Yay! More than a hundred views! 109 views to be precise. But the thing is, why does part 5 have more views than part 2?
Desirae POV
I huddle on the wooden ground, swathed in ripped up luxury blankets. Technically I could sit on the bed and sleep, but I don't want to. It's soft and comfortable and I feel vulnerable on it.
Theo has vanished. Some of us heard his screams, but no one knows where he is. No one wants to say that he was probably killed by the Centipede. Only Myrtle knows his number, but she refuses to tell us so we can search on the HUCR.
"We aren't going to trust some stupid machine," she said. "We'll find him. We will."
Ryan commanded Phil to dispose of the body, but not before we practically tore it apart. We searched the body for hidden weapons and supplies. All we found was a knife, but at least we managed to take his bag.
After that, Ryan had thrown the Centipede's own axe into the corpse's chest and started to quite literally, tear it apart, as if he were the one who had killed the Centipede. He wanted to burn it, but Diane told him that the smoke would probably attract Centipedes.
Thank goodness for common sense.
I opted to move to another house because one, I didn't want to be in the house where the Centipede had been killed. Two, surely Centipedes who heard the commotion will come running to the house.
"Is anything wrong, Desirae?" Cat finds me in my room and comes to sit next to me.
"We just killed a man."
Cat lets out a disbelieving laugh. "Desirae? What? He was going to kill us. He was a pervert. He was between us and our freedom to live."
"He had a family," I choke out. "He was a son. He may even have had a wife and kids. And he … I'm sure he was brought up to believe that we are sub-human. That we are nothing better than animals. It isn't his fault."
"Yes it is," Cat presses. "Did he not have morals? He knew he was murdering … torturing living, breathing sentient humans. And he took sadistic joy in killing Bugs like us. No one could have done that unless they were evil."
I don't have anything to say.
"Besides," Cat adds, "if someone had to die, would you rather it be him or us? He was a man with evil in his heart. We're children. We're good. We deserve to live more than he did."
I shake my head. "Killing is evil."
"He killed people like us. And not because he had to. Because he liked to. What we did was in pure self-defense."
I shake my head. Evil or not, he's gone now. I wonder how it must be like to die—to cease to exist, to be gone. To just be gone. How can it be possible?
That makes me even more terrified of death. I must survive. But to do it I must kill others and watch my friends die around me. How can I possibly do that? I shake my head again.
Cat throws her arms in the air in defeat. "Well, if you want to be guilty about acting in self-defense, fine by me. But just know I'm not going to trust any killing to you."
And she leaves.
I have to resist the urge to call out after her to come back. But I can't. I still stand by my argument that killing the Centipede was bad. I will not relinquish it.
That makes me think though. Sometimes there's no way to do the right thing. If I don't kill the Centipedes, then I'll be letting other Bugs get killed. But killing the Centipedes isn't right either—killing isn't right.
I don't sleep well that night.
When I wake up, I have the faint notion that I had a nightmare, but I have no idea what it was about.
My vision seems to have mostly cleared. It is barely cloudy anymore.
We assemble in the living room. I curl up on a ripped up couch and listen to Ryan.
" … it was a good fight we put up yesterday. I commend Catherine for her courage and braveness. Unfortunately, Theo is still lost. Take this as a lesson that we never split up and stick together! We will not abandon anyone. Heed my words; you'll regret it if you don't."
Cat leans over to whisper in my ear, "He was the one who told us to split up and leave you and Myrtle when the Centipede found us. I had to look for you."
I'm not angry or even surprised.
"But this morning, Myrtle agreed to disclose Theo's number," Diane says, standing up.
"I thought … I thought we ought to have some closure," Myrtle murmurs.
So she has finally accepted that Theo is either dead or dying.
Ryan takes out his HUCR. "Myrtle?"
"Twenty-five," she mutters quietly.
As Ryan types in the number I think maybe, maybe Theo is alive. Perhaps we was captured and all we must do is locate him. Maybe he's lost. Maybe he's injured. Maybe he …
"He's dead," Ryan declares emotionlessly.
Myrtle blinks and turns away. Cat looks down nervously. Jon and Phil start to mutter. Diane sighs, looking sad. But I know she doesn't care.
I feel a sinking in my heart. "I knew it," I murmur.
Ryan claps his hands after a moment. "Alright, people, here's an important thing we must address. Diane has raised the fact that this house isn't safe. It's too exposed. If we're trapped it'll be difficult to escape. So we must move."
"Where to?" I ask.
Ryan glares at me. "I'm getting to that," he says harshly.
"Um, I think we should stay in an enclosed area with many exits. That'll allow us to escape easily but we'll still be protected from the elements," Jon says. His shoulder has been wrapped with fresh bandages from a first aid kit Myrtle got from the Centipede's bag. No one else fought her for it because she has a lot of medical knowledge. Apparently, that's why Ryan let her into the team.
"No," Diane replies. "Even if there are many exits they can all be blocked or booby-trapped. And the weather seems fine. It isn't a problem for us, I think. No, I say we go back to the cherry trees."
The boys look a little unhappy about it, but they stay quiet. I suppose they want to please Diane.
I don't know why Diane manages to command their attention and interest so well. She's very pretty, but that is all. There must be something behind it.
Myrtle frowns. "I don't think it is a good idea. What if it's too open—"
"Quiet!" Ryan roars. "Diane said so … so, um … remember I told you that if you don't want to be kicked out, you'll be good. Shut up and listen!"
Personally I agree with Diane's reasoning. Amongst the cherry trees, we can run away easily. Indoors we can be cornered easily. Unless …
Ryan won't accept an idea if it comes from me. I tell it to Cat.
She speaks up. "What if we stick to the original plan and we're constantly on the move? Then if a Centipede comes across us it won't be that hard to flee. He'll probably get at least one of us but if we stay in one spot, it'll be harder to run away."
Diane looks a little surprised. "That's a good idea."
Since Diane says that, Ryan shrugs. "Alright. But what about sleeping arrangements? What if a Centipede comes across us while we're sleeping?"
Phil shrugs. "I suppose we can just sleep somewhere high up where they may not see us in the dark."
"Well, if they do see us, then we're screwed. We won't be able to run. We'd be trapped," I argue.
"But we'll have the higher ground! We can kill them easily from up there?" Phil says.
"What's stopping them from shooting us or disabling us with their high-tech weapons?" I counter.
Diane sighs. "Let's deal with that later. But I think that we should have two people stand guard."
She's right. Soon we're moving again. But amongst the cherry trees, I hear something rushing.
"Guys stop. I hear something," I whisper.
My heart pounds and I have to try not to gulp and gasp.
"Where?" Jon whispers.
I point to my right. Ryan pats Diane on the back. "Don't worry, I'll be back in a jiffy." Then he's gone.
Phil glances at Diane, then putting on an air of false bravado, follows suit. Jon hangs back. I can't blame him—he's badly injured. Myrtle said the blade went down to his bone.
Me? I'm happy to stay behind.
After a tense moment, I start to slink back. "Maybe we should um, stay back and um—"
"It's fine!" I hear a shout. It's Ryan. "Come here! It's awesome!"
Jon jogs forward while I stay close to the back, in case it's a trap. The rushing gets louder and louder. Only then do I realise it is water.
I rush forward, my initial wariness forgotten. I peer through the cherry trees and see clear water bursting through a pile of rocks. The water hits the rocks loudly and pools on the ground, turning the soil damp.
Ryan and Phil stand next to it, grinning so widely that they look more than just a little ridiculous. Their heads are wet.
"Wow!" Jon runs forward and cups his hands around the water source, allowing the water to pool in his hands. He splashes the water and his grimy face. "This is amazing."
"Wait!" Diane calls. "What if the water is not safe, like the cherries? We can't drink it unless we purify it!"
Ryan and Phil's eyes widen. "W-we … drank that water," Phil murmurs.
"Well, shit," Ryan mutters darkly.
"It's too late," I say. "We'll just have to hope for the best."
Suddenly Ryan gasps. "No. We don't. All we need is our canary. Our canary in the coal mine."
I know what he means. The term is an allusion to canaries that miners would bring into the mines with them. If the air in the mine was unsafe, the canary would die, letting the miners know that it wasn't safe to be there and they would get out immediately.
He wants to test it out on somebody.
"Myrtle." He snatches her water bottle and pours out all the water.
"Hey!" Myrtle cries. Ryan ignores her and fills her water bottle with the water from the water source. Then he passes it to her.
"Here, Myrtle. You do the honours."
Myrtle stares at the water bottle. "You … you want me to drink it?"
Ryan gives her a snaky smile. "Yes. And if anything happens to you, then we know we can't drink it."
"But … you and Phil already drank some water. Why don't we just see what happens to you?" Cat says.
"I want someone to drink the whole bottle. Just in case. Myrtle, if you don't do this, well, you never know. I might just kick you out."
Myrtle grasps the water bottle and slowly raises it to her lips.
I can't let this happen to her.
Just as the first drop of water touches Myrtle's lips, I call out.
"Wait! We can purify the water. I'll show you how. Does anyone have iodine?"
Ryan glares at me. I don't bother getting angry. He is nothing. After facing two Centipedes, Ryan doesn't really matter anymore.
"I do," Myrtle says. "I found a bottle of it in the medical kit from the Centipede. Here." She passes it to me.
I collect the water in my water bottle and drip a few drops of iodine in it. Then I set it on the ground. "Here. Now we wait for half an hour or so. The iodine will purify the water."
It seems like the longest half hour I have ever waited. We take turns to rinse in the water, boys then girls. When I take off my clothes, I think of that horribly perverted Centipede, but immediately tell myself not to.
He's dead. He doesn't matter anymore, I tell myself.
After half an hour, Ryan makes Myrtle drink the water. The first mouthful she takes, she spits it out quickly and scrubs her mouth. "It's bitter! There's something in it!"
"I think it is the iodine," Cat says gently.
We all fill our bottles with the water and put iodine in it.
"Well then," Ryan starts. "I suppose we should camp around here."
Jon shakes his head. "No. The water is too loud. We'll probably be found easily."
Ryan shrugs, annoyed that his ideas have been constantly shot down.
As we settle down amongst the cherry trees later on, I wonder why no one has mourned Theo for long. Why I haven't mourned that unknown Bug who was cannibalised by Claude. Everything beyond this morning feels to be eons ago.
There's this sense of disassociation. The Desirae who used the Bug as a meat shield, fled from Claude, attacked the unknown Centipede … that wasn't me. She's stronger than me. At first thought I feel as if I was a coward then, but I suppose I'm doing something right since I'm still alive.
I think so much that I almost don't hear the gunshot.
We all jump. "God! What was that?" Cat gasps.
Phil stuffs his things into his bag. "I don't know, and I don't wanna find out. Let's go."
There's another gunshot, followed by a scream. This gunshot sounds a lot louder and closer. It feels really, really close.
I hastily pack my bag. I notice that I have difficulty zipping up my bag because my hands are shaking too much. I hold my knife and the metal bedpost from last night.
"Guys, we should go," I say.
"Wait. Not yet," Ryan says stubbornly. "Don't be such a coward."
We wait for a few more seconds. "Guys?" I say, my voice shaking more this time. "Let's. Go."
Phil nods. "Yeah. Let's go!"
Cat and Myrtle stand up. "C'mon."
Then, I hear crashing. Feet hitting the ground. Leaves crunching. And a group of six Bugs burst through.
One of them, a girl with long chocolate brown wavy hair, gasps out, "Run! Run!"
It takes me longer than it should to realise that she is talking to us, and what is going on.
"Run!" I scream. "Run!"
And a Centipede appears.
