"What happened?" I said, biting my lip.

"People happened," Heuglin replied.

"What do you mean?"

"The citizens! Ever since you killed Colton and that... that thing happened with the Forest..."

"The barrier," I said. "It's been destroyed."

"Barrier," Heuglin said. "Like, a wall?"

"Kind of... just... keep explaining."

"Well, they've taken advantage of the chaos. By creating more chaos. I can't tell you how many people have died."

"Died?"

Just as Heuglin started to reply, I heard a knock at the door. My heart skipped a beat as I ended the call, leaving silence, followed by another knock. Who was it?

"April?" Leanne. She knocked another time.

I strode over to the door and pulled it open. Leanne stood there, her arms folded across her chest.

"What?" I said, not bothering to be polite.

"Alena-Len, I should say, is being sent off soon. I just thought you might want to know," Leanne said.

"She's going to die, isn't she?" I asked.

"She'll be fine, I promise..."

I raised an eyebrow. "You sound uncertain."

"It's honestly nothing," she said. Her certainty returned to her voice, but it was obviously forced.

"Really?"

"I'm certain." Leanne brushed her brown hair out of her eyes. "I must be going now... And while I'm here, if you have any questions, I can answer them."

"No," I said. I held my hand on the edge of the door, an indication that I wanted my privacy.

"Well then, I'll be off." She turned down the hallway, and I waited until the sounds of her footsteps faded away. I had barely even shut the door. I pushed it open, then walked down to Zenon's door. Knocked twice. In an instant, his voice said, "Who's there?" and I heard his shoes lightly on the carpeted floor. The noise stopped. He was standing at the door, waiting for a reply.

"April," I said.

"Oh." The door opened. "Sorry."

I dismissed his apology with a shake of my head, and asked if I could come in.

"Sure," he said.

"I called one of the Executors," I said. That caught Zenon's attention. He whirled around, his blue eyes wide in what looked like a mixture of surprise and fear.

"Executor?"

"Her name is Executive Heuglin. She... she helped you live. Gave me a gun. Remember? Your execution?"

"Try not to," Zenon grunted. "And you trust this lady?"

"If I didn't, you'd be dead right now."

"Makes sense."

"Anyway, she was in the Executor Training Centre. But she wasn't just working there. She was hiding."

"From what?"

"I don't know for sure, but I can take a pretty good guess and say citizens. What else?" I said.

"Why would citizens be attacking people?"

"Chaos. Apparently now that there's been some pandemonium, they've taken advantage of it... maybe it's just their brains." I pressed my index finger up to the side of my head. "You see what Len does when she gets angry."

Zenon nodded.

"Speaking of which, did Leanne-your mom-visit you?" I asked.

"What... no, she didn't. I heard you though. I couldn't tell who was talking. I heard a pretty nonchalant conversation."

"She said..." I looked out of the window in Zenon's room just in time to see a helicopter start up, the blades swinging faster and faster. "Len's going now." I wondered if that was the helicopter taking her away.

"You mean the city? No! We have to stop them!" Zenon clambered over to the window. He stopped abruptly, slamming his palms into the glass. A crack spread from where his hands were, creating a spider-webbed pattern. He took his hands away.

"Crap," he muttered. Then he furrowed his brow. "You know what, screw this." Zenon brought his hand back up to the glass, fully shattering the window and leaving the pane without anything in its place. I heard the crash of the glass on the paved ground.

"She's going to die," he said. Zenon stared at the helicopter, which was now fading away in the distance.

"No she won't," I said.

"How do you know?"

"We're going to save her."

"You really think we can do that?" Zenon turned around and stared at me with an uncertain expression. His features looked remarkably like his mother's, and it nearly scared me.

"I don't know. What if we took out the guards? There aren't any in this building." I walked out into the hallway and looked around. Zenon followed behind me. No one. The silence was eerie.

"Where are you going?" Zenon whispered.

"Out," I said. "It's not illegal or anything to leave. I have a card that says I belong to the government."

"So do I," he said, pulling a card identical to mine out of his pants pocket.

"Then let's go." I pushed the door open, walking onto the street.

"What are you doing?" Zenon caught up to me, pacing at a jog by my side. "Don't do anything stupid."

"I'm not," I said.

"What are you doing?" he repeated.

"Shh. Just... help me."

"How can I help you if I have no idea what-"

"Shh..." I slowed my pace down, approaching two guards from behind, both equipped with a tranquilizer. I shot a look back at Zenon, who raised his eyebrows and shook his head slightly. I held my finger to my lips.

"Help," I mouthed silently, over-exaggerating so he would understand.

Zenon shook his head. "Why?" he mouthed.

"You kids need anything?" Both guards had turned around. My heart sped up in fear, but I realized they weren't angry.

"Oh, no... no, thanks," I said.

"Then scram. Don't go bothering us."

"Well, actually-" I drove a fist into one of the guard's stomach. As he doubled over, Zenon took down the other guard from behind, knocking him flat onto his stomach. I snatched the tranquilizer from the guard's hands and shot both of them. Within seconds they fell unconscious. Zenon held the other guard's tranquilizer.

"What now?" he asked.

"The cells," I replied, starting toward the elevator.

"You're kidding."

"No."

"You sure we shouldn't at least think about it, April?"

"What is there to think about?"

"I don't know... not getting killed?"

"Forget it." When I took another determined step forward, something crossed my mind about how much I'd changed since I'd been assigned Executor. Sure, I'd been pretty motivated and athletic in school, but never at the point where I'd voluntarily risk my life on a whim.

Perhaps change was for the better.

Lives ended, lives saved. At least "lives saved" was an option now, where as before it was just execution after execution.

I reached the elevator, which was guarded by one guard, who was obviously not watching us shoot the two men. He was facing us now, ready to fire at the sight of our own guns, but a dart was buried in his chest before he could open his mouth. The guard collapsed on the ground with nothing but an exhale.

"Grab his gun," I said, nudging it with my foot.

"We don't need three," Zenon protested.

"We might."

I slammed the C button on the elevator with my palm, making it glow white. The elevator shook to life, then sped down. I steadied my body with my arms, one on a wall and the other busy with the tranquilizer. I noticed Zenon was fumbling with staying upright, with two guns in his hands. He stumbled to one knee, sweeping my feet off the ground, then suddenly I was on the ground, my forehead crushed up against Zenon's. I swore he almost laughed as he pushed me away, regaining his balance. He helped me up with a hand.

"I realize now is not the time to say it," Zenon said. "But you look so funny when you're scared."

"What on earth are you talking about?" I said, pushing his shoulder playfully. He smirked, but a cold expression dawned on his face when the elevator came to a halt. He used my shoulders for balance as the doors cranked open.

There stood four guards.

The sound of tranquilizers ripped through the air.

They were all out before the guards could even acknowledge us. One, however, had his hand on his wrist. Some kind of COM watch. An alarm pierced my ears, making me fumble with the tranquilizer and drop Instagram to the ground.

"April!" I heard Erin cry. I saw her arms reaching through the metal bars, and her face squished against them.

"You're gonna be fine," I said, as reassuringly as possible.

"Help!" she cried again. I knew what she was thinking about. The alarm. Guards. Surely someone would respond to the alarms.

"How do we get them out?" Zenon asked me.

"Sheer force, I suppose. Try using a tranquilizer," I replied. It worked. The dart embedded itself in the keypad, sending an electric pulse through the mechanism. A thin trail of smoke plumed from it as we yanked the door open. Erin and Shane came crashing out, one after the other. Erin, thankfully, was no longer limping on her leg. She moved out quickly.

"Let's split before guards start to come," Zenon said. He headed toward the elevator, as did the rest of us. Zenon had just pushed the button when I heard my name called in a high voice. "April!"

I wheeled around, racing toward another cell. "Adelyn!" I yelled back. "I'm so sorry..."

"You can get me and Terri out, right?" she asked. Her childish little voice made me feel empathetic, as if it were hypnotizing me.

"Yes, yes. Of course. Come on, then." I fired a dart at their keypad and pulled the door open. Adelyn and Terri came racing out, their blond hair the only colour I could make out as the ran by.

"You just gonna leave me?" another voice said. This time it was from an older person. Woman. When I turned to see her, she looked a little crazy, but I couldn't blame her. I couldn't imagine how long they'd been contained in here for.

"Sheesh, April! Come on!" Zenon yelled at me.

"Hold on!" I yelled back. I couldn't help it. I released all of the prisoners, although not bothering to open the doors. They could do that themselves.

"You're kidding me..." Zenon muttered under his breath. A stampede of eager people crammed themselves into the elevator, all yelling and screaming and pushing. A few had picked up the guards' guns. Adelyn and her brother found me, and she tugged on my shirt.

"Thank you," she said.

Her brother smiled as well. "Yeah, now we can get out of this filth once and for all. I can't even remember what the surface looks like..."

"No prob-"

"Get in!" Zenon screamed at the prisoners, who were trying to pack themselves in the elevator so the door wouldn't crush them. A compressing sound signalled that the door was closing, then everyone was concealed inside. I felt a little claustrophobic, my arms tight at my sides. The elevator started to move up, slowly, and with an irregular grinding noise. A sign that read 'OVER CAPACITY' flashed in red, just before a thunk, a screech, and then silence.

The elevator had stopped.

"What happened?" Adelyn said, gripping her brother's leg tightly.

"Nothing to worry about," Terri replied, although his voice was shaking a bit. He placed a hand over her head.

"I can't believe this," Zenon said, pushing through the mass of people toward me. "You shouldn't have released all these people!"

"But they were all locked up in this prison! What else should I have done?"

"I don't know, maybe leave them here?"

"Listen, I'm sorry, but we shouldn't be arguing right now. How're we gonna get out of here?" I stared up at the roof of the box, directly at a loose panel. An escape hatch.

"Up there," I said. Zenon's eyes followed mine and landed on the hatch, but he didn't look too happy. Concerned, almost.

"Uh oh," he said.

"What?" I thought it was a good idea. Until I noticed that the hatch was now open, not just loose.

"In here!" the guard yelled. A face peered into the elevator, contorted with anger. Several more appeared before the sound of gunfire tore out, but they didn't come from my gun or Zenon's gun, or anyone else's gun. One of the prisoners slumped unconscious to the ground with a thud. Then another. Zenon and I started firing as well.

"We need help down here!" a guard yelled. "Pronto!" The guard who was speaking collapsed on the ground, and I thought he'd been tranquilized until I realized I didn't see the dart that should have been protruding from his body. A dark, thick liquid dripped from the square panel.

"I thought this was a frickin' tranquilizer!" Zenon growled, obviously frustrated and upset with himself. He didn't want to kill people, I knew. Zenon forced the 'real' gun into my left hand, fighting tears back. "I killed him... I killed him..." he kept repeating. He ceased fire, while me and a couple others from the elevator tried to hold the guards back. I prayed that no one else had real guns, only tranquilizers.

There was another round of silence. In the few seconds we had with no danger, I swept my gaze across the elevator. About five of the prisoners were unconscious. Nearly half. I gasped when I saw one of the prisoners-a young girl-lying unmoving on the floor.

"Addy! No!" Terri shook his sister, then resulted in having to lift her from the ground. He picked the dart from her shoulder and flicked it aside.

"Don't worry," I told him. "We're getting out."

"We're crawling out," Zenon said. "But we're leaving the unconscious people here." He narrowed his eyes, then his gaze fell on Adelyn. His expression turned a little softer for a split second, but he forced himself to return to his look of authority. He almost seemed to be enjoying it. Colton flashed across his face, causing me to shudder. Not the first time it happened. I tried to shake the thought away.

"How do we get out?" I asked. "It's not like we can just fly out."

"We'll all help each other out. I can give you a boost, and you can help people up with your hands, and I'll be down here."

"What about you?"

"I'll manage." I bit my lip. I couldn't trust that he was telling the truth, but if we were going to be okay then I'd have to give him a little faith.