Abe orders the crowd to disperse back to their sleeping quarters, and so they do, immediately, without a second to spare.

Scott and Elsie rush over to us and herd us away from the crowd and stage. I catch one last glimpse of Declan, who's still on the stage catching his breath, recovering from the pure horror he was just put through, before we're directed to turn around and walk back to our room.

Elsie leads the pack while Scott trails behind us, wielding the pistol.

I can't think straight. My bare feet sink into the wet grass as I walk. The chatter from the crowd starts growing distant as we plod closer to our isolated building.

Kiran keeps looking over his shoulder frantically towards the stage, but every time he does, Scott lifts the gun up and points it at him.

"Look ahead," Scott orders, voice stern.

"Is he going to be okay?" Kiran asks.

"Shut up." Scott shoves Kiran hard from behind, knocking him slightly off balance, but he catches himself and continues walking.

Elsie turns around and walks backwards, giving Scott a look. "Would you take it easy on them? It's not their fault," she defends.

The entire walk to our building, Scott continues to mumble angrily to himself with the gun still pointed at us. I worry he's going to snap and shoot us dead. I drift slightly to the side so my eyes can remain on him for the duration of the silent walk, watching his every move.

We finally arrive at our building, and Elsie stands by the side of the door. I look at her. Surely I look horrified, and so she gives me a small, sympathetic smile.

We enter the building and Scott rushes ahead of us to aggressively swing the bedroom door open. He gestures for us to enter, and we trudge into the dusty room single-file, heads down.

As we pile into the room, Kiran stays by the doorway. "Where's Declan?" he asks Scott, his angular face illuminated only by a single, buzzing bulb in the lamp behind him.

Scott sighs and shrugs. "I don't care."

Kiran takes a step towards him. "Okay, well, I do. Is he coming back?"

"I don't know what Abe plans to do with his new pet," Scott snaps. He turns to look at all of us, his beady eyes holding a sinister glimmer. I reach up to touch my neck again, a chill rushing through my body. "I will be back to give you all your work assignments," he says.

"Wait!" Kiran tries to stop him, but Scott slams the door shut in his face, and we hear him fumble with all of the locks on the other side of the door.

I sink into one of the beds, unable to calm my heart rate. I don't even feel alive right now.

Zoe sits next to me on the bed. She looks over her shoulder at Kiran, before she looks back at me. "Somebody's worried about their boyfriend," she says quietly with a small grin. Her placid demeanor sends a jolt through me.

My heart feels like it's climbing into my throat. "We al-almost just watched Declan get killed," I say quietly, trying to stop my voice from trembling.

Her eyes narrow, confused. "Okay... but we didn't. He's fine."

I stare at her, searching desperately for something in her eyes or any slight expression in her face that will tell me she is feeling as scared as I am, as we all are. But I don't see anything, and it frightens me.

I think back to when I learned about coping mechanisms, and I try to justify it with that. She is probably just in shock from all of this, it is still very new, and so she is trying to process it by using her twisted, mean humor.

But I can't stomach it right now. I can't joke around after witnessing what I just witnessed. If anything, that moment just solidified how real our situation is, how quickly one of us can be killed right in front of the others' eyes.

"Lou-Lou, you need to just chill out," Zoe says. "Don't you remember what he did to you? Why do you even care what happens to him?" she asks, genuinely confused.

"Zoe," I say under my breath, my teeth gritted. I can't even believe she's serious. "What he did to me doesn't warrant that. If anything, I was just as bad as him. Do I deserve that too?"

"No, not at all. He wronged you first. That was karma for him," Zoe remarks. "He was due for a reality check."

I look over my shoulder at Kiran, who I truly hope does not hear her. He's on the other side of the room with Alice, his hands are threaded through his thick dark hair, distressed. Alice is sitting on the bed beside him, talking to him quietly, her voice so low it's inaudible to me.

"Would you care the way Kiran does? If that happened to me?" I ask, hardly even able to get the words out, but trying desperately to understand how she could possibly make fun of him after what just happened to his best friend.

She stares at me. Her eyes glitter and she lifts the corners of her mouth into a small smile. "It's me and you in this, Lou-Lou," she whispers.

I continue to stare blankly at her, urging her to explain herself.

"Me and you... We need to fend for ourselves. Whatever happens to them, happens... and it's sad, but we need to focus on us. Got it?" For the first time, she's whispering, and her eyes - they're glossy and serious. "I only care about us."

"Why are you so against them?" I ask her. "We might need them to get out. We really should all try to work together."

"No, you're wrong," she snips. "We can get out by ourselves. Caring about what happens to them will only weigh us down."

I think about it for a second, then, I shake my head. I put my head in my hands. "Why do you think that way?"

"You can't rely on anyone in this world, Lou-Lou," she says, moving closer to me. "Especially not people who are jealous of us, and who probably want to see us suffer. They think that we're just privileged rich girls who deserve it. I see the way they look at us."

I look over at Kiran and Alice, at the way they're also talking quietly, at the invisible division at the center of this room, separating us.

"Are you scared, Zoe?" I ask her, tears welling up in my eyes.

She shifts her weight on the bed and nods. "Obviously. But would it be so bad here? Aside from the hideous outfits. I mean, no pressure from school... no pressure of finding a career, no parents breathing down our necks."

My eyes widen as I turn to look at her again. She can not be serious. Then, she rolls her eyes, and relief flushes over me.

"Kidding. You should see your face," she nudges me. "You're going to die here if you let this get to you. Never let anyone get to you, Lou-Lou, I've told you this before. If they do..."

"...don't show it," I finish for her, recalling a time Zoe told me this after some girl at a party called me a "slut" because apparently, I hooked up with her ex-boyfriend. I had no idea who the girl was, or really who her ex-boyfriend was, but those words cut through me like a knife through butter. I was crying in my room, and of course, right beside me, was Zoe, who never lets a single thing bother her. I envy everything about her.

She's always been there for me. I trust her.

She nods. "We're going to be fine. We're going to get out of here, untouched, because what we have on our side is our looks... we're hot, so we can manipulate. It's simple."

I bite my lower lip and blink away a few tears from my eyes. She is a master manipulator, I have seen her in action many times before and whatever she wants, she gets. I have confidence in her. She's right, too many people being added to the equation might muddy the waters. If we just focus on us, we'll be able to escape, and we'll worry about getting help for the others afterwards.

"I wish I could be like you," I confess sadly. I want to be so unbothered that even a situation like this wouldn't frighten me.

She puts her arm around me and rests her head on my shoulder. "It's me and you. Agree?"

I nod. "Yeah," I say, sniffling. "It's you and me."

She links our pinkie fingers together again, and we sit together on the bed, our shoulders touching.

"Do you think our parents are worried about us right now?" I ask her quietly. I keep dwelling on this, and I'm not sure why. "Like, do you think everyone's looking for us?"

"I mean, my mom probably hasn't noticed, but yours, definitely. My mom will probably love how skinny I'll be when we get out, though," she laughs, but there's something layered within it. Something sad.

I've seen her mother before, she looks like a Barbie doll - bleach blonde, breast implants, lip injections. And I've overheard her conversations with Zoe on the phone, Zoe has to report her weight to her weekly.

I lick my chapped lips. "I'm sure she's worried," I comfort.

She waves her hand dismissively. Then, she looks at me with large eyes. "Do you think Liam's totally freaking out? I mean, he's gonna be all over you when we get back."

I think about Liam, and my heart aches for him. I don't want him to be worried. The thought of him crying over me or worse, looking frantically for me himself, makes my chest hurt. "I don't know," I say, not wanting to think about it.

Suddenly, the bedroom door bursts open, and Zoe and I whip our heads to the doorway. Declan is shoved inside, his cheeks flushed and his shirt still off. Scott's behind him, the gun pointed at him, of course. I scan my eyes over Declan quickly, he doesn't look like he's been injured any further.

We all stare at him. Kiran abruptly stands up and throws his arms around him in a tight hug. Declan wraps his arms tightly around him as well, and I can see their relief in the way their shoulders rise and fall.

"Separate now," Scott snaps.

The two of them pull away from each other. The room is dead silent, we're all terrified as Scott takes a few steps further into the room, the gun still in his grip.

I wonder what would happen if we all ambushed him at once. He might shoot one or two of us, but he couldn't get us all. But would it all be for naught? There's no way that taking down just Scott would help us get out of here. There's trees all over the place, and a fence lining the premises, as well as about hundreds of sick-minded people to get through after him. The thought makes me feel even more exhausted.

"I have your work assignments," Scott says, a fake smile plastered on his face. He looks at Kiran. "Kiran, you will be in the med clinic. You... I forgot your name," he points to Declan. Clearly, he didn't actually forget his name. "You'll be working on building a new building, it'll be a nursery for the infants. It'll be a lot of work. Heavy labor."

Declan stares back at him, his jaw tight as Scott looks him up and down.

"I hope you can handle it," Scott says with a chuckle.

Zoe stifles a small laugh, and all of us immediately draw our attention to her. Scott smirks and points to Zoe.

"I like you," he says to her, through another chuckle. "You've got a good sense of humor, blondie."

Zoe smiles and flips her dirty hair over her shoulder.

I stare at her, before I look at Declan. His eyes lock onto mine, and the deep emotion in them pulls a nauseating feeling of guilt out of me. He just went through torture, and here Zoe is, laughing at Scott's insults. He was almost killed. Then, he was declared the potential next leader of this sick cult.

I try not to show him sympathy though. It needs to be Zoe and I, only. And if this is what Zoe needs to do to get us out, then I'll let her. So, I look away from him.

Scott clears his throat and continues, "Louisa and Alice, you will both be in the kitchen as dish washers. Don't worry, you can move up in the kitchen ranking if you prove yourselves. And Zoe, you will be in the school with the children."

My heart drops to my stomach. "Wait, wait a minute," I say, my hands trembling. "Can Zoe and I be together?"

Zoe looks at me. Does she even care about being separated from me? Her blasé demeanor is a tactic, I remind myself. I can see in the way she moves her hand closer to mine that she's silently telling me it will be okay.

"No," Scott answers. "You will be with Alice in the kitchen. Our Abe has assigned these positions to you, and we do not dare go against him."

I swallow hard and try not to cry. I can't be away from Zoe. What will I do? How will we talk out our plan? I feel sheer panic at the thought of being away from her. I wonder if deep down, she feels the same.

"See you in a few hours at sun-up," Scott announces as he holds his gun up. "Rest up. Your first work day is crucial to show us your potential. If you cannot adequately contribute to this society, then..." he laughs and shakes his head. "I'm sure you can fill in the blanks yourself."

Then, he turns around and shuts the door, leaving us in the barely lit, dusty room.