Leylah and Richard followed Timick and Elwyndor as they entered the barracks. Elwyndor had been trying to contact Lucy on something Richard assumed was some magically internal communication device all the leaders had, but Lucy wasn’t answering. Richard didn’t know what to expect when Elwyndor pounded on the door, and he was afraid of Lucy’s wrath. He was glad Timick and Elwyndor were here, because if it was just him and Leylah, there was a good chance Lucy might bite their heads off. He was also pretty sure it would be literal, too.

  Elwyndor pounded on the door again. “Lucy! We are requesting a medical check-up! Dmitri’s orders!”

  Lucy groaned from within the room. Richard eased closer to Timick, aware that he was more frightened of Lucy than facing Dennison and Ike in a few hours.

  “Give me a minute,” Lucy said from within.

  With nothing more to do, they waited as they heard things being shuffled around. The door opened, and Lucy stood there looking way too exhausted.

  “So help me, if this is another potion for a panic attack, I will give Dmitri a panic attack instead. I am being overworked with too little sleep.” Lucy placed her glasses on her nose.

  Elwyndor blinked a few times. “It was a near deadly survivor on survivor fight.”

  This sobered Lucy right up. She glanced between Richard and Leylah, her eyes taking in their healed injuries and the dried blood on their clothes.

  “Who?” Lucy asked.

  “Dennison and Ike. There will be a verdict in the morning,” Elwyndor said.

  “Shit.” Lucy rubbed her forehead. “Shit, shit, shit. There goes my sleep. Do you know how much I need sleep? Dammit, Dennison and Ike. Damn it all.”

  She slammed the door, and Richard and Leylah jumped. Timick patted Richard on the back like that would calm him down. From inside, glass shattered, and Lucy gave muffled screams.

  The door opened again, and Lucy walked past the four of them. “Come on. To the healer’s building.”

  Once Lucy made a full assessment of both Leylah and Richard, she got to work on a special healing potion for them to drink. Lucy could have cooked the potions with the smoldering glare she gave her workstation. Elwyndor, Timick, and Lucy were having a quiet conversation to recount the events as Richard and Leylah both sat on a bed. Richard was lost in his head, but he didn’t want to be. Leylah hugged her legs, her knees pressed against her chest.

  “Thank you,” Richard forced himself to say.

  Leylah glanced over at him. “You’re welcome.”

  She acted like that was the end of the conversation, but Richard didn’t want to return to the dark thoughts waiting for him.

  “No, seriously. Thank you. If the two of them had ganged up on me, I would have died, no doubt about it.”

  Leylah smiled at that. “You could have made it. These potions are powerful.”

  “Can’t bring you back from the dead, though.” Richard ran his hand down his blood-splattered shirt.

  “But you’re okay now.”

  Richard hesitated for too long, and Leylah released her hold on her legs, straightening. Richard focused on everything but her. “The entire experience made me deeply uneasy.”

  “No doubt. The monsters are supposed to be outside the wall, not in it.”

  Richard’s throat closed in on itself. “Dmitri…” he started to say before he forced himself to stop. Leylah kept watching him. “I didn’t know he had that power.”

  He tested the waters with that, and by the confused look on Leylah’s face, she didn’t get what was bothering him.

  “How do you feel about what Dmitri can do?” Richard tried instead.

  Leylah’s face dropped, and she clasped her hands together, twiddling her thumbs. There was silence between them for a moment. “I wish it didn’t have to happen, but… Dennison and Ike shouldn’t have tried to kill you, either. Dmitri has to lead, and that means making tough decisions.”

  Richard didn’t know what to think about that. In his eyes, what Dmitri did was a violation to force the truth out of Dennison and Ike. To Dmitri’s credit, he didn’t look like he enjoyed it, but it still left Richard feeling sick inside. Then again, Leylah was right. What were Dennison and Ike thinking? They should not have tried to attack him and Fang.

  “So… you got a weapon from Chaos?” Leylah asked.

  Richard glanced at her. “Haven’t you seen me use my whip?”

  Her eyes brightened. “Shut up, you got a whip?”

  Stolen story; please report.

  Richard couldn’t help but chuckle. He supposed that the times he used it, Leylah had been distracted with her own injuries, including one that involved being unconscious.

  “I’m sure when you become a guard, your weapons will be a lot more dangerous,” Richard said.

  Leylah smiled. “I’m going to learn them all. I don’t care what anyone else says.”

  Richard chuckled again as he watched Lucy work while Elwyndor and Timick kept a quiet conversation going.

  “I don’t know if you need to hear this, but I don’t think Chaos is blessing you,” Leylah said. Richard tried to keep his face neutral. “You don’t agree?”

  “I… don’t know. That, or… lucky coincidence.” It was as close as he dared go to the truth about the time anomaly. Try as he might, he couldn’t see that as anything other than Chaos messing with something as rigid as time.

  “If you ask me, if I were to choose anyone that Chaos was influencing….” Leylah trailed off, then motioned toward Lucy. Richard struggled to suppress a smile.

  “Really?”

  “Oh yeah. Never know what you’ll get whenever you talk to her.”

  Richard couldn’t help but laugh. It felt good to do so. Lucy picked up two glasses and walked over to them, handing them over.

  “Drink up. The healing potions these two poured all over you worked well enough, but this’ll make sure everything is healed completely inside, too.”

  Richard took his and thanked Lucy, downing the potion. He expected it to burn, but he was pleasantly surprised to feel only a warmth. It was when he handed the glass back to Lucy that he noticed she was staring at him with a strange emotion on her face. He couldn’t quite decipher it, because he wasn’t sure if she had overheard them. And if she did overhear them, why was she smiling?

  Lucy handed them some clean clothes. “I will see you later today. Go get some rest.”

  Richard said nothing. Everyone else seemed to translate this as his being uncomfortable about almost dying. And maybe a portion of it was. It was hard to narrow down what he felt, because he was experiencing a lot of negative things.

  It was laughable that Lucy expected him to sleep. In this magical apocalypse, surely someone had a potion to help him sleep. He remained curled in his bed, Fang already in his. Richard thanked Fang for getting Dmitri, and Fang thanked him for staying alive. Then they remained quiet, and Richard wondered if either of them would get any sleep.

  Apocalypses weren’t easy to live in; he knew that now that they had been here over a week. At least he was pretty sure it had been over a week. It felt like a lifetime. They had tried in the beginning to make it so neat and organized, but Chaos clearly had other plans. Chaos truly was a force to be reckoned with.

  The bell rang, signaling a camp-wide meeting, and Richard still stared ahead, dreading the next hour. He and Fang got up, a somber weight over the camp. Richard and Fang met up with Leylah and Amber as they headed toward the center of the camp. There were hushed whispers as people spread information and rumors. Richard joined his newbies standing near the side. Dmitri was next to Dennison and Ike, who were kneeling on the ground, the metal handcuffs still on. The four class leaders stood behind them.

  A cold sweat formed on Richard’s forehead. He couldn’t look at Dennison and Ike. Richard also had to admit that he couldn’t look at Dmitri. A war happened in his mind that he couldn’t turn off.

  Dmitri stepped forward, and the whispers shut off. As much as Richard knew he didn’t get any sleep, he was positive Dmitri didn’t either. His face was somber, but focused. “Dennison and Ike attacked Richard and Fang last night.”

  The whispers exploded again, and Dmitri raised a hand. “They have confessed to wanting to murder Richard. More importantly, they confessed they would do it again. We have strict rules, and we obey Order at Base Camp Two. Dennison and Ike have broken this, and therefore they must be expelled.”

  “That boy is blessed by Chaos,” Dennison shouted. “We had no other choice.”

  “You always have the choice to follow Order. You could have come to me with your concerns. We could have talked about it. We could have worked things out. You never take a life of another here in base two. NEVER.”

  Richard had to look at his feet as Dmitri snapped at them. Dmitri seemed heartbroken by this, but the fact remained that two farmers were being thrown out of the camp. Richard saw how terrified Dennison acted in the forest. This was a death sentence.

  “Open the gate,” Dmitri said.

  “Wait!” It took Richard a few moments before he realized he was the one who had said that. All eyes turned toward him, and Richard stepped forward. “Wait, please. We can’t do this.”

  “We can, and we have,” Dmitri said.

  “Not when our numbers are this low.” Richard kept walking until he was within arm’s length of Dmitri. “Please. There has to be another way. Not like this. We don’t have the manpower to keep this camp going with how many attacks it’s experienced.”

  “You heard them, Richard. After they beat you nearly to death, they admitted they wouldn’t hesitate to try it again. What more evidence do you need?” Dmitri asked.

  It was the evidence that made Richard so sick to his stomach. Dmitri’s ability to force people to tell the truth made him feel like the evidence shouldn’t be used at all. Not coupled with a death sentence.

  “We are on the brink of total extinction.” Dmitri’s voice dropped. “Chaos has entered the hearts of these two men. If we are to appease Order, we must return these men to the Chaos-ridden forest where they belong.”

  Richard’s fingers curled into fists. Something in the back of his mind screamed that this was a cult. A shiver ran up his spine, and he did everything he could not to show it.

  “I don’t agree with this,” Richard said.

  Dmitri grabbed Ike and Dennison’s elbows, lifting them to their feet. “The moment you joined the system, this is the government you agreed to.”

  Richard couldn’t help but glare at Dmitri.

  “Open the gates!” Dmitri shouted.

  The wooden doors groaned open, and Dmitri dragged Dennison and Ike through the crowd. Richard kept glaring at Dmitri, knowing he should stop him. He lifted a foot to follow, but a firm hand landed on his shoulder. He turned to see Marcus holding him back.

  “Don’t,” Richard said.

  “They knew the risks and made a dangerous decision. The consequences are playing out. Don’t intervene.”

  “The consequences are too harsh,” Richard said.

  “We don’t have time to save you from Ike and Dennison again. If we weren’t in the middle of an apocalypse, perhaps we would have time to give them a proper trial with a less harsh punishment. As it stands, we need to survive.”

  “Survive with fewer members?”

  “A few strong members can weather anything. Sometimes you have to cut off the infection before it spreads. We must maintain Order,” Marcus said.

  Richard’s shoulders tensed, and he fought the urge to throw Marcus’s hand off him. It was too violent. He didn’t know any other way to explain it. Couldn’t they be forced into a jail somewhere? Ordered to the fields to work longer hours? Sure, they said they would kill Richard again, but there were stronger people here who could stop them before they ever reached Richard. They needed the manpower more than they needed Order.

  Dmitri retrieved the handcuffs before shoving Dennison and Ike out of the gates. He remained by the gates as they slowly closed. “May Death collect your souls quickly.”