The Rabbit Pen

They marched her to the rabbit pen, where about forty handcuffed Smokies sat inside the wire fence. A dozen or so Specials stood in a cordon around them, watching their captives with empty expressions. By the entrance to the compound a few rabbits hopped aimlessly, too addled by their sudden freedom to make a break for it.

The Special who had captured Tally took her to the end farthest from the gate, where a handful of Smokies with bloody noses and black eyes were clustered.

"Armed resistor," he said to the two cruel pretties who guarded this end of the pen, and shoved her down to the ground among the others.

She stumbled and fell onto her back, where her weight stretched the cuffs painfully across her wrists.

When she struggled to turn over, a foot planted itself into her back and pushed her up. For a moment, she thought the shoe belonged to a Special, but it was one of the other Smokies, helping her up the only way he could. She managed to sit up cross-legged.

The wounded Smokies around her smiled grimly, nodding encouragement.

"Tally," someone hissed.

She struggled to turn toward the voice. It was Croy, a cut over his eye bleeding down onto his cheek, one side of his face covered with dirt. He scooted himself a bit closer. "You resisted?" he said. "Huh.

Guess I was wrong about you."

Tally could only cough. Traces of the burning pepper seemed stuck in her lungs, like the embers of a fire that wouldn't go out. Tears still streamed from her eyes.

"I noticed you slept through breakfast call this morning," he said. "Then when the Specials came, I figured you'd picked an awfully convenient time to disappear."

She shook her head, forced words through the cinders in her throat. "I was out late with David. That's all." Speaking made her sore jaw ache.

Croy frowned. "I haven't seen him all morning."

"Really?" She blinked away tears. "Maybe he got away."

"I doubt anyone did." Croy jutted his chin toward the gate of the pen. A large group of Smokies was on its way, guarded by a squad of Specials. Among them, Tally recognized faces from those who'd made a stand at the mess hall.

"They're just mopping up now," he said.

"Have you seen Shay?"

Croy shrugged. "She was at breakfast when they attacked, but I lost track of her."

"What about the Boss?"

Croy looked around. "No."

"I think he got away. He and I made a run together."

A dark smile crossed Croy's face. "That's funny. He always said he wouldn't mind getting captured.

Something about a face-lift."

Tally managed to smile. But then she thought about the brain lesions that went along with becoming pretty, and a shiver passed through her body. She wondered how many of these captives knew what was really going to happen to them.

"Yeah, the Boss was going to give himself up, to help me get away, but I couldn't have made it through the forest."

"Why not?"

She wriggled her toes. "No shoes."

Croy raised an eyebrow. "You picked the wrong day to sleep late."

"I guess so."

Outside the overcrowded rabbit pen, the new arrivals were being organized into groups. A pair of Specials moved through the pen, flashing a reader into the bound Smokies' eyes, taking them outside one by one.

"They must be separating everyone by city," Croy said.

"Why?"

"To take us home," he said coldly.

"Home," she repeated. Just last night, that word had changed its meaning in her mind. And nowhome was destroyed. It lay around her in ruins, burning and captured.

She scanned the captives, looking for Shay and David. The familiar faces in the crowd were haggard, dirty, crumpled by shock and defeat, but Tally realized that she no longer thought of them as ugly. It was the cold expressions of the Specials, beautiful though they were, that seemed horrific to her now.

A disturbance caught her eye. Three of the invaders were carrying a struggling figure, bound hand and foot, through the pen. They marched straight to the resistors' corner and dumped her onto the ground.

It was Shay.

"Watch this one."

The two Specials guarding them glanced at the still writhing figure. "Armed resistor?" one asked.

There was a pause. Tally saw that one of the Specials had a bruise marring his pretty face.

"Unarmed. But dangerous."

The three left their captive behind, their cruel grace marked with a touch of hurry.

"Shay!" Croy hissed.

Shay rolled herself over. Her face was red, her lips puffy and bleeding. She spat, saliva trailing from her mouth to a bloodred glob on the dusty ground.

"Croy," she managed with a thick tongue.

Then her eyes fell on Tally.

"You!"

"Uh, Shay...," Croy began.

"You did this!" Her whole body writhed like a snake in its death throes. "Stealing my boyfriend wasn't enough? You had to betray the whole Smoke!"

Tally closed her eyes and shook her head. It couldn't be true. She had destroyed the pendant. The fire had consumed it.

"Shay!" Croy said. "Calm down. Look at her. She fought them."

"Are you blind, Croy? Look around you!She did this!"

Tally took a deep breath and forced herself to look at Shay. Her friend's eyes burned with hatred.

"Shay, I swear to you, I didn't. I never..." Her voice faltered.

"Who else could have led them here?"

"I don't know."

"We can't blame each other, Shay," Croy said. "It could've been anything. A satellite image. A scouting mission."

"A spy."

"Will youlook at her, Shay?" Croy cried. "She's tied up, like us. She resisted!"

Shay slammed her eyes shut and shook her head.

The two Specials with the eye-reader had reached the resistors' corner of the pen. One stood back while the other stepped forward warily. "We don't want to hurt you," she announced. "But we will if we have to."

The cruel pretty grabbed Croy's chin and flashed the reader in his eye. She looked at its readout.

"Another one of ours," she said.

The other Special raised an eyebrow. "Didn't know we had so many runaways."

The two hauled Croy to his feet and marched him toward the largest group of Smokies outside. Tally bit her lip. Croy was one of Shay's old friends, so these two Specials were from her own city. Maybe all the invaders were.

It had to be a coincidence. This couldn't be her fault. She'd seen the pendant burn!

"So you've got Croy on your side too now, I see," Shay hissed.

Tears began to fill Tally's eyes, but not from the pepper this time. "Look at me, Shay!"

"He suspected you from the beginning. But I told him every time, 'No, Tally's my friend. She'd never do anything to hurt me.'"

"Shay, I'm not lying."

"How did you change Croy's mind, Tally? The same way you changed David's?"

"Shay, I never meant for that to happen."

"So where were you two last night?"

Tally swallowed, trying to hold her voice steady. "Just talking. I told him about my necklace."

"That took all night? Or did you just decide to make your move before the Specials came? One last game with him. With me."

Tally lowered her head. "Shay..."

A hand grabbed her chin and forced it up. She blinked, and a dazzling red light flashed.

The Special looked at the device closely. "Hey, it's her."

Tally shook her head. "No."

The other Special looked at the readout, nodding confirmation. "Tally Youngblood?"

She didn't answer. They lifted her to her feet and dusted her off.

"Come with us. Dr. Cable wants to see you immediately."

"I knew it," Shay hissed.

"No!"

They pulled Tally toward the gate of the pen. She twisted her head around to look back, trying to think of words that would explain.

Shay glared up at her from the ground, bloody teeth gritted, her eyes falling to Tally's bound wrists. A second later, Tally felt the pressure release, and her hands popped apart. The Specials had cut her handcuffs.

"No," she said softly.

One of the Specials squeezed her shoulder. "Don't worry, Tally, we'll have you home in no time."

The other chimed in. "We've been looking for this bunch for years."

"Yeah, good work."

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