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Even as Alice and Cindy hauled Gary's decapitated corpse off Evie, Cindy was still screaming for her sister.
The three of them sat there in stunned silence, save for Cindy's desperate cries for Ziggy. Eventually she slumped against the rock. None of them were sure if Ziggy had made it out or if Danny had gotten to her. For all they knew she was lying dead on the bathroom floor.
"We have to find another way out."
Evie was still sitting on the floor, curled up with her knees to her chest. She still had a headache and she needed to throw up.
Cindy sounded exhausted. "What if there isn't one?"
"There's gotta be," Alice insisted. "We're at the outhouse. We're at camp. Come on, get the diary. We're too close."
The three of them crouched together, Evie still clutching Cindy's hand, while they looked at the book from Nurse Mary's office. "If I die of dehydration," Evie sniffed, the other two girls turning to look at her, "promise me you won't eat my body?"
Cindy went right back to flicking through the book without answering, but Alice kept looking at her. "I can't promise that."
"Alice," Cindy said, warning evident in her voice. "No one's going to eat you and we are not going to die of dehydration."
There was so much fear in her voice that it made Evie ill. She was flicking through the pages one handed, not wanting to let go of Evie. She knew what it was like to lose her sister.
"These tunnels," Alice stopped to point. "She made them, right?"
Cindy blinked. "Yeah?""
Alice flipped the page and started reading the cursive written there. "And, "She emerged by the Meeting House, one hand severed, lost forever." The Meeting House, which is now," she turned to the map and pointed.
Meeting House had been crossed out with red pen, replaced in neat print. The Mess Hall.
"There's gotta be another way out." Alice said.
It felt like every time they got close to something, at the last second things didn't work out. Evie was tired, tired of running and tired of being scared of a boy who once stopped his bike to let a duck cross the street. But she let Cindy drag her to her feet.
They turned to Alice to help her up, but the blonde shook her head. "I'm just gonna slow you down."
"Alice-"
"No it's fine." She said genuinely. "I'll catch up." She looked at their interlocked hands. "You gotta save your sister."
"No," Evie shook her head, but she felt Cindy tug on her.
Alice nodded. "Go."
They ran, heading in the direction of The Mess Hall, but after a few moments Evie stopped. Cindy almost yanked her arm out of its socket as she paused as well, looking at her. "What's wrong?"
