Jamie knocked twice, then brought out a large set of keys. After unlocking it, he cracked the door open to reveal a young man with bleary eyes and dark hair that stuck out in every direction. With a combination of shock and what might have been relief, Everly realized that it was Luca.
Blinking, Luca noticed Everly standing behind Jamie, and his face showed his own confusion, replaced almost immediately by what she thought was sorrow, though it was all so quickly wiped away that she couldn’t be sure. Luca then looked at Jamie without saying anything.
“Mr. Reyes,” Jamie said, gesturing behind himself. “This is Everly, though I believe you two have already been acquainted.”
Everly had a moment of panic, thinking that he had found out Luca helped her the day before, that he was now in trouble because of her. But then she remembered the surveillance room, the emergency, the boy on the camera feed.
“She’s new to the building,” Jamie was saying, “but she will be staying with us now. I need you to show her around, teach her how things work. Have her shadow you for now, until we give her an assignment of her own.”
Luca nodded once, glancing back at Everly again with a question in his eyes.
Jamie didn’t seem to notice; he clapped his hands. “Good. Skip morning roll, I’ve told the runners that you’re going to be showing Miss Tertium around. I have work to get to, but I trust her in your hands, Reyes. Do this, and the Warden will be pleased.”
This didn’t appear to comfort Luca much; he remained silent as Jamie walked away, disappearing around a corner at the other end of the green hallway. Luca and Everly looked at each other, not sure where to begin.
“So,” Luca finally said. “Caught, huh?”
Everly nodded slowly. “It would seem that way,” she said. She looked at him sharply. “What does it mean? He said—” She halted, words jammed in her throat. “He said I can’t leave. Ever.” A hysterical laugh tried to escape Everly, but she shook it off, searching for some other explanation in Luca’s eyes.
She found none.
“I’m sorry,” he said instead. “He’s right. You can try, but . . . I wouldn’t recommend it.” Everly could see the weight of truth in his eyes. Something—some flicker of hope—died at the sight of it.
She didn’t trust Jamie, but for whatever reason, she did think she could trust Luca. And he was saying she couldn’t ever leave, too.
Luca took her hand, rubbing a thumb over the back of it. “I don’t remember life before,” he said quietly. “I was too young. So, this is all I’ve ever known, really. I can’t imagine what it must be like to have to leave it all behind.”
“It’s not even that there’s much left for me out there anymore,” Everly said distantly. “My parents are dead, I don’t have a real job, no friends. But it was the whole world, you know? And now it’s just . . .”
“I know,” Luca said, still stroking her hand. He cleared his throat. “It’s not so bad here. Most of the time.”
Everly let out an uncertain chuckle. “Yeah? Not sure how much I believe that.”
He offered her a tight smile, lifting one shoulder in a partial shrug. “There are some good people here, and if nothing else they keep you busy. Come on,” he said, dropping her hand and walking away. “I’ll show you. It should be starting soon, anyway.”
“What should?”
He smirked, walking backward. “The day.”
Everly was about to ask what that meant, but before she could there was a shrill beeping all around her, and her eyes shot up, trying to find the source. She realized Luca was laughing at her, and she jogged to catch up with him. The beeping stopped, then, and doors started to open all around them, children of all ages pouring out into the hall.
Everly looked around with a combination of fascination and horror. All of these children, they lived here? There were so many of them, she thought, and they all lived in the Eschatorologic? Her mind struggled to think up why they could all be there—what prison housed so many kids? Could it be that the Eschatorologic also served as an orphanage or some sort of messed-up group home? Luca said he was young when he came in. Why? What could the building possibly need with them? What could Richard possibly need with them? Despite herself, Everly still wanted to assume the best of Richard, but this was hard to justify. Hundreds and hundreds of children, all huddled together, dressed in gray.
The children were moving in the same direction together. Everly started to follow along with the flow, but Luca touched her elbow and shook his head.
“They’re all lining up for roll—Jamie seemed to want us to play hooky this morning. Come on.” He tilted his head in the opposite direction from the assembling children. “I’ll show you around instead.”
Luca led Everly down hallways of all different colors, pointing out specific rooms as they came across them—laundry room, storage closets, more and more bedrooms. She nodded along, pretending to listen, but her thoughts were still miles away. On Jamie, who had dragged her back there. On Richard, who had yet to show his face that morning. On the woman she had left upstairs the day before, bruised and mangled, with no way out. And now, it seemed, Everly had no way out, either.
Twenty minutes into his tour of sorts, Luca took Everly down a hall that was filling again with the gray-clad children, who were now streaming toward a set of double doors at the end of the walkway. They joined them, stepping through the doors into the room beyond.
Within was a wide-open area, full of row upon row of long tables. Some kind of dining hall, Everly realized. The room was only half full when Everly and Luca entered, but more and more children were continuing to trickle in behind them.
Seeing them all together like that, in one room, Everly realized that they weren’t actually all children. Most of them were—some as young as three or four, and a part of her crumbled to see the smallest of them tripping over their own feet as they filed into the room with everyone else. But there were also others. Some looked close to her age, in their early or midtwenties.
In the corner of the room sat two young men who looked to be about twenty discussing something in intense, subdued tones. Plates of steaming food lay in front of each of them, and Everly felt her stomach growl. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten.
Luca approached them, and Everly recognized one of the young men as Caleb, Luca’s friend from the other night. He smiled when they walked up, glancing questioningly at Everly for a second, then returning to his conversation.
The other young man at the table was short and pale with a round face and incredibly shaggy, almost-white blond hair that fell over his eyes, obscuring his features. He paused midsentence as Luca and Everly sat down, looking between the two of them.
“Who’s this?” the shaggy man asked Luca through a mouthful of food, gesturing in Everly’s direction with his fork.
“She’s new,” was all Luca said before stealing a piece of bread off the other man’s plate. Chewing on his steal, Luca pointed at Everly and then to the man. “Everly, Anker. Anker, Everly.”
Anker, apparently satisfied, turned back to his discussion with Caleb, leaning in close and speaking in rushed, whispered words.
“It’s others, too. There’s been talk. More people getting brought in, every week.”
Everly looked between the two of them, her mouth turned down slightly in a bewildered frown. “Getting brought where?”
“For testing,” Anker said without turning to look at her. His back stiffened a moment after the words had slipped from his tongue, his eyes widening and lifting first to Everly, then over to Luca.
“Testing?” Everly asked. She thought of Richard, of his long needle and clunky machine.
“Never mind,” Anker said, the words leaping from his mouth too quickly. Everly saw him swallow thickly, clearly caught up in something he hadn’t meant to broach with her.
Caleb cast worried eyes at Luca, who gazed steadily back. Turning to face Everly, Caleb forced a smile. “You’re new, so nothing to worry about yet, I’m sure.”
