got up and ran to her. “What is it? Are you alright?”
She nodded but continued to cry. “R-Remmy!” She wailed.
“What about Remmy?” Tracker came up behind Ryker.
“He...he’s dead,” she sniffled.
The whole room gasped, and Ryker wiped the little girl's face. “Where is he?”
“Laiken’s room,” the girl said.
“Devin, take her and get her cleaned up!” Ryker yelled as he was running to Laiken’s room. When he got to the room, Halo and Tracker were right behind him. Remmy was lying on the floor, his uniform soaked in a pool of blood. The walls were covered with the words “I’m Sorry.”
Tracker picked up a piece of paper that was lying next to Remmy’s head. “A note.”
“What’s it say?” Halo asked.
“'I’m sorry for everything,'” Tracker read out loud. “'It was me who did this to Laiken. I was the one who told Alloy where we were. It’s my fault Taryn’s gone. I was Alloy’s spy from the beginning. He came to me after the assembly and asked how well I knew you guys. He offered me better food, sleeping arrangements, and work schedule. He disregarded all my class grades. I didn’t’ know he would go this far. He said if I didn’t do what he told me to, he would kill me and everyone else. I’m sorry for everything that has happened. Now that I’m gone, I hope things will get better. I didn’t tell him about the training or the plan. I’m sorry.'”
“Wow,” Halo said.
Tracker lowered the note. “I guess the closer they are, the harder they are to suspect.”
“I’ll go dig a hole,” Ryker said. “Halo, can you help Devin bring the body out when he's done with the little girl?”
“Yeah, no problem” Halo answered.
Ryker found a shovel and made his way to the back door. He went out into the night, located a good spot next to the trees, and started digging. After a few minutes, Halo and Devin came out with Remmy’s body wrapped in a sheet. They dropped the body in the hole and kicked the dirt back in.
“You alright, man?” Halo asked Ryker.
“I don’t know. This is just way too much.”
“I hear ya,” Halo said as they walked back into the safe house. They met Tracker and the doctor back in Laiken’s room.
“What are you going to tell everyone?” Tracker asked.
“The truth. They need to know what's going on,” Ryker said.
“You want me to do it?” Halo asked.
“No, I’ll do it. I can tell them the plan at the same time,” Ryker said.
The five of them made their way back to the dining room where everyone was chatting among themselves. Ryker immediately went to talk to the little girl.
“What’s your name?” he asked softly.
“Mya.”
“Well Mya, you did a great job. I think you should come to the next training and have Tracker teach you a few things. You could be a little ninja,” Ryker said. Mya smiled and hugged Ryker before running back to her mom at one of the tables.
Ryker stepped up onto a table at the head of the room and started his speech. “Remmy was found dead in Laiken’s room by brave little Mya over there,” Ryker said pointing at her. “He killed himself by slitting his wrists and throat. He wrote an apology letter, if anyone would like to read it. It may be hard to believe, but he was the spy, the one who messed up Laiken. He said in his note that he didn’t give away our training or plans. Tracker, Halo, Devin, and I have come up with a plan of attack that will be executed in two days. We want to get in some more training and make sure everyone's ready.”
His friends knew he was also waiting for Laiken to wake up, and they also knew he wanted so much for Laiken to be at his side. The room went into mumbles as soon as Ryker jumped down from the table. “We'll be telling people the plans in their training sessions. Tomorrow morning we'll start right away with Tracker’s group.” Ryker concluded. He joined the rest of his friends at a table and let out a huge sigh.
“WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO get out of this?” Taryn asked weakly. It was her 13th day in this cell. For the past few days the guards had been bringing her water and biscuits.
“I’m trying to get you to see it my way,” Alloy said.
“No,” Taryn said. “You just don’t want me with them because you know I could shut this whole thing down in a matter of seconds.”
“True. You are just like your mother. Sly, scheming, and stubborn.”
“Don’t talk about my mother!” Taryn yelled.
“I did love her, you know,” Alloy said.
“Oh gag me.”
“I used to love you too, until an unfortunate turn of events,” Alloy said.
“An unfortunate turn of events. Yeah, you killed my mother, so I tried to shut down your operations.” Taryn said.
“You know what really happened, but you continue to blame me. I could give you partial ownership. A father-daughter enterprise.”
“You are not my father, not anymore!” Taryn yelled. “I would rather die than work with you, especially in this slave school. You’ll get what’s coming to you, and I'll be the one to put the bullet in your brain like you did to my family.”
“Such a shame you won’t live long enough to accomplish your dreams,” Alloy said. “You’ll be dead by tomorrow night.” With that he left Taryn sitting by herself again.
RYKER WAS SITTING NEXT TO Laiken's bed, like he did every night, waiting for him to wake up. "You have one more day to wake up, or you're going to miss the fun," Ryker said to a still unresponsive Laiken. Laiken had regained most of his complexion, but he still would not wake up.
“I honestly have no idea what’s wrong. He's in some kind of coma," Dr. Render said the next morning. Halo, Devin, Ryker, and Dr. Render were all gathered in Laiken's room discussing the plans and training.
Halo said, "Even if he did wake up, he wouldn't be strong enough to go fight with us anyway."
"I know, but I wish he knew what was going on," Ryker said.
"Well, my group knows the plans," Tracker said, walking into the room. "That just leaves Halo, Devin, and you."
"And the doctor," Ryker added.
"I went for training before Tracker did this morning," Dr. Render answered.
"My group's going after lunch," Devin said. "We're working in the woods."
"I'll go now I guess," Halo said, getting up. "I'm working on target manipulation."
"Don't forget to tell them the plans," Ryker said as Halo left. When Halo finished his training, Ryker went, then everyone gathered for lunch. There was an excited buzz in the room among the people who knew the plan. Devin's group still had no idea.
"Are you going to rely on whoever stays to tell Laiken what's happening?" Tracker asked with a mouthful of peaches.
"I think I'm going to leave him a note with a rundown of the plans. Then he'll at least have a rough idea of where everyone is," Ryker answered.
THOUGH SHE DID NOT WANT to admit it, Taryn was losing hope that her friends were coming to get her. “They have to have a plan,” she said out loud.
Alloy entered the room looking as smug as ever. He had two guards with him. To Taryn's surprise, one of them was Sam. She hid her recognition.
“You know, I was actually expecting more from your cohorts. I thought for sure they would be here in no time after the Laiken incident,” Alloy said with mock surprise.
Taryn forced her anger down and put on her best “you can shove it” smile. “They’ll be here,” she said calmly.
“Don’t you think they would have been here by now? Especially that Ryker boy. He seems to have deep feelings for you,” Alloy said dismissively.
Taryn knew he was just trying to get under her skin, but she could not help believing what he was saying. She was just hoping it was taking this long because Ryker was finalizing a good plan. Maybe even Laiken will be here.
“My spy hasn’t checked in for some time now,” Alloy said as if talking to himself. “Maybe your people found him out. Maybe they even ki
lled him. He was pretty close to you, you know.” He was pacing the room with his arms crossed, sometimes stopping to look at Taryn.
“Why are you wasting your time with me? Can’t you just kill me and get it over with?” Taryn asked.
“What fun would that be? No, I’m going to keep you around until your friends do show up. Then they will get to watch you die.” Alloy said. “If I wanted you dead, don’t you think you would be already?”
With that he left the room. Each of the two guards gave Taryn a biscuit and a cup of water. She could see concern in their eyes, but also something else—excitement?
“Tonight. Be ready,” Sam said, and then they were gone.
What does that mean?
BY NIGHTFALL, EVERYONE AT THE safe house was buzzing. There was an excited air through the whole dining hall as everyone ate. Ryker, Tracker, Halo, and Devin were sitting together making final arrangements and running through the motions. “When they get back, that’s when we move out,” Ryker was saying.
“Hopefully they weren’t found out,” Tracker said.
Earlier that morning they had sent in the decoy guards. One was Sam, and the other was one of his friends. Their main goal was to make sure Taryn was alive and let her know when the rescue was happening. It was not part of the original plan, but Ryker figured they needed to let Taryn know. He also needed to know if she was alright.
“Where’s the doc?” Devin asked.
“Making sure the bombs are ready,” Halo said, taking a bite of cherry pie.
“Everyone’s groups know what to do?” Ryker asked for the 100th time.
“You can quit asking. Each time is going to be a yes,”
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