We trudged through the wind-swept grass. A soft-breeze met the back of our heads. Everything was eerily quiet. Nothing came through our helmets. I managed to look away from the corpses strewn about in the area nearest to the house. After walking for two minutes, Seph finally broke the silence. He stopped in his tracks. Les and I turned to him. By the time our gaze fell upon him, he had already pressed the button on his helmet.

  “Whiteford, we have secured Les. Keira has been downed and confirmed dead,” he said.

  The reality of Keira’s death hit me again. No longer was I just sneaking around behind the CIA’s back. This time, I had actually been responsible for the death of an officer. Not just an officer, a friend to Markus and Marcie.

  There was a crackle as we finally got a response.

  “Thanks, Seph. Mel and Markus have been downed. Markus is confirmed dead,” Whiteford said.

  No.

  No, no, no, fuck no.

  Mel?

  Sweet, innocent Mel?

  She was shot. Shot but not dead. Probably dying.

  And then I was running, running without any aim. My footsteps pounded against the dirt. People were calling my name. But I did not stop. I ran, ran, ran until Mel was found. Until Mel was safe.

  They will not die.

  I will make sure of it.

  ??

  As soon as I emerged into the open building that the staircase connected to, I collapsed. But where I expected to face-plant into a cold, hard floor, I instead fell into someone’s arms. They were strongly grasping me. I was righted again, where I was left standing, stunned.

  When I glimpsed black hair, I instantly thought Seph had somehow caught me. But that was foolish; he had been running behind me for the entirety of our journey here. I caught a soft face, but a hardened expression. And my memory clicked.

  “Officer Torres?” I asked.

  He smiled, and nodded. “Hello, Cade,” he said in his deep voice.

  I heard Seph and Les’ footsteps get closer before they halted. “Where were you?” Les asked, before I could put in the question myself.

  Torres shrugged. “I believe that’s classified. But you are the real one with something interesting,” he raised an eyebrow. “I heard you were kidnapped.”

  Les rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh, yeah - uh - rough affair.”

  Torres blinked. “And I heard that Mel got shot.”

  I nearly fainted at the words. I managed to keep it together on the outside, but internally, my head was spinning and my stomach ached. “Where are they?” I demanded.

  “I don’t know exactly, but they would probably be in C-5, the hospital area. It’s on the opposite side of campus, the triangular building. You can’t miss it.”

  “Thank you,” I breathed, before rushing past him once more. I emerged onto the campus. It was somehow much colder there than outside on the hilly field. The gravel crunched under my boots as I ran. I heard the others’ footsteps not far behind.

  No one else was out today, so I ran freely on the straight path to the Sphere, then on the curved way around it. At the end of that bend, the hospital building came into view. It seemed to be two stories tall, and was simply built. The walls were smooth and white, peppered with small windows. About three-quarters along the wall, a small door was stationed. At the sight of a clear goal, I sped up.

  I slowed down about ten feet from the entrance, nearly slamming into the glass before I came to a stop. I flung open the door, and stepped into the waiting room. It was empty, save for a short, plump woman at the counter.

  I walked directly over to her. “Where is Mel?” I asked sharply.

  “Room 103,” she said, sounding bored. “She-”

  “They,” I interrupted.

  The woman looked directly into my eyes. “She was not looking well.”

  I fought the urge to pull out the gun I had strapped to my back and shoot the woman with a blank. Let’s see how brave she would be after that. Instead, I just glared and walked promptly down the hallway.

  Room 103 was the second on the right. I flung open the door, and stepped in, Les and Seph just behind me. In that moment, when my eyes found Mel, my heart seemed to shatter in my chest.

  They were laying on the hospital bed, a bandage wrapping around the side of their forehead. Dried blood caked their faces. Tubes stuck into them from every which direction. A plain white blanket lay atop them, but it was dotted with red stains. Whiteford, Vivian, Naomi, and Marcie stood around the bed.

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  Their eyes flicked to me. Everyone looked pained to be here. A fresh wave of bitter and dark hopelessness washed over me. I felt tears threatening to spill over. “Tell me they can make it,” I choked out. “Please.”

  Whiteford just shook her head. “We can keep Mel alive for a little while - a month at best. But there is no hope of full recovery.”

  In that moment, I broke. I could have been the one with a bullet stuck in my skull for all I knew. My brain was in shambles. All I could think was that I would never see Mel smile again. They were always so quiet, so small. But they had shown another side. They could have fun, could joke. And now they could never open up in the same way.

  Mel would dwindle in their bed, never getting out again. Maybe they would wake up for a few last moments. Maybe they wouldn’t.

  I didn’t know which was worse - never talking to them and having them pass on in their sleep. Or getting a few last moments with them, but forcing them to grapple with an oncoming death.

  Pain was the only thing I could know.

  I could never be happy.

  I opened my eyes. This time, I was not on the ground. Somehow, I had still managed to stand despite everything. And then I remember who did this. Edalene, who was a psychotic murderer. Edalene, whose workers were responsible for this. Edalene, who gave us cookies. Edalene, whom Les loved.

  But Edalene was kind.

  How could she do this?

  I stared at Mel’s unmoving body. We all stood and stared. The repetitive beep of the heart monitor was all the sound that filled the space. We could have stayed forever in a cloud of grief. There was nothing that could be done. Nothing.

  Any amount of time from five minutes to seven hours could have passed before Whiteford spoke. “We should be going now,” she said. “There is much to do.”

  “Yeah,” Les said, his voice hollow.

  “Marcie, you are dismissed,” Whiteford began. “And the rest of you,” she turned to us, “You can go to your dorms. Due to… this, you are currently relieved of your teaching jobs.”

  We nodded, and began the slow trek back to our rooms. Unlike the frantic journey here, the way back was quiet. Nobody dared speak. Time seemed to go in slow-motion. Every second lasted an eternity, eons passed before we stepped over the threshold of our dormitory.

  I sat on the couch. I felt like every single possible emotion had been sucked from me, leaving me with nothing but pure emptiness inside. I was nothing but a shell of the person I had been last night, when I had talked to Les leaving. I could have stopped him from leaving. I could have kept Mel, Markus, and Keira alive.

  But there was no going back now.

  The blood of those three was on my hands. And it would never be washed off.

  ??

  That evening was quiet. We all sat around, doing and saying little. Dinner that night was one of the most awkward experiences of my entire life. I longed to break the silence that hung over the table like a heavy fog, but could not find the way. It felt like we were all in a vow of silence to pay our respects to Mel and Markus.

  But I just had to say something. About halfway through the meal, I spoke.

  “Naomi…” I began. “What happened out there?”

  Xe looked down at xyr food. “I-It was an accident. We never meant to get caught in the range of fire.”

  Seeing xyr face finally break from the calm, collected expression xe usually had sent pangs of regret through my heart. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” I put in.

  “No, no,” xe shook xyr head. “It’s fine. Everything was going great until the soldiers appeared on the hill. Mel got so shocked, and they…” Naomi trailed off. Xe swallowed, and continued. “They accidentally pulled the trigger. The bullet went wide, and poor Mel was so surprised that they jumped out of cover. The soldiers must’ve been provoked or something by the shot, so they opened fired.”

  “How did Markus get hurt?” I asked.

  “Oh, he was the bravest of us. He jumped right in front of Mel and shot back. He shot two of the four before going down. Then Mel got hit and I had stayed still for the whole thing. Maybe if I had moved earlier, maybe they would have-”

  “You would have died, and no one would have come back,” Seph growled. “Now we might be able to speak to Mel one last time.”

  Naomi nodded. “I know, but-” xyr voice broke, “-but I can’t tell myself that. I got some retribution. I brought hell on the remaining two. I shot them in places they probably didn’t even know could bleed. I made sure I had fucked them up real good before going to Mel. That was when I found a pulse.”

  “And you brought them back,” Les said. “That sounds pretty damn hero-ish to me.”

  “Perhaps, perhaps,” Naomi said.

  Of course, I didn’t dare ask how it had gone with Vivian and Marcie. I was too scared to even put in a question with the former, and the latter was probably in a different dorm room.

  A dorm room that is not a fake built to contain us.

  After that small bit of conversation, nothing else was said for the rest of the night.

  ??

  Valamir Uldrich sat upon his throne of steel. No more would mock him for it. Anyone who tried was dead by now. And yet, people still bombarded him with their ‘quick phone calls’ that lasted hours where they complained about how hard it was to comply with his demands. Thankfully, he still had the girl with him.

  She never complained.

  She did every single thing he told her too, and she did it perfectly. Every bit of information given was added up into a pot.

  And if she didn’t…

  Valamir broke out into a wicked grin at the thought of the idea. He waited for the day she would betray him, like everyone did. Not a single person was always loyal. Everyone tried to rebel. But he would shut them out.

  His attendants gave a cautious glance at his expression, not daring to show how confused they were at his sudden expression of what they would call ‘glee.’

  Heavy footsteps perked Valamir’s attention. He looked across the steel hall. It was quite the place to sit. Two large windows showed the remainder of his campus below. There were large, metal double-doors placed directly at the middle of the opposite wall to him.

  The doors swung open.

  A tall, bulking figure burst through the door. His muscles glistened in the light, his tattoos almost blending in with his perfectly tanned skin. A gun, one of the largest and most powerful developed in Russia, was strapped to his back.

  “Shooting has begun, sir,” he grunted.

  Valamir’s lips twisted into a smile once more. “Kill all that you see, regardless if they are armed or not. America has finally gotten themself into a true fight.”

  The man nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  “Oh, and try to find outposts near the country. Our source has told us that they have set up temporary war camps just around the border.”

  The man smirked. “Of course.”

  Valamir waved to dismiss the man, and picked up his phone.

  This time, he had news.