Dark World: The Surface Girl (15 page)

             
Go back! Go back!
             
I hated my inner-voice in this moment. It was a coward. Besides, there was no way I would be able to turn around in this vent. I would have to crawl backwards the whole way. I
had
to keep going. I
had
to get out of here. I had to do both of these things now, and fast. I pushed down hard on my knee despite the fact that I could feel a trail of blood trickling from my punctured skin onto the floor of the vent. I tensed my muscles and forced my hips to squirm around the sharp angle until my whole body made the turn. YES! I wanted to crawl as fast as I could but I forced myself to pause and take a deep breath. I could do this. For Reese. I knew that nothing else on this planet, or any other, could get me through this but him.
              There were no breakaway vents on this route, this was a hall that lead away from individual barracks and toward the common areas of Rhode Island. It was longer than the barracks hallway. It irrationally made me feel less sure of where I was. I continued to crawl forward until I was sure I had gone farther down this hallway than the barracks hallway. What room was first? No wait, this veered off and classrooms were on the right and labs were on the left. Finally, I felt the opening of a veered vent on the right. It might possibly lead toward classrooms, which would mean I wasn't far from the corner that Reese found the butterfly and the doorway that he had been sneaking through. Or – did the vents also line those forbidden passageways? They must, because they were at one time being put to use. So, was this vent adjacent to a veered off passageway or to the hallway?
             
I don't know! I don't know I don't know I don't know!
             
Tears started running down my cheeks and falling one by one onto the thin bottom of the vent. I sniffled and kept crawling. I needed
out
. The claustrophobia was starting to catch up with my determination to be discreet and to find Reese. I couldn't ignore it or cope with it much longer before it completely overwhelmed me.
              I started curling and maneuvering my body around the turn. I would have to risk it, wherever it lead, because either way it lead
out
. My ribs hurt as I jerked my body and rotated my hips but I ignored the dull pain. I pushed my elbows down and dragged my lower half into the turn and then immediately started moving forward again. My mind was starting to race. I tried to slow it down, I tried to take more deep breaths and get a rational idea in my mind of where I was and how long it should take me to find an exit but my thoughts were quickly becoming feral and refusing to let reason and rationality calm them. Tears were pouring out of my eyes faster and thicker. My fingers desperately groped the air in front of me, the walls on either side of me, and my leg, now dully throbbing, was being scraped against the wall with its open puncture.
             
Out. Out. PLEASE I need Out. Oh God, I'm gonna die in here.
             
I couldn't hold back anymore. I was panicking. I began to scurry. My arms and legs banged against the walls of the vent and although it was my intention to move faster I was probably moving slower. I started to sob and although I could hear my voice echoing, I was sure the sound would not fall on anyones ears. I scraped and scratched my fingers along the walls and just when I was about to give up, let my body slump, close my eyes and silently beg death to take me, I felt it; A SCREEN!
              I didn't know where the screen was going to release me. At this point, I didn't care. I eagerly pushed on it and then suddenly I remembered something very important; the clasps to release it were on the outside!
              o
h god oh god I'M GONNA DIE oh god
             
I continued to sob and I gave in to my panic completely. My hands started pushing, then smacking, against the screen in helpless desperation. My digits clawed at it, so deeply that I could feel the screen cutting into my fingertips but I didn't care, I couldn’t stop myself if I tried. I clawed and clawed until I could feel a fingertip poking through. That only made my feverish desperation grow. I slid the first section of my finger through and then yanked it back. The tiny tear in the screen scraped against my skin. I did it again, and again until I could curl my finger all the way through the screen and pull. I pulled with all of my might and the screen tore just a tiny bit more. I slipped another finger in and pulled again. More tearing. Another. Even more tearing. Finally I forced my hand through it and then I moved forward so I could curl my whole upper arm through. My fingers were still grasping in desperation but I tried to direct them toward the clasps. Once I felt them, I was still panicking too much to rationally communicate to my fingers
how
to maneuver the clasps so I just grasped and tugged, hoping and begging for that familiar 'click' that would signify a release. Finally I somehow pulled it at the correct angle. I yanked my arm back inside and pushed on the screen. It flew off with minimal resistance and hit the ground below. I grasped the edges of the opening with my hands, yanked my body forward and literally propelled myself out of the opening.
              I squirmed to the ground and immediately scurried away from the opening as if it were on fire. I tried to quiet my sobs but they were still shaking throughout my body and although part of my mind wanted nothing more than to flail my appendages any way they could go, just because I finally could again, instinct caused me to curl my knees to my chest and press my back against the corner of the hallway. I closed my eyes. I inhaled, and it was a difficult task. It was as if my body was shuddering so much that there was too much turbulence inside of me for my lungs to inflate properly. I squeezed my arms tighter around my knees and inhaled again. I concentrated on Reese once more, trying to forget about my claustrophobic ordeal and my extremely hasty exit that could have potentially blown my entire mission.
              For a few minutes, two or maybe ten, I simply refused to accept my surroundings or my predicament. Nothing mattered – not Doctrine, not myself, not the mystery nor the danger around me. In my mind I was free. I was with Reese. My fingers threaded reassuringly through his as we stood barefoot on a beach near the ocean with the waves rushing over the tops of our feet. The wind caused my hair to flow backwards because it overpowered gravity and the sun shined down on my face like a gentle heater. What I wouldn't give just to have experienced the simplest things Earth had to offer before it was destroyed. What I wouldn't do to sit down in a field of grass and run my fingers through the blades. What did they feel like? Were they soft, or coarse? What about the soil that the grass grew out of? Could someone stick their hand into the loose dirt and roll their fingers through the tiny rocks or was the ground hard, the dirt clumped together? These burning curiosities brought sadness to me, but they also brought inner-calm back to my mind and slowly I managed to breathe easier.
              When I felt ready I prepared myself to face my current predicament and I opened my eyes. No matter where I was, it had to be better than being stuck in those vents. I could only hope that I never, ever, had to do something like that again. It was probably ridiculously naïve of me to try and convince myself that the worst was over, but in order to press on, right now I had to try. I opened my eyes. I pushed my fingertips against the ground and winced at the pain of the pressure on my fresh cuts, and scrambled to my feet. It was still dark but not pitch black like it had been in the vents. It was a HALLWAY! A normal hallway instead of a sealed off passage. I took a few cautious steps forward and let my eyes adjust. I knew where I was!
             
Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you!
             
Relief flooded through me like river rapids. I paused and allowed myself a few seconds of pure, absolute gratitude. I was only one corner away from the hallway I needed to be in. I forced myself to stand very still and listen. I heard nothing. My teeth returned to gnaw absentmindedly on my lower lip. The silence was both good and bad – on one hand, no one was chasing me, or running around looking for me nearby. If they were, I would have no place to escape to. But on the other hand, if Reese was waiting for me shouldn't I hear him shuffling? Maybe not, maybe he was standing very, very still as well. I wanted to run down the rest of the hallway but I forced myself to take it slow and step lightly on the ground. My heartbeat increased as I approached the corner. This was it – either Reese would be waiting for me, or all of this risk will have been for nothing and if so, I had no idea what to do next.
              I rounded the corner. My eyes darted to the left and to the right, desperately hoping to rest on the relief of his form sitting, standing or crouching near the wall. But there was no one.
             
No. Oh no. No!
             
I literally fell to my knees and barely noticed the pain. I let out a single, anguished sob. Reese was not here. This was all for nothing. I would have to turn around and go back which meant I would have to relive the nightmare of those vents all over again
             
unless
             
he was hiding out in the passageway! If Reese was in trouble he might be hiding out, and if he was hiding out and waiting for me to find him he would probably be in the same place he was yesterday, not right here in the open where flatfoot could find him but in the passageway he just introduced me to, where he first found the girl! I crept further down the hallway and I could only hope and pray that whatever kind of trouble Reese was in, flatfoots had not re-sealed off, nor were guarding, the passageway door. If they were, I would be caught and put to sleep for sure but I couldn't go back without checking everywhere for him that I knew to check. I had chosen to risk my freedom and even my life for Reese and I had to see this through.
              I grasped the rusty door handle, held my breath and pulled. The door groaned and creaked in protest as I tugged on it, but it opened at least enough for me to slip through. I quickly did. “Reese?” I called out in barely above a whisper. My voice was shaking. I took a few tentative steps forward. “...Reese?” I took another hesitant step. Suddenly my face came into contact with something fuzzy – and sticky – a horrifying combination of both. Before I could stop myself, my mouth opened wide and a loud, shrill shriek broke through the silence like a punch. I threw my hands up in defense of whatever combination of terrifying tactile things were attacking me. My fingers tangled in the same unfamiliar substance and then I felt something even worse, tiny, skittering legs crawling across my hand. I shrieked again and stumbled backward.
              My arms flailed desperately in the air as my body weight rocked dangerously back on my heels but I couldn't regain enough momentum to balance myself again and down I went, landing hard on my tailbone. Pain shot all the way up my spine in fast, almost electric shocks. For a brief moment I could swear I saw blue lines zapping across my vision. I turned on my side and scrambled to my feet. Full-on panic was too great for me to rationalize and overcome and my feet scurried forward in a run. I was barely able to veer off to the left or right when I could tell there was a wall about to block my escape to – anywhere but here.
              My heart pounded inside of my ears like a drumbeat and I barely noticed the quick in and out breaths I was working myself into. I didn't slow down until my legs began to ache and the muscles in my calves began to tighten and rebel. I was moving forward so swiftly that when I slowed my pace the upper half of my body veered forward and I nearly lost my balance again. I stumbled but managed to keep myself upright. The moment I stopped, I rested my back against the wall and pressed my hands to my thighs. I shut out everything else and just breathed. My heart eventually slowed and my breathing eventually started to come easier. I finally raised my head and forced the reality of the moment to become relevant to me again.
              I had no idea where I was.
              Reese was not where I thought he would be. I had been a lovesick fool to think that whatever danger he was in, he would just be waiting for me to rescue him like in a fairy tale in reverse.
              Could I retrace my panicked steps and find my way back to where I entered these passageways? I doubted it and that filled me with cold fright. All of this was for nothing. My parents lives would be in serious danger the moment they realized I was missing. I could have potentially exposed the entire Order and who knew if Reese was even still alive?
              All of this was my fault. If I had just followed my mundane life plan like every other teenager did, none of this would be happening. Whatever my dad was involved in and whoever was involved in it with him could have continued to operate in secret and therefor would remain safe. My selfish, overconfident, naïve determination could have just gotten everyone I loved put to sleep.
              I was thirsty. I could still feel the small water bottle sloshing around in my bra, but I had no idea when, or if, I would ever find another water source so I was scared to drink it. I slumped down against the wall in utter defeat and closed my eyes. I should give up. I should remain missing and I should just let myself waste away right here in these forgotten, forbidden passageways. I deserved nothing less.

Chapter 7

             
Silence broke with the faint sound of water dripping. I quickly choked up my sobs of helpless defeat and curled my arms around myself. Where would water be dripping from? Pipes only went into barrack areas and gardens, I assumed. But what did I know?

              The sound reminded me of my thirst but still I resisted drinking from my one small water bottle. The drips grew louder until they started to sound like taps. Maybe it wasn't water after all.. and louder still, I realized with the temptation to fall into blind panic again that the taps were footsteps.
             
FOOTSTEPS! SOMEONE IS COMING OH GOD ITS A FLATFOOT I'M GONNA BE SENT TO THE TRANSITIONAL CONTAINERS I'M GONNA BE PUT TO SLEEP
             
I scrambled to my feet and pressed my back against the wall. I was surrounded in darkness so maybe whomever it was wouldn't see me – irrational, desperate thought, but it helped me keep still. Whomever was approaching might not have any idea that another person was hiding in this hallway whereas if I ran, I would alert them to my presence for sure. The only thing I could do was remain motionless and hope against all hope that if the footsteps belonged to a flatfoot, he would not notice me. I held my breath and closed my eyes, irrationally convincing myself that not being able to see would in turn make the world unable to see me. The footsteps grew louder and my heart began to pound. I could barely tell the difference between the drumming of my heart and the menacing steps. They paused. I cringed and tensed every muscle in my body. I waited for the fingers of death to reach out and snatch my arm. I knew it, I was caught. I would be marched to the transitional containers. It was over.
             
Reese. I love you. Please find safety. I'm sorry I'm such a failure. I wanted to save you. I'm sorry.
             
“Ruby?” I held back a sob. Life was cruel. Love was cruel. I knew Reese so well that my mind just told me he spoke. I supposed it really
was
the end. I was hearing him so that I had something to hold on to in my last moments. “Ruby is that you?” There it was again, the soft concerned voice that brought precious memories of Reese to the surface of my mind. That was good. I would be thinking of him as I took my last breath.
              Even though I had been bracing for it, fingers curling around my forearm still triggered my terror. My better judgement never had a chance to tell me not to scream. A shriek raced out of my throat. I instinctively yanked my arm away and my body rocked forward on the balls of my feet, preparing to spring into action. Some part of my brain tried to tell me that running would not only be useless against a flatfoot, but would probably ensure a more torturous punishment before being put to sleep but terror was overriding any rationality I was capable of, again. In the single moment before I took off, fingers wrapped around my upper arm this time and pulled me backward. I shrieked again but another hand covered my mouth and muffled my vocal trepidation. My eyes nearly bulged out of my head. Terror drove me to perform my next instinctive survival mechanism; my body went limp. My knees gave way and I crumpled toward the ground. The pressure on my upper arm increased. “Ruby, shh!” Even though these last moments of my life were showcasing me as a complete failure, I could still hear Reese's voice. The pressure on my arm loosened but whomever was holding me captive still did not let me go or remove their hand from my mouth. I simply gave up. “Ruby we have to get out of here.”
             
Stop. I can't fight anymore. I'm so sorry Reese... you have to save yourself.
             
“I'm gonna take my hand away but you can't scream again.”
             
Wait, what?
             
The hand slowly slid away from my mouth. I licked my lips but I refused to command my body to move. The flatfoot would have to carry me to my death. “Ruby, talk to me!” The tiniest sliver of rationality started poking at my mind with a stick. The voice was still Reese's. Was it possible that my captor was not a flatfoot? No, there was no point in hoping. If I turned my head and looked at him I would know with 100% certainty and I didn't want to give this government minion that kind of satisfaction. “Are you hurt? Can you even hear me?” Why did he care if I was hurt and why did he have to keep sounding like Reese? The poking grew more persistent. Something wasn't right. Something was off. I bit down hard on my lower lip and trembled.
              “.....Reese?” I tensed again and prepared for some type of physical retaliation, but it did not come. I could literally hear the relief spilling from his vocal chords as he replied.
              “Yeah, it's me! Ruby, what happened? Why are you out here?” In an instant my eyes popped open again. I wriggled around to face him. It was
HIM
! It was Reese! It was wonderful Reese with his thick dark hair, his masculine, defined jaw and his strong arms that symbolized warmth and comfort even in the most dire situations, of which I was most definitely in right now. He let go of my arm instantly and curled his hands around my body instead, not to restrain me this time but to comfort me.
             
It's really you.
             
I was too overwhelmed with utter relief and gratitude to be able to vocalize the thoughts and feelings that were swimming around in my head. I curled myself up against Reese’s chest and let my tears run. My shoulders shook with sobs and he held me tighter. “Talk to me, what happened? What are you doing here?” I couldn't form words. I realized that Reese not being a flatfoot meant my life wasn't over yet, but humiliation and defeat suddenly became sharks that unexpectedly invaded the sea of my feelings and they were hungrily chasing me down. I had wanted to be brave and gallant so I could save the person I loved but all I had managed to do was put myself and others in a very dangerous situation. Reese was comforting me, again, when I had wanted to be the person to comfort him. I didn't want to be a damsel in distress. I didn't want to be weak like this. Why was I so damned weak?
              My sobs finally dissipated. My body continued to shake but I was silent as I trembled against Reese's warmth. His fingers soothingly rubbed my back and his silent strength flowed through me, into me, becoming a part of me. I released a long, exasperated sigh. “I wanted to save you,” I choked out quietly. Reese didn't reply right away.
              “What do you mean, save me?” I licked my dry lips. Did Reese not know he was in danger? But, if he didn't know, why was he wandering the passageways in the middle of the night?
              “I know you're in danger,” I whispered softly, carefully. My throat tightened. Reese sighed.
             
So he
did
know.
             
“How did you get out? There’s a flatfoot stationed in your hallway.” He knew! Did that mean he had checked up on me? Or had someone told him?
              “I crawled through the air vent. It was dark and tight and horrible and then I had to claw out of a screen and then there was this fuzzy thing and then this crawly thing!” I began to shudder again. “I couldn't just stay put, Reese. I couldn't just sit in my chambers while something horrible might have been happening to you. I had to find you and rescue you.” I closed my eyes again. I sounded like such a fool. Rescue Reese? I had done nothing of the sort. All I had managed to do was put myself and my family in a deadly situation. I found Reese – or, he found me – and now I had no idea what to do next. All I knew was that he had not needed saving and now I probably couldn't even save myself.
              Reese gently pulled away from me and slid his hands from my back to my upper arms. He tried to move his eyes to my face but I looked away. “Ruby, listen.” I was listening. I just couldn't look. “Do you think you could crawl back the way you came?” My jaw tightened as if I had been slapped in the face. He wanted me to go
back?
             
“No.” I replied adamantly. “It was horrifying, and besides that, I broke a screen when I”
             
completely lost my cool
              “
found a way out. When they find it they'll look at the cameras, right? They'll see and identify me and off to the transitional containers I'll go, not to mention my parents.” I raised my hands and covered my face. That was going to happen whether I went back or not. How had I not rationalized this sooner? I knew that being discovered as missing would put my parents in danger but it wasn't just danger they would be in, it was certain death unless my dad could somehow escape with my mom beforehand. She would be forced to face her fears and her life would be changed forever as she plunged into the darkness and uncertainty that she was not raised to be prepared for, just like me. What had I done?
              “You're right.” I could hear the fear in Reese's voice. He was worried for me, and I still didn't know the extent of danger
he
was in. Did he? “You can't go back. Ruby...” Reese trailed off, but the way he said my name was a mixture of gentle pleading and sadness.
I
caused this.
I
made his already bad situation that much worse. I buried my face in my palms. “It's probably good you got out. I can't go back, either.” I slowly let my hands fall below my eyes but I couldn't bring myself to look at him. “There's something I have to tell you and I'm – I'm not sure how.” I closed my eyes again. I couldn't handle any more of this. This was all too much, too fast, and I was contributing to the destruction. “It's about your dad.”
             
What about my dad?

             
I loved Reese with all of my heart but if he was going to say something horrible about my father I couldn't even hope to predict how I might react. I pressed my lips together and shook my head. “No. I don't want to hear it. Reese – I'm – I can't handle any more secrets right now! I already know about the Order and-”
              “You know?” I paused. My lids blinked rapidly over my eyes. Did Reese know?
              “Yeah,”
              “Oh. Um, that's what I was going to tell you.”
              We sat in silence. The cement floor of the passageway started to feel cold against my bruised bottom and I began to notice the dull but persistent ache of putting too much pressure on my tailbone by sitting after I had injured it earlier. My unhappy tailbone was only an ad-on to my discomfort from the throbbing cut on my leg, and the little stings of the cuts on my fingertips. I leaned against Reese's chest and closed my eyes again. This wasn't a vision I had to draw from my imagination, this was real. Reese was real. Whatever horrible thing came next, at least I wouldn't have to face it alone. “Are you on the run?” I finally asked him. My voice was barely above a whisper but it still broke the silent relief with the dread of reality even though it was the last thing I wanted to do. Reese didn't answer right away. I slowly raised my eyes to see if he even heard me. He dipped his chin and shifted his gaze. He avoided having to look at me. There was my answer.
              “Yeah.” He finally replied. “If they find me they'll put me to sleep.” I didn't want any more details. It was too overwhelming to even attempt to wrap my head around the concept that in the short time between Reese bringing me to the little girl and now, a death sentence had been metaphorically stamped on his forehead. Now it was stamped on mine, too. I was so tired. I wanted to sleep. Maybe this was all a dream. I would wake up in my warm bed in the chambers I had slept in every single night for my entire life. I would feel disappointed about my inevitable future and sad that I would never be able to experience love with someone of my choosing, but I would be safe and so would Reese. I had been a fool, a naïve, selfish fool and now everyone I loved was doomed to pay a hefty price for my wanderlust.
              “Tell me what happened.” Reese and I were both silent again. I sniffled and scooted even further into his arms. I pressed my face into his chest. I never would have had the guts to do this even one day ago but the difference of one day had changed me in ways that could never be reversed. I was no longer self-conscious or afraid of Reese knowing how I felt about him. We probably only had hours to live and since my entire life up until this moment had been meaningless, I wanted my final moments to count. “Kiss me,” I found myself asking before Reese answered my question. I sucked up my hesitation and raised my eyes to his face, hoping, searching, silently begging him not to turn me away. His kiss brought me back to life once, I knew it could do so again even if only in my heart. I wanted to feel the fire of being in love. I wanted it to burn me until there was nothing left.
              Reese pressed his forehead lightly against mine. His skin was warm, his lips a few mere inches from my own. I gasped softly as the flow of my blood quickened in my veins. My lids fluttered over my eyes until I forced them to calm. I wanted to see him. I wanted our eyes to lock and I wanted him to let me see past them, into his soul. I wanted to feel something magical.
              But Reese's lips did not crash down against my own. His eyes shifted away from my searching gaze and my hopes and heart began to sink. “Ruby,”
             
No. Don't tell me you don't love me. Even if you don't feel for me what I feel for you, LIE TO ME. PLEASE.
             
“you're my best friend.” I tore my eyes away as my cheeks flushed with warmth and embarrassing redness. “Right now we need each other, but”
             
But what??
             
“I don't want to kiss you like this. I don't want to give up. I want to survive and if I kiss you right now, it would be like accepting that our lives are over.”
              Was Reese saying that he loved me or that he didn't love me? How ridiculous, selfish and frivolous was I being even thinking about love when the problems we were facing, and the danger that perhaps everyone in The Complex was in, was so much bigger in the grand scheme of things than an insignificant sixteen year old girl pining for her best friend?
              I shifted in his arms and brought my leg closer to my body but I winced as the dull ache on my calf reminded me I hadn't tended to my injury. I lifted my head from Reese's chest and slid my arms down to my calf. I slowly lifted my blood-stained pant leg. Reese immediately leaned forward with narrowed eyes. “How bad is it?” I asked cautiously. I preferred not to look if I didn't have to. Reese's fingers pressed against the skin that surrounded my puncture wound and little electric stinging shocks quickly thundered up my thigh. I involuntarily twitched and gasped. Reese frowned and sat up.
              “It's not good. It looks deep. It's still bleeding.” I bit my lower lip. “Give me your water bottle.” I frowned, it was all the water I had. My cheeks flushed again as I reached into my bra and pulled it out. Fortunately for my ill-timed and quite irrelevantly silly self-conscious moment, Reese didn't seem to pay any attention to where I had it tucked as he grabbed it and twisted the cap. “This will probably sting,” he warned me. I closed my eyes and tensed my muscles in preparation. The moment a few drops of water hit my wound, more bursts of stinging pain shot up my leg. I twitched again and cried out. My slightly bleeding fingers curled against the ground, right now my leg was in much more pain than they were. Reese set the water bottle down and curled his fingers around my stained pant leg. He tugged on it, hard, and it tore. He kept tugging and tore it all the way around until the torn piece fully detached from my pants. “This will sting again,” he warmed me.
             
NO!
             
I wanted to beg Reese to stop but there was still some measure of sensibility in me and I knew I had to let him clean my wound. In The Complex we rarely got injured because we were never allowed to do anything dangerous, but inevitable accidents did occasionally happen so we were taught basic first-aid from a very early age. Proper physical care was taken seriously because we were in a confined space and no one wanted any type of infection to spread, or any good breeding stock to die unnecessarily.
             
Breeding stock.
That's all any of us were. That was our worth to The Complex.
              Reese suddenly dug the torn material from my pant leg into my wound. My whole body jerked and I yelped again. His hand curled around my calf and held it forcibly down. “Almost done,” his voice deceptively assured me but I could still feel every bit of the sandpaper material digging mercilessly against the flaming-hot injured nerves on the surface of the raw parts of my exposed flesh. Finally, the searing pain stopped but it left me with its cousin, a throbbing sting. Reese picked up the water bottle again, and this time when the cooling droplets ran over my wound, the burning sensation soothed. I shuddered. Reese grasped my pant leg again and tore another strip, leaving my leg that much more exposed. He curled the new piece around my calf and over my wound and tied it tight. I whimpered again as the pressure caused the electrifying sting to increase in intensity. “Sorry,” he muttered again as he pressed his palm down on my wound over the tied tourniquet-bandage-of-sorts. I shuddered some more. I had experienced a few minor cuts and bruises growing up, but nothing like this! Had it hurt this bad from the moment it happened back in the air vent, or had my adrenaline and fear been so heightened that I was only noticing it now? “We're going to have to clean it and change the bandage a few times each day to avoid infection.”
             
Every day.
             
Did we have any days left in our lives, at all? Reese raised his chin and for a brief moment our eyes met. His were fierce, determined, and although he usually had orbs that glimmered the way I always imagined the ocean to shine like, right now they were the shade of the hottest temperature fire could possibly get.
             
Yes, Ruby. We ARE going to have more days.
             
Reese's silent message was clear. I had no idea how we would manage to live because the only thing I had demonstrated in my ignorant attempt to save Reese was how incapable I was, but his determination fueled me nonetheless. I wanted to believe we had a chance, some way, somehow. “Are you hurt anywhere else?” The moment I raised my hand, the dull sting of my fingertips brought my attention back to the cuts I had received while trying to claw my way through the vent screen. I frowned and held my fingers forward for Reese to inspect. I tried not to shiver as his thumb grazed over my palm, but the small, sweet comforting gesture at least distracted me from the pain of my leg. “These aren't so bad... they'll heal.” While that was a relief, he hadn’t said the same thing about my leg. I chewed my lower lip with worry. He grabbed my water bottle again. I winced as he poured some droplets over the small cuts on my fingertips but the dull sting wasn't nearly as potent of a punch as my leg wound had been, and still was. He rubbed a bit of dried blood from my fingers. “Here, drink what's left,” he suggested as he offered the small bottle back to me. I wanted to, but I shook my head.
              “It's all I have.” He wiggled it in front of me.
              “Take it, Ruby. We'll get more.” I had no idea how or where he thought we were going to find drinkable water in this dank abandoned passageway but I was too exhausted and thirsty to argue. I finally snatched it from him and brought the nozzle to my lips. I tossed my head back and closed my eyes as the slightly cool, refreshing liquid soothed my dry throat and calmed the dull thirsting ache that had been swelling up inside of me. I forced myself to stop when there were only a few sips left and I held it out to Reese.
              “You need some, too.” He started to shake his head but I narrowed my eyes and tried to mimic the same determination he had shown me. We were in this together. He relented and took the bottle. He threw his head back and gulped the last few sips. I glanced down at the cuts on my fingers, now blood free and barely visible. I didn't dare look down at my leg despite the fact that it was bandaged. It still throbbed. Reese moved to my side again and sat down with his back against the wall. He rested his elbows on his knees and lifted his chin as he stared blankly ahead at nothing. He was lost in thought and I wanted to know what was on his mind. I quietly curled up to his side again. I rested my head against his shoulder. “Tell me what happened.” I requested once more. “How do you know about the Order and my dad? I need to know.” If we had any hope of surviving, I needed to know everything he knew, and more.
              Reese sighed. I waited. I understood his need to pause. The world as we knew it started spinning and dissolving the moment we snuck into the passageway, and it still hadn't stopped. “I went back to try and find the girl. I needed answers, you know? I went to the passageway where I first found her, but she was gone. I hadn't explored very far in the passageways before because I didn't want to risk getting caught or getting lost, but I couldn't just leave her trapped in there with no food or water.” Of course he couldn't. He would never leave a child to die just to save his own skin. He was brave. He was selfless. He was everything I was not. “So I headed in the direction she ran off in. I started talking to her. I tried to tell her I wasn't going to hurt her and that I wanted to help her. I just wanted her to come out and to know I wasn't a threat.
              “Then I heard footsteps. I didn't think they belonged to a little girl and,” Reese paused. “I panicked. I thought it was a flatfoot. I ducked into the shadows and pressed myself against the wall. I held my breath and the footsteps got closer. Then I heard someone calling my name and I recognized the voice.” My muscles tensed.
Who was it?!?
“It was Beau, you know, our biology teacher from last year.” What would Beau, an older gentleman around fifty, be doing wandering around the passageways, looking for Reese? Unless –
unless he was in the Order!
I dipped my chin in a tiny nod to encourage him to continue. “I didn't move or respond, obviously, because how the hell did I know he wasn't looking for me on behalf of the flatfoots or something? But he kept trying to talk to me the way I had been trying to talk to the girl. He told me that he was part of something called The Order Of The Elements and they were trying to discover the scientific truth about the invasion and why we were all still confined in The Complex. Beau knew that a kid was lost in the passageway – I don't know how he knew, yet, but he swore to me he would tell me everything in time. He told me the Order had the girl and she was safe.
              “They have a tap in the camera feeds. They had seen me sneaking into the passageways – the Order, that is, not the flatfoots – at least not yet – but their feed got interrupted when the flatfoots figured out someone else was tapping in. The Order knew it was only a matter of time before the flatfoots saw what the Order saw, so it was best that I went with him if I wanted to live. I didn't know if I should believe him but either way, I knew I couldn't go back to The Complex at that point so I stepped out of the shadows. If I was going to die I might as well take a chance first, right?” So, the Order was monitoring the security cameras somehow, too? How did that make them any better than the flatfoots?
             
NO!