Legion pulls out one of his maps, a handful of pens, and starts putting red dots on it.
“What are those?”
“Resistance safe houses.”
He puts green dots on different buildings.
“These are known bases for the Beta’s Path.”
I study the map intently and then point to a section near the wall that has a question mark.
“What’s that?”
“It’s an area, the only area of the wall that we can escape from, this side. It’s climbable.”
My head jerks up, and I stare at him intently. “What? You all said there was no escape?”
“It’s too dangerous,” Legion warns. “It’s not an option, just a point of reference.”
He folds up the map and hands it to me.
“What’s this for?”
“Just to be safe. Take good care of it.”
Things move quickly after that. Less than an hour later, we escort the first lot of omegas and alphas down to the river. They stand there hesitating, but then one brave omega tosses his hair.
“I’d rather drown than face the Path.”
He jumps into the water. It snatches him up, but a whole heap more have jumped in. Within just a few minutes, they’re all gone, and it’s like they were never here.
More and more groups come and disappear; no one balks at the water; they’ve seen what the Path will do to them.
And then another group comes in, and I find myself crushed in a hug from a familiar face.
“Mia!”
She beams. “I knew you’d be okay.”
I hug her back, so relieved to see her. “I am so glad you made it here.”
“You saved us, Keres, just like they said you would.”
“I didn’t—”
“You did. Don’t be modest,” another familiar voicesays.
“Sophie!” I pull her into our hug.
Sophie pulls away first, brushing her hair back. “So, a swim, huh?”
“Yeah.” I laugh. “Looks like it.”
“I’m going to hang around and help people who need it,” Sophie says, watching an omega who has clearly got a broken leg hobble towards where they are filling a boat with injured people.
“How many of us have they killed?”
“We’re estimating that of the five thousand we think were brought in here, they’ve killed around two thousand of us.”
