one by one.

-sixteen-

"What are you going to do to us?" Lucas asks Charles for the group, breaking the silence.

The older man grins at his question, "only what was to be done."

"Which is?" Lucas snarls back.

"Well I don't know if you are all aware, but last week one of our labs caught on fire, tragically killing six of our summer interns. Lucas Friar, Isiah Babineaux, Isadora Smackle, Farkle Minkus, Maya Hart, and lastly, Riley Matthews. Your parents were promised to have your ashes delivered by the end of this week, and I don't want to disappoint." Charles replies with a smirk on his face and a sparkle in his eyes.

Lucas' breaths become sharper, as anger begins to flood his body. "You're not going to get away with this," the boy spats through clenched teeth. Suddenly Lucas reaches down to his side and pulls out a gun. "I'll shoot."

Charles laughs at his threat. "Please. I've watched you all long enough to know that they only one I should be a little afraid of is the blonde."

"I'll do it," Lucas says, raising his voice, as his finger hovers over the trigger.

Just as Lucas focuses his shot, Maya takes a step forward away from the line of her four friends. She then steps in front of Lucas, protecting Charles. "Give me the gun," she demands, reaching her hand out towards Lucas.

"I can do it," Lucas claims, lowering his gun, so that it's not pointing at Maya.

"Please," Maya asks, staring directly into Lucas' confused eyes. Lucas sighs and hands her the gun. As soon as Maya's hand touches the gun, the guards behind Charles immediately aim their own guns at Maya.

With one hand in the air, Charles orders his guards, "hold your fire."

Maya turns around, so that she is facing Chares. Emotionless she raises the gun into the air, before turning it sideways and dropping it to the ground. She takes her own gun and tosses it on the ground, and kicks both of them towards Charles.

"Maya what are you doing?" Lucas blurts out, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Give them your backpack," she directs Lucas, as she throws away her backpack.

"Why?" Lucas questions.

Maya turns back around to look at Lucas who had not moved. "Because we're better than him."

Lucas reluctantly tosses away his backpack, and Maya steps back in line with her four other friends. "That's all we have," Maya tells the man.

Charles lets out a small huff of a laugh. "That was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be."

"Before you kill us, can you at least tell us what this was all for?" Maya questions.

With a shrug, Charles responds, "I guess that's only fair. Ten other groups had gone before you. All of the other experiments were successful."

"What's your definition of successful?" Zay asks, speaking for the first time.

"They went into the forest. They killed off each other one by one until there was a sole survivor. We never had any troubles with them, and that's why they are all still alive," Charles explains. "We decided to do one last test, and so we picked you six. Initially we were drawn in by Smackle's intelligence, and rightfully so. You Smackle, are the only person that our drug didn't work on, and we still aren't sure why," Charles says, directing his attention to Isadora.

"They regained their memory after I was shot," Isadora asserts, referring to Farkle, Maya and eventually Riley.

"That is correct. Your little group of friends is quite extraordinary. Unfortunately for you, that's exactly why you can't leave," Charles concludes. "I simply can't risk any of you remembering what really happened here, and that's why you have to die. Speaking of..."

"Why?" Farkle interrupts. "Why did you perform this experiment? If you're going to kill us regardless, can't you tell us the point of this all?"

Charles rolls his eye, and sighs. "Fine but this is the last question I'm answering. The drug we used on you is suppose to erase your memory to a certain-predetermined time."

"Yeah, we got that part," Farkle remarks.

"If you would let me finish. The government was going to use the drug when we went war. They'd use it on the citizens of the countries we were fighting, and the US would never have to send another one of its soliders into battle," Charles affirms. "Okay, that was your last question. I'm afraid your time is coming done to mere seconds."

"Wait!" Maya loudly interjects.

"What now?" Charles groans, his annoyance quiet obviously beginning to grow.

Maya redirects her eyes to Charles, as they had previously been focused in the distance behind him. "Um," Maya hums, trying to quickly think of something to say. "Can we have a count down?"

"You want me to count down to your death?" Charles questions.

"I can do the count down if you would like," Maya suggests.

"Fine, but you have to start at ten," Charles agrees.

Maya takes a deep breath. "Okay. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Riley, now!"

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A/N: Shorter chapter, but I like cliffhangers so... I wonder what's going to happen...