2634: Dalmore

Chapter 9

Beep, beep, beep.
I groan, dumping a pillow over my head to muffle out the sound, turning and twisting all over the place. It’s the same annoying beep I heard last morning. Unfortunately the pillow does nothing to soften the alarm.
Giving up, I lean on the headboard of the bed. The other girls have already gotten up and are already changing, except Reyna, she’s still sleeping. She must be lucky to not hear that ring. Looking to the left of her, I spot a small niche. I peer closer to the niche, finding a small alarm clock stuck to the wall. The strangest thing about it is that it has no time on it, it is just a black screen emitting a loud alarm.   
Turning my back to the niche, I wander over to my closet, where my jumpsuit is neatly placed. I take it out of it's stack and put it on, pulling my hair back into a ponytail. I look under my bed and pull out my watch, wearing it under my jumpsuit sleeve so no one would see.
For breakfast, I leave my dorm and go to the Dining Hall. My stomach rumbles with hunger. As I near the door leading out to the parlour, I see a large sign above the door which reads: ‘15’s report to the Dining Hall at 4am’. Curious to see what it is about, I decide to leave for the Dining Hall.
When I get close to the entrance, everyone is already there, at least all of the 15's. Additionally, I notice that the seating arrangement is identical to that of the Spectatory when we left for Veritas. Feyrer is in the foreground on the stage, looking down at me with a sullen look. What does he know? Shaking my head, I notice a few familiar individuals sitting in a row in the middle.
"Hey," I call out with a wave to  Zion, Alec, Ares, Soren, Cora, and Cleo who are all seated together.
When Zion sees me, she quips, "I thought you were dead."
I give her a friendly grin, but then I catch Ares glaring at Zion and making a murdering gesture before pointing towards Zion and mouthing the word "liar" Still grinning at Zion,  I shake my head to Ares. Looking for a vacated spot in the row, I find one next to   Ares, from whom I really need a break. Hesitantly, I take a seat next to him when he whispers, "Operation weed out what Zion knows,"
“Shut up,” I mutter under my breath to him.
“So, you want to be friends with the killer?” Ares whispers.
“She is not a killer, if you had listened to Allison at all, it was Feyrer who almost killed her,”
“Fine then, don’t come running towards me when Zion ends up killing another one of your friends,”
“Trust me, you'll be the last person I’d ever run to,” I fire back as the Dining Hall fills up with more people. I turn to Zion who hopefully thankfully didn't  hear the conversation with Ares. “So, what’s been happening with you?” Trying to block out Ares’ gestures.
“Everything that’s been happening to you since yesterday,” She replies back.
“Yeah..” I trail off noticing that Ares is still glaring at her. I mouth a ‘go away’ at him, he fumes and looks away. 
“What’s wrong with Ares?” Zion asks.
“Everything and so much more,” I grit my teeth. “Anyways, what do you think this meeting is about?”
“I don't know but I don't even want to be here,” Zion comments.
“Yeah…” I agree but it hasn’t been that bad but I have a bad feeling that it’s going to get so much worse. I lift up my sleeve looking down at the camp watch, 4:30 it reads.
“May I have your attention, please,” Feyrer says, looking across the room. “The hour is currently at 4, which is quite early, I know. However I have some exciting news for you, you will be getting your Raid groups today and be off fighting your own Mutants,” A few people clap but nearly everyone is half asleep. “These groups will be the people you will spend your entire stay here with. Each group will have a person from each of the five Sections. However some groups will have four people. So I will be calling your Raid group member’s names and your name. You will come up and receive your mark.”
“Mark, what's that?” Zion whispers.
“I don’t know,” I whisper back.
“Don’t worry about the Mark, you’ll see what it is later on when you get it,” Feyrer continues, I exchange glances with Zion, I can feel Feyrer’s eyes on me, “Anyhow, let's get started shall we? Jones, Ader. Erwin, Sylibill. Gengary, Esther. Ahen, Eugene,” The five stand from their seats and get their ‘mark’, whatever that is. A guard enters the room, wielding what appears to be a scanner, and takes up position behind Feyrer. As soon as the first individual approaches the guard, he takes her arm and drags it through the machine's hole. She jumps and pulls her arm out the machine. Blowing on her wrist, shooting a filthy look at the guard.
“What happened to her?” Zion whispers.
The other four walk up, doing the same thing as the first person, all flinching when their hand goes into the machine. As more and more people come up when Feyrer calls their names, each of them start to flinch. “Ellis, Cora. Katz, Reeve. Ghetty, Zion. Merrick, Adria. Blaine, Alec,” We get up and move to the front. As I near the guard, I hold my wrist up to the machine. I feel my skin singeing as I pull away instantly. I walk back down, looking down at my wrist, the code 21EDR is tattooed on. I glance back up at Feyrer who stares at me in the eye, smiling. I sit back down.
“What’s this for?” I ask Zion.
“I don’t know, but we have the same code,” She says, bringing our wrists together.
“Hey,” Cleo says, scooching over into Ares’ empty seat, looking at her code, “Who’s Reeve?”
“Hutton, Ares. Proulx, Soren. Barton, Angela. Hinger, Liam. Brookes, Cleo.” Fyerer continues.
“I think he’s a friend of Alec’s,” I answer.
“Alec has friends?” Cora screws up her face.
“I know, I was shocked when I heard that someone wanted to hang out with him,”
“Quiet!” Feyrer yells.We all look up to him, “Now, I'm sure you're all starving, so I’m going to dismiss you. When you leave, you can go to the Dining Hall to eat your breakfast,” Before he says breakfast, everyone is dashing out to get their food. Amidst all the rush, I try to find Cora, Cleo, Soren and Zion.
“Ria!” Cleo yells. I nodd back at her.
“Did you notice that those Mutants were super hard to kill,” Zion says.
“Damn, those were so hard. It was like it wasn’t a simulator,” Cleo says.
“But the Danger Scale thing was so cool,” Cora says.
“I know right, but I hope I don’t fight anything above 4,” Cleo says.
“Don’t be such a wimp. I wanna fight a 10!” Cora yells, earning stares from other people.
“Eh, I don’t know,” Soren says.
“I can’t wait to fight some real Mutants,” Cora says.
“Well we’re going to fight real Mutants today,” I add.
“It’s going to be so cool!” Cora celebrates. We arrive at  the Dining Hall, which is almost empty. I check my watch ‘5:48’. Leaving the group, I make haste to my table and begin eating. Unnoticed to me is Ares, who slides next to me.
“Hey!” He says, suspiciously happy.
“What do you want?”
“Nothing, nothing,”
“What do you want?” I repeat.
“Do you like your group?”
“Yeah…”
“OK, so your fine with the traitor sitting next to you. Waiting and waiting for the time to pounce on you and stab you to death,”
“Yes I am, why?”
“I’m just saying…”
“Don’t believe me? Come on,” I drag Ares over to the Alcous table with Zion. She looks up at us confused.        
“Hey, Zion, can we talk to you?” I ask her.
“Sure,” She says.
Dragging Ares by the arm, I take the two outside the Dining Hall. Ares looks down, ashamed.
“Ares, please explain why you don’t like Zion,”
“What?” He exclaims. “I don't know what you're talking about,” Ares says, his expression not matching his words.
“Go on,” I nodd, waiting for Ares.
“So before Allison died, she explained that she saw you and Feyrer talking together before Allison got stabbed… and we think- I think, you have something to do with it,”
“Oh,” Zion says, colour draining from her already pale face. “I don’t blame you, it is my fault-”
“Aha, I told you!” Ares yells at me, pointing a finger at Zion.
“Let her finish,” I order.
“I was on my way to dinner when Feyrer strolled out of nowhere and asked to…” Her brows furrow, confused. “Spy on you,”
“Why spy on us?” Ares asks. But I already know the answer.
“I don’t know why, but he told me to. Anyways, I told him no, and he held up a knife and then we heard Allison, you know what happened..”
I turn “But if he was planning on killing you, why would he not do it now?” Zion gives me a stare, “No offense,” I add.
“That’s what I’m scared about,”