The night was a suffocating shroud. The shame of what Gabrielle had done to Jacques sat in her stomach like lead. Every time she closed her eyes, she heard the crack of the leather against his skin. Beside her, Marie was a statue of silence, sleeping on the far edge of the mattress as if Gabrielle’s touch was now toxic.
Gabrielle couldn't stay still. She waited until the "Hum" of the camp settled into its midnight lull, then she slipped out. She didn't head for the pantry this time. She headed for the heavy wooden hatch set into the earth behind the main cabin—the root cellar.
The hatch was locked with a simple iron bolt. Gabrielle slid it back, the metal screeching like a wounded bird. She descended the ladder into the smell of damp earth, rotting potatoes, and copper.
"Jacques?" she whispered into the blackness.
A low, wet cough answered her from the corner. She moved toward the sound, her hands brushing against the cold, dirt walls until she felt a patch of torn fabric and sticky skin.
"I’m sorry," she sobbed, her voice breaking. "Jacques, I had to... he would have killed her."
"I know," Jacques croaked. His voice sounded like it was coming through a throat full of gravel. "But he’s... he’s not done. He was down here, Gabrielle. Before you came."
"What do you mean?"
"He brought his tools," Jacques whispered. Gabrielle felt his hand grip her wrist with surprising strength. "He said my back was 'unbalanced.' He said the welts you gave me were 'holy signs' that needed to be opened. He... he did something to the bone, Gabrielle. I can't feel my legs anymore."
Gabrielle’s blood ran cold. She reached down, her fingers trembling, and felt Jacques’s lower back. Instead of just welts, she felt deep, jagged incisions. Roch hadn't waited for Jacques to heal; he had used the punishment Gabrielle inflicted as a blueprint for another "surgical" nightmare.
"He’s coming back at dawn," Jacques gasped. "He said the 'final release' is the only way to save the Colony from my taint. You have to go. You have to take the girl and run. Now. While he thinks you're broken."
"I can't leave you here like this!"
"You leave me," Jacques said, his voice gaining a sudden, fierce clarity. "Or you wait for him to do it to you. He likes you, Gabrielle. That’s the worst thing that can happen. He wants to 'perfect' you. Look at what he does to the things he wants to save."
Gabrielle looked at the man she had been forced to whip, now discarded in the dark like spoiled fruit. The realization hit her with the force of a physical blow: There was no graduating from the Ant Hill. There was only the slow, piece-by-piece consumption of their bodies until there was nothing left but the King.
She stood up, her jaw set. The fear was still there, but it was being incinerated by a white-hot rage.
"I’m going," she whispered. "I’m taking Marie."
"Go through the North Trench," Jacques choked out. "The enforcers sleep in the South shack. Don't use the road. Follow the moss on the pines... it leads to the logging trail."
Gabrielle leaned down and kissed Jacques’s forehead. It was ice-cold. "Thank you."
She climbed the ladder and stepped out into the night air. The wind was picking up, howling through the pines. She ran to her shack and grabbed Marie by the shoulders, shaking her awake.
"Get up," Gabrielle hissed. "We're leaving. Right now."
Marie looked up, her eyes wide with terror. "But Moses... the Spirit... he'll find us."
"Moses is a man with a knife, Marie! And the only spirit in this place is death!" Gabrielle pulled Marie’s boot over her bandaged foot. "We run or we die on that table. Choose."
Marie looked at the door, then at the fierce, desperate light in Gabrielle's eyes. She nodded slowly.
They stepped out into the mud. The Ant Hill was silent, a graveyard of living ghosts. They moved toward the North Trench, two shadows blending into the dark. But as they reached the edge of the clearing, a light flickered on in the main cabin.
The "Hum" of the camp changed. A speaker crackled to life, and Roch’s voice, amplified and distorted, tore through the night.
"The Ants are wandering! The Colony must be sealed!"
The Great Escape Begins
The alarm has been raised. The "Prophet" is awake, and he knows exactly where they are going.
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