Hinterland (The Aftermath #2)

Chapter Five

"What happened?" I said, biting my lip.

"People happened," Heuglin replied.

"What do you mean?"

"The citizens! Ever since you killed Colton and that... that thing happened with the Forest..."

"The barrier," I said. "It's been destroyed."

"Barrier," Heuglin said. "Like, a wall?"

"Kind of... just... keep explaining."

"Well, they've taken advantage of the chaos. By creating more chaos. I can't tell you how many people have died."

"Died?"

Just as Heuglin started to reply, I heard a knock at the door. My heart skipped a beat as I ended the call, leaving silence, followed by another knock. Who was it?

"April?" Leanne. She knocked another time.

I strode over to the door and pulled it open. Leanne stood there, her arms folded across her chest.

"What?" I said, not bothering to be polite.

"Alena-Len, I should say, is being sent off soon. I just thought you might want to know," Leanne said.

"She's going to die, isn't she?" I asked.

"She'll be fine, I promise..."

I raised an eyebrow. "You sound uncertain."

"It's honestly nothing," she said. Her certainty returned to her voice, but it was obviously forced.

"Really?"

"I'm certain." Leanne brushed her brown hair out of her eyes. "I must be going now... And while I'm here, if you have any questions, I can answer them."

"No," I said. I held my hand on the edge of the door, an indication that I wanted my privacy.

"Well then, I'll be off." She turned down the hallway, and I waited until the sounds of her footsteps faded away. I had barely even shut the door. I pushed it open, then walked down to Zenon's door. Knocked twice. In an instant, his voice said, "Who's there?" and I heard his shoes lightly on the carpeted floor. The noise stopped. He was standing at the door, waiting for a reply.

"April," I said.

"Oh." The door opened. "Sorry."

I dismissed his apology with a shake of my head, and asked if I could come in.

"Sure," he said.

"I called one of the Executors," I said. That caught Zenon's attention. He whirled around, his blue eyes wide in what looked like a mixture of surprise and fear.

"Executor?"

"Her name is Executive Heuglin. She... she helped you live. Gave me a gun. Remember? Your execution?"

"Try not to," Zenon grunted. "And you trust this lady?"

"If I didn't, you'd be dead right now."

"Makes sense."

"Anyway, she was in the Executor Training Centre. But she wasn't just working there. She was hiding."

"From what?"

"I don't know for sure, but I can take a pretty good guess and say citizens. What else?" I said.

"Why would citizens be attacking people?"

"Chaos. Apparently now that there's been some pandemonium, they've taken advantage of it... maybe it's just their brains." I pressed my index finger up to the side of my head. "You see what Len does when she gets angry."