Dripping from the faucets resounded in the bathroom as Ael and I waited for Amiel in the darkness. Everyone was asleep, with a few people scouting out for anything weird.
Hours ago, well, what was now yesterday, I told Ael everything. He was the only one here I could turn to, the only one I could rely on, even if the "friendship" was built on curiosity. It still sickened me to my core. What made it worse was how his curiosity was growing.
Before coming here, I was not willing to kill—now I have been behind most of it. When I first told Ael about all of this, I could see his curiosity about me grow. Once he got a grip of his curiosity, all that left his mouth was, "What's the plan?"
He was serious about having my back as long as I had his. I was honestly surprised. When I first told him, my heart was pounding. Before him, the words of me admitting to all the killings did not leave my mouth, but when they did, it was as if it was all real. There was no coming back from it, but this was all so I could get back to my mother in one piece, and then hopefully, there would be a life outside the war.
How I miss her. Right now, more than anything, I wanted to be embraced by her. For her to tell me that everything was going to be okay—that I was going to be okay. But down here, that was not a sure thing. In the span of a week, twenty-plus people have died, and soon it was going to be more. Just how much more killing was going to have to be done for this to be all over?
Footsteps came from the halls of the bathroom, and as the footsteps got closer, Amiel came around the corner.
Ael and I have been in here for about five to ten minutes now. We had to make sure no one would see us all come in at once, so we wouldn't look suspicious.
When Amiel does finally make the turn, meeting our eyes, I can see how caught off guard he is. He didn't expect Ael to be with me.
"What is he doing here?" He pointed towards Ael.
"I needed some help," I replied.
He obviously knew who he was. No one in here didn't. They all saw the scene he did outside the bunker.
He stared at him for a moment and said, "Fine." Not wasting any time, he followed up with, "What did you come up with?"
I let out a sigh, happy that he didn't make a big deal of the situation.
"Yeah, I have something."
I pulled out a piece of torn cloth. As I unwrapped it, it revealed two needles, one partly used and the other unused. It was the moriline from the first aid kit.
Ael stares at it for a moment, and when he puts two and two together, he asks, "Is that how you amputated Darell?"
I nodded, not feeling proud of it.
"Your big plan is needles?" Amiel asked. "What do you plan to do with this?"
"It's moriline," I replied
"I know what it is." He looked annoyed, as if I was insulting his intelligence. "The point I was making is that you have to get close to use these, and I'm not sure if you've seen the state out there, but Burr has quite a few people surrounding him. And even if we somehow, someway, with the miracles of the gods, we get close, there was no way the others wouldn't attack us. There is all the fact—"
I hand off the needles to Ael. He played with them, examining them as I cut Amiel off.
"I know that. I also know that even with these two needles combined, the moriline wouldn't have much effect on him, maybe only numb him. He is too big. That's why we are not targeting him; we are targeting Mark. We are going to overdose him and frame someone from row C."
"Wait, hold up, what do you mean frame?" Amiel interrupted.
"If we want to kill Burr, we are going to have to do it after everyone else is dead. This means starting another war. He is already stronger than us, beating us in strength and height. It does not help that he has people around him, as you said. So when a war does erupt, we will stay out of the fight and let the others fight till the end. Row A is bound to join this fight since they are about to run out of resources. This means Burr will die in the midst of it all or at least be weakened by the end of it."
As Amiel listened, I could see his jaw clench, "I don't like it... I want to kill him with my own hands."
Ael joined the conversation. "You can't always get what you want. There are too many factors," He handed back the needles to me. "What Eirian is suggesting is a good plan, keeps us safe and gives us the best chance at taking Burr down, and if by chance they aren't able to kill Burr, then maybe, you can yourself."
Amiel contemplated a bit, his fist tightening. He wanted revenge, but not like this. He wished to watch Burr's life leave his eyes as he killed him.
"Fine," He said reluctantly. He wasn't happy about it, but he knew this was the right course of action.
Ael, still confused about the plan, asked, "Eirian, I understand the plan and all, but why Mark?"
I contemplated how I should answer the question and whether I should reveal all my cards. Looking around, the situation was too unstable for any discourse.
"That's because of how close he is to Burr." I turned to Amiel, letting him hear this too. "When watching everyone these past few days, I noticed something between the two. Every day, around noon, Mark would pass something to Burr. I later found out it was rolled up—he was feeding Burr info. Not only that, their families share close ties to each other. Mark's family was a branch family of Burr's. His death should be enough to invoke the war between row C and B."
I could see Ael examine me. I may have hesitated outside when it came to killing, but I could not anymore. Ael was right; it's kill or be killed, and my will would not let me be killed.
"All you have to do is trade for canned food from Marcus, your leader. Take that can, poke a small hole in it, fill it up with moriline, and trade it to Mark."
"Wouldn't that put my life on the line?" Amiel asked.
"Yes." I don't deny it. "But that is if you don't play this next step out correctly. You're going to pretend that Marcus was trying to kill you."
"Kill me?" Amiel questioned.
"Right now, you are the only one who stands on equal status with Marcus, that being a marquis, and now that your popularity has grown, it's good enough reason for him to become wary of you."
Amiel chimed in. "You put a decent amount of thought into this."
"Well, I had to. It has become harder recently to do anything in here with everyone being on guard now." I replied.
Amiel, after thinking for a while, said, "Okay, this should be fine."
He reaches for the needles in my hand. Putting the cloth with the needles in his back pocket, he said. "I'm going to spend a bit longer here. That way, people don't see us coming out at the same time."
"Sounds good," I replied
"What am I supposed to do?" Ael asked.
"You're the backup, just in case anything goes south.
***
It was morning, and everything was now in Amiel's hands. He just had to play his cards right.
*tap tap tap*
As I tapped the railing of my bed, I couldn't help but wonder if he was going to out me if something went wrong. There was a pretty good chance that he was. I mean, I would do the same.
Everyone here is desperate to survive, desperate to live. If it meant that we had to kill to do so, then so be it. But there was something else pushing Amiel. It was his honor, his family's honor to be more exact. Honor in this world is as important, if not more than, your life. That way, if you died, at least your name would live on.
Off in the distance, I could see Amiel trade with Marcus for canned food. The plan was a go. The only issue was that we didn't have much time.
We were coming close to the end, and row A was starving. Row D still had extra food, but row A had nothing, but that didn't matter to row D. That was because we were their food. They were letting us live so our meat wouldn't rot as quickly.
We had to get the plan going and fast if we wanted to live. Otherwise, there was no hope for us.