“SO YOU SEE WHY we can’t let you leave,” Warden says.
Dawn stares at him.
“You’re a part of the team, Dawn,” he tells her. “We have to all stick together. I can’t let you go back to headquarters, not now that you know.”
Warden takes a step forward, and Dawn sees how the firelight glints off the knife. “You’re either with us, or against us,” Warden tells her. “Whose side are you on, Dawn? The prisoners, or the guards?”
“Think carefully,” Warden says. “There’s only one Correct Answer.”
It goes without saying this is not exactly the situation Dawn’s dad had in mind when he preached to her about Doing the Right Thing.
Or maybe it is.
Dawn stares at the shadow that is Warden and the glinting knife. And she knows she’s seeing the true Warden now, and whoever she was falling for before wasn’t him. And she knows she was foolish to even follow him this far.
Warden watches her. He shifts the knife in his hand.
“Silence,” he says, “will be considered an Incorrect Answer.”
Dawn knows there’s no way out of this mess. She knows that in a moment Warden’s either going to:
-
Do something awful, or
-
Wake up Brandon and Evan, and they’ll do the awful thing for him.
She can’t outrun Warden, not for long. But if she stays here, she’s probably dead anyway. No way Warden lets her live, not now that she knows he killed Alex. Not now that he knows she wants to escape.
She holds her head high and stares at the shadows that obscure Warden’s face. “I’m leaving,” she tells him. “That’s my answer.”
It sounds brave and badass, and for an instant, it makes Dawn feel pretty good. But then Warden lunges for her and grabs her and wrenches her forward, and he’s too strong for Dawn by a mile and he pulls her off-balance and staggering toward the fire, and Warden keeps dragging her until she’s falling forward, until she’s on her knees in the mud.
And then she looks up, and Warden’s raising the knife.
Dawn opens her mouth to scream. It’s all she has left and she knows it isn’t much. But Warden’s raising the knife and the fire’s catching his eyes and she can see how he looks at her and there’s no Warden there—at least, not the guy she thought she knew.
“I told you,” Warden says, “you’re not leaving.”
Dawn opens her mouth to scream. Hoping that somehow if she screams, it will stop him. It will bring the others to help her.
It will save her life.
She opens her mouth to scream, but before she can get the words out…
Warden screams instead.