What Eliza had planned was dangerous. She could almost see her name etched in a slab of wood that marked the empty graves of their camp. Four missing, one dead, five gone. Soon she'd be the sixth, a sacrifice she had to make if the rest were to survive.

She and Bianca had finished the details in private—neither quite trusted Xavier to follow. This time he was not bait; it was Eliza Bard alone. The radios were almost finished, and they had planned as they whittled with the old technology down below. They worked after three days and not a moment too soon. The beasts were growing ever nearer. They had to act now.

"We can't survive the Dead Haze in this camp" she said, turning to face the group in the cabin they'd turned into the unofficial town hall. It was the usual crowd: Terra and Ronan, Kennedy, Xavier and Bianca and Casper and this time Wren. "There are too many variables we can't prepare for. We don't know how long it will be before this forest is survivable, and even once it's cleared the soil and wildlife might still carry the toxins—we need to leave."

"In case you haven't noticed, the beasts are everywhere around this camp," Ronan murmured. Their tempers had all gone short the past week—with the monsters surrounding, the hunt had gotten hard. Food grew scarce. "Nobody's leaving."

"Which is why I'm going alone." She regretted the words the moment they left her lips. Facing fate was dangerous.

"Like hell you are."

"The beasts are tracking me and Xavier," she snapped. It was the truth they didn't want to hear. "Wrigley wants the kids who crashed their plane. If they get me and I convince them Xav's dead or not a threat then they might let the rest of this camp go."

"You're fucking delirious," said Xavier. "That's a suicide mission, you said it yourself we can't trust them."

"And I still don't think we can!" She took a deep breath, lowering her voice and facing the others right in the eye. "If we don't try to get the beasts away then we starve before the fog even gets here. If we're lucky, I'm wrong about them, but if not then maybe we can leave their city and find some woods up north. Either way it buys us time. Standing still will kill us all."

There was once a time when Terra thought the walls were their saviors, their stone protectors against the wild world abroad, but then the fog choked them even inside, and the beasts came closer to starve them out and the walls could not pierce the turning of the earth. It was time they start to move. "She's right," she said, cursing the very words. "But they won't go easy on the pilot who killed their guards and crashed their plane. They won't trust you."

"They'll trust me," said Bianca and the room went silent. She gulped down her fear as she watched Eliza's eyes narrowed. She never told her about her own plan.

"No, you can't, Bi. You're still sick." It didn't matter who said it aloud—Kennedy, perhaps it was— but they all thought the same thing.

"Exactly," she said. "The cough's only getting worse. I can be Eliza's alibi, we're just seeking medical attention—"

Xavier nodded, a heavy frown upon his face. Some things had to be done. "They already know she's too smart to walk into the beasts by mistake."

Eliza shook her head. "This is dangerous," she said. "We shouldn't send out any more people than we have to."

"You won't make it far on your own, it's just like Terra said."

Ronan slammed his fist against the table, the sound snapping all their attention towards him standing at its head. "You can't actually be considering this." His glare was deep, something like anger seeping through his flared nostrils. "We agreed to protect our people. That was what you wanted, Bianca, not to send them out to die."

"If we don't do this now then we're already dead," Terra snapped. She lifted her chin just the slightest, staring Ronan dead in the eyes, daring him to be the first to look away. Her head turned to Eliza, though her gaze was still fixed on him. "How will we know if it's safe?"

"We fixed the radios," she said. "We only have two but it'll be enough. I'll keep one, you'll have the other back at camp."

Terra nodded. "Bianca should keep hold of it. They'll go easier on her."

"She's not coming—"

"You're not going alone."

Another voice entered the conversation, her birdsong heard for the very first time. "I'm coming too," said Wren. She straightened her spine as they turned to her. Invisible, they'd almost all forgotten she was even standing there.

Ronan howled. "Absolutely not—"

"Bianca's sick and no offense, but Eliza's not a great shot," she said. "I'm the best weapon in this camp and you all know it."

"You're a child, Wren,"

"Which is why they'll never see me coming."

Eliza knew the girl was right, she knew Bianca was right as well. There was a knife in her boot when the beast took her before and yet she never had the strength to pull it out, never had the courage to pull that trigger. Bianca's cough was getting worse. They could never survive unmanned. And besides, little Wren was clever; the nomads told her all their precious secrets within a single night.

"We leave at dawn," Eliza said. "Hide a blade and pack nothing more."

Through the windows in the cabin they could see the sky turn gray, clouds rolling in from the horizon and suffocating the sun. Gray like steel, like a stone atop a grave. It would be dark soon, better get some sleep. They would leave at dawn, and now they could not return. 

END PART TWO

a/n:

I'm baaaaaaack (w a super short chapter lol.) 

Linked here is another survey I would love for you to take to summarize your thoughts in the story up until this point. You can remain anonymous if you'd like, this is just for me to have concrete data about what's going well or isn't going well. Please let me know if you would like me to pm the link. 

side note: I've recently posted the teaser/introduction for my new fantasy story: FOR HOLLOW CROWNS. Feel free to check it out! I am super excited to start it.

QUESTIONS:

-Will Eliza's plan work? 

-How will the camp look without Eliza, Bianca, or Wren? 

-How will Ronan react since he stood against this plan and it happened anyways? How will Xavier take it?

-Is there any chance Wrigley can be trusted?