I join Athena in the second room just in time to see her lay Isaac down onto the table Mya was strapped on.

"Can I take off your shirt?" she asks as he fidgets on the table.

Isaac nods, and she edges his shirt up and over his head. As she pulls it off his shoulder, he yelps in pain and grinds his teeth together.

I've seen Athena perform minor surgery before. She has stitched up bullet wounds and deep lacerations from accidents involving axes. Like my father, she's seen everything, and it doesn't even touch her anymore.

Not a bit of disgust flickers across her face.

"Are you going to be okay without pain meds?" she asks Isaac. The poor man has gone whiter than the lights bearing down on us, whiter than death itself.

"I'll be fine," he mumbles. "Just give me something to bite down on."

I ruffle through the drawers, find a towel, and toss it over to them. Athena catches it and hands it to him after rolling it into a tube. Isaac stuffs it in his mouth, and then, he closes his eyes with a small nod.

"Wet some of those towels with warm water for me, Sakir," Athena orders without looking up from Isaac's wound. She presses it down with steady fingers, making Isaac wince against his will. Blood still trickles out of the wound, but it's lessened since she brought him in.

I do as I'm told and hand the wet towels to Athena. She wipes the blood away, revealing a gaping hole about the size of my pinky.

"Gloves," Athena barks, and I scramble to the drawers once again.

Time after time, she tells me what to do, and I fetch her tools. My hands shake, and more than once, she barks at me again when I zone out and stare at the contents of a drawer.

I can't stop thinking about Mya, can't stop seeing her jump in front of the bullet. I see the blood on her stomach, feel her shake, and hear her heartbeat fade into oblivion. The thoughts stampede through my head like a herd of horses, trampling my common sense and stomping down my concentration.

It doesn't help that Dr. Julien's body lies in the floor at Athena's feet. She straddles the still form of the doctor, paying no attention to her. Yet, I can't rip my eyes away. The sight of her feeds an anger in me that had almost dwindled after my conversations with Quinn. How could she do something like this to her children? What did President Ashford have on her that drove her to kill her only son? Was she just that selfish that she would rather live than allow her children the chance to?

I'm glad she's dead, and nothing could change my mind about that. Sometimes, the world is a better place without specific people in it, and she's one of those people. Her and Ashford. When they're gone, the world is going to be a better place.

Hopefully.

"Sakir," Athena says firmly, bringing my attention back to her. "Could you move Dr. Julien?" She's stretching as far as she can, but the distance makes her hands shake. I nod.

"Where should I take her?" I ask.

"In the other room with Mya and Jay."

"She doesn't deserve to be in the same room with either of them," I snap.

Athena sighs.

"I know, but I can't keep working with her in my way. Move the bodies if you need to."

I bite my lip.

"Fine," I mumble.

With a grunt, I bend over and grip Dr. Julien's ankles. She's just as heavy as I expected, but luckily, I'm still strong. Having my hands on her skin makes me want to slam her into the ground until there's nothing left of her, but instead, I pull her towards the door we came in, leaving a streak of blood behind us.

I drag Dr. Julien to the other side of the room, leaving her beside Mya. Then, I pick Mya up and carry her over beside Jaelyn. I lay her so that they're shoulder to shoulder. At least they look peaceful that way. Isaac arranged Jay so that her eyes are closed and her head is tilted. I can't see the entry wound for the bullet, and her hair covers the exit hole.

I graze my fingertips against her cold, bloody cheek.

When Jay first came to Compound 2, she still wore her uniform from Compound 4. The olive and black pinstripe button-up fit too big and hung off her frame like a trash bag sometimes. Her hair was longer then, and she wore it in this long braid over her shoulders.

Papa knew she was coming and waited outside by the gate. She told him everything- starting at her leaving Compound 4 the first time and ending at the fall of Compound 3. She lived with us, ate with us, laughed with us. I was there when she decided to cut her hair, when Isaac begged her not to, and when she yelled at him not to boss her around. They argued like an old married couple most the time, but I never saw two young people more loyal and in love. I may never see that again.

Isaac losing Jay is like he's lost a part of himself- a part that can never be replaced. His shadow, his other half. I can't begin to imagine what's going through his head, and I'm not sure I want to. I imagine it would be like losing Athena but a thousand times worse.

Even Mya's loss doesn't begin to touch on the depth of pain Isaac must be feeling. It's just the closest thing I have.

As I stand back up, I glance at Mya again. She looks peacefully asleep, like she did in the cave last night. Where ever she is right now, I hope Finn's there too. I hope she's happy and painless. At least she'll never have to be afraid again. That alone makes me envious.

"Staring at them won't bring them back to life," a cold voice says from behind me. I glance at the president, and he smiles at me with a wicked grin.

"Shut up," I whisper, turning and walking back to the door.

"Do you really think I'm going to tell the compound to take the vaccine?" he asks. "After I worked so hard to keep it away? Your presidential friend is much more naive than I thought."

"You'll do whatever he says, or I'll snap your neck."

"Oh, that's too easy of a death. Why not make me suffer for a while, huh?"

I glare at him with one hand on the door handle.

"No. I refuse to give you the satisfaction of another minute of life," I hiss. "You deserve to die just as fast as they did, just an terrifying and unexpected, and without a chance to beg for life. I'll make it quick, I promise."

With that, I walk back into Athena's makeshift operating room. She leans over Isaac's body and is digging into his shoulder with a gloved hand. With a tongue hanging out of her mouth and Isaac clenching his eyes closed, the entire scene looks intense. I stand by the door and watch Athena straighten back up with a silver bullet resting between her index finger and thumb.

"Got it," she says with excitement, and Isaac opens his eyes. He smiles around the towel in his mouth, but his eyes roll back in his head after a minute. Athena puts a hand to his forehead.

"He passed out," she tells me.

"He's lost a lot of blood. I would pass out too."

She nods and moves onto cleaning and stitching up the hole.

She moves quickly, and when she's finished, she lets out a long sigh.

"Done. How long has it been?"

"Ten minutes," I say without glancing up at the clock. It feels like an eternity, but the seconds pound by like the falling of hammers. I count them dancing by in front of me.

"So, they should be here soon."

I nod. They should, but I doubt the confidence of the redhead.

Athena strips off her gloves and deposits them in a silver trash can at the end of the table. She rubs her cheeks with both hands while she walks across the room to a large window. The blinds are closed, but she finds the knob and cranks them open.

Compound 1 shifts into view with the red and black brick buildings rising into view. I join her beside the window, snaking an arm around her shoulders. Gray storm clouds cover the robin's egg sky. Snowflakes drift towards the ground and create a white mirage. The wall along the outside reminds me of a snowglobe, and from this height, I see the desolation surrounding the white concrete barrier.

Yet, I can also see the trucks- navy blue and innumerable- clustered in the bare plains surrounding the wall. The troops of Compound 1 line the top of the wall, but they can't compare to the army below.

Lexi was right. They have a lot of guns.

I squint to see the truck leading the convoy, and a flash of red dances across my vision. It comforts me knowing that Papa stands down below somewhere.

What happens next is unknown. The red shape follows after a taller, darker figure dressed in the same type of uniform. I guess it's Quinn, but I can't make out faces from this far away. All I have to go off is their silhouettes.

The two figures walk towards the wall, and a conversation must ensue.

"What do you think they're saying?" Athena whispers, clutching my hand.

"'Let us in, or we'll blow you to smitherines'?" I reply with a smirk.

"I'm serious, Saki."

"I am, too. Quinn's probably telling them that if they don't let him in, he's going to open fire. Remember what he did to Compound 4?"

"He didn't know what he was doing. The president before him was conniving and brainwashed him."

"There's no excuse for absolute slaughter," I mumble. "He'll say whatever he has to in order to get inside the wall. That's what politicians do- lie and threaten."

Athena laughs.

"He's actually a good person. You don't even know him."

"Don't have to. The uniform and title tells me all I need to know."

"Don't judge him so-" She stops talking, and I look over at her with concern. Her eyes go wide, fixated on the scene below.

"What's wrong?" I ask, squinting to see what she's looking at. That's when I see it.

The redhead has one of the guards held at gunpoint and is screaming at the other wall guards. They've all put their guns on the ground and arms up in surrender. Now, I'm extra curious about what they said.

Moments later, the gate begins to open. The stand-off continues as Lexi jerks the guard to his feet and leads him into Compound 1. Quinn and the truck follow. Is Papa in there? The other trucks and soldiers from Compound 5 stand their ground, staring up at the motionless Compound 1 army.

"I'm going to go wait for them in the glass room," I say, letting her go and walking back towards the door. "Stay with Isaac, so he won't be alone when he wakes up."

Athena nods and moves back to Isaac's side.

"Saki?" Athena calls as I step through the door. I look over my shoulder at her. "I'm sorry things went this way."

I nod and let out a sigh.

"Yeah, me too," I mumble, walking away from her.