To Be A Rebel

Chapter 17: Gasoline

Singer slowly eats her food, her eyes staying on the table as she swallows a mouthful of bland, tasteless something that was given to her. She doesn't know what it is. She doesn't care. She just wants to eat and then go to bed.

This wasn't how she planned things to go for them. This wasn't what she wanted for herself, or for Wesley or Katelyn. She wants to leave, but now she fears she may be in too deep to escape.

After she tackled that boy down, Rux had praised her for her quick thinking even though that wasn't the purpose of this drill. He said that the boy would need punishment for not seeing it coming, though.

That was before he was led out. Singer doesn't know what happened to him and she doesn't think she wants to find out.

Afterwards Rux brought in a girl, only a little bit older than Singer herself. He told Singer she would have to get information from secure files from this girl who had read and memorized them. So instead of being the captive, she became the captor, and was forced to beat that girl until she either gave something up or her time was up.

That was four days ago, and Singer's split knuckles are still healing. She hadn't wanted to do it, but they threatened to hurt Wesley, hurt her sister. She couldn't risk it, risk them. And the punishment for not doing it probably would have been bad for both her and the girl she was meant to hurt.

That's what Singer keeps telling herself to make her feel better, or at least try to make herself feel better. It doesn't work. She still feels guilt clawing away at her insides. Maybe she deserves to feel guilty. After all, it's her fault all of her friends and family are dead. It's her fault Jordan's dead. She beat someone until they told her what she wanted to hear...

Maybe she deserves to feel this way.

Singer shuffles when someone sits down beside her, and when she looks up, she sees Wesley sitting down with his plate of food. It looks equally bland as her own plate, but he gives no complaint or comment as he sits down and starts to eat it.

Singer's actually surprised he's sitting by her. They haven't talked much since... since Tori. It's one of the reasons she has been able to keep this a secret from both him and Katelyn. They can't know she's a Torrencer. She doesn't know what would happen to them, or to her if she told them and another Torrencer found out and told on her. But Rux threw her out into the zombie infested streets as a test. She doesn't want to know what he'd do as a punishment.

"What happened to your face?" Wesley asks around a mouthful of food before swallowing. Singer raises a finger to her cheek, resisting the urge to wince at the dull ache she feels. Yes, that certain test she did was a test in getting what's needed, but also knowing how to get away with it. She had to hit someone and leave no marks. There's only a certain way you can do that.

The boy that was hitting her failed. She has a few bruises, and a busted lip, and a black eye that's thankfully no longer swollen.

"I uh, ran into a tree while I was on a mission," She answers, and Wes stares at her in bewilderment.

"You... ran into a tree? We're right by a city. How did you even find a tree to run into, Forty-three?"

Singer's unsure if that's his attempt at being funny, but she doesn't laugh, mostly because of what he called her. Forty-three. That's her runner designation. Runner Forty-three. She believed Wesley might be Runner Forty-four, but she's not sure. She hasn't ran on any missions with him yet. She's not sure if it would be a good idea to do so.