274 (Complex Series, #4)

Cold pierces my skin, uncontrollable shudders racking my body. I can’t be back with those things. I can’t.

My ears shut off all the sound coming from the hall. I can’t think. I can’t move. I can’t breathe. I’m back with the Ecru. A scream rips its way between my own lips, but I don’t hear it. Where is it? Where is the Ecru? Is it coming our way? They attack large groups of people. I need to get away. I need to run. I need to hide.

I stumble away from the beams of light. My weary legs break into a sprint. Something grabs on to my arm. My arm twists away and I stumble forward. The hand latches on to my wrist, fingernails digging into my skin. The hand stops me from moving forward, from escaping.

I spin on my heel, the flashlight illuminating the person’s frantic face in front of me.

Theo.

The flashlight on his collar blinds my eyes.

Desperate, I try to twist out of his grip. “Let me go. I need to escape. Please.”

Theo’s voice is calm. I almost miss the slight tremor. “You need to stay with the group. We’ll figure this out. We’re with a Head. He’s got just as much power as Ellen. You’re safer with us.”

“But the Ecru, they attack larger groups. Just let me go, please.”

Theo tightens his grip on my arm instead, “No. Come on Claire, think.”

Tears slip from my eyes. “Just let me go…”

Theo groans and yanks my arm forward, back towards the group.

I cry out as pain bites into my wrist, traveling all the way up to my shoulder. If my pain bothers Theo, he doesn’t show it. He continues dragging my back to where the crowd of people is gathered. They converse urgently, shouting over one another to be heard. Why aren’t they running in terror? How many of them actually know what the Ecru are like?

Derek shouts over everyone else, “Be quiet. All of you. Just listen.”

Silence fills the air, so that you can hear the footsteps coming louder. Except they aren’t the single pair of one Ecru. It’s several, pounding to the exact same beat.

Derek says, “Ellen’s just created a new type of Ecru. Only a couple days ago. She didn’t have time to put them into effect. They are almost the same except the travel in packs of five or six. And…” Derek swallows hard, “they have the ability to kill.”

Someone calls out, “What? How?”

“That’s the problem. I’m not sure. There’s a positive though. We can kill them too.”

The fear and anger is too much. I crack. “What? You’re supposed to be a Head. You’re supposed to be helping. Whenever there’s some important question, you never seem to know the answer. Why not? I thought you know everything. So do you?”

Derek opens his mouth to speak, but I continue speaking, unable to stop now, “Maybe you do know. Maybe this is just a lot of fun to you. Scare all the kids. Tell them a little bit so that they think you are on their side, but don’t tell them anything important.”

Derek stares at me, “Believe what you want.” He turns back to everyone else, “Everyone else is spread out in the Unknown, completely defenseless. We need to gather them and hide them somewhere.”

Brinn’s voice wavers, “We are just as defenseless. We have weapons to fight the Officials, not the Ecru. How can we defend ourselves when we don’t even know how they kill us?”

Derek is silent. He doesn’t have an arrogant, all-knowing answer.

Because it’s true.

We are completely vulnerable to Ellen’s new string of Ecru. We can’t use a Duratus against them. We can’t fight them with our hands, not when we don’t know how they are lethal. Do they bite you? Spit on you? Scratch you? Simply beat you until you slip away into death?