Variant

Others were yelling, but I waved my arms to shush them. “Our only other option is go back inside, if they let us. Don’t you guys get it? Whatever we’re here for is ruined. We’ve always said they’re either training us or testing us. Now we know about the androids, and that screws up whatever experiment they’re doing. Do you think they’re just going to let us go back to normal?”

Isaiah turned. “But what about once you got over the wall? They kill people out there. They killed Lily, didn’t they? They’ve killed everyone who’s gotten over.”

“But not if there’s all seventy of us,” I insisted. “We need to go together, all of us at the same time.”

His voice grew louder. “You haven’t been here long enough to know, but there were fifteen who all left at the same time. They were all killed.”

“Were they the fifteen who were here when Jane got here?” I asked. “We only know about those fifteen from Jane. She’s the one who told us about them, and it might have been a lie. Besides, that was fifteen and we’re seventy.”

I let my words hang in the air, watching the faces in the crowd as they thought about what was said. All of their fears were legitimate-I knew that we needed water, and I knew that there had to be something out there-but we couldn’t just go back to the school and pretend everything was normal.

“Wait a minute.” It was Mason, his face twisted in confusion. “Why did Dylan attack Jane? Why would an android kill an android?”

I didn’t have a good answer, but I guessed. “Maybe it’s all part of their script-for whatever they’re trying to do-they wanted to see what would happen if Jane was killed.”

He listened, shaking his head, obviously not convinced. “That’s weird.”

Hector spoke. “It doesn’t matter. I vote that we get out.”

“No,” Isaiah said, swinging both arms in front of him. “Listen. Whatever we’re here for, there’s a reason for it. The school needs us for something. Now we know the school’s little secret, and maybe we can use that for leverage.”

“You want us to negotiate?” I knew Isaiah was insane, but this was crazy even for him.

“Yes,” he said. “Absolutely. Think about it. First, it’s safe. We can go back to the school, we can have food and water, we’ll still be able to protect ourselves. Second, do you think it’s easy for the school to bring all of us in here for their experiment? Maybe their plan isn’t actually spoiled, and they can still use us-but now we can make some demands.”

“Has the school ever responded to any of us?” I asked. “Has anyone ever asked a question and gotten an answer?”

“They’ll have to now,” Isaiah said.

I looked out at the crowd. “Let’s put it to a vote. Who wants to go now?”

Nearly all of the V’s raised their hands, and a handful from Havoc. No one from Society moved. There were only twenty-two total.

I couldn’t believe it. After everything I’d shown them, they still couldn’t take the risk. “We can get out of here if we do it together! If half of us leave and half stay then we’re all dead. You people think you’re keeping yourselves safe, but you’re just keeping the rest of us in prison.”

I spun on my heel and stormed off. They’d been in the school so long that they were afraid to leave, afraid to take any risks. And now they were condemning me to their same fate.

I walked to the edge of the woods, staring into the vast expanse of the trees. I could hear birds chirping as they warmed in the early sunlight. For them, this forest wasn’t a prison but a home.

I stepped off the grass and into the brush. I’d tried to do everything right. I was trying to help everyone, but no one wanted my help. They were all too scared.

Without making a conscious decision, I trudged slowly into the forest and away from the school.

How were they going to negotiate? The idea was so stupid I should have hit Isaiah for it. We couldn’t make demands on the school. All they had to do was cut off the food. How many missed meals would we endure before everyone broke? Or, how long would it be before the school decided that we were all useless now and they needed to get rid of us all and start over? How would they kill us? Poison the food? The air? Have a few of the androids slit our throats in our sleep?

I walked through one of the paintball fields, passing speckled trees and bunkers. It was the first one I’d played, back on my second day here.

We were their playthings. Somewhere, they were taking notes as they watched us follow their every order. Benson Fisher reacts violently under stress-physically assaulting his classmates, damaging school property. How will he react if we lock the doors? If we cut off the food? If we kill his friends?

I crossed the ribbon at the back of the field. It was rockier here, and the ground sloped upward sharply. I had to run, sliding backward in the loose rock with every step. A minute later, panting and exhausted, I reached the wall.

It was the same here as it was everywhere else-more than twice my height, with the nearby trees cleared so no one could climb over. I touched it. The brick was cold under my hand.