"You think we can use these spoons?" Len asked.

"It's all we got," Zenon replied. "If you want to use a spoon, you can... but your fists'd probably be more effective." I couldn't help laughing at Len. She picked up two spoons like they were knives and thrust one of them at an invisible target in front of her. If we actually did manage to get out using only spoons, I didn't think the guards would be keeping their jobs for very much longer.

I heard a cell door slide open. Adelyn and Terri's door. Lunch was coming. The guard slid their food through the slit and went back for more. Five plates and one pot... the guard was coming, and we were going.

I saw him approach the door. He gripped the door, typed in a passcode and pushed it open just a little.

Zenon charged forward. He threw his arms in the space between the door and the wall, turning Zenon into a doorstop. The guard shrieked and dropped all of the plates to the floor, allowing a free hand to pull a gun out of his pocket.

"What do you think you're doing?" the guard hissed. As the guard pointed his gun at Zenon, the rest of us ran forward and pulled the door open the rest of the way. Len raced toward the man and threw the spoons unsuccessfully, but ended up with her fist connected with the side of his face. Len's aim wasn't great, but she certainly threw a wicked punch.

"My god-" The guard fired blindy into the air and hit no one. By now, the other three guards had gathered around, each with their guns drawn.

Zenon got up and lunged a fist into one of the guard's stomachs. He doubled over and his gun dropped to the ground. Zenon dove down to grab it, then fired at the guard, hitting him in the shoulder and knocking him unconscious. Just as he was about to shoot the next guard, he was knocked to the ground, sending the gun skittering.

I picked the gun up, but I didn't have it in my possession for long. A guard's arm knocked me off my feet, sending me flying into the wall. With a crack, my head smacked off of the concrete and bent forward. An unnatural jolt was sent down my spine and a feeling like sandpaper gritted the nape of my neck. I felt something hard back there, and it wasn't bone. As flickering lights danced across my vision, I reached a hand back to my neck. I felt a hard lump. Not natural.

I fought for consciousness. Dark shapes walked this way and that, then voices.

"...put...back...not...and...Leanne."

Someone touched my sides and I was lifted away from the ground. The smash of a cell door. But I wasn't in the cell... I kept on going.

"...neck...chip...bring...hospital."

"...yeah...not...why..."

"...Leanne...take...care...her." I kept going reluctantly with these people. My body hung limply over their arms as they went down the hallway. I heard a door open. More walking. Another door. Then soft on my body. And a prick in my arm. Pain. All at once, my consciousness came back. Three faces stared down at me. Two guards and a doctor.

"What's wrong with her?" the doctor asked.

"Her neck-"

"Oh, crap." The doctor rolled me over onto my stomach, unwrapping the bandages on my neck.

"Can you replace it?" one of the guards asked.

"I'm sure we can, but I don't have any with me. I'll have to get President Leanne..."

"What's going on?" I said, my voice muffled by the white sheets of the bed. I tightened my muscles to try and move, only resulting in a spike of pain in my neck, but an unnatural spike of pain. Shock, almost. Unnatural. Manmade.

"What's happening?" I repeated, this time turning my neck as much as possible without screaming in agony.

"Don't. Move," the doctor said, pushing my head back in its place. "Trent, can you page Leanne?" I heard footsteps, silence, and then:

"What... what do you need?" came Leanne's voice.

"It's urgent. Doctor says so. We've had an incident with... with the transmitter."

"Crap... crap crap crap... I'll be there in a second. Who are we having troubles with?"

"April Goldwyn, ma'am."

"Goodness. I'll be there in just a second." Silence again.

"She's coming," Trent said.

"I can tell..." the doctor huffed while keeping a firm hand on my head.

"Yes sir."

Within a minute, I heard the rickety squealing of the elevator and a couple doors creaking open. I wondered if it was Leanne. And, of course, it was.

"Move over," she said. To whom, I didn't know. I was lying face-down on a pillow. The doctor's hand released from my head. I didn't bother to move my neck because of the pain it was causing.

"Can you do a CAT scan?" Leanne said. "X-Ray, even? As long as you can find me a reliable photo of the transmitter."

"Of course, ma'am," the doctor said. He hurried off to go start one of those up, probably.

"How on Earth did this happen?" Leanne asked me. Well, at least I thought she was talking to me. When none of the guards spoke, I did.

"My neck hit the wall," I said flatly.

"So you slipped and hit your head?"

"Yes." I didn't bother explaining anything else, and Leanne obviously didn't want to either.

"I'm guessing it had something to do with the guard incident," she said, then turned back to the doctor.

"Doctor, is it ready yet?" Leanne called.

"Yes, ma'am. Trent, could you help put April on a gurney, please?" the doctor said. I felt the guards grab onto my arms and legs, then slide me painfully onto another object. I heard wheels. I was rolling somewhere... to the X-Ray machine, probably.

Then darkness. It was hard to tell where I was before, but all the light faded away. Click. Click. Now there was a green-coloured light. More clicks, a beep, and light again.

"The image will be processing over there," the doctor said. "Would you like me to remove the remnants of the transimitter from her neck?"

"Yes, of course," Leanne replied. And she was off to look at the image. I was wheeled and dumped back onto the hospital bed.

I felt another prick in my neck, and all the pain went away. Pressure, but no pain. I tried lifting my head, but the doctor slammed my head back down.

"Don't move!" he said annoyedly. His voice sounded far away, as if he was all the way across the room.

There was pressure on the back of my neck where it hurt the most, and after a couple minutes I began to feel relief. Like something mentally bothering me was removed. Or perhaps physically. I honestly couldn't tell the difference because of the current state I was in.

"She's good now. Are we replacing it?"

"No," Leanne replied. "No. Would you mind leaving the room? I would like to speak with April in private."

"Not at all," the doctor said. "I'll leave the tab open so you can view the photo."

"Thank you."

"And the medicine should wear off soon," the doctor said as his footsteps faded away.

I finally rolled myself over without pain. I could feel it crawling back, making my nerves tingle, but I could bear it. The pain kept me aware despite the drugs keeping me in a haze.

"What happened?" I said, forcing myself to sit up.

"There was a... technical mishap." Leanne walked up beside my bed and picked up the folder that lay there. The one with my name on it, stuffed thick with papers. She paged through the folder.

"What do you mean?"

"We had a transmitter put in your neck," she said without taking her eyes off the folder.

"Transmitter?" My thoughts skittered to the COM chip I had replaced only a week or two ago.

"When we brought you here," Leanne said, "we put it there so we could monitor your brain waves... patterns..."

"Why would you do that?"

"Listen, April. I don't think you'd want to know-"

"Why?"

"What I really wanted to discuss with you is your future," she said. "More specifically, what you can do for us in the Asylum."

"I just got my neck mauled, and this is what you want to talk about?"

"Please, just listen to me. I think you'd be great for us back in New York City. I've been examining your school forms and recent brain activity, and I notice you excel in both physical and mental health."

"The city? No! Are you kidding me? They all want me dead there."

"The city's a little different now since you escaped."

"How?"

"First of all, you killed one of our most valued Executors, Greyson Colton. And second, you destroyed the barrier we created to keep everyone inside. If that doesn't create chaos, then what will?" Leanne looked up from the folder and at me, her intense blue eyes making me uncomfortable.

"What good am I in a corrupt society?" I asked. "Why not leave the city to die?"

"April, you don't understand. We need somewhere to hold the damaged people. Without that, what do we do with them? You can help keep them in line while we attempt to repair the barrier."

"There's no way I'm going to return to a place I was planned to be executed at," I said.

"Fine, then, April. But you'll change your mind eventually. Once you have a better reason to."

"Who says I will?"

"No one. But I think you will. Especially since one of your friends is going to be returning as well." Suddenly Zenon crossed my mind, but I realized he wouldn't be the one she was talking about.

"Len, I believe she calls herself."

"She chose to go?"

"Well, not exactly. You see, the guard incident you were involved in... I have no choice but to send her away."

"But we were all involved in it!"

"But you're not damaged. Len could be a huge danger to all of us, especially when aggravated. If we don't act sooner she might kill someone."

"She's not-" I felt my neck with my hand, remembering the strength of Len's own hands crushing out the oxygen from my lungs. Leanne may have been right, but I wasn't ready to admit it. "She's not dangerous. If anything, I'm more dangerous than her."

"If you believe that's the case, then I'll send you to the city as well. Do we have a deal?" Leanne smirked and finished fixing my bedside table up to a perfection only someone with OCD could achieve. I wondered if that was the case.

"That's not what I'm saying," I said. "I'm trying to say that Len should stay here."

"I'm not stupid, April. I know what you were trying to say, and I don't agree with it."

"What ever happened to the surgery?"

"It's too risky. I can't have you dealing with a death, now can I? Plus, our doctors have so many other important things to do. It would annoy them that they're doing unnecessary work."

"That's barely even a reason," I said. "There's got to be another one."

"No," Leanne said. "I gave you what I know."

"Can you just bring me back to my friends?"

"Well, not exactly."

"What?"

"After what happened here, I think it'd be better to send you up to the surface. You can stay in an apartment until further notice. I've also deleted a few contacts on your COM watch and added mine. You can use it to communicate." Leanne held up the watch, which she'd produced from her pocket. I reached out to grab it and caressed the object in my palm, running a finger over the barely scathed screen and turned it on. The screen flashed to life, displaying the time and a few applications. Map, call, files and settings.

"Take care," Leanne said. "I'll have a few guards escort you to your apartment once I've gotten it all sorted out. I assure you, you'll be quite a bit happier up there than down here. I'll have food delivered if you want, but you can also visit the local shop. Take what you need and show them this-" she pulled something else out of her pocket. A card, or something. I read what the writing said on it. 'Government Member.' "They'll give anything to you for freel although you aren't limited to what you take, I do suggest only taking what you need, for we only have so much food to supply the Asylum."

"No problem," I replied. It wasn't like I had a reason to take a haul of food. After all, I was only one person, and I wasn't exactly set out to destroy a community.

"And what about my friends?" I asked as I took the card from Leanne. "Are they coming up, too?"

Leanne pondered the question for a moment. "I suppose so. Their help isn't exactly needed anymore. We have enough people down here to track, so a few people aren't going to make a difference. Well... how many do we have right now? Including you, we have thirteen occupants-"

"You mean prisoners."

"Well, no, I don't like to consider them as prisoners."

"Captives, then?"

"April, please! I've never kept any of these occupants here for more than a month!" Leanne said, sitting on the end of my bed.

"That's crap! I met someone down here. A prisoner," I said, emphasizing the word 'prisoner' so Leanne would notice. "And she said she's been here for two years!"

"Two years, April? Now, don't you think that's a little ridiculous?"

"Yeah, Leanne. Yeah, I do."

"And you think I'd be that shallow to keep someone here for two years?"

"Yes," I said.

"You must be mistaken. How old is this girl?"

"I don't know."

"Estimate."

"Six. Seven."

"Oh..." Leanne looked away from me and toward the door. "Adelyn LeWren. Was that her name? Did she tell you?"

"No," I lied. "That's not what she told me."

"There's only one female within that age range. Either that, or you've mistaken a sixteen-year-old for a six-year-old. Her name is Adelyn LeWren, and she has a brother named Terri LeWren. Both have blond hair. Ring a bell?"

"Nope."

"You're lying."

I didn't reply. I focused on clicking my COM watch back on my wrist, adjusting the metal hinges so it fit snugly on my arm and didn't slide up or down. I put extra effort into doing so, just so I wouldn't have to look Leanne in the eye.

"Well, April, if you won't talk to me, then we'll have to drop the case-"

"No!"

"You're confusing me."

"I want to know why you've kept a little kid stuck here since she was four!"

"Why should you trust a six-year-old?" Leanne said.

"Why should I trust you? All you've done to me is throw me in a cell, lock it, feed us like pigs, and only then do you release me when I manage to destroy something so precious embedded in my flesh! I'll tell you this, the six-year-old did nothing to me!"

"April, we only have thirteen occupants down here. I've been trying to tell you. We can only have three people leave. Now that we have at least ten, I'd like to keep it that way."

"So not everyone can come?" I asked.

"No. Three people. You, and two others. I'll give you the right to decide," Leanne said. I thought for a moment. I promised Adelyn I'd release her, but I'd have to release her brother as well, or she'd be lonely, probably. That just left Zenon, Erin and Shane. I'd obviously not be allowed to take Len.

Leave one person down there. That would be cruel, too. Leaving just one person to fend for themselves.

"One person," I said.

"One?" Leanne inquired.

"Bring Zenon up here. Leave everyone else." Of course, Shane and Erin weren't going to stay there forever. No, I was going to help them.

Free them, somehow.