Variant

I moved quickly, getting to the junction that led to both Havoc and the Society. Noise came from both sides. For the first time since I’d gotten to the school, I wished I was wearing the school uniform. Everyone in the school had to know my black and yellow sweatshirt by now.

I paused, leaning into the wall, knowing that if I was spotted I could be hauled down to detention. Or just killed on the spot. No one would have been surprised.

But there was no sense in waiting. I couldn’t tell what was going on around the corner of the hallway.

They must have been able to hear my heartbeat anyway.

Running the rest of the way, I reached Curtis’s door. It was locked, and I knocked on it as quietly as I could. He was probably asleep.

I glanced back down the hall. No one was following me yet.

I knocked again, harder this time.

“What?” Curtis shouted from inside. A moment later he appeared at the door.

I held my finger to my lips.

“Isaiah’s coming,” I whispered. “I was with Becky and she got the message on-”

Curtis’s eyes latched on to something down the hall, and I turned to see. One of Isaiah’s thugs was watching. He disappeared as soon as our eyes met.

“Damn it,” I said, turning back to Curtis. “The school put him back in charge. They’re supposed to haul Rosa and me to detention. Becky called it martial law.”

Curtis moved faster than I expected, grabbing his shoes and yanking them on. “You get the V’s, I’ll find Oakland.”

“’Kay.”

“And, Benson,” he said. “They outnumber us. Get out of here, fast.”

I opened my room, shouting to Mason to get off his bed, and then ran back to the hall. I knocked on every door. There was more noise down the hall now, and we were in a dead end. And the Society had all their security gear.

Some of the guys jumped to follow us, but not all of them. A couple didn’t believe me, and no one seemed to think it was as urgent as I did. But they weren’t marked for detention.

The radio squawked-it was loud, and I snatched it from my pocket to quiet it down.

“Benson,” Becky said, her voice tin and staticky. “They’ve got her already.”

“What?”

“Rosa’s gone,” she said, “and all the Society girls. They were gone before I got here.”

“How could that happen?”

I turned and looked at the other V’s, who were straining to hear Becky’s words.

“I don’t know,” she said. “They must have gotten the message before I did.”

My stomach dropped. Of course. They watched us on the cameras. They knew that Becky was with me-that she was lost to the Society. They’d done this to split us up. We were trapped.

“Get out,” I shouted into the radio. “Go now.”

Isaiah turned the corner, a dozen guys behind him. “She won’t get far,” he said. “The doors are all secured.”

There were only seven V’s here-five of us in the hall and two still in their rooms. Curtis was down with Havoc. Maybe he could find help there, but we were backed into a corner. Isaiah’s hands were empty, but the rest of the guys were all armed. Three of them had the long metal rods that I’d seen Laura holding out in the forest, and others had knives and clubs.

“What is wrong with you guys?” I screamed. “Didn’t you see what the rest of us saw?”

“Jane and Dylan are androids,” Isaiah said simply. “So what? How is the school that much worse of a place? So the school lied to us-since when have they told us the truth? Are the androids killing us? No. They’re just normal students.”

Mason stepped forward. “What about Dylan?”

Isaiah’s expression was smug and confident. “Dylan killed another android, not a human. Not one of us. The school isn’t trying to kill anyone. You’re the problems.”

I stepped in front of the other guys. “Then get out of our way and we won’t be a problem anymore.”

“I can’t do that,” he said. “Now listen. Benson needs to go to detention. Anyone who tries to prevent that will also be taken to detention. Choose now.”

Something slid across the floor, past my feet and toward the Society.

A paintball grenade.

Isaiah looked up at me, smirking. “Seriously?”

I turned away just in time, before the hiss of compressed air.

The Society erupted in chaos as the stench of pepper and alcohol filled the narrow hall. Paintballs were flying over my head and people were screaming-Hector and Joel had jumped out of their rooms and were firing paint at the Society’s unprotected faces.

“Run,” I shouted, and the seven of us charged past our scattering attackers, covering our noses and mouths.

Hector hurled another of my pepper spray grenades down the Society’s corridor as we passed. Curtis joined us, followed by a handful of Havoc guys. Oakland was with him.

“Where is everyone else?” I shouted.

“Not coming.”

We hit the door, only to find it locked, and our chips wouldn’t open it.

“Get back,” Curtis ordered, and then kicked. It held firm.

He kicked again, his foot hitting right next to the doorknob. There was a splintering sound.

“Come on, Hector,” he said. “One, two, three-”

They both kicked, and the door flung wide open with a sharp crack.