I walked next to the guard, numb. I felt like I was walking through a daydream instead of real life. Had I really done that? Was I going to run another obstacle course?

I had no choice. There was no way I could have sat and watched the people I loved running the Pestilention. It would have been worse than if I were to run it myself.

We walked through the hallway where Marcus's rebellion had once occurred. Now it was empty. The only way I knew that it had ever happened was because of the blood staining the floors.

The revolt had ended so quickly. It was as if it had never happened.

I hoped that Marcus and Hiram were okay. It was apparent that they hadn't won. Did that mean that they would be killed for what they had done? How about Corbyn, had she been caught for helping me, or was she safe? Please tell me that they're alright.

The guard stopped us in front of a door. It had my name written in gold letters. It was the same room that I had been in for the Eradication.

I stepped inside. Blankets and pillows were thrown off of the bed. Whoever had lived here after I had probably woken up when he had heard about the rebellion.

"Someone will come to bring you down in the morning," the guard said. I didn't respond. He stood at the door awkwardly for a moment longer before leaving.

Once he was gone, I sat on the bed. Silent tears trailed down my cheeks. This wasn't supposed to happen. I was supposed to have snatched Aster and Tilly—Caden and Stace weren't even supposed to be in the picture—and we should have been flying away from here. We were going to leave this place behind and hide out. We would have been living in secrecy, but I knew that we would have been fine.

I just needed to get through it. I had survived both the Pestilention and the Eradication already, I could take on another obstacle course.

But I had never done it by myself. That was going to be a challenge on its own.

Any other time, my brain would have been spinning a mile a minute. This time, however, I felt myself slowing down. I laid down and pulled a blanket off of the floor. Today had been too eventful. I knew that I should have been worried about running the course, but after everything that happened today, all I wanted to do was sleep. I stared off into space for a little longer before closing my eyes and drifting off.

I was awoken bright and early the next morning, just as promised. Someone knocked on the door. I groaned and slid out from under my covers. Surprisingly, I had slept through the entire night. There wasn't anything I could do to get ready, so I slid my fingers through my tangled hair and called it good.

There was another knock. "I'm coming, Marcus, I'm coming."

Marcus wasn't there when I opened the door, though. It was a different guard. My heart sank. I had forgotten. Marcus was gone.

The guard didn't wait for me. He walked down the stairs and didn't wait for me to catch up. I ran to keep up with him. We went down the stairs together. I looked at him from the corner of my eye. I couldn't help but feel like I had seen him before.

We reached the bottom floor when it clicked. He was one of the guards from the van. What was his name...Thing Two? No, it was Anthony. He had been the emotionless, tough-looking one. Had he and Marcus been friends? Did he miss his colleague?

Stop. Stop thinking about him.

I was dropped off in a room with a long table and a buffet of food. The aroma made my mouth water. I hadn't eaten legitimate food in forever.

I remained cautious as I grabbed a plateful of food and sat down. There had been far more food than I could eat. And the table was too large for one person. It made me feel lonely. What I would do to eat with someone else.

Once I had finished eating, the guard came back into the room. He motioned for me to follow him. I trailed behind. What could we be doing now? Usually, on the first day being in the Pestilention, we would be acquainted with other runners and getting interviewed. That seemed unnecessary for my circumstance.

This entire day seemed unnecessary. Why didn't he just throw me into an obstacle course now?

I was taken to the Observatory Room. The guard didn't hesitate to get me inside and to leave. The air inside of the room seemed to be cooler than outside. I hugged myself, suddenly wishing that the guard would have stayed inside with me.

The room was surrounded by possible obstacles. I walked around and examined each object. My footsteps bounced off of the walls.

The main similarity amongst the objects was ice. Almost everything that I saw was covered with it. So far I hadn't experienced any obstacles that had to do with ice. There was that one time when it had grown cold, but that had only been to get me and Tilly back on the path. I had no idea how I was going to perform when it came to snow.

I had seen nearly everything, but stopped at a structure that I hadn't inspected yet. A line of monkey bars stretched across the ceiling. I lifted my hand, lingering inches from the metal. I couldn't help but smile. This was an obstacle I had gone through before. If this one was the same, then maybe there were others. If so, then there was a chance that I could get through this.

"Time's up." I nearly jumped out of my skin. I had started to like the silence. My thoughts hadn't been filled with doubts or worried about deaths. I had been filled with hope.

The guard called me over one last time. I dropped my hand to my side and followed him out.

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