Aaron and I wait for a long time before an older man walks into the tent, followed closely by none other than Adam.

I recognize the man as one of the men who ambushed me. Who knew he was also the leader of this iniquitous group? (Random side-note, I learned that word through a dictionary I read awhile back.)

Adam looks at me with a look akin to guilt, for whatever reason, before it's masked by impassiveness when his father turns to us.

"Bryna, I do believe is your name. Correct?" the man asks.

I roll my eyes. "Give the man a prize," I answer sarcastically.

He shoots me a look that suggests he's not afraid to do something if I keep up my act. Be my guest, old man. 

He turns to Aaron. "You seem to be evasive to our methods. Your name?"

I look at Adam while the man is preoccupied with Aaron. The guy shrugs innocently, yet the sly smile on his face says that he's got something to do with Aaron's anonymity. 

I turn back as Aaron remains completely silent. After a moment, the man turns to me.

"Is he mute or something?" Adam's father asks me.

I shrug. "Selectively," I reply, to the guy's utter befuddlement.

Aaron chuckles slightly at my side. 

"Well, then what's his name? Will you tell me?"

I glance at Aaron, who shrugs at me. Ah, so he's playing this card then.

"His name is Aaron," I address the man. "And yours? Unless you want me to mentally dub you 'Man' or whatever creative adjective my mind can come up with..."

The man looks actually quite amused at me. That's new. I expected my sass to piss him off. It's kind of what I was going for, actually.

"I am Marcus Greene, leader of this settlement."

"I see. And you thought it wise to capture a pair of rebellious teenagers? Then proceed to torture them and put them in a dark room with no light, food, or water?" I inquire.

Adam looks at his father pointedly, as if to say 'I told you so'.

Marcus ignores his son and replies smoothly, "I know that my charming son gave you food and water, so you can't play that card. As for the torture, some measures have to be taken to the extreme so we can get our answers. The dark room is the only solid building in this settlement, and it is commonly used for criminals in our establishment."

"And we're criminals?" I ask. "Of what crime?"

"You killed three of my men," he tells me.

"Alright, yeah. One was an accident. Even you could see that. The other two attacked me first. The first guy did too, if I'm honest." I shrug. "So you have an excuse for me here. What about Aaron?"

"Leverage," Marcus says, as if it's the simplest thing in the world.

"And how'd that work out for you?" I ask. "Now you're stuck with two non-compliant teenagers who know how to sass and kick ass. Allow me to slow clap at your incredible failure."

Aaron snickers in amusement, and Adam tries and fails to hide an amused smile.

Marcus regards me coolly. "You will be compliant, or you will pay the price."

"What price?" I inquire. "I mean, I've already endured torture. Aaron's already seen me close to death. Are you going to beat him half to death for my crimes? Because I'll tell you now that won't get either of us to be compliant." I shrug. "Like I said; we're teenagers without a sense of loyalty. You lucked out, dude."

Markus bristles at my informal way of addressing him, but doesn't call me out on it - instead narrowing his eyes at me and stalking towards me.

Like the situation with Vincent a little while ago, I stand my ground, maintaining an impassive stance as he advances.

"You will address me as 'sir', 'mister' or my name, girl. Or the results will not be pretty."

"First off, I am a teenage female, not an eight year old girl. Second of all, what means could you use that could scare me any more? I'm not pretty, so deformation's out of the picture. I have really nothing to live for, except a few friends that probably are moving on without me, thanks to you, so that's out, and death at this point means nothing to me. You can't threaten someone who couldn't care less, Markus. Surely we've established that by now."

"I suggest you hold your tongue, girl. You may not care about what happens to you, but you do care about your comrade here."

"My 'comrade' can take care of himself, thank you," I reply. "And I haven't said anything out of line. Just justified my actions and played a witty role in our conversation."

It goes on like this for awhile. He tries to raise my temper, and I successfully raise his ire while Aaron and Adam watch in amusement.

Finally, the guy snaps, and smacks me across the face with brute force. I'm sent stumbling, my eyes tearing up and my head spinning.

Aaron's at my side in an instant, keeping me upright, and then sending an almighty glare Marcus's way. 

I rub my stinging cheek and blink away the tears of pain in my eyes. 

"You alright?" he murmurs softly.

I nod, straightening. "Fine," I assure him.

"That was uncalled for, father," Adam says, speaking for the first time. He's ignored, to say the least.

Marcus narrows his eyes at me. "You're going to get yourself into a lot of trouble," he growls.

"I always do. Trouble seems to find me at every corner," I reply with a simple shrug. I tilt my head. "Actually, I was wondering. Is there an actual reason you wanted us here, or did you just send for us because you wanted me to annoy the hell out of you?"

"Ah, yes," Marcus says, grinning. "There's a reason."

"Are you going to give us that reason, or...?"

"It's come to my attention that you and your group have become a great spectacle in the Condemned States."

"Have we?" I ask. "It's news to me."

To be quite frank, I sort of suspected as much, what with the constant Sentry ambushes and all, but it's still interesting to hear it. 

"Yes, you have. You're the pinnacle of hope for people all around this shattered nation."

I look at him dubiously. "That was sarcastic, right? Please tell me it was." 

"It was," Adam assures me in place of his father.

"Good. I couldn't tell. Anyways, why does this matter to us?"

"We want you to join our ranks and help us vanquish the States," Marcus says.

I raise an eyebrow. "You make this sound like a war, Marcus. I lived through one. I'm not going through another one. And if you wanted to tell us that, you didn't have to kidnap and torture us. That's a bit extreme."

"You think you have a choice," he sneers.

"I know I do," I reply. "I also know that you can't make me do anything. And that this little plot of yours is beyond stupid. You'll end up dead, and Aaron and I'll flee before your blood runs cold. We don't do this crap. That's not who we are." I shrug. "You can threaten us, but you can't change us. We're Escapees. Not rebels, not some vigilantes looking to do anything more than get to freedom. That's all."

"You will join us, or we will make you."

"On what grounds?" I protest. "How will you make us follow you blindly into a battle we want nothing to do with?"

Marcus goes silent, and it's easy to see that he's out of argument. This man is quite insane. Or, if not, he's got his priorities twisted way out of line.

I look at Adam. From the look on his face, he agrees with me.

Aaron's silent, and I know he's thinking about Lea. 

"Adam, take Aaron out of the room," Marcus says after a moment.

Adam doesn't respond for a moment. Marcus turns to him, and Adam shakes his head. "No," Adam denies.

"No?" Marcus growls. "No?! Adam Steele Greene, do as I say this instant!"

"No," Adam states simply, crossing his arms. "Bryna's done no wrong, and you have no reason to punish her. I'm not leaving so you can do as you see fit for a situation your vengeance-addled brain has made up."

"This isn't your decision, Adam," Marcus snarls. "Take the boy outside. Now."

"Or what?" Adam challenges. "You'll do to me what you did to Mother? I'm all you have left, Father. You can't do anything to me."

Marcus growls and shouts for guards to take us back to our prison. Personally, I'm a bit worried for Adam. His father's off his rocker. But I don't say anything about it.

When we're in the make-shift prison, Aaron starts panicking.

"Bryna, do you think that's why he wanted to know where the others were? For leverage? Why did you bluff? Now he has no reason to keep us alive, and we could die, and Lea won't know where I am, and we'll die, and-"

"Aaron."

"-we don't know where they are, or if they're okay, and he could kill them because you played the role of the flippant teenager, and it'd be your fault, Bryna, so why-"

 "Aaron!" I snap. I grab his jaw between my fingers and make him look at me. "Calm. Down."

He looks shattered. I know the pressure has built up, and I know that while he hid it well, he was extremely panicked back there. He looks at me, completely and fully willing to blame me for this turn of events.

"Aaron, you need to relax. Lea is safe, and we're not going to die. Neither will they. Calm. Down." I drop my hand.

"You don't know that. You don't know anything. You can pretend all you want, but we both know that you're as clueless as I am," he snarls. "And it will be because of you that we all die. Because we followed you without question. And we're all in danger, and you and I are going to die. And it's because you have no idea how to play your cards, or how to know when to give up."

I clench my jaw. "Aaron, I know what I'm doing. But you need to take a breath, and you need to trust me. I'm not going to sit and allow you to insult me and my abilities. In case you haven't noticed, I'm still sixteen years old. I've been doing this since I was nine. I know what I'm doing, and how to play my bluffs. And I'm not going to give the hell up because you're fed up with all this bullshit. I am too! I just want my peace. I promised you I'd get you back to Lea. You need to trust me to do that."

"I can't, Bryna! You have a track record for chaos, everywhere you go! Your parents! Your brother! The people in your group! Justin! Damien! All of it! And it's hard to trust someone who constantly puts herself into danger, dammit! It's hard to be loyal to someone who has some self-sacrifice complex, because we're so afraid you're going to freakin' die, we're afraid to get too close! And then you play the unfazed badass who gives no fucks, so we're ultimately unsure what side of you to believe!"

I stare at him. "That's what you think of me? That I do all of this because I get a kick out of putting myself in danger?" I ask. "Aaron, I do this so that no one else has to! Okay? No other reason. I lost everything within the span of a year. My home, my parents, my goddamn brother. I don't want to lose anyone else to this wretched cause. I never asked you to be loyal to me, or to get close to me. You did that because you wanted to. All I did was promise you safety and assure you that you'd be able to sleep without waking up every two hours. Okay? Do you think I want to do this? To play the leader? I do it because there's no one else who will. I'm the only one emotionally stable enough, because everyone else is still reeling over everything else! I took the job, and I'm paying the price. Don't you dare turn on me because I'm doing what I do best."

"You don't have to do this yourself. No one asked you to."

I turn away from him. "You lost your mom, Aaron. You lost your dad far before he died to my hand. But you still have your sister. You didn't watch any of them die. You were spared. We've all seen terrible things in this war. We've had to do things we hate. But, all things considered? You're lucky you saw what you did. I lost my parents. I watched them die. And then I watched my brother as he took a bullet meant for me, and I watched him die a slow, painful death, unable to do anything because I didn't have the equipment. Excuse me for trying to prevent you and the twins from suffering the same fate. At least you all have people waiting in Rhode Island for you. I'm pretty much alone, aside from you four."

I shrug. "But that doesn't matter, right? None of it does. You don't really care all that much. You just want to know why the hell I haven't done anything yet. Is it because I like our situation? Because I like the thrill of being on the bridge of death every second? Because I have some suicide wish and don't care if I bring you down with me? I'm being painted as this brooding, misunderstood girl who has no concept of self-preservation. But the truth is, I'm terrified of the consequences if I make the wrong move. Terrified that I could lose you before fulfilling my promise to you. That I'll die before I can make something of myself. I'm scared, Aaron. More so than you can imagine. More so than I have been in a very long time. And I'm trying my best. But it's hard, Aaron. And it's even harder, because I don't have a wing-man. My brother's gone, Justin betrayed us, and Brian's not here." My voice cracks, so I stop speaking, trying to prevent myself from crying in front of him.

Aaron remains silent. I move away from him, and he doesn't stop me. I walk to the corner of the room and sit in a fetal position, my head resting in my arms.

And for the first time in a very long time, I allow myself to cry.

:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:

So... Yeah. This happened. 

The next chapter will probably be more filler than anything, just a warning, but the one after that will probably have more action. ;)

Who do you agree with - Bryna, or Aaron?

Do you think Marcus's fantasy is delusional, or is he right in some way?

Welp, off to ruin more of my characters' lives,

-Musical_Author