Chapter VIII

JOEY EYED THE BACK of Michelle's head as she trailed her. She felt stupid for blindly following someone she didn't know—especially here in the Dome—but she had no idea what to expect. And Michelle seemed friendly enough...for now. Despite Michelle's approach, Joey kept the tingling buzz in her palms.

"Are you going to ask questions or are you going to bore holes into the back of my head?" Michelle asked blankly, climbing over a fallen tree.

Joey narrowed her eyes ever so slightly. "Yeah, alright. I have a question." She paused, struggling over the same log. "Who are you?"

"I've already told you. Michelle," the stranger replied harshly, pushing brush out of her way.

Joey looked down to avoid several holes along the path. "No. I mean—"

"You mean out there?" the stranger interrupted, confusion heightening her tone even if she didn't look back to reveal her expression. "In the real world?" Joey didn't respond, hoping Michelle would take her silence as an answer. "Nobody of importance. Just an orphan living on the streets in the Slums of Cirvina until Claire scooped me up and put me in here."

"Claire," Joey whispered, her brow pulling together in anger as she clenched her jaw. The very mention of that woman's name made her skin crawl and her blood curdle. Why? She had heard of Claire Agard her entire life so why the sudden hatred? Perhaps it was because of what Mr. Magnus said. About the way Claire spoke of her. After all, it was Claire's fault that the Domes were invented in the first place.

Michelle ducked under a low hanging branch. "I take it you know her?" She twisted her neck around and shot a quick glance at Joey. "I spent some time with her before being sent here."

"What?!" Heather nearly shouted, halting and twirling towards Joey and Michelle from the front, a brow arched. "You spent time with her and were still sent here?"

"Hey, an ability's an ability. Doesn't matter who you are." She shoved Heather's shoulder to tell her to keep moving.

Heather rolled her eyes, and swung around continuing her trek through the thick forest.

"Heather has a point," Joey said softly, stepping around some larger rocks. "You said you spent time with her. Why?" She stopped moving, resting her aching ribs. "Wasn't it dangerous?"

Placing a foot on a boulder about to step over, Michelle rested a hand against another low branch, and turned to face Joey. "I was four when she found me. I didn't know I had an ability about as much as she did."

"So you...found out you had one and kept it hidden?" Joey pried.

The glint in Michelle's eyes darkened. "No," she answered plainly. "Claire figured it out before I ever did and thought I would be better serving her army than being used as a human pincushion." Pushing herself up with her leg, she ducked under the branch and hopped off the rock. "I made a pretty good soldier too, her best."

"So, then why'd she send you here?"

Michelle brushed her fingers across the branch. "Turns out, defying your commanding officer has some pretty big consequences. Look, I know what she's doing is wrong, but...there was a time I believed in her." She turned her head to the right, and Joey noticed Michelle eyeing her from the corner of her eye. "I would've died if she hadn't found me. She practically raised me."

"And yet, she still tossed you in here," Joey snapped.

Michelle returned her gaze straight ahead and replied with a brief, "Yup," seeming unfazed by Joey's words.

Joey watched her a moment before following. She lifted a knee onto the boulder and winced at the pain that erupted through her side. A hand flew to her side as she yelped, and she clenched her eyes tightly shut. She sucked in a deep breath before letting it out slowly. She could make it. She had to keep going. She braced herself for the shock to her abdomen as she climbed.

"So, h-how long have you been here?" Joey asked with a grimace, trying to mask her pain.

"About two years."

"Two years and you've never found the way out?" Heather scoffed. "Remind me again why I'm still here? Because I'm sure I could've found it by now."

Joey jumped when Michelle unexpectedly launched a foot into Heather's back. Her heart raced, watching as Michelle buried her boot in between Heather's shoulder blades, and Heather cried out gripping the grass in a tight fist.

Bending low, Michelle shouted through gritted teeth, "You wouldn't last two minutes in this place, let alone two years! You lack the skill and experience that I have. The trials of this Dome will eat... you...alive before the end of the first day! I spent years training to be one of Agcorp's solider. If anyone's going to survive the Domes it'll be me!"

Joey gulped, suddenly finding herself cowering before this fearless stranger in front of her.

"Trust me..." Michelle continued, pushing off of Heather's back. Now standing tall, she turned towards Joey. "If there was a way out, I would've found it by now." She stepped around Heather's body and kept walking, leaving Heather to wither on the ground.

Joey stepped pass Heather, not feeling sympathetic enough to help her up after almost killing her. She took a step forward, but paused when something bright caught the corner of her eye. She twisted right, but was met only by the forest trees and silence. "What was that?" she asked in a whisper when Heather climbed to her feet beside her.

Heather turned to face the same direction. "What was what?" she almost shouted.

Narrowing her eyes, Joey scanned the trees. Her hammered wildly in her chest, and she summoned the energy to her palms once more. She had seen something, maybe even heard a few bushes rustle. There was something out—

"Hiya!"

Joey yelped in startlement. She jerked back, her daggers forming in her grasp instantly. She quickly recovered enough to find a boy, who looked to be around her age, standing in front of her with the biggest smile. Gritting her teeth, Joey raised her daggers higher in a strike position.

"Whoa, whoa!" The boy lurched backwards, covering his face with his hands. "Did she not—" his head jerked to the side "—did you not explain the no killing rule?"

Joey chanced a glance to her left and found Michelle stomping her way back, two lines etched on her forehead as anger knitted her brow. "What do you think you're doing out here, Skipper?"

"Skipper? Did your mom give you that name?" Heather asked, a sneer pulling at the corner of her lip.

"Hahaha." The boy—Skipper?—lowered his hands as he gave Heather a blank stare. "That's so funny I forgot to laugh."

"You didn't answer my question," Michelle scolded.

Skipper's head shrunk between his shoulders as an uneasy grin curled his lips. "I wanted to help?" He seemed unsure of himself. The only reply he got from Michelle was a glare. "Oh, come on!" he burst, throwing his hands in the air, his wavy blonde hair sweeping his neck a couple inches above his shoulders. "Why do you guys get to have all the fun?"

"Because we have useful abilities." Michelle crossed her arms.

"I can be useful!" Skipper raised his hands, palms facing the sky, and beams of light shot from his hands to the sky. It was so bright that Joey squinted to shield her eyes.

"Maybe if you wanna blind someone to death!" Heather exclaimed, a hand displayed over her face to block out the light.

As Skipper lowered his hands, the light vanished, and he crossed them in a pout with a roll of his eyes. "At least I can't be weakened by weed killer."

Heather balled her fists and gritted her teeth. She took a step forward, but Michelle interrupted the foreseen fight. "The point is..." She glared at Skipper. "You were supposed to stay put with the others." When he opened his mouth to, perhaps, protest, Michelle waved a hand. "Whatever. Just come on." She jabbed a finger at his chest. "But this conversation isn't over."

Skipper's cheeks turned a rosy pink as he glanced at Joey from the corner of his eye. Her lips pressed into a thin line, and Skipper walked briskly to catch up to Michelle.

Heather roughly brushed Joey's arm as she stepped past her causing Joey to teeter. There was a subtle, but noticeable, shift in her ribcage, and she winced, holding her side. Letting out a deep breath, she stood up straight and marched on.

When she finally caught up to Michelle, she took the oprpurtiniry to finish her questions. "You say you've been here for two years?" Michelle eyed her, but said nothing. "Why hasn't Claire come to collect you? Why would she leave you in the Dome for so long? You would think after two years in this place you'd have enough Toxicoma to cure a few with the virus."

"You would think that," Skipper scoffed, lowly to where she was sure he had intended for her not to hear.

"That's not why Claire designed the Domes," Michelle explained, and Joey's brows shot up. "She hates people with abilities. There is no escaping."

Joey stopped and stared at the back of Michelle's head in shock. "What? No, that couldn't be right." She took a few long strides and reached for Michelle's arm. "They told us—"

"You were told wrong!" Michelle swung around meeting Joey eye to eye. She stood so close that Joey could feel the warmth of Michelle's breath against her skin. "Claire wants us dead!"

Joey felt the blood drain from her face.

"She despises those who are different. She doesn't care about some cure. It's all a hoax! She just wants to rid the world of abilities for good!" Michelle shook her head, and Joey could see the look of betrayal hidden deep within her eyes. "There is no exit because there was never meant to be one." Michelle panted through her nose from what had to have been the spike of adrenaline that came with her anger.

"Agcorp doesn't intervene except to drop off new victims or hide supplies," Skipper intervened in what Joey hoped was an attempt to cool the heated moment. His gaze drifted towards Michelle. "Claire's pretty specific in how the Domes are ran." He placed a hand on his hip, shifted from one foot the the other, and his green eyes met Joey's briefly before looking towards Heather. "She never allows two people to be dropped off in the same spot. She must've known your history and made an acceptation."

Joey gasped as fear clenched its vise-like fist around her chest. Nausea boiled in her stomach and her knees weakened nearly buckling beneath her. "No, no, no, no!" Running her hands along her scalp, she gripped her hair—which she immediately regretted.

"What is it?" Skipper lowered his hand and arched his brows as they lifted in panic.

"They're fine," Michelle stated deadpan. "Watched the aircraft unload the rest of them, and I fetched some members of my team to help retrieve them."

For a split second Joey contemplated letting out the breath she was holding, but the fear of her friends being somewhere out there alone kept her from exhaling.

"Them?" Joey swiveled and found Heather pushing herself off the tree she was leaning against during their short break. "And by them I supposed you mean our friends in which you failed to mention were here, right?"

Joey glared as she subtly touched her aching ribcage. "You didn't give me much chance to say anything before you attacked me."

Heather huffed and rolled her eyes. "Then let's get out of here so we can find them, yeah?" She marched in between Michelle and Skipper, her hands balled and her face twisted in anger—so nothing new there.

Skipper exchanged glances between Joey and Michelle. Thrusting a thumb over his shoulder he said, "She doesn't actually know where she's going, does she?"

"I don't just hand out our location to anyone," Michelle replied, stepping past him.

"Right," he whispered. He side-glanced Joey before gesturing forward. "I probably should've listened to her and stayed at the hideout."

"She'd probably still be yelling in my face if you hadn't." A grin pulled at one corner of her lips, and Skipper returned the smile with an even brighter one that spread from ear to ear.

With a heavy sigh through her nose, Joey pressed on through the thick forestry, trusting in total random strangers to save her friends...and herself, come to think of it.