Page 5 of Bait (After the End #2)

“They won’t help her, Danika,” I snarled, unkindly and instantly felt ashamed. Her face crumbled like the truth of my words were more than she could handle.

“Tie her up,” Becker ordered the guards, ignoring Danika’s pleas for reassurance that her mother would get what she was promised.

On his orders, the guards dragged me out of the library like a criminal.

I held my head up as we reached the hallway.

I wanted people to see me, for the upper-levelers to face what had they’d all sunken to.

But they put a hood over my head. Probably to cover the bruise and the split lip.

My face pulsed like a beating heart, and I was worried they’d cracked one of my teeth.

But if they thought I was going to go quietly, they had another thing coming.

“Let me go, you assholes,” I struggled, kicking and biting whatever I could grab.

“If you don’t comply, it will be much worse.” Becker was seething, his voice full of menace as he spoke into my ear.

“Hel—” I opened my mouth but was yanked hard by the hair, pulling the hood off.

“I will make an example out of you.” I could feel his acrid, hot breath on the side of my face, and I had to swallow down the urge to cry.

Becker called over a guard who was standing in the corner cowering.

“Bring me the comm.” The comm was the announcement system for the bunker.

It was how they kept residents informed of everything they needed to know.

He was going to speak to the whole bunker.

“Dwellers of Habrian,” Becker shouted into the thing as his voice carried through the small speakers placed all over the bunker.

“This is your chairman. I am saddened to announce that we have another traitor in our mix. Someone who is actively plotting against our bunker’s survival.

” He didn’t take his eyes off me as he spoke.

“I will share the name of the traitor at the assembly hall. Please make your way there now. Everyone is required to attend.”

“Do you think people haven’t noticed that suddenly everyone is a traitor?” I said loudly, hoping they could hear me over the comm, but he shut it off. “Do you think they won’t see that you want to control every aspect of our lives?”

Even in the gloomy light, I could see the hate in his eyes.

The resentment at being challenged. Becker had been born a prince, the son of the richest man in the world.

The heir to a fortune and in large part responsible for what blew up the world in the first place.

In the bunker, he’d been that too. My brother and my mother had seen through him, and ultimately, I think it was what brough about their end.

My father could never see that the Beckers had used him.

That they were not the benevolent saviors he told himself they were.

It was true they’d saved the few in this bunker, but it was at a cost.

Everyone who came in a servant lived and died as one, so those who came in as kings could remain so.

My father had been so grateful to have someone listen to his warnings about the volcanic eruptions that ultimately brought about the destruction of most of the planet, he had not acknowledged he’d been in business with monsters.

“Take her to the hold,” he ordered in a low, implacable voice.

“They’re not going to buy your lies forever.”

He scoffed at my warning. Like there was no possibility that he could ever lose his power. And in a way he was probably right, since he was willing to harm anyone who got in his way to hold on to it.

“They will think whatever I tell them to think, because they know only I know what is best for our bunker, while you’re trying to kill it.

” It was dying anyways. Babies were born fewer and further apart.

Our food supplies were not what they used to be.

So many people were getting old and sick.

Also people were succumbing to “cabin fever syndrome,” except now the council was covering it up.

“What are you going to do to me?” I asked after they shoved me into the council’s elevator.

“Shut up.” Becker’s voice was vicious. “Just like your mother, always thinking you know best. That you can say how I manage my people.” His people.

I’d always suspected there had been more to my mother’s death than the case of “cabin fever syndrome” they’d claimed took her.

But I could never get an answer from my father.

I didn’t think it would be wise to attempt to get one from Becker.

Not with the edge in his voice. Something told me I should avoid pushing him too far, so I kept my mouth shut.

Eventually I was dropped into a chair. My butt hurt at the contact with the hard surface, but I didn’t cry out. What was the point?

They left me there without a word. I screamed and cried for what seemed like hours, but no one came to check on me.

My face ached from Becker’s blows, and I couldn’t stop shaking.

I was probably in shock. Eventually I calmed down enough to look around.

It was dark in the room, but there was enough light to make out that it was some kind of cell.

There was a cot against the wall. A sink and a toilet and the door.

It was closed at the moment, but there was a little window in it.

I stood up and walked to it and found a guard standing right by the door.

“Where’s Becker?” I seemed to catch him by surprise, because he actually answered me.

“He’s taking to the assembly.” Likely some made-up bullshit about how I got the underground crazies and had to be put in confinement.

“Is this a jail?” There was another cell across from mine, but the rest of the corridor didn’t have anything. Other than a large circular door on each end.

“I’m not supposed to talk to you.” I stared at him for a while and then it dawned on me. This was Xavier, Leo’s son.

“I know your dad, he would be devastated to know this was going on.” He sucked a breath, but didn’t turn around to look at me.

Just stood at attention by my door. “You knew Torch too; you were friends since you were little.” His mouth tightened, but he kept his mouth shut.

Didn’t even look at me. “Are they going to kill me? Is that what they did to Torch?” I didn’t know why I was suddenly fixated on Torch.

He’d never been that nice to me and he’d lost his fucking mind after Gregorio.

Except now looking back at that night I wondered if he was trying to hurt me or save me.

I knew Xavier wasn’t ignoring me, but he was quiet for a long time, like he wasn’t sure he should. When he finally spoke, his lips barely moved. “We’ll bring you some food and water soon.”

A sliver of hope grew inside at his words, not because of what he said, but because I could tell he was conflicted.

That maybe he was doing this because he had to and not because he wanted to.

I sat on the edge of the cot for a long time, hoping that my little coded notes had been able to save some of the women I’d helped from being found out.

I wondered if Danika was helping Becker figure it out, or if she’d wised up.

Soon my mind was drifting in another direction.

If this was the hold where they supposedly brought those residents who they considered threats.

Then why was there no one else in here? Over the years, I’d seen dozens of announcements of folks who’d been put in the hold, but this place was empty.

I started pacing around the room, trying to clear my head. The more I thought about what was happening, the more I’d panic, and I needed to be able to react to whatever Becker was planning.

Eventually they did bring me water and some food.

Xavier even left a blanket. The tray had the Wednesday mid-day meal: a protein paste sandwich, potato and pickle salad, and dried apples.

I made myself eat it, and I drank the water.

Then I forced myself to close my eyes. I couldn’t tell if it was day or night, and I didn’t have a watch to keep track of time.

More than a day could’ve passed, but there was no way to tell.

But they brought me two meals, and I was pretty sure I slept for a very long time before Becker came back.

He strode in with purpose, with his hands fisted at his sides. I braced for another blow, but he didn’t hit me.

“Get up,” he shouted after muttering for a while about respecting norms. The norms that kept him and the council as royalty and the rest of us as serfs.

“Where are we going?” I knew it wasn’t anywhere good, but I could never control my curiosity.

“Where you’ll learn your lesson.”