I'm leading Dr. Wilkes—Joe—down the crawl space behind the walls and over to the drop where the makeshift elevator waits for us. I do as Nina did, and jump over the hole, before tying us both to the rope.

"This is incredibly unsafe," Joe says as he examines the plummeting elevator shaft.

"Yeah, it's dangerous," I say, tightening the rope around us to the elevator. "Now hold on, and when I count to three, we'll both jump onto the plate. Make sure to space out your feet a little to balance your weight."

"This is not going to work, I'm much heavier than you."

"There's really no other option. One, two, three," I count too quickly for him to interrupt, and we both jump on. He's right: His weight is so much more than mine that the plate flies into a vertical position, and Joe and I are left dangling on either side of it. A sharp stinging pain pulses from my knee. I know that the plate must have scratched off my skin, but I'm too focused on lowering us to care.

"Help," I squeal as quietly as I can, and Joe follows my lead. We move slowly, one hand over the other, to lower ourselves down. As we near the bottom floor, some of the girls notice our predicament, and rush to our sides.

"Jeez, Isla," Ava says, helping me to my feet and untying the rope from around my waist. "how many times am I going to have to save your skin today?"

Wait, Ava?

I turn and give her a massive hug. "How—?"

"You don't think the Carrier quarters have walls and drainage ducts?" She smiles, and it's like nothing at all happened to her. "I have something for you. A present. Are you ready?" She raises her eyebrows in anticipation.

"Is it that Jones is dead or something? I can't wait to hear what you did to him."

"No," a voice from behind me says. It's familiar, but I can't place it, though the timbre tastes like mint on my tongue.

There's no way. It couldn't be.

I turn toward the voice and see a familiar face in the crowd: Eleanor Crowley. I can't stop the tears from pouring out of me at the sight of her.

She smiles, her hands together at her lips as if to thank God through wordless prayer, and she comes toward me. She pulls me into her arms and I tighten my hold around her—I have to make sure she's real—when I feel a pregnancy bump between us. She's a Carrier?

"Isla," she whispers, "I have missed you so much."

I bite my tongue to make sure I'm not still dreaming, but I'm wide awake. Eleanor Crowley is alive.

"Is this real?" I ask, just to be sure. "You're not implanted or anything?"

She laughs. "No, I'm not, at least not with hardware. I'm just a Carrier."

"Does Daniel know?"

"No, but Ian Becker from back home is getting him now. Alexander told me that Daniel thought I was dead."

"You spoke with Alexander?" I ask, stepping away from Eleanor.

"Yes, he's been visiting me."

"Why?"

"Want to sit?" Nina asks Eleanor, not even waiting for an answer, just leading her by the arm to a chair they have set up for her, probably because she's pregnant.

She thanks Nina, takes a seat, and continues, "Alexander found me a few days ago, when he first arrived. He's been sitting with me, sharing stories about you and Daniel. He has been coming to check on the Carriers ever since. He's worried about what Gunther Quail has been up to with us. He's the one with dark hair, right? The handsome one?"

I almost gag when she says that.

"You've met Gunther?" I ask.

"The Carriers are cut off," Ava says. "They are literally in their own little world downstairs, because they want them, us, to focus solely on our pregnancies."

"Dr. Quail has been down to see us a few times, but not for introductions," Eleanor says. "He only comes down when he's artificially inseminating one of us."

"How far along are you?" I ask.

"Three and a half months."

I turn to Ava. "You're not...?"

"Not yet, but I'll be artificially inseminated tomorrow," she groans. "That's what they told me at least."

"Gross," Nina says.

"It's not happening, don't worry. I will fight it off if I have to," she assures us.

"Ava, I have to know. What did you do to Keith?" I ask. "Anything?"

"You'll see." She smiles a crooked smile, and I immediately see Nate in her face. I try to remember how his mouth moved when he was slipping away from me. What was he trying to say to me? I wonder, but I can't think about it for very long before I'm reminded of the miracle holding my hand.

"Eleanor," I start, "I thought you were shot. That's what Daniel told me."

"I was. They brought me straight to the doctor here, and he patched me up. Then I was sent to the Carrier's quarters."

"Is that true, Joe?" I ask.

"Yes, but I had no idea who she was; otherwise, believe me, I would have told Daniel," he insists.

"No, it's okay. I just wanted to know who to thank," I say. "Thank you. After today, I really needed this."

"What happened today?" Eleanor asks, her expression immediately stern.

"It wasn't her fault," Ava interjects, "but she thinks it is. The Deathless general was killed today. He made her the new leader, and we all agree," she says, patting my back.

Eleanor tucks her blonde hair behind her ear as she tries to hold back tears. "I'm so proud of you, Isla. Ben would be too."

I'm all out of tears, but the last bit of my heart that hadn't broken yet shatters into the pit of my stomach. Ben's gone, and as much as I hate to think about my life without my second father, I hate to think about Eleanor's life without him more. "I'm sorry," I choke.

"Don't be," she says, though her eyes redden with the tears she's not allowing herself to cry. "He's still with me. Your mom and I have lost a lot of people in our lives, but they've never truly been gone." She searches the group of girls. "Where is your mom?"

"She's with the rest of the Deathless back at our refugee camp. She'll be safe as long as we can get out of here quickly enough. Cooper has an attack planned for the camp—he has to, he's made too much of a show out of our pain not to—but I may be able to make a deal with Gunther. It's better if we can manage an escape first, though."

"And your dad?" she asks.

"He was at the bunker, knocked out like everyone else, but he and I didn't make it into the Beast. I told him to run home, so hopefully that's where he is. We need to find him when we're out of here."

She inhales deeply, straining to smile. "Well, then we need to get started, don't we?" Eleanor announces. "It will be easiest for me and Ava to escape, perhaps we should go ahead to warn Beatrice."

"That's crazy, you're pregnant," I say.

"Which is exactly why they won't suspect anything. Any idea where the camp is?"

"It's at the Hoover Dam."

Eleanor smiles, caught in thought. "If Ava steals one of the travel pods, we could be there within a day."

"Travel pods?" I ask.

She waves me away. "You haven't been here as long as I have. I've seen much more than you. They have pods that are essentially human-sized hamster wheels with motors."

"Those all have tracking systems in them, though," Joe says.

Eleanor puts her finger up in correction. "Not if you know how to disconnect them."

"And you do?" he asks.

"Who do you think taught Daniel everything he knows? I've been sitting back in the Carrier's quarters, because I thought life was over for me; but if my family is still alive, then there's hope for us. Forget it. Let's get the hell out of here."

There's the Eleanor I remember.

"We will need to go tonight," Ava says.

"Why tonight?"

"Because the soldiers will be coming for me tomorrow," she mumbles.

"For your insemination?" I ask.

"No...."

"Why then?" Nina asks.

"You'll see," she says in a singsong voice.

"Hold on," I interrupt, "how are you two even going to get a hold of one of these travel pods?"

"You've never seen the Carrier Quarters," Eleanor says. "They don't want us to feel like prisoners, so we aren't. We are well taken care of so we don't stress the babies, and the wall around our yard is unlocked and only patrolled by drones. There's even a nice garden on the other side. I'm sure Dr. Wilkes here has a code we could use to turn them off, and then we'll sneak out the door. The pods are on the other side of the wall in case of emergency, kind of like lifeboats for a sinking ship. Ava can leave a note, and we'll chock it up to her kidnapping me for ransom. We'll make up some meeting place and ransom, and never show up."

She's brilliant. "That could work," I say, "and then we can focus on just trying to tear this place down, while you warn the camp."

"One problem," Joe says. "If I type in my code, they will trace it back to me."

"Use mine," a gruff voice says from a corridor off to the side. I turn to the sound and see Alexander emerge from the dark drain. He repeats, "Use mine. I'm already going to get into trouble for helping Ms. Ward get back at Captain Jones. I'll take the punishment for letting Eleanor and Ava out too. My time has come."

I catch sight of Ian leading a speechless Daniel into the drain behind Alexander. "Mom?" Daniel exhales.

Eleanor stands and opens her arms to him, and he runs into her embrace, as I did. Over her shoulder, I see that Daniel is crying. "Let's give them a moment," I say, and I lead everyone closer to the lab equipment.

Alexander sneaks up behind me and places his hand on my shoulder. "I hope you can forgive me. I thought he could change. Now I am certain he won't."

"Why?" I ask. "What is he doing?"

"He's going to convert everyone and create a much bigger conflict than what already exists. Phoebe was right. He has no respect for human life. I thought I could convince him otherwise, but that was never possible. Not after all that's happened."

The girls gather around me, and Nina moves to my side, interrupting Alexander. "So what's the plan, leader?" she asks.

I clear my throat, move away from Alexander, and take a breath. I can be a leader. I can be a hero. "Tonight Eleanor and Ava will escape. They'll use Alexander's code to turn off the drones, and tomorrow, he will face the repercussions," I say, looking at him. He nods. His betrayal is unforgivable, but maybe this will help bring me closer to forgiving him. "Ian, you will continue to monitor Dr. Fowler, so that he is safe for our escape. Please let us know if anything changes, like if he is slotted for a cyborg implant, or something."

"Yes, ma'am," he says, saluting me, and we smile at each other.

"Dr. Wilkes is here to help us." Then I have an idea. "Doctor, please begin creating some pills for the Caregivers. I am still concerned with their health. Some of the girls here will help you, but also to learn from you."

"It would be my honor," he says.

I smile, my confidence building. "Celia," I continue, "they could really use the formula Nate and Dr. Patel created. Could you work on getting that?"

"How?" she asks.

"Mitchell is looking into Nate's files, right? Ask him about it, or you could find it yourself. Either way, be with him as he's working tomorrow and try to get it."

"Oh, okay, I will try," she says.

"Nina, try to get Flynn really angry tomorrow so that he'll want to join us."

"That won't take much," she says to herself.

"Now we just need something to help us escape, to help bring this place down," I say, running out of steam.

"Well, everything runs on electricity, right?" Eleanor asks as she and Daniel join the group. "So what if you created some sort of massive magnet or pulse or something to knock everything off long enough for an escape?"

"Yeah, but how?"

"We're a team, Isla," Daniel says. "We'll figure it out."

"What about the rest of us?" one of the Comforters asks.

"Train with me," Ian offers. "If the plan doesn't go as planned, we'll need some more skilled fighters. Some of my men will join us, but we'll need others."

"Um, excuse me, some of us are already perfectly skilled fighters," Nina adds. "I think you mean train with us."

"Perfect," I say, "the rest of you can train with Nina and Ian."

"We'll need a code word or something, just in case we need to meet last minute," Nina says, "and every good army has a symbol or a flag to fight for, doesn't it?"

Silence falls over us for a few moments as everyone thinks, until Eleanor suggests, "What about a tiger lily? For Isla." No one gets it. "Her dad used to call her his tiger lily. No one else would know that here."

Before I can object to a symbol so personal and so specific to me, everyone is buzzing in agreement.

"And our code phrase can be something about flowers," I hear.

Another voice rises up, "Oh my goodness, and her last name is Blume... like a blooming flower!"

Conversations about my leadership and escape plans circulate the room, but my heart pounds louder than any of it.

All of these people believe in me, I think. The most I've ever done was lead a bunch of mindless people out of the bunker, and still, I'm a hero in their eyes. But anyone would have done that. Right? Except for Gunther and Alexander and whoever else left us there to die, I guess.

"What do you think, fearless leader?" Ian asks.

"It all sounds perfect," I say, smiling.

"Then it's settled," Daniel says, and the conversations silence, "our symbol will be a tiger lily for our leader, and whenever anyone says something about flowers, we'll know to meet here."

"Done. What's next?" Nina asks.

All eyes focus on me, as everyone waits for my reply. I don't know, I want to tell them, but I have two choices: I could either freeze up and make everyone, including myself, extremely nervous, losing their confidence and compromising our escape; or I could say something, anything, as confidently as possible, and at the very least, retain their faith in me.

"Okay," I start, "half of you go over to the equipment with Dr. Wilkes, we can at least get you introduced to the equipment before we need to start leaving. The other half of you go over with Ian and Nina, and they can start training you a little bit. When we come back here in two days, you'll continue with them. Ladies with Dr. Wilkes, you'll be back down here tomorrow."

"Why split us up?" one of the girls asks. "I mean, can't we train in both science and combat?"

I wish I could tell her yes, but realistically, there's just no way to formally train in both. "The whole mansion will be on edge after the escape," I say. "It will be easier and less noticeable to gather small groups together than all of us at once."

The girl nods, and everyone moves to whoever they are more interested in learning from. They deserve some choice in the matter.

"I knew you were the right choice for our leader," Nina boasts.

"You know best," I joke as she walks off toward Ian, and then it's just Daniel, Eleanor, and me.

Alexander approaches us. "We should get going if we want the escape to be believable," he tells Eleanor, pushing his round glasses up his nose, and turns to me, "Goodbye, Isla."

"Okay..." I wait for him to leave, but when he doesn't, I say, "Bye."

"Isla, tomorrow, I will be punished. I'm not sure how, but just in case tomorrow is my last, I need to give you something. If anyone asks, my official story will be that I threw it over the wall."

"What is it, Alexander?" I ask, losing patience with him.

He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out something in his closed hand. I hold out my palm, and he releases the object. There, resting at the heart of my hand, is the necklace Declan made for me.

"Alexander, what the hell? Why would you keep this from me?"

"I took it from Gunther's office before coming here. It's another offense I will be punished for tomorrow. Now that Eleanor and Ava are going to warn the Deathless, you can use the necklace for another purpose."

"What do you suggest I use it for?"

"The pulse. The electromagnetic pulse you need to get out of here. It's not strong enough as it is, but you and Daniel could build an amplifier," he explains.

"That's actually a really great idea, Alexander," Daniel concedes, "and that wouldn't take us long to build. We could have it done by the end of the week if we wanted."

"Thank you, Alexander," I say, giving in. Maybe, in the end, he won't be a villain after all.

He nods, and Ava joins him at his side. "Well...," he says, "see you on the other side." He turns to Eleanor and holds his hand for her to take. She ignores it, embracing me and Daniel first.

"I better head out," she tells us. "We wouldn't want anyone catching us." Eleanor looks around, smiling, and I can't help but notice how beautiful she is. Still, after all she's been through, she is radiant, like my mom. She sighs, and rests her hand on my shoulder. "I will let your mom know your safe. She's probably going crazy without you. We'll come to your rescue, so try to get everything together before we do. Don't be afraid."

"Okay," I say. "Thank you."

She turns and kisses Daniel's forehead. "And you," she smiles, holding his face in her hands, "stay safe. I will see you in ten days."

She and Ava begin to leave through their own tunnel, but something tugs at me. I rush over to Ava and tap her shoulder.

"Isla?" she asks, turning around. "What's up?"

"I know you haven't been around Nate for a while, but there's something I need to know."

"Okay?"

"When he was shot, he was trying to tell me something, but I couldn't understand what it was."

"Okay?"

I take a breath, remembering a piece of the nightmare I had. "I had a dream that he was dying again, but I could hear what he was trying to tell me this time. He was saying that he couldn't believe that I would let that happen to him, that it should have been me."

"And you want to know if that's something he would say?"

I nod.

"Isla... everyone knew you meant a lot to him. It was a big deal here, because they had to change the entire cyborg implant to ensure Nate wouldn't happen again. You changed him, like you changed all of us: for the better. We've been here, some of us, for months, and we never got all of this together. That's all you. You came, and it made us want to be better. So, I don't think Nate's last words to you were that he couldn't believe you. If it were me, my last words to you would probably be something like 'thank you'. Anything else before we go?"

I shake my head.

"Well, then, thank you, Isla. We'll see you at the camp."

They continue forward, and I stumble back to join Daniel.

"There go two of the bravest people I've ever met," he says as we watch them slip into darkness. "I can't believe she's still alive."

"I guess there's hope after all," I sigh, and he kisses my forehead.

"Of course there is. We're together."

And he's right. We're all together for now, but we can't stay here. Daniel and I make a plan, and inform everyone else before we leave for the night: Get the pills to the Caregivers to make them strong, gain strength for our fight, and build the amplifier for Declan's necklace within ten days. That's enough time for all of us to complete our tasks.

In one day, Eleanor and Ava will reach the refugee camp and tell them what's going on.

In ten days, the Caregivers will be ready to leave, the amplifier will be ready, and we will escape.

In eleven days, I will be back in my new home with my mom, Declan, Daniel, and Eleanor, and together we will go get my dad.

In eleven days, everything will be as back to normalas we'll ever get, and I will be happy. And I will be a hero.51, �2��P�