Young Writers Society

"Well," said Nubes, rolling his shoulders as he turned his head to look at Briar, "I used to kill people, and now I don't. And that look you're giving me is a little familiar - are you a killer yourself?"

Briar froze. It was just half a second before she got her bearings, but she knew that -if what Nubes said was true- he would have noticed. That is, if he was any good at killing people when he did that.

So denial was out of the question.

She bowed her head, that horrible feeling of blood on her skin crawling over her skin.

"Not by choice."

From the way that Lasan looked from Nubes to Briar, opening and closing his mouth the whole time, the leopard realized that he might've revealed something that she didn't want revealed.

"My apologies," he said. "You could've said no - I would've figured out the answer either way."

Ryder looked down at his hand, trying to shake away the memories of the deaths that he had caused. He had always tried his best to avoid them, but a revolution - and a war - were things that couldn’t be without casualties on both sides. In order to save people, he had to kill.

...How would they have viewed him now, if they could see him standing as a killer alongside two self-professed killers?

"Don't like skull," Gareth muttered from behind Solaris. Ryder looked up from his hand to see that Solaris was in the middle of inspecting both Briar and Nubes with a hawk-like gaze, and suddenly he wondered if there were four killers instead of three. "...want food now."

Ryder stiffened.

Gareth had seemed like such an innocent, sweet man - despite the lack of trouble with cold temperatures - but it was beginning to seem like he was the most gruesome and horrible killer of them all.

Briar kept her gaze pinned down.

"To say no was to make myself a liar," she said, something like anger tinting her voice, a warning.

"And what's wrong with being a liar?" said Nubes, tilting his head. "In the business of killing people, the truth is complicated, messy, wastes time. Assassins rarely have the time to tell the truth."

He looked over to Briar. "Lasan, you've certainly run into an interesting group of people. Normally I'd expect more fear, but I'm seeing more anger and suspicion that anything else." He frowned, focusing on Gareth and how the man was sucking his finger. "And hunger, apparently. Though I hope everyone is aware that you're not supposed to like the skull."

"There's nothing wrong with the truth," Ryder quietly said. He was being a hypocrite, and he knew it. With dyed hair, contacts, and a fake name, he wasn't one to talk about "the truth". He was as much of a liar as his brother was, and maybe that was what made him reply to that one comment. He could be hypocritical, but he couldn't fully forsake the truth. Why else would he still be fighting against his brother?

A short distance away, Solaris was giving her brother a stern look.

"Don't want to eat skull," Gareth hurriedly added, as if he remembered that he wasn't supposed to talk about hunger in the same conversation as killing people. He shifted uncomfortably and sucked a little harder on his finger. "Don't like the bones."

"I don't think you're supposed to eat the skull either," Nubes said, after tilting his head and pausing.

He then looked at Ryder (and suspected he was going to get neck pain from how often he had to talk to different people in the group). "And you remind me of someone I know," he said, resting his chin on his paws. "He's, not the happiest person I've ever known, but his heart is in the right place."

Briar reached up and released her hair from the bunches to which it was restrained, leaving it free to cover her exposed neck. She had to keep herself from shivering.

"We haven't made a decision," she pointed out, "Are we staying, or going?"

You can just leave them behind, said the little voice at the back of her head, the one with the rules, you don't need them, and at least one of them could be dangerous to you.

She looked Nubes over again. He hadn't reacted poorly to her confession, so she wasn't likely to be killed for being a killer. But maybe her reasons why would get out. Maybe those would be too revolting for the group to accept. Maybe-

She cut herself off.

This was the kind of thinking that got her punished.

Ryder wasn't sure how he was supposed to respond to the comment about his happiness. He just gave a small nod of the head instead before turning back to Gareth - and Solaris, who was beginning to look more than a little worried at her brother's comments.

"I think we should go," Ryder said without turning to face Briar. He kept his gaze on Gareth and Solaris.

"Didn't mean to eat the skull..." Gareth muttered, eyes dropping down to the ground. "Accident."

Gareth's comment had Briar back on guard.

She frowned, keeping her eyes on him, "What do you mean?" she asked, all emotion draining from her voice once more.

If she drew her gun now the others might become alarmed. She didn't want to know how they might react when the tension rose. She could be faster with her knife. She dreaded the thought of using the blade for a kill, but if she had to she would.

"Erm, that seems exceptionally hard to do on accident," Nubes said. He had no idea what to make of Gareth, but he got the feeling Gareth wasn't exactly harmless.

Gareth scooted a little closer to his sister.

"It's a type of cereal he used to like," Solaris said. "It was shaped like bones, and each one had a different taste. The skull was his least favorite, and he always tried to avoid eating it."

Ryder glanced down at Gareth. Though Solaris almost sounded like she was telling the truth, the look on his face clearly said that she was lying through her teeth.

He looked back up at Solaris. "I think he was talking about something other than cereal," he quietly pointed out, hand hovering over his makeshift wooden weapon. "He was talking about eating people, wasn't he?"

"Not like what you think," Gareth whined. "Desperate. Hungry. Stuck. Had to. Didn't want to!"

"Gareth," Solaris whispered.

He shook his head. "Need to tell truth!"

"We can't," she replied, pulling him closer to her legs. "It was the promise we made. Don't you remember? Your big brother-"

"Big little brother," Gareth was quick to correct, anxiously looking up at Solaris.

"Your big little brother," Solaris said. A ghost of a smile appeared on her lips, only to fade as she continued talking. "He made you promise not to tell anyone. If you did, then Father would find us again, and you know how Father got when angry."

Gareth's lips quivered.

"I don't think you can avoid lying, either," Ryder interrupted. "Right now, it sounds like Gareth is a cannibal. I'm not sure what other explanation you have, but I think you need to give it."

Briar was not one for sympathy. She did what she had to, she did as she was told, and never, ever did she risk herself for the sake of sympathy.

An echo of a scream sounded in her head, Liar.

She dismissed it. I had to.

The situation at hand re-entered her conscious thoughts. No, she didn't care much for sympathy, empathy either, but right now she was feeling both. Gareth and Solaris appeared to be playing a game Briar was all too familiar with. No, Eleanor, was all too familiar with. A game of keep your promises and don't upset dad. Don't upset dad or else.

She didn't know what Gareth had done or why. She didn't even know Solaris's real name. The only thing she did know was they were in a very similar boat to her, maybe worse.

And if she was right, then an explanation like the one Ryder requested might just be dangerous for them.

Her eyes flicked between the siblings and Ryder. A slash to his leg would subdue him, shallow enough and he wouldn't bleed out. She tried to remember if there was medical supplies in the bunkers.

If he got violent, as he threatened, she wanted everyone to get out alive.

She rationalized it as necessity.

They may be useful in the future.

Nubes could kill me for killing him.

But she had little attachment to the bits of truth in those chants.

Nubes wondered if he'd been better off hiding in his bunker. "I don't think he's a particularly good cannibal if he's eating skulls. Those aren't easy to bite into. Especially for a human." He doubted that Gareth was human, based on the way the conversation was going, but he was curious to see if Gareth would admit to it.