chapter 27

"You guys need to come with me. Now," She said. I turned back to look at Trevor and I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

"What's wrong Lydia?" He asked.

"It's Jared," She said. I felt my heart race again but a pit in my stomach this time. I got up from the bed and Trevor followed. I walked over to Lydia and gave a small nod before we both walked out, side by side and leaving Trevor to walk behind us. She rushed down the stairs and didn't say a word which worried me. What was going on that Lydia was so quiet. What happened to Jared? Is he ok? Did the labs get him? Is my aunt dead?

Once we finally reached The slaza, Lydia ran to the second door that was next to the cafeteria door. I've never been there. I walked into the room that had 20 computers separated into 2 rows and one big screen in the very front of the room. On there were updates for the database, new kids that have entered the database, rewards system, and kids that have escaped The labs or The WildFires. The room was empty except for one boy and me, Lydia, and Trevor. She ran over to the computer that was glowing right next to the asian boy. He looked a lot like Lily.

"Nick, pull it up," Lydia said, typing something on her computer.

"Who's he?" Trevor asked, coming up behind me. The boy looked up at me and gave a small smile. His eyes were the same as Lily's but his hair was curly while Lily had hers straight.

"He's a friend. He helped me out with hacking into this part of the surveillance," She explained. Right after she finished her sentence, Amanda, Amy, Lucas, and Emily all bursted through the door.

"What are you two doing in here? This is only for athorized personnel to enter. Like surveillance," She explained. Nick turned to look at Lydia and then at Amanda.

"She needs to see this Amanda," He said in a deep but soft voice. Amanada looked at me for a moment before nodding at Nick. He typed something into his computer and then a live surveillance video came onto the big screen. I turned my eyes to the screen and so did Trevor. Amanda stood in the back of the room while Lucas, Emily, and Amy came to stand next to us.

On the screen was Jared strapped into a chair, laying down completely still and there was a woman in a lab coat and my aunt in the room. But she was dead. Her dirty blonde hair was stained with blood pooling from her shoulder and abdomen. I felt tears well up in my eyes seeing her dark eyes stare at me without a sign of life in them. It took a moment to rip my eyes away from her to my brother.

"What did they do to him?" I said as I felt the pit go deeper and my heart race faster than ever.

"He was struggling too much so they injected him with some type of anesthesia," Nick said. I turned my head away from him and back up at the screen when I heard a deep breath come from the video. I felt Trevor grab my hand and entangle our fingers together. Amy came up next to me and Lucas came up next to Trevor. I looked at Amy before turning back to the screen. Jared's dark brown hair was messy and his eyes were filled with fear.

"Where is she? Where's Aunt Jenna?" He said in a panicked voice, looking around the room and struggling against the restraints. The tears were pricking at my eyes now, about to fall. I could feel fear and anger build up inside, rushing through my veins. It felt like I couldn't breathe anymore.

"We are sorry to tell you this but your Aunt is dead," the lady in the lab coat said, facing away from him and filling a syringe with a liquid. He stopped struggling when he heard the words roll out of her mouth and rested his head against the chair, in shock and sadness.

"What did you do with her?" He asked in an angry tone, slowly turning his head to look at the lady. He repeated himself when she didn't answer.

"She wouldn't give us the information we needed. So, we had to terminate her. She already knew too much about us," She said. He narrowed his eyes in anger, like he was crushing her in his mind.

"You mean the fact that you guys created this whole outbreak that killed millions or that you killed millions in order to make a more stable generation?" He said. I felt my mouth fall open.

No. No. No! He knows. They're going to kill him because he knows. He shouldn't have said anything.

The lady stopped doing whatever she was doing and turned slowly to look at him. "You're a smart young man. This will be easy," she said, turning back to the syringe and testing to see if it worked. Once she knew it worked she turned back around to face him.

"Now. If you tell us what we want to know then we won't hurt you. I'm sure your parents taught you about how bad lying is," She said. I tried not to hold my breath at this point but it was too hard.

"Whatever you want to know, I don't have the information," He said, laying his head back down on the chair.

"Where is she?" The lady asked. My heart was pounding at this point and I knew I was shaking since Trevor tightened his grip on my hand.

"Where is who?" Jared asked.

She stayed quiet for a moment before saying, "Bring him in."

Then, Jeremy was in the room. I gasped for air and I had tears in my eyes already. Please no. Don't do it.

"Who is that?" Amy asked. I couldn't speak, my throat was too dry.

"He's an IP kid," Lydia said. He still looked lifeless, like he was already too far away from saving.

"Now. One more time. Where is your sister?" the lady asked. Jared stayed silent.

Just tell her. Save yourself and tell her where I am.

"Go ahead Jeremy," The lady said. Jeremy stepped forward and put his hand on Jared's arm. Jared looked confused as to what was happening.

"What is he doing?" He asked and before he could repeat himself, Jared looked around the room like he was somewhere else. The lady injected the syringe into Jareds arm and he relaxed against the chair. It took a moment for the tears to start falling down his cheeks. He was stuck on a certain corner of the room.

"Amber. Please, don't do this. Please," Jared begged. He kept begging and begging to something that wasn't there. And then his screams rang through my ears. I felt the last bit of air leave my body as his screams bounced off the wall. He wasn't scared, he was in pain. Like he was being tortured.

This isn't real. I'm right here, you're not hurt. You're ok. This isn't real.

My thoughts couldn't reach him but I wish they could so desperately. His screams finally stopped after a few seconds and all I could hear were his sobs. Jeremy's hand was finally off of Jared's arm and he stepped back without emotion on his face.

"You get one more chance. Where is your sister?" The lady asked again in a slow tone, articulating every word clearly.

He kept shaking his head. "I don't know," He cried.

He doesn't, please don't punish him. He's innocent. Please, he knows nothing.

"Guess your parents didn't teach you the consequences of lying," She said, quickly pulling out a gun and pulling the trigger while it was aimed at his head. Everything was silent for a moment. I couldn't hear my heartbeat anymore, my breathing, the lady on the screen. I couldn't even feel Trevor or Amy next to me anymore. I felt broken.

The blood started pooling around Jared's head and his lifeless eyes were staring at me. Those same eyes were looking at me with joy almost 3 weeks ago. Maybe more. When was the last time we hugged? I can't even remember how tall he was. It's like everything died with him. Every part of me that was clinging onto salvation, it fell off the cliff. And now I was falling into eternal darkness.

Nick pulled the video off of the screen and it went back to the database and files of other kids. I pulled my hand from Trevor's and felt the tears fall from my eyes. I could feel Trevor's eyes on me as well as everyone elses. We stood there quietly for a second before Amanda broke the silence.

"My condolences for your family Amber," She said, right before walking out. I heard the door shut and my eyes drifted from the door to Lydia and Nick who were looking at me with sympathy in their eyes. Then they drifted to Amy's eyes. She was about to cry, and she didn't even know him. I could still feel the anger building up inside me, running through my veins.

I turned to look at Trevor and his eyes were sad for me. He knew how much pain I was in. It was all over my face and yet, he has no idea. It feels like my heart has been ripped out of my chest. I looked at Lucas and Emily. Lucas was looking down at his shoes, hurt by what he saw considering that it may have reminded him of his family. And Emily was just emotionless. No sadness, sympathy. Instead on her face was determination. Hatred.

I decided to lock away the sadness. I wasn't about to break down. Not now, and not ever. Amy put a hand on my shoulder and when I felt her hand, I brushed it off. I looked at her with a fire in my eyes and turned around to walk out of the control room.

"Where are you going?" Trevor asked. I ignored his question. I just continued walking and walking and walking until I found myself in a training room. I wrapped tape around my knuckles and started punching the bag. The anger wasn't going to go away. Instead, it kept me going.

Now there are only 2 certain things I knew. One was that I was going to destroy the labs, one way or another. Even if I have to kill. And second.

Jared was dead.