TYLER

"What are we going to do?" Olivia whined for the tenth time since they left the square. Tyler didn't know why he chose her to accompany him, he thought it would be less suspicious.

If anyone asked, he could always say she fainted from stress and desperately needed some water.

"I don't know." Tyler answered, checking if someone was looking at them while he opened the door to Jeremy's hut. Corinne's belongings were in there and he needed to get his hands on her backpack. He had no idea where she went.

"We're all going to die." Olivia snivelled, but her words lacked strength. Apparently, one got used to being in life-threatening situations.

"Yeah, eventually." Tyler murmured and entered the hut. "Make sure no one's coming this way."

The hut somehow seemed smaller when it was empty. The amount of people that fit inside created an illusion that the space was larger. And now, there was nothing except a bed, a table and couple of chairs inside. Tyler quickly spotted Corinne's backpack, on the floor, next to the bed.

"I don't like this, Ty." Olivia's voice reached him and he sighed as he approached the backpack. He didn't really care if anyone found them, beside it being a huge inconvenience. They'd probably leave him alone if he told them Corinne was responsible for the sickness' breach.

"I'll be quick." Tyler told Olivia and grabbed the backpack. There was something he needed and was hoping Corinne didn't hide it away.

The backpack was full of useful things, medicine, antiseptic creams and gauzes, alcohol, bandages. Tyler had to laugh as he realised she probably kept all of that so she could bargain for food or whatever she might need. He dug through the backpack until he found her grey leather wallet.

The queen was hoarding dollars, Tyler remembered, and Corinne said she had 500 bucks on her a while back.

"What are you doing?" Olivia hissed from the doorstep.

"Stealing." Tyler opened the wallet and the money was there. Quickly, he took it out, glancing around even though he was the only person in the hut.

Tyler debated whether he should take credit cards for safe-keeping while he searched for anything else that might be valuable. She would figure out he took the money; he might as well take something else. Knowing Corinne, she might have took diamonds off the cruise, just in case.

But Tyler found nothing except a small picture of Corinne and her mom. Corinne was a toddler, two or three years old and her mother looked eerily like Corinne did now. Tyler sighed as he stared at the photograph, wondering whether Corinne knew these tokens gave her away.

All the unwanted feelings became too much and he pushed it all away, focusing on the task at hand.

Steal the money and get to the queen. The amount he had wasn't enough to get him a conversation in private, but he doubted the queen would turn down 500 bucks. If she really was hoarding dollars, that should do it. He was well aware he was giving away actual money for the local currency, but he had to get in the same room with the ruler of this place.

If nothing else, he had to see how she breathed.

"Corinne will find out you stole her money." Olivia mentioned as Tyler put the backpack in the same place where he found it. "And she's not going to be happy about it."

"Corinne has bigger problems than missing money right now." Tyler muttered and pulled Olivia with him towards the exit. As casually as possible, they left the hut.

Now, all he had to do was wait for the opportunity.

Tyler glanced at Olivia as they walked towards the square, trying to be inconspicuous. He was suddenly glad he had Greg and her with him here. Maybe Corinne's betrayal cut deeper than he liked to admit, but he was suddenly feeling utterly alone. Like he had no friends in this godforsaken place. Like everyone was out to get him.

"Ty, what are we going to do?" Olivia asked, her voice surprisingly stable and without a hint of a whine. Maybe crying finally exhausted her.

"The best we can."

They approached the square. People were now sitting on the benches around pathways, on their doorsteps and around the tables on the square. They brought out some food, but it all lay forgotten on the tables.

Tyler expected to see panic in their eyes. After all, they had just been left outside to die while the rich went to hide within the walls of the palace. Yet, there was no panic. Just helplessness. Mothers cuddled their children, sheltering them from the world, and fathers paced back and forth, their angry glares and clenched fists useless.

Tyler spotted Jeremy, with his face still buried in his hands, Mika, shouting angrily while no one listened, and Dmitri, his wrinkled face emphasized by the deep frown.

"Where's Greg?" Tyler asked.

"He went to find Corinne." Jeremy murmured, only lifting his head to answer the question. Then, it slouched back into his open palms.

"Ty, is it true she did this?" Olivia asked and Tyler's blood immediately boiled.

He wondered whether this was how his friends felt when he betrayed them. When he gave their names to the principal, just because he was scared of his father. Maybe, what he did back then and what she did now was equally reckless. Still, the consequences of her actions would be greater.

"She said so herself." Tyler answered, thinking that maybe this was her way of pushing everyone away one last time. Maybe she truly wanted everyone to leave her alone. Who was he to deprive her of that wish? Who was he to think that she might need a friend somewhere along that road to hell she paved.

"That kid's really a loyal dog, ain't he?" Mika burst into a short laugh, but his nostrils flared as if he remembered laughter wasn't accepted in the time of grievance.

"He's an idiot." Tyler said. Not that he was any better.

"Loyalty is the purest form of commitment." Dmitri's rough voice broke the tension. "Yet, we discard it so soon as useless." His forehead wrinkled again.

Silence settled over their little group and Tyler watched the guards escort the final members of the elite to the palace. He wondered why they did it so openly, where everyone watched.

Corinne was a single person and she managed to cause so much trouble. Maybe Tyler could, too. His father had told him he wasn't capable of anything. Even that day, when Tyler was ready to take on all the responsibility and spare his friends, his father had told him he wasn't capable of taking care of things. That he would always bow down and let someone else lead.

And maybe... maybe his father was wrong.

Tyler had the idea. He had desperate men around him that wanted a better life. And now, he had leverage. There was something he knew that others didn't. It wasn't necessarily that Corinne was the one to let the sickness in.

Tyler couldn't be sure they were oblivious to the existence of certain runes that apparently guided this place. They might know it very well. But Tyler was certain. And then there was Tom, the undead dead guy they saw at the lake. There had to be an explanation. Still, Tyler decided it was better to keep that particular piece of information for himself.

"Maybe we should just storm the place." Mika suggested and Tyler realised there was a conversation going on while he was lost in thought.

"And then what? Kill ourselves before the sickness kills us off?" Jeremy shook his head.

"Just to scare them, y'know?" Mika shrugged. "There's more of us than them!"

"What are you going to scare them with, boy? You going to throw corn at them?" Dmitri let out a laugh. "We have no weapons. Soldiers aren't going to stand on our side. We have nothing."

Tyler's mind swirled with thoughts, ideas and plans. He hit the dead end with every thought. Dmitri was right; soldiers weren't on their side. But soldiers were human, too. They were afraid of the sickness, too.

Actually, everyone was afraid of the sickness. And Tyler knew the place used to be warded against it. There had to be a way to use that.

"Did the crown promise them something?" Tyler asked suddenly, tracing the line of his thoughts past the first dead end.

"They always promise something." Jeremy laughed bitterly. "Once they realised their love for the country isn't going to cut it. In this scenario, probably protection."

"What if..." Tyler bit his lower lip, "What if we don't scare them with something we have, rather than with something they don't?"

All eyes were on him.

"If they really promised them protection... what if there was a way to prove they can't deliver on that promise? Right now, the crown is strong because they have the ability to protect, but what if they lost that? What if we level out the playing field?" Tyler didn't know what to do after that, but he knew this was a good place to start.

If there were truly runes that warded the city and the runes were now gone, perhaps the palace wasn't any safer. Perhaps the runes around the palace were also gone. Which would mean that no one was safe anywhere. Could it be possible to use that to get soldiers on their side?

"I don't know if that would do the trick." Jeremy shrugged.

"Proof that the government is lying is a strong weapon." Tyler said. "Especially in the time of complete chaos."

"And how would you even find the proof that the government is lying?" Dmitri asked, narrowing his eyes. "You don't even know what they know."

"Maybe I'll go and find out." Tyler smiled, making sure the five hundred dollars he stole were still in his pocket.

"Wh-where are you going, Ty?" Olivia's lip quivered.

"To talk to the queen." Tyler said. Everyone was now safely tucked in inside the palace and the guards stood at the end of the pathway, making sure no one else tried to walk in.

He knew his chances were slim. Of course, it was possible to get in if he had money to exchange, but actually talking to the queen would be difficult. He didn't know this woman, he didn't know why she ruled or how she ruled. Or what fuelled her actions. But he had to try.

Maybe, he felt a certain responsibility to these people. Maybe he felt like he owed a couple of good deeds because of all the trouble he's caused.

Or, it was this urge that pushed him not to be passive.

He was passive all his life, watching things happen, not doing anything to change the course.

But on this island, he had an actual opportunity. To be whoever he wanted to be. To be everything his father thought he could never be.

All he had to do was find one weakness that would give him an edge. One thing. And he could change things for the better.