Get In, Loser. We're Going Escaping.

[Gundham]

((Cecilia Moreno continued from Una Poca de Gracia))

Cecilia opened her eyes. She was lying on the bed next to Mattie, holding his hand.

How long had she been out? It must have been hours. She felt stiff, painful, almost as bad as when she'd come out of the boy in the desert.

As if to answer her question, the daily announcements began to play. The cruel woman's voice told them that it was the last day. For all but one of them, today was the day they would die. She read off Mattie's name, and told everyone that Cecilia had killed him. It was hard to follow the rest of it. Others were dead. Others had killed. The only part that caught her attention was that only ten people were still alive - out of about fifty kids on the bus, now there were only ten.

Which meant she needed to kill nine people in order to keep her promise to Mattie. She'd have to go looking for bodies to use, stockpile them so that she could attack anybody who came near, and if one got pulverized, she'd switch to the next one, and then hopefully keep her own body safe enough that she wouldn't have to fight with it until the last minute, and she could use the gun to -

The announcement was interrupted by a bang, and an angry shout from the lady terrorist. The speakers cut out.

What?

A strange man's voice came on the loudspeaker, telling them all to run. Telling them he'd beaten the kidnappers, and that they should leave and head east.

Was this some kind of trick? Some kind of gimmick to get them to wander into danger zones and kill themselves? But if someone used their gift to hijack the loudspeaker system, the terrorists wouldn't stand for that, would they?

Every instinct she had told her to stay put, not to listen. Stay here in the basement, in the dark, stay alone where no one could hurt her. Stay in the cell, where she belonged.

Cecilia looked down at Mattie. She had made him a promise, told him that she'd do what it took to get out. At the time, she'd thought that that meant killing everyone else. Instead, it meant trusting a disembodied voice and running for her life. Running out there, and trusting that this time, the collar wouldn't go off. Unless... she could just flashback it again, couldn't she? Test it to make sure that it would really work...

She reached out and touched Mattie. Nothing happened.

She touched him again. Still nothing.

Maybe her gift was failing. Maybe it only worked once. Maybe she'd done all she could with him, and now he was used up. It didn't really matter, because the end result was the same. There were no flashbacks or failsafes this time. There was only the risk, the very real chance that she'd step outside the building and die instantly - and the slim, faint hope that the mysterious voice was telling the truth, and there really was a chance to get out of here alive.

Cecilia took a few minutes to sort through the duffel bags, tossing out everything that wouldn't be necessary and putting the essentials into the bag with 40 stenciled onto it. Kept the only intact space blanket, the scissors, the food and water. She placed the gun on top, where she could reach it if she needed to. Everything else, she'd leave behind.

She took Mattie's hand in hers, and squeezed it.

"I go, Mattie. I live. For you, I try to live."

Then she left the room, and ran down the corridor, heading for the exit and whatever fate awaited her.

((Cecilia Moreno continued elsewhere))