stream. The others are supposed to be there. They must know it’s over. I have to get them.
A dozen guards march in a row out of the woods. I have never seen the Regulator’s guards up close. Their uniforms are slick and their facemasks impenetrable. I don’t know if they are male or female. They march toward me with their guns slightly raised as if I’ve done something wrong.
“Turn around,” one of the guards says.
“I have to get my friends in the woods,” I say.
“Turn around,” the guard repeats, this time a little gentler. “Go to the auditorium. We’ll get your friends.”
Half of the guards return to the woods, the other half stand in front of the trees to make sure no
more kids enter it. I wonder whom they will find in there. My brother? I hope that he is long gone.
I walk across the starlit lawn toward the campus by myself, all the while looking for Demi, or Shah, Vanessa or Mateo. Bright waves of water shower the emerald cabin in an attempt to put out the fire. Thick smoke billows in the air twenty feet high. In places, the white snow is streaked red. I relive Jack falling to the ground every time I smell blood.
I am no longer frozen. I want to run. I want to get to the auditorium. I run across the lawn and into the campus as fast as possible. The warm air hits me like the opening of a hot oven. I realize for the first time that sweat pours from my brow.
Relief fills me when I hear Vanessa calling my name. I turn to see Vanessa and Mateo running toward me. Her bandaged arm rests in a sling around her neck. A jacketless Mateo holds a hand on his shoulder.
“I was grazed,” says Mateo when I can’t take my eyes from his shoulder. “I’ll live.”
“Mathew and Lily are safe,” Vanessa says.
“Thank goodness,” I say. “Jack’s in the infirmary.”
Vanessa lowers her eyes. “We heard about Jack.” Her voice cracks. “Demi is crushed.” A sobbing gasp escapes her lips.
“He’ll recover,” I say. “Don’t worry.”
Vanessa and Mateo exchange glances. The air is motionless around me as if it’s waiting for me to fall.
“You don’t know?” Vanessa asks. “Burke told us you tried to save him.”
“I did save him,” I say.
Jack’s blood covers my jacket. He was breathing when I last saw him. He has to survive.
Vanessa and Mateo stare at me with water-filled eyes.
“He can’t be dead,” I say. The words sting my lips. By the look on Vanessa and Mateo’s faces, I know that he is.
I fall to the ground on my knees. My hands stop my face from planting in the dirt. Jack is dead. I want to be part of the dirt. Brainless and empty. Forever dark.
“We have to go,” Vanessa says.
More guards march toward us. Their figures are blurry through my tears, making them look like apparitions. Vanessa and Mateo help me up. We walk in a clump, each nursing our wounds. Mine are on the inside. A deep cut has broken my heart in two.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Vanessa, Mateo, and I enter the auditorium to sounds of crying and hushed tones. The stench of blood and sweat is thick in the air. Kids pack the auditorium. Dozens of guards carrying huge weapons stand in the rows and line up in front of the stage.
The last time I was in the auditorium, it was filled with loud chatter and animated teenagers. Within a few hours, we have all graduated into grief-stricken adults.
I glimpse unmistakable blond hair. Burke is rushing up the aisle. My heart bursts when I see him. I knew he was alive from Vanessa and Mateo, but seeing him in the flesh makes me want to start bawling my eyes out. He is safe. I take two more steps and I am in his arms. His greeting is long and intimate. His strong arms hold me tight to his chest. We are friends. We are more. My broken heart begins to heal.
“I’m so glad you are safe,” Burke says. “Come on down and sit with the rest of the group.”
He takes my hand and guides us to our group who sit far down the aisle, close to the stage.
“I have to go with the other counselors,” Burke says. “I’ll be back with you all later.”
He touches my cheek and departs across the front of the stage, disappearing behind it.
I glance from the aisle to the seats. My eyes lock on Demi’s bent head and dark hair covering her face. She sits in between Lily and Shah. Mathew sits next to Lily.
Demi’s shoulders heave up and down. She is crying. Mathew is crying. Many of the other kids are crying. The whole place smells like smoke. I can’t sit down. I can’t let Demi see me with Jack’s blood all over me.
I take off my jacket and stuff it under a seat. The kid sitting in the seat looks up at me but doesn’t say anything. His eyes are hollow and glazed over. I doubt he even knows where he is.
When Demi sees me, she jumps to her feet and points a finger at me.
“Don’t you dare sit with us,” she screams. “You failed. You let him die.”
Shah tries to calm Demi down while Lily jumps to her feet.
“Your mother is in my termination pool,” Lily says in an acidic tone. She doesn’t go on, but I get her meaning. She wants revenge. Against me.
“Perhaps we should sit over here,” Vanessa says, yanking me away.
Vanessa guides me to the opposite side of the aisle. Mateo, Vanessa, and I take three seats away from the rest of our cabin mates.
Lily’s threat to my mother has the opposite effect. Instead of feeling worse for my part in Jack’s death, I feel angry. Not at Lily. Not at Demi. The whole stinking token system is wrong. It makes close friends into mortal enemies. I vow my own revenge against Kalstein Barstow. If he were alive today, I would surely kill him.
A somber Mr. Wassillie enters the stage wearing a long multi colored robe. Dozens of counselors, including Burke, walk on the stage and stand in a ring behind him. I don’t know many of them. The teachers enter next and stand in front of the counselors. I see the Hunter and Vladimir, Yip and Professor Hammerschmidt. The only teacher missing is Messier.
Mr. Wassillie holds up his hands, a gesture he uses to quiet the crowd. This crowd needs no signal. No one is speaking. Not even in a whisper.
“I know you are wondering what happened tonight.” Mr. Wassillie chokes on his the rest of his words.
Mr. Wassillie puts his hands on his knees. The crowd murmurs with concern. Is he going to collapse in front of us? For the first time I feel sorry for him. This is his camp. It will never be the same. He straightens up and puts his hands on his hips as if he’s trying to hold himself up.
“I don’t know what happened,” Mr. Wassillie says.
He shakes his head and paces.
“Once in a while a kid comes down the tunnel,” Mr. Wassillie says, his voice becoming softer and softer as he speaks. “Usually the kid has had a bad time at camp and wants to take out a camper. Sometimes he or she succeeds. Occasionally we’ve lost a student.”
Mr. Wassillie stands on the stage like a statue. No more words come out of his mouth. The auditorium lights shine on his tear-streaked face.
Finally, the Hunter steps forward and places her good arm around Mr. Wassillie’s shoulder. She whispers something to him and he steps back. The Hunter turns to us in a rigid salute. She lowers her hand and puts it behind her back.
“Tonight, several dozen kids came in through the Vactube,” the Hunter says. “They torched several buildings on campus and over a dozen cabins. We have all lost people tonight. Cabin mates. Friends. Teachers. Counselors. Many have perished.”
The Hunter scans the teachers behind her and bows her head. I watch Burke on the stage. His expression is blank, but he shifts from foot to foot. Every now and then, he glances in the remaining quad’s direction. No more Jack. No more Quad Squad.
The Hunter turns to us.
“We don’t have the names of the victims for you tonight,” she says. “More are in the infirmary. More may die. We caught some of the children. Several were killed. Others escaped.”
The Hunter pauses to look out over the crowd.
“Once we review the microdrone recordings and find all of the raiders, we will determine if they are legally able to kill. If they are, they will attend their debriefing and be dismissed. If they are not, if they are responsible for any of the fires, then they will be sent to control.”
Angry questions and speeches fill the air. Most are furious that some of the raiders will get away with murder. I am terrified that my brother is dead. If he is not dead, they will find him. If he set those fires, he will go to control.
The Hunter holds up her hand.
“The Regulators have been notified and will be here in the morning. Your parents have been notified as well. We have asked them to come and pick yo
u up, for training camp will close until repairs are completed.”
The Hunter bows and then returns to her place with the rest of the teachers.
I get to see my parents tomorrow. I get to go home. My eyes lock on Burke. He is staring at me. He does not look happy.
Mr. Wassillie steps forward again. He instructs us all to return to our cabins for the rest of the night. The kids whose cabins were destroyed will be split up and bunk with others. He tells us that we will have breakfast like any other day. He then dismisses us.
The walk across campus is both empty and dismal. I feel numb. I am vaguely aware that Mateo and Vanessa are with me. We are banded together in a haze of misery. I block out everything else around me. The burning smell. The bloody snow. For fear, I will relive Jack’s death for the hundredth time.
Once back in the cabin, Vanessa, Mateo and I collapse on the couch in the common room. Shah comes in and sits in a chair across from us. He looks at me with heavy eyes.
“She won’t blame you for long,” Shah says. “Burke told her what happened. She knows you tried.”
I press my knees up to my chest, reminding me that my ribs are still bruised. The physical pain feels good. I press my knees in tighter as tears slip from my eyes.
“Where is she?” I ask.
“Burke took Demi to the infirmary,” Shah says. “She’s going to stay there overnight with the other quads and then she is going home. He’ll be back here soon.”
Just then, the door opens. We all look up, expecting to see Burke. Instead, Erwin enters the cabin with a disgruntled look on his face. I haven’t seen him since we got into our fight. He scowls at us as he walks through the common room to the bunks. Following him are Aisha and Priyanka who join us.
“They kicked him out of the infirmary,” Aisha says, referencing Erwin.
“There has to be a better way,” Mateo says. “We can’t just keep killing each other.”
“There is a better way,” Shah says in a conspiratorial tone. “I have heard rumors. Some people have formed a resistance on the outside. They are banding together.”
“To slaughter innocent kids,” Aisha breaks in. “Like they did here tonight.”
