The Gender End by Bella Forrest (the giving tree read aloud TXT) 📕

his grasp through my suit, trying not to scream in pain as his hand tightened around my arm, making it feel like someone was dragging a knife across my skin.

My free arm snapped out and I poked him in the eye, a sharp jab, and he dropped my arm, screaming and grabbing for his face. I couldn’t even feel relief for a moment as the fourth man stepped around him. I expected him to punch at me, but felt his leg move like a brushing against my skin. I dove and rolled over the leg sweep he performed, my back erupting in agony as I rolled across the floor and back onto my feet, heading after the boys where they had moved down the tunnel.

Keeping up with them was easy. They were shouting to each other loudly and in a panic as they moved, and I followed their voices.

“Don’t go in mist!” I shouted ahead to them. “Dangerous! You hurt!”

Roars erupted from behind me as I ran, and I picked up the pace. The wall and voices ahead continued to curve around, and eventually led to another tunnel, which forked. On one side I could see a gathering of creeping mist as it went down, and the other fork seemed to rise out of it. I hoped the younger boys had taken my advice.

Listening for the roars coming down the tunnel behind me, I steeled myself and went invisible one more time, biting my lip as the pain and the tremors came back, worse than before. I crouched down, my legs already burning, and fumbled on the tunnel floor for a rock. Or a dirt clod. Or a shoe. Anything.

The pounding footsteps of the older boys came closer, then closer still. I tried to feel where they were even through the ache burning over my skin—the timing needed to be perfect…

I wasn’t sure it was perfect, but I was improvising. When the noises reached a critical level, I threw the dirt clod in my hand down the misty fork of the tunnel, aiming for the walls. It made a loud clattering noise just as the berserkers rounded the corner—and I saw them all turn, like animals seeking prey, and take off after the noise.

I didn’t wait to see if they would turn around. I took the other tunnel, relaxing my body out of invisibility and letting out a shaky breath. I followed it through to another airlock, where I was relieved to find the younger boys standing in a confused huddle. Far behind us now, a few roars sounded, faded and muted, and didn’t grow louder. I hoped that whatever was in the toxic mist would knock them out or drive them away soon… rather than killing them. But there was nothing I could do about that now. We had to fix things to keep more people from being hurt. I tried to focus on that.

“I trick them,” I said shakily to the younger boys. “Us—quiet. Don’t know if they come back.”

They all looked cautiously up at me, seeming to take things in.

“You stayed behind,” Matthew said softly, and I shrugged.

“You brothers. Keep safe.”

Matthew and Colin exchanged looks and then turned away, gathering the other four boys into a small circle. I heard them whispering furiously amid their huddled group, and felt a nervous tremor run through me, knowing there was nothing I could do about it. It was up to them whether or not they’d trust me.

The whispering died down after a short time, and they turned to look at me.

“Can you prove it? About the medicine and Desmond?”

“Now?” I asked, and they nodded solemnly. I shook my head. “No data chip. But… you help me. I show you queen using you. If wrong, you kill me. Deal?”

Matthew and Colin exchanged looks, and then looked around at the other boys. After a moment, they nodded.

“Deal.”

My smile grew, and I nodded approvingly. “Good. Now… who open door?”

Colin looked around and then moved over to the door, taking a moment to shake his shoulders before placing his fingers against the door’s lipped overhang. I studied this for a moment, and then shook my head.

“Wait,” I said, walking near to him, remembering how those monkey things had gone after the door. I moved him over to the other side of the door and pointed at the hinge. “Pull out here—weakest part of door.”

Colin examined it, and then nodded, and several of the other boys raced over to help as he began to pull and strain, trying to remove the hinge. On the other side we’d have to punch through, but it wouldn’t be so hard with all of us working together.

All I could think was that Violet was going to be very surprised when she saw how we were going to help her take the palace.

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34

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Violet

Ms. Dale led the way, her flashlight barely cutting through the mist. I moved behind her, gun drawn and ready to fight, but it seemed everything had died down a bit since the earlier frenzy. Still, I knew now what was lurking in these caverns, and it didn’t set my mind at ease. And the mist certainly wasn’t helping. Maybe the horrible creatures we had seen and heard weren’t chasing us because they had our teammates cornered somewhere and… I shut the thought down. There was no way of knowing. We had to keep to the plan.

We eventually found one of the long, thin tunnels that connected caverns and often led to airlock chambers. It did indeed lead to an airlock door, and I stared at it, realizing that without Thomas, we couldn’t get through it.

“We should head back,” I said. “We might have these orders, but—”

“I’ve got it,” Ms. Dale said, unfastening a pocket on her sleeve and pulling out a data chip. “Thomas gave it to me. It’s a crude hack, according to him, but now that Elena knows someone’s here, we can only be stealthy for so long.”

I frowned and watched as