This Is Not The End.

Chapter 5

I woke up before Ariadne came in and spent my time staring at the ceiling wishing I were still asleep. I hadn't had another dream, but I didn't want one. If I had dreamt of England or of home, I wouldn't have been able to get out of my bed.

Today was the day.

There was a sharp rap at my door, and I sighed.

"I'm up!" I called, throwing my covers off and unlocking the door, revelling in the satisfying click.

Ariadne's shirt was a cream colour instead of white, and she wore straight black trousers with short boots, her tablet still clutched under her arm.

"Rise and shine," she said, "I didn't know how long you'd need to get ready, so I've given about an hour, is that fine?"

"I'm just getting changed, aren't I?"

She weighed it up, "I suppose so," she leaned close and lowered her voice, "Between you and me the boys are having a hard time getting their heads around it,"

"They're scared?" I asked, she nodded, "I'm scared,"

"Well, you're doing a good job hiding it,"

I shrugged, "Yeah, we'll see about that,"

She gave a smile and I shut the door. Letting out a sigh, I undid my plait and rethought about chopping it all off. I adored my hair, it was the only part of me that was still really me, but my vague sense of identity was not worth losing my life over.

I'd find something new, like my eyes. I had fairly individually shit coloured eyes.

Nope. It wasn't the same.

After looking around the room – ransacking it, really – I realised it didn't matter. There wasn't a sharp object to be found. Maybe they were afraid I'd slit my wrists in the night instead of going through with it. By the sounds of it, apparently they'd had the same worry about the boys.

It was nice to know they had faith in us.

I retrieved the box of clothes from beneath my bed and rifled through the near-empty wardrobe for some layers. I didn't even know what state we were in, could be California, could be in Alaska, and I wasn't prepared to freeze to death. Unsurprisingly, there wasn't a lot of choice in the wardrobe. Black leggings, grey leggings, black shorts, grey shorts, it was a constant repeat and I got bored in seconds.

I pulled out a pair of leggings and put them on beneath the jeans Ariadne had given me. Surprisingly, it fit me perfectly. I didn't question it. Weirder things had happened. I made sure to layer my shirts as well, keeping the jacket off until I needed to put it on. My forehead was already beginning to bead with sweat, but I couldn't tell if that was because of the temperature or my fear.

Fear kept me alive.

I brushed my teeth, shoving the toothbrush into my pocket – I would not go without it – and plaited my hair again, this time in two braids.

Back on my bed, in the bottom of the box, was the knife.

The Infected wouldn't hesitate if it meant another person to infect. They didn't care that I was immune, they'd just bite and scratch and bleed me dry if it meant they could satisfy their bloodlust for just a moment longer. I couldn't give them a free pass to grab at my hair and rip me limb from limb.

But I couldn't do it.

"For fuck's sake," I threw it down the knife and dug my nails into my palms. Sooner or later I'd reach my breaking point, hopefully it was before it was too late.

There was no way it had been an hour, but I was done. We were wasting daylight, and frankly I didn't care how much Kai and that Flame were pissing themselves, we had to leave.

"Ariadne?" I called down the hallway. No reply. "Great,"

My jumper folded over my arm and my knife attached to my belt, I checked the room for anything I'd forgotten before shutting the door behind me and making my way down the hallway. Like before, no one passed me, and I was faced with grey door after grey door and mind-numbing irritation.

I was itching to get out of there. Now or never. Life or death. We just had to get going.

"Skye!" Ariadne snapped my attention to her, and I stopped in my tracks, "In here,"

She led me through one of the grey doors and down a much narrower hallway, the click of her heels ringing through my ears like she was taking a hammer to my skull. The hallway didn't go on for long, and it opened into a small room where Kai and the Flame stood talking absently, each shadowed by their orderlies.

"They haven't been here long, don't worry," Ariadne whispered to me. I didn't care. She passed me one of the tasteless food supplements we often ate for breakfast and I let the slimy liquid slide down my throat. I wondered if we'd get the chance to eat real food again when we were out.

Kai gave me a bleary smile as I clapped him on the shoulder, tossing my empty food carton in a pile next to theirs. The Flame didn't even look at me, but I decided to give him a little while to settle into the fact that I wasn't prepared to stand for his bullshit.

"These are for you," Ariadne held out a rucksack with the SWORD emblem 0printed on the front and let the Flame take it from her. There were two more by her feet and Kai passed one to me. A water bottle, full thank God, those water-purifying pills, and some other stuff which I hoped would come in handy were each strapped to different compartments to stop them rattling around. I shoved my toothbrush into the bottom. "And this is the most important piece of equipment you will ever own,"

She handed me a smartphone. When I pressed the screen, it flashed up with one number and wouldn't let me do anything other than phone it.

"Well it's not quite an iPhone," I muttered.

"This phone doesn't need service, so you can always get in touch wherever you are," Ariadne explained, "What we're asking of you is to check in every two days, got it?"

"As long as we're still alive," Kai said.

"Always the optimist,"

She ignored us, something I'm sure she was getting quite used to by now, "I know you know that time is most certainly of the essence, and so we want to get you going as soon as possible,"

"No offence intended; I presume?"

"Down this corridor is the exit," Ariadne went on, "There will be a keypad, and you need to type in two-seven-four-nine. Make sure you secure the door behind you,"

"Two-seven-four-nine," the Flame repeated.

"It'll be about half-a-mile's walk until you reach the edge of the facility, from there you need to flag down one of the tower watchmen to open the fence. Be careful not to cut yourselves on the wire,"

Blood equalled zompires. Zompires equalled three very dead teenagers. We would not be going to any effort to make that happen.

A door buzzed and opened behind Ariadne. I slung on my jacket, buttoning it up, and pulled the rucksack straps tight around my shoulders. We looked like a group of kids from the nineteen-eighties – my mum used to love them, born in the wrong millennium, she'd say – with our double denim. It was certainly a one up from the black, yellow, and red tunics we used to wear.

I couldn't see the end of the corridor.

We stared at it for a minute, each of us begging for one of the others to start walking. No one moved. The overbearing weight of dread crushed me into the concrete floor. There was no more safety, not past those doors.

"Fuck it," I said, and I pushed past Ariadne and the other two orderlies into the corridor, keeping my eyes dead on the exit.