Chapter 10: Night Watch

POV: Avery

"We wait until they move," I whispered to Elliot behind the shelves. The others were eating cold beans by the heater, and nobody was looking at us. "We can't throw them out for talking."

"I don't sleep much anyway," Elliot said, checking his gun. "Lie down with it under your pillow, and I will sit in the dark by the shelves, so don't shoot me by mistake."

At midnight, I lay on my bed with my eyes almost closed and my gun under the pillow. The heater hummed, and everyone else was asleep or pretending. Elliot sat in the dark by the shelves, and I could hardly see him.

A shoe scraped on the floor, and I stopped breathing. Two shadows crossed the warehouse slowly, and a third one followed behind them. One of them carried something long in his hand.

"Is she asleep?" Tyler whispered, and his voice shook. He was bent low, holding a rope in both hands.

"She doesn't move," Diane whispered back, creeping closer to my bed. "Tie her hands first, then we carry her to the door." Gerald stayed behind them with the big flashlight raised like a stick.

Tyler leaned over my bed with the rope. I opened my eyes and pushed my gun against his chin. "Go ahead and try it," I said.

Tyler froze, and Diane stepped back with her mouth open. Then the lights came on, and Elliot stood by the switch with his gun pointed at Gerald. Gerald's hand was shaking on the flashlight.

"Put it down, Gerald," Elliot said. "Slowly, or I will shoot you in the leg." Gerald dropped the flashlight, and it rolled across the floor with a loud noise.

Everyone woke up at the noise. Victor rushed over with his pistol, and Helen sat up holding her blanket to her chest. Damien raised his head in his corner, but he said nothing and lay back down.

"What's going on?" Helen asked, looking from face to face. Nobody answered her, and the rope was still hanging from Tyler's hand.

"They planned to carry me outside and lock the door," I said, keeping my gun on Tyler. "I heard them this afternoon."

"That's a lie," Diane said, and she pointed at Tyler. "We only wanted to talk to her, and the boy brought the rope by himself."

Tyler's face turned red, and he looked at her like she had slapped him. "You said she would agree to leave," he said. "You said she was keeping the food for herself."

Victor stepped between Tyler and Diane with his pistol low. "Tell me what you want done, Avery," he said. "I will do it, but they don't sleep near you again."

I thought about it for a moment. Throwing them out meant killing them, and I had promised myself I would never do that again. But I could not let this go without a price.

"Tyler, you sleep tied to the post by the front door," I said. "Victor will watch you, and you eat half portions for three days." Tyler opened his mouth, and he shut it when Elliot lifted his gun.

"And me?" Diane asked, lifting her chin and crossing her arms. "You will starve a grieving mother?" Her eyes were wet, but her mouth was cruel.

"You eat what I give you," I said, looking straight at her. "Try this again, and you will see how cold it is outside." Nobody spoke, and Gerald led Diane back to her corner.

Tyler was tied to the post, and Victor sat across from him with a chair and his pistol. Slowly the warehouse went quiet again.

Helen sat on the edge of my bed with a blanket over her shoulders. "Tyler is young and scared," she said. "Don't let this turn him into someone worse."

"He tied my hands and held me down, Helen," I said, pulling my blanket up. "A post is the nicest thing I could do for him." Helen sighed and went back to her place.

Around three in the morning, Elliot got up from his chair and walked to the back wall. He didn't think I was watching. He knelt behind a stack of boxes and took something small and black from his pocket.

I lifted my head a little. He pressed a button on the thing and put it close to his mouth, and he spoke so low that I could not hear a word. Then he put it away and walked back like nothing had happened.

I wanted to ask him right then. But if he was a traitor, I would be alone against him in the dark, so I stayed still. His own first rule came back to my head: don't trust anyone who says they were reborn.

When Elliot went to wash his face at the sink, I walked to the back wall and searched behind the boxes. I found nothing but dust and one old bolt, and I felt foolish. The black thing was in his pocket, not on the floor.

At six, Nathan came to my bed with his shoes in his hand. He looked around before he spoke, and his face was pale. "Avery, I need to tell you something about Elliot," he whispered.

"I saw it too," I said, sitting up slowly. "The thing in his hand." Nathan swallowed hard and shook his head.

"It's more than that," Nathan whispered. "He was talking to a woman, and I heard her answer him." His hands were shaking, and he kept looking back at Elliot.

"Why tell me and not Victor?" I asked, and I kept my voice low. Across the room, Elliot was sitting in his chair with his arms folded.

"Because you're the one with the door code," Nathan said. "If he's lying to us, you're the one he can hurt." I looked at Elliot's closed eyes, and I wondered if he was really sleeping.