Ella 28

I wake up to people screaming and rushing around me. My feet stumble as I pull myself off the ground. Someone knocks me into a wall. I try flattening myself against it. I remain still and silent, listening to people screaming. No one runs into me. No one joins me in this corner at all. I tuck my legs further into my lap, trying to see anything in this dim light.

Someone bumps into the wall beside me, and I scrape farther away, down the opposite wall. I'm not quick enough. A body falls down on top of me. I bite my cheek to avoid screaming. I taste blood, metallic. Michelle. Michael.

I don't move, letting the warm body melt into my skin. It is wet, the wetness is like a warm blanket, comforting me in its suffocation. The body isn't breathing, it doesn't seem like it has been for a while. The skin grows colder, and people are still shouting around me. I can hear something hitting a wall, and another person grunting.

I close my eyes, trying to imagine I am somewhere else. Somewhere where the cooling body is the setting sun. The Glade, with its green grass and grey bodies. Where it never rained, and it was never this dark, and where I could tell what is going on.

I freeze, lying still. Trying to forget, for once. I tune out to the rest of the world.

Someone puts pressure on the body above me, and I scramble out from underneath. I turn, facing a girl I recognize, but do not know. The white light bounces off her bleach blonde hair, smashing me in the face. My dark hands go up to hold the whiteness at bay, since it burns my retinas. I'm not used to seeing in such vibrant technicolour.

"Ella?" I hear Sonya's voice. I search the sea of flashlights for them, but do not find her.

No one makes any move for me. I turn over to the girl in front of me, and then the body on the ground. It's another girl I don't recognize. Her dark brown hair is stained with blood, as is my body.

"You're alive?" Sonya moves forward. She kneels down in front of me, her knees squishing against the blood on the ground. My shoulders are tense, and I'm frozen. Her hand rests on my shoulders, reminding me that I am real, and here, and not just seeing things.

"Ten then," I overhear Teresa. It's impossible to see which light she is. I wish I could make her out. "Down from fourteen to ten."

Everyone's bodies seem tense enough. I don't know any of their names well enough to know who is alive.

"That can't be right," Sonya manages, looking back at the group.

"It is," Harriet affirms. I know her, but only barely. Only just. "Roll call. Harriet."

"Teresa." "Sonya." "Joan." "Saph." "Hilde." "Misi." "Sacha." "Amie."

Sonya grabs my shoulder, shrugging me forward. "Ella."

No one else speaks. I wait for a sound. Michelle's voice. I can count. I know we listed off nine. I heard the nine of us call, but I expected to hear her name. She didn't just evaporate. Not that it really matters.

"What happened to Rose and Michelle?" Teresa asks, turning her attention around the group. "Weren't you supposed to be with them, guarding?"

"Rose and Michelle went off to investigate a noise," one of the voices offers. One I don't know. There are so many I don't know. "I was keeping watch. After a few minutes, I hear Michelle yell that there were Cranks."

"Then?" Teresa prompts. I can hear her stepping closer to the other girl. "Then what?"

"Stuck if I know," the girl sighs. I can hear the sound of her sheathing metal. Putting her weapon away, I guess. "I woke you up, those two never came back."

"Would you quit fighting?" The blonde girl before me sobs. "They are dead! Just like Flore, and- and just like- just like Marie." She chokes on the end of her sentence, gesturing the girl's body in front of her. Her body has stopped bleeding. The back of her head is smashed in, off a wall, my guess.

Now it is nine of us.

"How big is the other group?" Harriet whispers, her voice low as she turns back towards Teresa.

Teresa waits for a second, before continuing. Communicating with her head, with the other boy. "As of right now? Twelve."

"Nine on twelve isn't awful." Harriet manages, ignoring the girl's cries over her friend. I watch her hold her body, squeezing it as if she expects life with pop back into her. As if her squeeze will create a vacuum that sucks back the blood. Perhaps this girl thinks we have hope. I certainly know we do not.

"We have weapons," Harriet continues.

"Let's just hope something else takes them out," Teresa offers. "The fewer the better."

"We could be that something else," a voice I don't recognize offers.

Sonya stands, letting go of me. She turns her attention to the rest of the group. I stay on the ground, opposite the crying girl. Delicately, I place a hand on her back. She looks up, eyes burning into mine. I move beside her, resting my head on her shoulder. She seems to relax a bit, teetering back on her foot.

"Hilde," Sonya warns.

"What? You said it yourself. We have weapons. We could take them out." The girl argues. I wish there was more light. The girls are beginning to turn them on themselves, but I only catch faint glimpses of everyone. I can't tell which one is Hilde.

"You are talking about murder," Sonya argues. "We aren't just going to murder people."

"Well, what else can we do?" Hilde argues back. "You sticks just want to stick around and wait to kill Thomas? How is it any different?"

"One body and twelve bodies are different." Sonya steps in.

"We can't interfere," Teresa cuts in. "We can't just go kill Thomas now. What makes you think WICKED would cure us if we did?"

"It's better than dying out here!" Another voice cuts in.

"We don't move until we are unanimous." Harriet states. "No use getting flustered until we are unanimous."

"We won't be unanimous! That's a load!"

"We need to take them down now!"

"We need to have the upper hand!"

"No more voting!" Teresa shouts. Everyone else quiets down to listen to her. No sound follows her out of the room. "We cannot interfere with Group A because WICKED will withhold the cure. We can't go kill them all!"

I stand up, turning to the rest of them.

"We can just kill Thomas."

Sonya stares at me, her face hung open in shock. I push through it, addressing everyone else in the room.

"We kill him now and get it over with."

I can feel Teresa's glare. "This is a bad idea."

"This could work," Harriet offers. "Over and done with."

Teresa doesn't answer. I can feel her anger. It doesn't seem like we have any other options though. This is the only way we can progress.

Over and done with.

~~~

This is getting so exciting!