Conquer

Chapter 7:

I sat in the now cold room, staring at Carol's name. I had almost completely forgotten about her. She was killed the night of the day I had arrived. She was the one who was trapped behind the Planks. She was the one who... died.

The paper that I stared at seemed to be torn from a larger piece. I became very curious. I looked around the papers to find the matching piece.

I by passed many other strange things among the papers. Mind hacked. Nightmares.

I was entirely lost in thought, which, was the first time since I'd been here.

"Carol wasn't like most of the people here," said Jed's voice at the doorway.

I jumped when I heard his voice. My cheeks were becoming hot and I knew I had just been caught red-handed.

Jed took a deep breath then sat by me.

"I'm sorry, I just-" he gently took the paper with Carol's name on it.

"It's all right, you're a curious person," he said with a shrug.

Jed ran his thumb over Carol's name. The room grew silent and colder. The night seemed to over take the world with its darkness, locking the two of us in the only ray of sunlight.

"Carol arrived not long after I had. She was an outgoing person. Always up for a challenge, always making everyone smile.

When Faye arrived, Carol carried her on her back all the way back to the Center, from the Tower.

And then one day, Carol came screaming from the tree line. Carol's face was bloody and she had a limp in her run. I watched her run, I was confused until I saw someone running after her. My name was the first thing I could make out of her words.

The person chasing her, a guy, had tackled her at that point. He held her down with his knees and had his hands at her throat.

This guy was a member but he had changed. He looked terrifyingly psychotic.

I ran to her, pulling the guy from her, laying a punch to his jaw and knocking him out."

Jed scratched his neck then rubbed his hands together. I was finally beginning to understand the fear of Survival. What I thought was cold happened to just be the silence working it way into my veins.

"From that moment on, Carol and I had worked as hard as we could to figure out what that had meant. Strange things started happening to the Conqueror. He started going insane and had tried to murder every Conqueror here," he said with a sigh.

Jed folded the paper and placed with the others. He seemed calm and focused. His breathing filled the silence and took what was the cold. We continued to sit in the silence, focusing on the sound of inhales and exhales.

"She studied his dead body, taking notes for hours. Carol had figured that something was sent into Survival from the Outsiders. That it was something that had infected her attacker. She came up with so many theories and understandings that Will, Katelyn and I had made her a leader.

Along with us, she helped even more than she had before. She even helped me. The voice I hear in my mind... She figured that the Outsiders or someone from the outside was trying to communicate with me. Carol told me that the person I-"

"JEDEDIAH! JORDYN!"shouted someone in the distance.

I put my head down, knowing something was wrong. Someone began to bang on Jed's front door.

Jed stood quickly. He reached a hand out for me and helped me stand as well.

"To be continued," he said as we walked out of his room.