I bite my bottom lip, trying to keep from screaming in helpless rage. I knew there was a chance that if I was caught stealing, I’d end up dead. But it was a risk I was willing to take because if I die, Elias and my sister have to live for the Recruiters to keep Catcher under control.

Conall marches me down the steps and toward the side of the room where there are three tiny cages, more like kennels for holding a dog than anything else. He opens the door of one of them and forces me to my knees so that I have to crawl inside as he kicks at me.

Before I can even turn around I hear the click of metal on metal. He’s locked me in.

Chapter XXXVI

I jam my fingers through the thin metal bars. “Please,” I shout at him. “You don’t understand. If you do this to me you have to go make sure my sister and Elias are okay. If you don’t—if all of us die—Catcher won’t ever come back. You’ll starve to death. You have to go find my sister and take care of her.”

I’m desperate. This can’t have been for nothing—I can’t stay stuck down here while my sister and Elias die. “Please!” I scream after him, tearing my throat raw. “You can’t do this!”

He turns to walk away and I crash my fist into the cage door as hard as I can. “You have to make sure they live or else all of you are going to die!”

But it’s as if he doesn’t hear me. I watch him walk across the room and confer with a few of the Recruiters still there, pointing down at me once or twice, and then they all leave. He doesn’t even glance at me as he closes the door to the auditorium behind him. My heart’s pounding so furiously that I don’t know if it will ever calm down again.

My cage is tiny, so small I’m forced to stay on my hands and knees. The walls close in tight around me, making it impossible to breathe, and I start to hyperventilate and gag. I try to retch but nothing comes up and I realize I haven’t eaten since Elias got sick.

I slam my hands against the door, twisting to angle my fingers through the narrow slats to work on the lock, but I can’t reach it. All I can do is bang on the cage walls, pulling and pushing and hoping that maybe the tired old metal will give way. My arm jams into one of the rusty hinges and I hiss at the pain as blood begins to well.