So, I'm sort of just throwing these all together at once so that I can make a decision to post them in a few seconds. But anyway, the point is that that's why they'll get a little boring after a while.
Chapter Forty-Two
Fang
I checked on Jeb 2 once a day. I wanted him to know how it felt to be trapped and not cared about at all, the same way that all those other experiments felt. I gave him food and water, because I didn't really want him dead. He'd be useless to me dead. Instead I just waited for him to crack.
That took about two weeks.
When he was finally shaken enough to answer my questions, I came back.
"Hello, Jeb 2," I said, imitating all I could remember from the Whitecoats. "How are you today?"
I got no answer. He looked tired and weak.
"I just want to ask a few questions, and then I'll let you go." At my last words, Jeb 2's head shot up from his knees.
"You're going to let me go?" he asked. I shrugged.
"If you behave," I agreed. "I just want to know a few things. Let's start with, why did you join the school? Were you aware that what you were doing was against the law?"
"Yes, I knew it was illegal," Jeb 2 confessed. "But their purpose seemed reasonable."
It took all of my self-control not to scream at him. How could what they did be considered reasonable?
"Did the Whitecoats expect us to escape the school the way we did?" I asked him instead. He shook his head. His eyes were bloodshot from exhaustion.
"No, they didn't. I figured you would come back they way they wanted you to."
And the big one: "How did they keep finding us?"
Jeb paused for a long moment. "Through Max," he said finally. "And you, as well. But they preferred to go after you. They knew that if they got rid of you, they would destroy Max on the inside, and she would be weak enough for them to capture her and convince her to rejoin them."
So that's why they didn't come after me while I was gone, I thought. I was already gone, so I wasn't their concern.
"But why didn't you go after Max those three years I'd left?" I asked.
"Because she was still too strong-willed, even without you," he said. "They wouldn't stand a chance at getting her to join them."
"So they couldn't use her because she wouldn't listen to them?" I summarized. Jeb 2 nodded.
"Precisely," he said. "They figured the only way for them to get hold of the flock was if Max surrendered by her own free will. They knew that if she lost you, she would lose the will to fight."
"So, if I died, it would be the downfall of the flock?" I asked. That was a lot of pressure.