Though the sunset may have been beautiful, inside the camp it was hard to see the sky. For Terra, her eyes were trained directly at the ground, at counting the blades of grass and the kids who had awoken. A mass inventory brought her to seventy-two exactly. Seventy-two children with no memories of who they were or where they'd come from or why they'd gone to sleep. The thought left Terra haunted; how could they survive if they did not know what mistakes had brought them here?

"Hey," said a voice coming up from behind her. So far it was the only voice she could identify: Jamie. By his side was Maisie, the little girl she had helped in the bunker. She was certainly the youngest in the camp, so much so that Terra wondered how she ever made it into cryosleep in the first place. The closest in age must have been Wren, but though the girl didn't look a day past than fifteen, Terra knew she was older than she appeared. "We were gonna go collect tinder. You should come with us."

"Yeah," she nodded, pushing herself off the smooth rock where she'd been sitting. She should be doing something, she had to. With Ronan's whole trio out in the woods, she could not sit back and wait for them to arrive as heroes. "You figured out the fire?"

"Not exactly," he shrugged, "But it's coming back slowly. I don't remember learning it, but I know that I did."

"So instincts still work," she said. Her gaze panned over towards the garden in the corner of the clearing, where that boy Casper had volunteered to take charge with food production. If Jamie could remember the steps for fire, then perhaps Casper would remember the steps for a farm.

"Seems like didn't we lose skills, just the stories behind them."

If Jamie was right, then maybe they might survive.

He led them over to the small grove of conifer trees near the Eastern wall, all still within the camp's boundaries. He knelt down and smiled as he lifted two small twigs from the ground. "This is what we're looking for," he said. "These small, dry little sticks. They serve as fuel for the fire."

"Like this?" asked Maisie, reaching for a handful of her own.

"Exactly like that."

"Well, we're not gonna run out," said Maisie. It was the first time Terra thought she heard something other than a timid panic in the little girl's voice. "There's plenty."

"Who knows how long it's been since anyone's collected it?" The grin on Jamie's face was genuine, a true amazement with the nature around him and a comfort with the procedure ahead. She could have sworn he understood everything, that no fear plagued his bones. He knew what to do, some remnant of the past had been left behind, like scattered slips of paper and if he could put the puzzle back together then his fire would grow and he knew exactly where to place each piece.
"How are we gonna light it?" Terra asked. Though she could not remember anything specific about how to build a fire, she knew that at the end it took a catalyst to make it light. The structure could only save them if they could find a spark to enter it.

For the first time, Jamie's face dropped, and Terra sighed as she realized he'd been thinking that all along. "I don't know yet," he said. "But we'll figure it out."

"We better," she mumbled, the wind had begun to pick up as the sun lost its place in the sky. She didn't know how cold it could get at night, she didn't even know what time of year it was. "We won't make it long without fire."

Jamie saw the way her lips pursed together, like they were trying to hold back a flood of concerns she didn't want to vocalize because speaking them aloud might make them real. "Don't worry." He pushed himself off the ground, both his fists full of kindling fuel. "If we all die on the first night, it won't be because of the fire. I promise."

"You looking for a flint?" asked another voice as they headed back towards the wood Jamie and Maisie had laid for their fire. It was Casper, the farmer. Terra had hardly talked to the kid since they met, but from the moment she'd laid eyes on him she knew he was safe. He had kind eyes and a gentle smile, and she'd noticed his hesitation when Ronan had stepped forward in the crowd. She and Casper were on the same side; she knew it in her heart.

"Yeah," Jamie nodded. "That or a match or something."

"I heard people saying Ronan and his friends found their weapons down in the bunker," said Casper. "Sounds like there may be supplies down there. I was gonna go take a look for seeds if you want to come, seems like it would be suicide if they'd sent us up here without a means for fire or food, you know?"

"Sure," said Jamie. He then turned to Terra, "Keep an eye on things on the surface. Who knows when the hunters will be back?"

"Of course," she smiled. She had no interest in returning to the bunker, not yet at least. The mere memory of waking up in that silent room with nothing but a flickering light and a mind starved for answers still sent shivers down her spine.

She held her breath as she watched the boys head towards the trapdoor leading into the earth, leaving only her and Maisie and a world full of strangers on the surface. Casper was the first to descend, and she did not tear her eyes away until she watched the last tuft of Jamie's dark blonde hair disappear into the coffin in the ground.

She exhaled only when they did not close the door behind them, as though that would seal their fates forever. She tried to ignore the foreboding feeling spreading slowly across her stomach that warned the longer the gates were open the sooner death would approach, that it was creeping just along the corner, waiting to attack. But Jamie and Casper could not close the bunker door, they could not return from which they came.

"There's gotta be something else we can do," she said, ripping her eyes away from the hole into the underworld and back towards Maisie who still stood by her side. "This camp won't save itself."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Wren was bitter. From the moment Ronan had whisked her away, dismissed her as a child, her face had twisted into a scowl that she wouldn't dare release. They'd made a mistake; she was wronged. They all needed to know that she was wronged. The idea of what lay beyond the stone walls that towered twice her height filled her chest with terror and amazement all at once and though her feet told her not yet her head knew she could not stand frozen. They all needed to know that she was wronged. She needed to know it too.

"Look at that," someone said, coming up beside her. She turned around to see the boy who'd cracked the code at the gate. She didn't know his name, but he was one of the only other kids who seemed younger, closer to her age. They hadn't met yet so she figured he thought the same thing. "You ever see a fire before?"

"Of course not," she murmured, but nevertheless she turned her eyes towards the movement in the center of the camp and her heart leapt out of her chest. Hollering around the firepit were Casper the farmer and Jamie the prince—she wasn't sure where that title came from but it clicked the moment she thought it—and Terra, who left a bitter taste in Wren's mouth. More bitter than Ronan. She wasn't sure why.

But between them was the fire, alight in oranges and reds so vivid she could have sworn they were impossible. The flames danced into the sky, dark blue now after the sunset, and the sparks shot off and flickered into the atmosphere. Even from a distance she caught a whiff of the scent of smoke, novel and invigorating. It was power, that smell, that fire, those orange-red flames against the dark blue sky. It was dangerous, and it was beautiful.

"I'm Felix," the boy said. Her stomach dropped; she'd let the muscles in her face loosen as she'd stared at the flames. She'd let her sneer disintegrate, her armor at the door. She ripped her eyes from the sight, though she could feel them clawing their way back to the center of the camp where the fire threatened to tear a hole through the sky and she wanted nothing more than to watch it in wonder.

"Wren."

"You're the one who wanted to hunt, right?" he asked. Wren's eyes reflected the sparks in the fire, a slight smirk crawling its way up her pale cheeks. Her reputation preceded her already. "Can I ask you why? I mean, I'm terrified of what's out there and I don't think we know how to fight—"

"I'm not," she shrugged. "Terrified, I mean. I'm not scared of it." She didn't even notice how she was lying through her teeth, it was almost like saying it made it true.

"Why not?"

"Why'd you know the code for the gate?"

She almost felt bad when she saw how Felix's face dropped, how she could have sworn he felt guilty for knowing the answer. He was young like her; they both had the weight of a new earth pressing down upon their shoulders and a fear in their bellies that they wanted nothing more than to banish.

To her surprise, he answered. "The numbers were stuck in my head," he said. "Forty-two and eighty-eight. I—I don't know what they mean or where I heard it or anything but they're two separate numbers, that's it."

"Do they have to be in that order?" she asked, "Eighty-eight, forty-two. Is that the same?"

He shook his head. "It only works one way. Your turn."

"You want to know why I wanted to hunt?" There was a deep fear in his eyes; she could help him. It was the right thing to do, for his sake and hers. She needed an ally and it wouldn't be Ronan.

"And how you're not afraid of it."

"You should understand it," she said. "If you want a stake in this game you can't float by."

"I don't get it. This isn't a game, Wren, it's our lives—"

"If we don't play our cards right, we're the first ones to get left behind. We can't matter if we can't even be seen."

"What about that kid?" Felix asked, gesturing across the field towards the fire and the little girl—the youngest of them all—who clung by Terra's side. "You think they're gonna feed her to the wolves?"

"Not her," said Wren. The bitter taste was back, so she spat it out onto the grass. "She played her cards. You could do the same, cozy up to someone with power. Free ride, really."

"But you're not gonna try that. You want to be a player."

"Exactly," she nodded. She nodded towards the child, she thought her name was Maisie. That girl already had a seat at the table. Then again, she may have had a seat but that didn't mean she had a voice. "I can't speak for you, but I won't make it very far being someone else's pet."

"You're smart, I'll give you that," said Felix, but she heard a sigh in his voice. He understood, but he did not agree. It sickened her how he could not see it; they were young and they were small and they would be the first to be forgotten. Too old to play as children, too young to lead. They had to play correctly: they only had one shot to live.

As Felix walked away, Wren found her eyes trailing back towards the fire, and there she stared until the hunters returned and when she turned away she still saw the imprint of the flames in everyplace she looked, burned into the inside of her eyelids, and flickering into the dark blue sky. 

a/n

last update for a week, sorry in advance

IF YOU HAVE NOT YET CHECKED OUT THE SPAM BOOK "THIS BITTER SPAM" YOU SHOULD!! IT WILL BE FILLED WITH MEMES AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BOOK. 

I will make an "additional info" page for this chapter in the spam book!! should be up sometime today. 

can you catch the foreshadowing here? 

QUESTIONS

-how does Terra compare to Ronan now that they both consider themselves leaders in the camp

-wtf is Wren's mentality?? Is she looking at this the right way? What are the implications or dangers of her looking at her survival as a "game" or something she can "win"? 

-it seems supplies were left in the bunker. how did they get there? why are there supplies but no explanations for anything? 

-forty-two and eighty-eight. What do these numbers mean? Why do they have to go in that order? How did Felix know them?