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chapter iii

― ➶ ―

When Tiago got back to his room, Brenda was gone. She'd probably gone to check in with Jorge about the teenagers. He didn't focus on that too much; he grabbed a small backpack and started throwing things into it. Clothes, spare arrowheads, the med-kit in one of the dresser drawers. He glanced at the desk, racking his brain to try and think of the most important things on it. He strode to the desk, yanking open a drawer and finding it loaded with jewelry. He scrambled through the drawer until he found the necklace he was looking for. He held it up and looked at it for a few moments, before going back to his backpack and shoving it into the front pocket.

He heard footsteps and instinctively grabbed his bow. Kim walked in, raising her hands in innocence.

"Just me," she said quietly. She had her own backpack on, clearly full of her own belongings. Tiago knew she shared a room with at least five other people, but he didn't question how she managed to sneakily get all of the things she needed.

Instead, he hauled his own backpack over one shoulder and slung his bow and quiver over the other. He was about to tell Kim they should be heading to Jorge's office, but he stopped when he heard a loud noise. He held up a finger when Kim opened her mouth, silencing her immediately.

"Do you hear that?"

They both stopped breathing, it seemed, as they listened intently. Tiago didn't recognise the sound straight away, but it seemed Kim did.

"WCKD," she said quietly. Tiago's gaze snapped to her figure. "We need to go, now."

"Good evening. This is the World in Catastrophe Killzone Department. We have your compound completely surrounded." Tiago walked to the window to double-check. A glance back at Kim told her whoever was talking wasn't lying. "You find yourselves, through no fault of your own, in possession of WCKD property. Return them to us unharmed, and we'll consider this a simple misunderstanding."

Tiago's eyes widened immediately. "The kids."

He and Kim were out the door in seconds, Kim on the stairs and Tiago hauling himself up onto the support beams. He he had never swung faster in his life.

"Or you can resist," the man outside continued, "and every last one of you will die. It won't be long until the Flare wipes out the rest of us. The hope for a cure lies in your hands. The choice is yours."

Tiago reached the Eye, probably a new record time, at the exact same time as Barkley did. He didn't bother hiding his presence, immediately landing on the floor and taking his bow and an arrow from his quiver. None of the teenagers seemed to notice him, or they didn't pay him any mind. He could see the shine of Barkley's gun in the dim light. He aimed his arrow at Barkley, raising his elbow behind his ear.