Aiden stares at me like he is trying to figure something out. He does not say anything, but I can tell something is on his mind.

I am the first to speak. “What?” I ask him.

“Nothing,” he says and turns to start walking towards the back of the tent.

“What, I want to know.”

“You’re going to get mad at me.”

I can’t help but laugh a little, “Well, now I have to know.”

He stops walking and turns around to face me. “I just thought you would be more scared. I saw the look on your face when I was bringing you and your townspeople over to the maze to get you guys out. You looked terrified. You even looked scared when you were asking me to help you get back in. I don’t see any of that fear now.”

When I don’t respond, he keeps going. “It’s not a bad thing you’re no longer scared. I was just noticing.” He says awkwardly, like he wants to stop talking, although he continues anyway. “I know girls don’t like being called scared since most people assume scared means weak, and I didn’t want you to think I was calling you weak. Fear is what keeps many people alive, and fear can make people do amazing things. I'm scared all the time. Please don’t be mad.”

“I’m not mad,” I tell him.

I’m not. He’s right. Fear is a good thing. I was scared before, but I’m also scared right now. Apparently, I just got good at hiding it. Or maybe I am too exhausted to care about anything like fear right now.

I am not even scared of the guards anymore. I am more scared of not making it back to Devin. I promised him I would come back, and I do not intend on breaking that promise.

Most of all, I am scared of not finding my Dad, but most of all, I am afraid of finding him dead. I know we have not had time to look for him in every booth since we have been running from the guards, but I am terrified that I am going to turn a corner, and he is going to be laying on the ground lifeless.

“Is this one of those things where someone says they’re not mad, but they really are, and you are going to get me back for it later?” Aiden says.

I snap out of my thoughts. “No,” I tell him with a slight smile on my face.

“Okay, if you say so. But just in case you are lying, you should know that I know a cop. If you try anything, he will find you.” Aiden says to me with a sideways glance so I can see the smile on his face that tells me he is joking.

We start walking again along the side of the show tent until we come to the area where my Dad, Devin, and I, along with a few others, broke out from. The spot now has a long piece of wood covering the opening. On top of the wood lies a section of the tarp that is now ripped in many places and has a few holes that look to be from bullets. Light shines through parts of the tarp that does not have wood behind it, and I am tempted to look in and see if I recognize anyone in there.

I point to the hole in the tarp, and Aiden understands what I am asking. He gets closer to it, peeks in, and then comes back to stand beside me. I can tell by the grim look on his face that it’s not good.

“If you want to look inside, you can, but you might not want to.” He says to me in a whisper.

“I want to,” I tell him. There is no changing my mind about it. Maybe there is a small chance that my Dad ended up in there somewhere, and they didn’t kill him.

“Alright. Just be careful. There is a circle of shooters in the center. Each of them is holding a gun, and if they spot you, there is a good chance they won’t hesitate to shoot you,” Aiden tells me.

I give him a nod of understanding, and then I approach the small hole in the tarp. I slowly peek in and look to the center to make sure none of the guards are looking my way.

As Aiden said, they are all in the middle of the room, standing in a circle facing the people sitting down on the bleachers. One look at the big guns that each of the guards holds reminds me of why Aiden and Theon call them shooters and not guards. They look ready to shoot anyone who looks at them the wrong way. They are definitely not the usual guards that I have seen come into town.

When I am certain that the guards can’t see me, I start looking around at the room. There is so much red around the room that it makes the whole tent glow red. The bright lights that line the inside of the tent and the bottom of the bleachers seem out of place compared to all the blood and the somber faces of the people inside.

I see my neighbors, Jake, Leia, and Mike Populus, but Michelle Populus is not sitting with them. I look around the tent, but I can not find her. I look at all the faces of the people who have lived in Treegrass with me my whole life, but I am only able to remember a few of their names—some people I don’t recognize at all.

Some people are crying, some are sitting staring at the guards in fear, and other people look like ghosts of themselves. They sit on the bleachers with blank expressions on their faces and are looking at nowhere in particular. Almost everyone has some blood on them. It is hard to find someone who does not. Some people are covered in blood, while others just have a few spots here and there.

What happened here after we ran out?

There is a pool of blood directly on the other side of the tarp where I am standing. The guards must have opened fired on everyone who was running out of the tent. There are other spots of blood around the room in various sizes. Some of the blood is smeared on the ground as if the person bleeding was being dragged away.

Regardless of all the blood, there are no bodies. As far as I can tell, the people being held in the tent aren’t even injured. Did the guards take the injured people away to get medical help, or did they kill them as well?

I look around the tent to see if I can see my Dad anywhere. I know it’s a long shot, but I have to try. If he somehow managed to get in here, then I can’t leave without him. I look at every face in this room, but I don’t see him. While there are many faces in here that are dirty or bloody, they don’t look like him.

I quickly look over to the shooters again and then walk back over to Aiden. “Okay, we can go now,” I tell him. I try to sound unbothered, but I’m not. My Dad’s not here. He’s not with the group back in the woods, and he’s not here in the carnival. That means he’s dead.

I avoid looking Aiden in the eyes since I don’t want him to see me upset, but I don’t think it works. Aiden grabs my hand and slowly starts leading me further along the outside of the main tent until we come to the end.

At the end, we should be able to make a right turn to continue our way, but we can’t. The fence with the tarp over it extends to block this part off. We can’t get through this way.

I can hear the sound of people walking around on the other side, and I look at Aiden questionably. The noise seems to make Aiden interested as well, and he leans in closer to the makeshift wall to listen, and I do the same. I can hear the hum of a vehicle and the sound of something being placed down hard on some sort of surface.

I look down to the bottom of the tarp and see that it’s not connected to anything. I get down on the ground, and Aiden joins me after noticing this. I pick the tarp up and slowly start lifting it a few inches.

On the other side of the fence, there are hundreds or even thousands of body bags lying on the ground. If what the government said was true about killing half the population in Treegrass, then there are probably close to six thousand dead bodies here, maybe more.

The lighting is poor, but I can make out the bodies lying on the ground further to the right. Those bodies are not yet in bags. I can see that the guards are working to put those bodies in bags and with the others. I can’t help but stare at them. I can see the faces of the people before the guards zip up the bags. Most have their eyes closed, but some are wide open, staring lifelessly at nothing.

To the left, there are guards loading the body bags onto a big truck. One by one, they load them on, and each time they put another one on, I can hear the sound of the body hitting the bed of the truck. They don't even bother to put them down gently. They just throw them on top of one another as if they mean nothing. One after another after another after another.

Thunk thunk thunk thunk.

I can’t take it anymore. I let go of the tarp and lay on the ground. I try to focus on the stars in the sky and not the repeated sound of dead bodies being zipped up or thrown on a truck, but I can't get the sound out of my ears.

Thunk thunk thunk thunk.

Chapter 28

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