Billy didn’t move. Marie’s breathing intensified. It was clear Charles heard their argument, but was pretending he hadn’t to see how Billy reacted. Every emotion was gone from Billy’s face, running his next moves in his head. Charles was stiff, watching Billy closely, waiting.

Almost too quickly Billy punched Charles, aiming for his head. Charles ducked out of the way, but still got nicked in the jaw. Billy tried to punch him again, but Charles dodged it and grabbed Billy’s outstretched arm. Charles yanked him out of the room.

“Stop!” Marie couldn’t help but scream.

Billy struggled in Charles’ grip, trying to fight with the other hand. Charles easily grabbed his arm and pinned it behind Billy’s back, ramming him against the wall.

“This is completely unnecessary, Charles. Stop it!” Harriet yelled.

“You heard it as clearly as I did. He wants to fight for the S.E.A.,” Alice said.

“Charles, stop! You can’t do this to Billy,” Marie’s dad said. “We can’t hurt each other like this!”

Charles wrestled Billy to the ground as Marie ran out of the room, not sure what to do. Unsure which side to help. “We’ve got to get the chip out!” Charles said.

“He’s just protecting what he knows! I don’t blame him,” Harriet said.

Alice shot Harriet a mistrustful glance. “This is the only option.”

“Is it?” Harriet asked.

Charles pinned Billy to the ground with his knees and injected the numbing agent into the base of Billy’s hairline where the chip would be.

“Stop it! Please!” Billy screamed as he threw himself against Charles’ weight. Charles wobbled just enough for Billy’s arms to come loose. He tried again to hit Charles. He managed to get a blow into Charles’ rib cage. Billy grabbed the needle from his head and took it out, scrambling to his feet. Charles managed to pin his arms and force him back down. Alice went to help Charles.

“Stop it!” Marie’s dad yelled.

“Don’t force the chip out of him!” Harriet said. “This isn’t the underground I signed up for.”

Harriet took a few steps toward Charles when Alice stood up and stepped in front of her, blocking her path. “Billy is a traitor. He needs to be dealt with.”

“We all need to take a step back and rethink what we’re doing,” Marie’s dad said. He walked over and gathered up the surgical tools, holding them close to him. Charles glared at him. “Emotions are high. We’ve got to be more level headed to make our next step. Charles, get off of Billy. Don’t do something you’ll regret.”

“The chip has got to be destroyed. It’s the only chance we have for a fair fight,” Charles said as he kept Billy’s body pinned beneath him.

“No! There’s got to be another way!” Billy screamed.

“I know people at the S.E.A.,” Edgar said. “Some of them can help! We don’t need to do this.”

“Do you honestly think they will listen to us now? Now that they know you’re part of the underground?” Alice asked.

“They’re good people!” Edgar said.

“They are a part of a system that is evil!” Charles said. “They will never listen to us now that they know who we are!”

“The S.E.A. will not rest until we’re all destroyed!” Alice said. “The time for peace talk is over! We need to act while we still have the element of surprise!”

“But destroying the chip?” Harriet asked. “You are destroying the livelihood of half a million people! Billy’s right! President Arnold will use the fear our attack makes to wipe scientists out!”

“Not if we have the clearing’s help,” Alice said.

“We don’t know who-”

“We told you, Harriet,” Alice said, her voice rising in volume. “It doesn’t matter who’s leading the army!”

“It does to me!” Harriet moved to push Charles off Billy, but Alice grabbed her wrist to keep her away. Harriet’s eyes darkened. “You don’t want to do this, Alice.”

Alice said nothing, just glared at Harriet. Marie braced herself against the wall. Things were happening too quickly. This isn’t what she wanted to have happen at all, but what else could she do?

“The S.E.A. needs to be stopped. And if you’re defending the S.E.A., you need to be stopped too.” Alice’s voice was cold.

Harriet expertly threw Alice off her. Alice almost tripped over Charles. Harriet ran to Charles, but Alice grabbed her around the waist and threw her back. Marie felt tears come to her eyes. Panic threatened to overtake her. There were too many thoughts crossing through her mind. What hope did they have if they couldn’t destroy the chip? They had to see that it needed to be destroyed.

Tom stood up and backed away, closing his eyes and facing the wall, breathing deeply, his hands shaking. It looked like he was having a panic attack.

Alice wrestled with Harriet. Harriet was clearly the better fighter, and got a good many blows to Alice’s face. Charles kept a wrything Billy pinned to the ground. “Stop it, Harriet!”

“Oh, so now I’m the criminal?” Harriet snapped. Alice managed to get a punch to Harriet’s gut before Harriet responded with three hard punches to Alice’s head.

“Stop it!” Charles screamed.

“Harriet! Stop! You’re going to kill her!” Marie’s dad shouted.

Charles tried to get up to help. Billy used the distraction to wriggle free and run for the door. Charles tacked Billy to the ground, pinning his knee into Billy’s back. Sophie ran over to Alice and Harriet, trying to talk when a stray fist hit her in the mouth. Marie’s dad grabbed Harriet from behind, pinning her arms to the side.

“I know we’re all afraid, but we can’t let that drive our decisions!” he said. Alice was wiping the blood from her mouth with the back of her hand. Marie was breathing too hard. Her pounding heart rang like a drum in her ears, making it difficult to hear anything else.

“Marie!” Charles screamed. Marie gasped, looking at him as he struggled to keep Billy pinned. “Get some rope! It’s in the lab!” Marie glanced at Billy, one of her best friends. Charles needed the rope to tie him up in order to extract the chip. Billy was now considered the enemy. The line had been drawn, Billy chose, and he wouldn’t let up without a fight. “Marie! Now!”

Still Marie hesitated. She didn’t want to be a part of this. Harriet used the back of her head to whack Marie’s dad. He let out a gasp of pain as he clutched his face, blood pouring out of his nose. Harriet ran for Charles, but Alice used her shoulder to push her out of the way. The fighting wouldn’t stop until the other group was subdued. Harriet would knock them all out without another thought. Marie’s side needed to be the side that won. Tears ran down Marie’s cheeks as she ran for the lab. She gathered the rope, ran back, and dropped it in Charles’ lap. Charles quickly tied Billy’s hands together before hacking off a piece of rope.

“Give this to Alice, quick,” Charles said.

Marie obeyed, forcing her emotions to stop as Alice snatched the rope from her. She couldn’t think, she only did. The underground was threatened, and they needed to stop all who threatened it. It didn’t matter if it was people they knew. Marie needed to be safe. After all, she chose her side too.

“Marie, help me,” Charles said.

Marie obeyed, picking up the surgical tools from where her dad dropped them. She helped Charles pin Billy’s head to the ground. Charles started the cut, and Billy began to scream. Marie panicked. Charles had already put the numbing agent into Billy. Billy shouldn’t be feeling anything. He shouldn’t be feeling the cut, yet he was screaming like he did.

“Don’t take it out! I’m begging you! Please!” Billy was sobbing.

“It’s for your own good,” Charles said, the anger gone from his voice. He sounded as emotionless as Marie felt. Charles did his work. Careful, methodical, focused. He pulled the chip out as Billy sobbed. Charles stitched the wound then gave a nod to Marie.

Marie stood up, backing away from the scene. Harriet and Edgar were both tied, Alice and Sophie holding them back as Marie’s dad pressed a rag against his swollen nose. Charles grabbed Billy and held him up. Billy’s sobs were the only sound in the room. Harriet was glaring at Charles, and Edgar was staring ahead of him, his emotions impossible to read.

“Charles?” Alice asked.

“Let’s put them in the room. Get chairs,” Charles said.

Harriet, Edgar, and Billy were led into the room. Marie’s breathing turned irregular. She tried to keep a hold of her emotions, tried to keep them numb, but it wasn’t working. What had they done?

As she struggled to keep her emotions numb, she felt the weight of a gaze. She turned to see Tom, glaring at her. He had not numbed his emotions. His panic attack was done, and even though Marie lacked skill in emotional reading, she could see the multiple emotions in his face. Sadness, disappointment, and anger all pooled together in his eyes.

“Well, Marie? How did it feel?” Tom’s strong brunt of emotions hitting her like a force.

Marie had to look away from him, but found she couldn’t. The full implications of what she had done hit her, and her knees began to quiver under her weight. “We had no choice.”

“You always have a choice,” Tom snapped. “You had a choice not to let your emotions get the better of you.”

Marie’s eyes filled with tears. Her dad was leaning against a wall, the rag to his nose, staring at the floor with tired, terrified eyes.

“If we don’t do anything, we’re going to die,” Marie said.

“Are you ready to do that again, then?” Tom asked, taking steps towards her until he was right next to her, pointing at the room where Harriet, Edgar, and Billy were taken. Marie couldn’t look anywhere but at him as the tears fell. “Are you ready to do worse?” His words were sharp, both in tone and in truth. “If you could completely destroy your friend like that, it’ll be easy to murder your enemies. It’s the painful lesson I learned.”

The knot in Marie’s throat broke, and the tears raced down her cheeks. “I would never…” But she couldn’t finish. Tom was right. She held Billy’s head down as everything he lived for was taken from him. She ignored his pleas to stop. She was a monster.

“Tom…” her dad started to say as Charles, Alice, and Sophie came out of the room.

“We were supposed to be different.” Tom wiped the angry tears from his eyes as he headed for his room. “We were supposed to be the better option. Now we’re no better than Josef or Ben.”

Charles folded his arms, glaring. “If you believed there was a better option, why didn’t you stop us?”

Tom froze in his tracks. He turned toward Charles, a glare so dark it made Marie shudder. “Because I am like Ben. I would have stopped it by killing you.”

Charles’ face dropped, and so did the color from his face. Tom gave him a second more of his cold, deadly glare before he turned around and went for his room, leaving Charles to contemplate what he said. The door slammed shut and Charles jumped. Marie stared at the opposite wall, eyes wide before she ran for her own room, a sob ripping through the remaining ice over her emotions.