1 End of the World

Dev owed Oni an apology.

He looked so proud the morning of the cull. Dressed down in figure hugging tights, recruits and head cadets alike shuffled in their prospective lines. Other than Bray, every other crew lost someone in the night because unlike most days, the front doors hadn't closed.

More than one recruit, either realizing the end of their charade or nerves elsewhere, left. Those whoever could not hold their breath but had some incredible skill entered with a lifeline flashing on their files.

Out of everyone there, Sen looked the most miserable. Dev's crew wasn't far behind. All but Mercy who stood bold with her teary-eyed sisters.

Their foolish worry now sent Dev into a panic at first but she thought of all it took to get here and decided to calm.

All through the night, she'd considered what these sisters were up to. Now she understood.

The ability to hold one's breath past three minutes was an incredible feat. Each sister surpassed five. As each Volunteer suit was equip with adequate levels of filters and in some cases, air, there was actually no need for holding one's breath. Not unless they took the helmet...off. Something very rare.

As such, the focus today was on the breathing but Dev, as all head cadets, knew, it was about being trapped and nothing else. The Volunteer suit was lifelong for some.

Panic in the water. Panic in the suit.

Each recruit would get air canisters. So long as they passed the two-minute mark before using it, they could pass this evaluation unceremoniously.

The seven sisters planned to give Mercy their air. Because that was the only way she'd survive this.

Oni glanced back at Dev often in line. She tried to smile at him. Her moment of weakness with giving him her lifeline still troubled her.

Why?

Why had she given it to someone much less someone like him? And yet, she felt right about it.

Sen hadn't spoken a word to her the entire day.

As they reached their tank, Dev met Oni's gaze. She owed him an apology.

Today, when the head cadets' list of lifelines flashed and hers said zero, his eyes lit up. He'd smiled wide. Pride flashed in his gaze.

Recruits weren't privy to their own files, a fact Dev wondered about. But now she understood. Not everyone would get a lifeline and knowing that fact ahead of time could lead to all sorts of trouble. No. Any recruit getting into that water needed to be one who would try their best to make it to the other end of it without help. Because often times, there simply wasn't any.

Because of her lie, he now thought she'd given her last lifeline to Mercy. She hadn't. She'd used it up on Oni to let him back into the program.

No matter what happened today, good or bad, success or...death, Dev had no say in it.

It was forbidden to help anyone without a lifeline.

Dev scanned her matrix one last time and picked her head up to focus on Bray in a tank of his own. All forty were going into the same one. It could fit a hundred but his choice to do this meant he had some sort of special routine. The fact that they were setting everything up one-handed was a strange way to show off but it made her more curious than anything else.

That could be her—would be her and a new crew soon enough. Mercy's demise would be crippling to Dev on many levels. Her highest scorer not making it....

No one would understand that the true highest scorer was about to do the impossible and try to beat a head cadet's record on behalf of her dying, mean-spirited, smart-mouthed little sister.

It'd be admirable if it didn't have Dev's neck on the line, too.

Every recruit secured an air tank to their backs. Dev carried only her own. With no lifeline, she wouldn't need the extra.

Her own abilities made this a non-issue. As soon as her efforts were spent, she'd surface, and those seven sisters were on their own—whatever their names were.

All seven entered the water, then Sen, then Dev, Oni was last. Dev's confident nod meant to convey to him that everything and everyone would be all right. He wasn't convinced.

"We'll all make it," Dev said.

Oni puffed out his chest then secured his face mask.

Dev owed him an apology. She'd lied about the last lifeline and now that she had none, he thought she'd given it to Mercy.

She hadn't, and in truth, she wouldn't have. Her father was compassionate and as much as she wanted to emulate him, in her heart, she wanted to become a Volunteer and find out the truth more.

"Trust the process," Dev muttered. Sen's grim expression caught her eye and she hesitated. "Senji?"

With a sigh, Sen picked his head up. "Cousin...."

His blue eyes scanned the seven sisters who were ready.

A horn tore through the silence between them and Pleasant, well Ms. One hundred and seventy, dived. Number one through five followed. Mercy was the final one, fumbling with her mask. Her hands trembled.

Her brown eyes, dotted with terror, scanned them. "I yanked it by mistake."

This was perfect. She could just wash out right here.

Dev swam toward her. Sen intercepted them but Dev moved in time to fix the meng up, activate the gravity pull, and bid her goodbye.

Sen reached just as the water swallowed her up.

A womp sound behind them said Oni'd gone, too.

Dev and Sen stared at one another.

"Trust the process," Dev begged.

With a sigh, Sen closed his eyes and sunk like a rock.

Dev wasn't going to be as fast, but it'd be fast enough. When she submerged, it was with her eyes closed and she planned to keep it that way until the very end.

What was the point of looking? There was no lifeline to give.

In a different life, in a different time, Dev would think of her mother whenever a pool of water presented itself. Father'd taught Dev how to swim, but Mother'd taught her how to sink...and stay there.

As such, it was a thing of dread for her for so long. Today, she didn't mind it. She was doing this to gain access to her father's files. She didn't mind it.

EDA.

He'd thought he'd died alone. He hadn't. And she'd prove it.

Conditioning the body to depend on less air while still remaining coherent required an exhausting level of concentration. It also required nerves of steel.

It had never been Dev's forte, because she simply didn't want to be too far into her head.

Doing that would conjure up long ignored memories. Long forgotten whispers and fights from her parents when they'd thought she was asleep.

As she descended, her father's voice rang in her ears. "You tell her, or I will."

"You have no right," Mother countered. She came out angry but soon turned pensive. "Please. Let's continue with the agreement. You get a legacy and I...some peace."

Sitting in the hall, back against the wall, Dev struggled to understand their agreement for so long. The same fight happened again and again, almost on a loop.

What was more disturbing...even after Father confessed to Mother that he'd told Dev the truth, that same argument arose.

"Now it's your turn. You tell her, or I will."

It was the first time the answer came differently. "If you tell her, it's the last thing you ever do."

Dev was thirteen when she heard that. Standing then, her back was still against the wall.

It was no longer the living room after both of them had a bit too much sweet air that loosened their tongues which led to merriment and eventually this lifelong argument. Instead, it was at the threshold of her father's room, life slowly seeping out of him.

Mother hadn't been finished. "You're dying, Priest. Then die quietly."

The next morning, he did just that. The words, "Don't...enlist," on his pale lips.

Dev's heart panged.

No.

She wasn't going to cry. She was going to stay down here, maybe even attempt to beat Pleasant, Ms. one hundred and seventy's record. She was going to get what she came for. Her father's last entry to the Volunteer program. The entry he left for his successor. His final thoughts before he passed. It was the only thing Mother had allowed as it was his right.

And Dev wanted it.

Here she was, risking everything for it.

Trust the process. She had to.

A pulse from her matrix and the five to follow told her what she'd suspected, Mercy's canister was empty—and fast.

Despite that, no distress beacon came.

Another canister signal went out some time later. Then another. By the forth, curiosity forced Dev's eyes open, and nothing more. Head cadets sank with their crew.

When Dev opened her eyes, she expected a shallow indicator to show on her matrix.

That had been wishful thinking. They were deep—deeper than any other crew.

She also hadn't been the only one with her eyes closed.

Arms linked, the seven sisters remained calm. Mercy was the only one looking around, terror painted on her flushed face. Deep below, in the bottom of the pool, two canisters rested. If they were so far down they could see the bottom, Dev feared the prospect of going up. She didn't dare look for fear it'd send her into a panic as well.

Mercy's body jerked. She began flailing before the canister was even empty. Eyes closed, one sister unhooked her canister and passed it along to the other and then finally to Mercy who rushed to connect it. She could do that much for herself at least.

Something came over Dev as she watched her, the leach. Leaching off her sisters' skills and accomplishments. It wasn't unheard of for recruits to fight one another for air to extend their chances. It was even allowed. A fighter who could get inventive was an asset. Dev wondered now what one like Mercy would be called.

One more canister request came and Number One's eyes opened. She gave a tug down the line until the tug reached Pleasant who remained Mercy's last line of defense against utter failure.

Pleasant picked her head up. She let the youngest set of twins go and gave them a nod. They shared a glance then swam up.

Dev checked her matrix, impressed by their time. The second set of twins lasted even longer but one struggled to reach the top when the time came. Number One stared at Pleasant for ages before giving up and seeking safety.

Mercy looked a wreck, but Pleasant, holding the final two canisters, swam before her and pressed their foreheads together.

It worked.

Another check to the matrix had Dev stunned. She was climbing dangerously close to her own limit.

The time finally came, forcing Dev to start using her own air. Pleasant didn't. She was considerably shakier when she replaced Mercy's final canister.

And then she stopped moving.

Mercy watched her.

Dev watched them both. She willed Pleasant to wake up, to try to ascend.

Another glance to the matrix showed that head cadet's record thoroughly beat.

Pleasant's body still remained limp and panic swelled in Dev's chest.

Come on. Wake up.

Wake? It was a stupid thing to say. The situation was more than obvious.

Mercy hung in the water, about to have an unbeatable record because Dev's time was up too.

Something torpedoed toward them.

Dev would have mistaken it for a head cadet if she didn't know any better.

Whatever it was, closed in fast, grabbed Pleasant around the waist, and tore through the water.

Sen.

From behind the face mask, Mercy focused on Dev but there was no point in staying down there with her. So Dev began her rise.

The time in the water was calm and calming.

Outside of it...was chaos.

Blood. And not just a little. And not just from one head cadet. More than one had a broken arm to accompany it.

Sen dragged another body to the center of the room and checked for a pulse. Whatever he discovered from Pleasant had him letting out a howl.

He threw her to the ground and tilted her head back. The air he breathed into her mouth was an old practice.

Dev hadn't seen it often but she had little confidence in it working.

Sen was a firmer believer. He sent a breath into her mouth then pressed her chest to get it back out again. When that didn't work, he turned her onto her side and forced the water out of her.

Then he checked for a pulse. On and on he went until he finally sat down, exhausted.

Ten people lay at his feet. Ten. And Dev prayed she was wrong. She scanned the injured head cadets and came away with three.

A hand extended and Dev grabbed it and dragged herself from the water.

"He went into other people's vats," Bray said, at a loss. "He's ruined their cull." At her surprise, he was sure to add. "Not mine. We all made it. Had to use a few canisters, but we were all okay." He set his attention on Sen again. "Are we even allowed to do this?"

There was a bigger problem as Sen cradled Pleasant close, stroking her brow. She wasn't waking up.

Another pulse came and Dev looked down at her matrix. Mercy. And she was asking for help.

Like a puppet on a string, Sen picked his head up.

What was going on? Dev struggled with understanding why he was responding. He had no matrix, and this was her crew.

The next alarm from the matrix had Sen on his feet.

He shot towards Dev's tank. She jumped in front of him.

"Move!"

"No." Dev held her hands out. "You take her out instead of her coming on her own and her score's nullified. Don't you get that? Don't you get that all of this is for nothing if you do this?"

Sen's eyes held fury and something else, disgust. "Move, Devlin."

Dev stood defiant. "You will not nullify my top scorer. She'll come on her own."

Hands balled into fists, Sen demanded. "Move."

Dev's heart pounded so hard it reverberated throughout her entire body.

A brush of something on her ankle came with a vice grip. Mercy.

Final canister gone, Mercy chopped at the water. She couldn't swim.

Sen darted for her but Dev met him face to face yet once more.

"At least get her out of the water before she's dragged under again."

Dev stood defiant. "No. And are you going to break my arm, too?" she challenged.

It was the longest minute of Dev's life for Mercy to calm enough to drag herself out. Once she flopped down on the ground, she rolled onto her back, let out a deep breath, and laughed.

The sound tore through the somber quiet of more than a few devastated head cadets.

Dev ignored Mercy and instead looked out at the failed cadets in the center of the room, all awake...all but Pleasant who breathed shallow but didn't rise.

"What's supposed to happen now?" Bray asked. "We can't put them back in. The cull has ended. Doesn't this mean an audit?"

But Dev didn't hear anything he had to say. Instead, her eyes stayed fixed on one recruit who watched the ground, dismayed. Oni.

He'd been dragged from the water. But he had two canisters at his feet.