My fight with Rusty can’t end like this. I search madly for some kind of weapon. My eyes run over plastic trays, plates of fish, plastic glasses. Rusty grunts and tugs harder. My fingers slide to the very edge of the table. One by one, they’ll peel off and it’ll be over. That’s when my eyes lock on the smooth metal curve of the utensil to my right.

I grab the fork and release the table in one swift motion. As I tumble into Rusty’s waiting arms, I rotate until I’m facing him, the fork ready. My body slams into Rusty’s. There’s a pain in my jaw as it smacks into his shoulder. As we tumble to the ground, I jab the fork.

When it connects, the sound of the fork sinking into Rusty’s eye sounds a lot like slipping a knife into a jackrabbit’s belly.

We lay in a pile on the ground. I scramble off and stare at what I’ve done. Slowly, Rusty sits up, the metal fork sticking out of his eye. Then he starts screaming.

I meant to hurt Rusty, but this, this is something else entirely. As I’m watching in rapt horror, something stings the skin of my forearm. What the—? Barbs attached to long wires arch from my arm to a strange gun in a guard’s hand. Then he pulls the trigger. It’s a moment before the current hits me.

Pain. Raw, snapping, agonizing pain. I crumple to the floor and shake on the tile. My teeth slam against each other in series of loud cracks. The tang of blood spikes my tongue. I seize. I choke. I’m dying. I’ll die fried by coursing electricity.

When the current stops, I can’t move. I lay on the ground twitching. My skull’s exploded. My mouth tastes like bile and blood. I think I’ve bitten through my tongue. That little voice in my head comes back. What have you done?

As two sets of hands grab my body, I get one more glimpse of Rusty clutching his useless eye.

At least he won’t be winking anymore.

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

They drag me out of the cafeteria and toss me on a gurney. Cuffs snap around my wrists. My body still trembles with the current, and I can’t turn my head. Had I eaten, I’d be throwing it up. Behind me, uproar ignites the cafeteria, but Betsy’s wild moans blanket the frightened murmurs as she’s dragged past me. I hear Rusty’s screams as they escort him away.

The gurney rattles forward before I can hear more. I stare straight upward. The florescent lights blink overhead like the faded lines on a long stretch of bad highway.

“Where are we going?” I croak. My mind fights off images of the girls in the basement. “Take me back to my room.”