Marked

Chapter Thirty Six

"Everyone is loyal to her. It's going to be very hard to make them see the truth."

Hands no longer bound, and with Abby and Michael restrained, the group didn't have much time to come up with a plan before the rest of the guards came back to investigate.

"We have to make them see." Rachel paced back and forth, eyeing Abby every once in a while to make sure she wasn't up to anything suspicious.

"That's what I'm trying to tell you. The bunker people won't listen to anyone other than Abby—they don't trust anyone else." Yalina explained.

"How ironic." Juan grumbled while he rubbed the blood back into his sore wrists. Beside him, Simone stared off into space without uttering a single word.

"If they'll only listen to Abby then we'll have her tell them." Rachel concurred. "Is there any way to broadcast a message to the entire bunker?"

Yalina nodded her head, moving towards the control panel on Abby's desks. "Through the watches, I think. If I can just figure out how to send a universal call, like the one Hector made...then maybe...we can..." She typed furiously at the surface of the desk, eyebrows drawn in concentration. Their differences over Hector aside, Rachel had to admit that Yalina was pretty smart and resourceful. Maybe in another life, they might have been friends.

"Got it!" Yalina exclaimed. A smile split her face, quickly replaced by hatred when she turned to Abby. "You could have done so much good from here."

Abby remained unfazed. Lips pursed, eyes stoic, she continued to sit as though she were a flesh and bone statue.

"Can you secure the doors so that no one can come in?" Rachel asked.

"Uh...I'm not sure, really. This is as far as my computer training goes."

"Can you try?"

She nodded her head. A few minutes ticked by, the pressing nature of the situation breathing down heavily on their necks.

"I can't...I don't know how."

Rachel was growing impatient. If the guards came back and restrained them again, Abby would not make the same mistake twice. She'd have them out of there and Marked before they could take a breath. They couldn't afford that, not after they'd come this far.

"Come here, Juan." Rachel said. "Abby's going to do it. She's going to broadcast the call for us."

Abby scoffed, her bloody nose contorting with the motion. "Why in the world would I do that?"

Rachel was in her face in the next instant, rage fueled by all the lives that had been lost because of her. "Because we will do anything to ensure that no more people are Marked because of you. That's means killing your son if we have to."

Michael, who had also been silent after discovering what his mother had done, looked up at the sound of his name.

For the first time since she had met her, Abby laughed exuberantly. Her entire frame shook with amusement, her eyes glinting with a mixture of mock and glee.

"Oh, Rachel, we both know you won't kill Michael. He is, after all, an innocent in all of this. You wouldn't hurt someone who was innocent." She said, calling out her bluff.

"No one is innocent." Rachel replied through gritted teeth.

Simone, who hadn't said much throughout the entire ordeal, sprung up from her perch like a jack-in-the-box and tackled Michael to the floor.

"How could you!" she sobbed, though it seemed to be directed at Abby rather than Michael. Her tiny fists collided with his face until blood erupted from the broken skin on his lips.