Marked

“Tell me again.”

Tom let out a long breath. “Rachel, I’ve already told you the story twice.”

“Please, Tom. I need to hear it again.” Something in her expression made his eyes soften with pity. The dining room was silent, the breakfast rush having died down to only a few stragglers here and there.

“Okay, Rachel.” He drew in a deep breath before continuing. “Two of us went into the hospital as electrical workers for a repair that had been called in. One of our girls on the inside helped us access the medication with her nurse’s mark. Once we retrieved it, we left to meet the others guys who were waiting at the capital’s entrance with a work order for maintenance on the dam a few miles out. That’s where Hector was.”

Rachel nodded her head, prompting him to continue. She could see everything he was saying unfolding before her eyes like a sad book she knew had a terrible ending but couldn’t put down.

“We cleared the city’s entrance with no problem. They checked the work order and our supervisor’s mark and let us through. It was when we got to a checkpoint that things went south.”

Rachel sucked in a deep breath, readying herself for what was coming next.

“There were seven officers at the checkpoint and only five of us. When they checked Hector’s mark, their scanner began blaring with a notification. It wasn’t even a real mark. It didn’t belong to anyone.”

This is the part where the blood always drained from her face.

They had given Hector a mark that didn’t work. Had it been an accident? It didn’t make sense. People who’d survived this long undetected wouldn’t make that type of mistake. What reason would Abby have for giving Hector a fake mark? Something was not adding up.

“That’s when all hell broke loose.” Sweat dewed on Tom’s forehead and she wondered if she was a terrible person for making him relieve the horror. He seemed pretty shaken by the entire ordeal, but she needed to hear it again, almost as much as she needed air to breathe.

Maybe there was something she had missed the first two times, a clue, something that would assure her that Hector had somehow survived.

“We fought, of course, but we were outnumbered. The poachers were getting ready to call for back up when Aaron and Hector told us to run, to get the hell out of there. Once we were in the woods, I heard a few gun shots...” He tapped his fingers against the table, his legs bouncing up and down in tune to the tapping.

“I don’t know what happened next.” Tom admitted. He touched her arm gently, making her realize she was shaking, just a little.

“He fought for us to get away, Rachel. He really wanted the antidote to come back to you.”

“Thank you, Tom. Thank you so much.”

***

“We can’t jeopardize the mission. I’m sorry, Rachel, but there’s nothing else that I can do.”

Rachel slammed her hands down against Abby’s desk. The older woman remained unfazed, with hands clasped in front of her, blue eyes darting away towards a clock on the wall, distracted.

Her room reeked of air freshener. Potted plants sat in each corner of the room, wilting from lack of real sunlight, the pixilated walls reflecting a tropical sunset.

“You can’t just leave him there. It was your people who abandoned him in the first place.”

Abby sighed and fixed her blue-eyed gaze back onto Rachel’s face. “We already went over this. They were about to be caught and he made the choice to stay behind so the others could get away and bring the antidote back here. This is war, Rachel, and in war there are always casualties.”

“How many?” Rachel asked abruptly.

Abby shook her head, frustration plain as daylight in her eyes. “How many what?”

“How many people did you abandon in the capital? Or was Hector the only one?”

“No, he was not. One of our best soldiers, Aaron, was also left behind. It was an unfortunate sacrifice but one that had to be made.”

“What I don’t understand is why you would let a new trainee out there in the first place. He wasn’t anywhere close to ready and you know it.”

“It was his choice.”

“He had barely tested negative and he’s had, what? A few weeks of training at the most! There’s no way he was ready to go to the capital so what’s the real reason you sent him there, Abby?”

“I don’t have time to repeat everything to you all over again— ”

“Then make time because I’m not going anywhere until you tell me why you let him go.”

“I let him go— “Her jaw clenched and unclenched. The white of her suit bleached out her features, her red lipstick a thin, harsh line that cut her face in half. “Because that’s what he wanted.”

Rachel shook her head in disgust. Anger simmered beneath the surface of Abby’s grey eyes, like waves crashing over one another in the middle of a storm.

Rachel felt the same anger fizzling inside her and had to suck in a deep breath which did nothing but scorch her lungs. Slowly, a puzzle began to form in her mind but she kept her suspicions to herself and instead said, “I don’t understand how you can abandon your own people like that.”

“Our training was always very clear, from the very beginning, Rachel. Nobody lied to you. Hector knew when not to jeopardize the mission.” Abby paused, letting the words hang between them. “Do you?”

Rachel stood, knocking her chair over in the process. She was done speaking to Abby. It was useless. She’d have to find another way.

Anyways, the room had become suffocating with its fake sun bleeding in through fake windows and a fake ocean breeze. She was not in the mood for their fallacies, not today. Everything about this place was just one big lie.

Rachel spun on her heels and left the room, not bothering to reply to Abby. What could she say, anyway? That she suspected her of being just as terrible as the poachers? She’d always questioned the bunker people’s morals but them leaving Hector behind had only solidified that, and added a hint of fear, too.

What military left their soldiers behind? Where was the sense of honor in that?

Rachel stalked down the hall, ignoring the many gawking stares that burned into her back. Everyone knew she was one of the ‘infected’ and they avoided her at all costs. It was just as well—she didn’t want any of them near her, anyway.

She reached the dorms and went into the room that was supposed to be hers but nothing about that place felt like home. Every move was carefully monitored, every action surveyed and recorded. This was a prison, not a safe haven, after all.

She rummaged through piles of clothes on the floor. It had to be there somewhere underneath it all. Finally, she found what she was looking for.

Her watch lay cool, and metallic against her fingertips, taunting her with the memory of a time where she had identified with the bunker people. The screen lit up and she scrolled and punched several commands until a picture of Hector emerged. He stared back at her from a white backdrop, his soldier number in black, bold letters beneath his picture.

She pressed the call button but nothing happened. The corner of the screen held a small, red circle with a line through it. Offline. Every time she would try and every time the call would fail. She didn’t know why she bothered anymore.

Tears stung in the back of her eyes but she shoved them away and stood. There was only one other person that wanted to rescue Hector as much as she did—if he could still be rescued, that is.

She immediately shoved the thought away. She refused to believe he had been captured and Marked. Hector would have found a way to save himself or delay the process, there was no room for any other option in her mind if she wanted to remain sane.

Rachel hadn’t been to drill in over a week thanks to a note from Dr. Everest. As a result, she hadn’t seen Yalina since their confrontation in the infirmary but now it was time to face her no matter how much that woman hated her.

She rushed past a group of girls and caught the elevator before it closed. Her stomach did a black flip and settled as the lift came to a halt. Her fingertips ached where they’d been rubbed raw from all the times she’d tried—without success—to open up her hospital room after they’d told her about Hector.

Three days later, when they had finally let her out, she’d been a mess. It was her fault he was still out there somewhere and that made it hard to even sleep or eat.

The training room mirrors reflected back the bags under her eyes and tangled, red hair. Yalina’s class was gathered in the strength training room and Rachel strode straight to where Yalina was coaching someone on how to lift a bar.

“There you— “Yalina stopped mid-sentence when she spotted Rachel and her face flamed red. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“We need to talk.”

“The hell we do.” Her jaw flexed and her eyes took on a dangerous glint. “Out. Get the hell out.”

“No.” Rachel took another step forward. “The longer you keep this little vendetta against me going the longer Hector is stranded in the capital. So no, I’m not leaving and you’re going to help me.”

“Why in the world would I help someone I hate?”

Yalina strode up to her, standing much taller than Rachel. “Because you love him and you want him back. I want him back, too.”

Yalina laughed that humorless laugh of hers. One of her hands snaked out to grab Rachel by the hair in order to haul her out of the room but Rachel stuck a leg out, causing her to trip and both of them to fumble to the floor.

Yalina immediately straddled her and slapped her across the face. It stung and heat spread across her cheek, accompanying the pain.

“This is all your fault. If it wasn’t for you— “This time Yalina punched her and Rachel didn’t hold her arms up. If it made Yalina feel better to knock her around, she’d let her. Maybe this way she’d finally feel something other than numb.

“Defend yourself!” The other girl shouted. Saliva clung to the edge of her lips as she viciously slapped Rachel again. Tears spilled over the corners of Yalina’s eyes and landed on Rachel’s face, like drops of rain.

“Out!” She yelled at her students. They all stood baffled for a few moments before they filed out of the room, their hushed whispers and covert glances similar to buzzing flies.

Yalina stopped straddling her and sat down beside Rachel, her body shaking with uncontrollable sobs. Rachel sat up too, her own pain threatening to pour out.

If someone had asked Rachel to compile a list of people who would break down crying for Hector, she would have placed herself at the top of it. Yet somehow, no tears came. She could feel them burning at the back of her eyes yet they would not spill over.

She felt like her lacrimal ducts had broken. There were no tears left to cry. Hector had risked his life to go into the city with very little training and he had done all that for her. She, on the other hand, had let him die in her simulation.

Yalina was right.

She was a terrible person who did not deserve what Hector had sacrificed for her.

On the other hand, Yalina was curled up in a ball beside her, all snot and boogers, so unlike the strong woman she had first met who had seemed invincible.

“Abby let him go, you know?” Rachel said in a flat voice, after the silence had dragged on painfully.

“I don’t understand why she would do that. No one even consulted me about it and I was his training officer...” The fight slowly drained out of Yalina, her shoulders relaxing.

“Maybe she didn’t want you to object.”

Her eyes shot up to look at Rachel. “What are you trying to say?”

“Just that you would have never approved it.”

“No, of course I wouldn’t have.”

“That’s why she didn’t ask you. If you ask me, she was hoping he would be killed so she wouldn’t have to deal with him.” Rachel said.

“That doesn’t make any sense. Abby is not like that, she’s a good leader.”

Rachel stared at a piece of frayed thread at the edge of her sweater.

“It doesn’t make any sense.” Yalina repeated. “Hector didn’t do anything wrong.”

“They’re not telling us the whole story. Something happened, something that convinced Abby to let him go to the capital, I can feel it.” Rachel looked at Yalina then, searching the other girl’s brown eyes.

Yalina shook her head, her mouth slightly agape as if she were trying to come up with a valid reason to justify Abby.

“Did you know his mark didn’t work when they checked it? It didn’t belong to anyone.”

Yalina seemed at a loss for words, her breath hitching as she took in this new piece of information.

“Everyone’s mark works. You—you don’t get discovered unless someone realizes your face doesn’t match the dead person they once knew...”

“Well Hector’s didn’t work. Tom told me, he was there and I bet Abby knew that that would happen.”

“Those are some serious accusations you’re making.”

She felt her lips turn up at the corner into a sad smile. Yalina was blinded by Abby, just like everyone else at the bunker. But Rachel had known, from the very first moment Abby had laughed in her face and told her that the world wasn’t about good and evil anymore, that something was not right with this place, with her.

“Does Abby listen to you?” Rachel asked, choosing to change the subject.

“She’s asked me for advice once or twice, but— ”

“Maybe if you talk to her, she’ll let us send people to go rescue Hector.”

Yalina sighed. “You don’t understand, Wilson. The capital moves so quickly. I’ve been there, I know how they work. As soon as they capture the unmarked, they send them off to be marked. It might already be too late.”

“So you’re saying we should just give up, then?”

“No—I—I just don’t know, anymore.”

“He would have found a way to stay alive and unmarked. That’s just who he is. Give him a little more credit.”

“It will be useless. Abby has never approved a rescue mission. Under no circumstances are we to put the well-being of one over the greater good of the many.”

“You have to try.”

Both girls grew silent.

Rachel hated how desperate, how whiny she sounded. Fluorescent lights pierced the room like knives, electricity hummed from the rafters, the scent of sweat clung to the blue mats they sat on.

“Alright, I’ll go.” Yalina finally said as she stood and rubbed the tears from her eyes. “But if this doesn’t work, you’ll just have to find a way to live with his blood on your hands.”

A/N What do you think of Abby, reader? Why would she give Hector a mark that didn’t work? Do you think Yalina will be able to convince her to do a rescue mission?