This Is Not The End.

Chapter 16

The woman couldn't have come up to my shoulder, not even with the inch or so of hair added. She reminded me of my grandma on my dad's side; short, slightly overweight, and a crown of red hair on her head which she'd curled in a specific way to create a signature afro. Her glasses were kept on a string around her neck and she let them hang like a necklace instead of wear them, which she obviously needed to do as she kept squinting to see which way to go. Everything was signposted, but I felt rude pointing it out – after all, she did carry the crossbow at her side as a precaution.

"Well now, my name's Maryse and I'm going to oversee your procedures to make sure everything's good for you three," she shot over her shoulder in her southern accent, "Mind the lights, we've been meaning to get them fixed for a while now," she motioned with her freehand towards the array of flickering or dead overhead lights. Kai lit up, literally.

"Oh thank god!" he exclaimed, stopping us. "This is my time – what do you want: finger snap, clap, dramatic point? I've been waiting for this,"

"Dude, seriously?"

"Yes, seriously!" he said, "I'll give the dramatic point, I feel like it's the occasion,"

Psyching himself up for it, he glowed as he pointed with vigour towards the lights and they went dead for a second, before reviving at full beam. I threw my arm up to shield my eyes, but that just made him snort.

"Jesus, Kai..."

"You are very welcome," he grinned at Maryse, who genuinely thanked him. I guessed they didn't have many Suns come through – or electricians.

We kept walking down the darker coloured hallway, dodging out the way of people armed with some sort of bow and each dressed in a mix of tattered and colourful clothes. It was obvious who had dealt with the whole apocalypse situation better, but we didn't judge – we weren't exactly coping well ourselves.

We crossed out of the hallway through a drape acting as a door, and we got out first look at The Resistance. A sea of fires reflected in Jack's eyes and the heat hit us like a wave as soon as we left the chill of the corridor. People of all ages stopped what they were doing to stare at us, to them we were a mix of their saviour and their destruction, and some of them there must've recognised us from SWORD. There were kids who weren't immune, and I couldn't imagine what it was like for them to have to look at us and to help us daily, when we had the security which they could only dream of.

The wall ran further than any of us could see, slowly fading to black as it fell into the darkness. Hit by the setting sun, reels of barbed wire ran along certain sections and I could tell that they were trying to arm the whole wall with it, but they'd just run out for now. No trees grew in the main area, there was a designated section quite a way off for where they collected wood safely, although it couldn't have ever been too much of a problem to go outside in the day with a group.

Maryse gently pushed me towards a tent which Kai and Jack had long since disappeared through, and I realised I'd been staring.

"Don't worry about it," she said to me when I went to apologise, "I bet they don't let you Colourless outside much,"

I let out a scoff, "Much? Try 'ever',"

The tent was littered with medical equipment – whatever they could find by the looks of it – and a large chest of draws which could only be filled with clothes, I saw a sleeve hang out of one of the draws. Putting on latex gloves, Maryse picked up a rather large needle, filled with a colourless liquid, which a girl younger than any of us had prepared for her and motioned to a regular camping chair.

"Who's first?"

Jack turned white as sheet and I sighed.

"Me," I said, taking the seat and sinking into the camping chair. I eyed the needle and tried not to grimace.

"Your jacket, dear,"

"Right," I pulled it off and, checking I was wearing a tank top, added my overshirt to the pile of clothes at my feet, rubbing my arm where she'd inject me. Jack's eyes lingered on my bruises, as did Maryse's, but I just brushed them off, "Defiant, remember?"

"Knew it was gonna get you killed one day," Kai joked, offering me a supportive smile. We'd never spoken about it, but I knew his arms were the same. After all, it was how we'd met – two little thirteen-year-olds waiting outside the shock room, breaking yet another rule by talking to each other. It was the start of a beautiful rebellion.

I let out a groan as the liquid spread into my veins. Maryse pulled the needle out and wiped my arm with an antiseptic wipe.

"Feeling lightheaded?" she asked me, "Dizzy?"

"Not my first injection,"

"Alrighty then!" she beamed, "You're welcome to keep your SWORD clothes, of course, but we offer you a change – if you want to step over there and have a look-see,"

Picking up my jacket and shirt, I thanked her and headed over to the draws. I wasn't ever going to stay in my SWORD issued jacket and shirt – the jeans were too good to give away – so I needed something to replace it with, anything. As I rifled through the draws, I understood why Cara's mixed outfit was so interesting. She'd obviously found the best things she could and thrown it together. I admired her style.

I found a red, tightfitting top and, knowing how Jack would react, immediately replaced it for my tank. Neither boys were looking – they had something much more interesting to be paying attention to. It felt wrong to be wearing something other than black, and for that exact reason I started looking for anything else colourful that I could find. After pulling out pair upon pair of eleven-year-old girl cat leggings, I gave out and fished out a jacket similar to Beck's and pulled it on. It might've just been me, but everything seemed to fit perfectly, and I couldn't shake the feeling that it was wearing a dead girl's clothes.

It didn't matter, there was no point wasting good clothes.

"Skye, look!" Kai grabbed my attention and I realised he and Jack were looking through the draws next to me. Jack's colour had returned to his face, and I smiled gently. He didn't even seem to mind my red shirt. "D'you like my hat?"

Kai modelled a cow-print bucket hat which fell over his eyes, striking different poses each with the focus on his new favourite accessory.

"You look like an idiot," I grinned, shaking with silent laughs.

"Why thank you, I personally think it's a look,"

Jack raised his eyebrows, "Oh, you should definitely always wear that, like never take it off, ever,"

"You know what," Kai pulled it further onto his head, "I won't,"

Pushing my jacket and shirt into the draw and closing it, I left Jack and Kai to change, finally allowing myself to laugh. As I leant against the outside of the tent, Kai shouted an 'I heard that!' at me and jabbed me in the ribs through the fabric. I tried to kick him, but my heel collided with air and I reminded myself to get him back later.

The air was different in here, safer, and I never wanted that to change. To think that this open fortress had been so close to SWORD all these years and no one had ever known, it was incredible. I didn't want to pause and reflect and jinx it, but I did, and I kept my fingers tightly crossed at my side so that I didn't wake up back in that caravan imagining the whole thing.

This place was real, and we were okay.

I couldn't see Beck and Cara anywhere, but the compound was so big I bet we could walk for miles and still have no idea where they were. A small town's worth of people lived in this place, and every time SWORD sent more kids out to die, we were adding to their numbers. There was enough for an army, and I guessed it wasn't called 'The Resistance' for nothing.

Something caught my eye, and I did a double take, squinting to make sure, before letting my arms fall slack at my sides and struggling for words.

No way. There was no way I could be right, but I couldn't fake what I was seeing, and I had to face facts. Did I even want to face facts?

Fifty meters in front of me, talking to a woman withmore tattoos than I could comprehend about something scribbled on a clipboard,was my dead father.