Camden sat quietly at the table, wondering what General Stone was planning. Commander Mitchell had tased him several times during their altercation, all while reminding him to calm down and think about his head injuries.

  “No more physical force," she'd said to Stone, once he'd arrived to relieve her. "Just get him out of here.”

  The whole thing disgusted Camden. He'd been tricked into coming to Mars, and now, when everyone should be focused on finding Lilly, Edward, Alex, and Ms. Lawrence, instead, they were actively isolating them, breaking them down. The M6 mission was no longer anything he wanted to be part of.

  “We need a new name,” Camden blurted out from inside a chokehold, catching Mary Jane's horrified face. "I'm no longer part of this."

  "Let's go to my office," Rocky had suggested, and then they had.

  Now it was time to see what came next.

  “You’ve assaulted Commander Mitchell. Back on Earth, that's a felony. Camden, gone are the freedoms you’ve enjoyed all these months. We're preparing a holding facility for you, a room where you’ll live, eat, shower, and go to the bathroom until we launch.”

  “So, space jail?” Camden asked, unimpressed.

  “It's very much like jail,” Rocky said. “You broke her nose.”

  “She earned it, didn't she? It won't be long before you get jail time back home. No judge will take your side when we all sue you for mental and physical abuse.”

  “No one is being abused, Camden. If anything, the curfew speaks to our dedicated interest in keeping you safe.”

  “Tasing minors for information and putting your fist through Max's face feels unsafe, man.”

  General Stone didn’t respond to Camden's counter and instead changed the subject. "Are you trying to read my mind, son?"

  "Why should I? You probably think in lies. That's all that comes out of your mouth."

  Rocky smiled and again diverted the conversation. “So, how do you think they ran the breakout room? We have good reason to think they were already gone before you all even started the game.”

  “No idea. I already told you that."

  “When you asked questions, you mean to tell me you had no idea the answers were prerecorded?”

  “Mary Jane was the only one talking to them,” he said reflexively and then wondered if that had been a stupid thing to say.

  “You never talked to them?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe I did. I can’t remember.”

  General Stone wrote -ask Mary Jane why she was the only one to ask questions at the top of his notes and then circled it.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  "Why can't you and your friends just enjoy this year-long vacation and look forward to getting rich off social media? None of you will ever have to work. Brands will be beating down your doors to sponsor all kinds of garbage once we're home."

  "Why are you still working for Red Rock?" Camden countered.

  Rocky shifted in his seat. "I own a house, Camden. I have bills to pay."

  Camden didn't flinch. "What you're helping them do is wrong. You know it's wrong."

  "So if you feel like that, then why not run away? Where will you go, Camden? How will you stay alive?”

  “I may not be the smartest guy, but there’s no way in hell I’m helping you figure out how we might get away from you.”

  “See, the problem is none of you, including Edward, are smart enough to get away AND stay alive."

  “Actually, it’s funny you mention intelligence because you’re the one kidding yourself into thinking Red Rock can get away with this. This stops with us.”

  “So what do YOU think I should do?” General Stone asked.

  “Go find Lilly, Edward, Alex, and Ms. Lawrence, for fuck’s sake.”

  “They went to the dig site," Rocky said. “We found one of our rovers parked there. It looks like they rappelled down.”

  “Have you gone down and searched?” Camden asked.

  “Yes. They aren’t there,” Rocky lied.

  “Did they take a different rover? Can they recharge their tanks in a rover?”

  “No, they left the stolen rover at the dig site with all the others, so wherever they are, it’s on foot.”

  “Lilly can fly, so she's not on foot.”

  “True,” General Stone conceded.

  “They’re going to run out of oxygen well before food or water. I know you disapprove of us using force, Camden, but what else can we do? They're going to die.”

  “Listen to us. We want to look for them. They’ll come out for us. They won't come out for you.”

  “Where would you look?”

  “The crater.”

  “There’s nowhere to hide in the crater. The whole thing is out in the open.”

  “What about the mounds surrounding the crater?”

  “We've looked there several times,” Rocky said.

  Camden looked confused, then down at his feet. A metal strap locked them together.

  “We’ve never been anywhere else, though," Camden said.

  “Nope, you haven't,” General Stone replied.

  “What about the landing site? Could they be inside the rocket?”

  “There's a security system on the rocket that alerts us to intruders. Cameras monitor the vessel constantly. It’s our prized possession, the only way home, Camden.”

  “They have to be in there somehow,” Camden said.

  “Maybe,” Rocky said, as if knowing they weren’t.

  “Should I send you to search the ship as a goodwill gesture?”

  “I dunno what that means,” Camden said.

  “It means you could be right. They might only come out for you.

  Camden shrugged his shoulders. He didn't want to show any enthusiasm for something General Stone would surely take credit for.

  “Well, I guess we should go now,” Rocky said, a look of urgency on his face.

  “Will everyone go?”

  “Yes, why wouldn’t they?”

  “I don’t know. You punched Max's face in pretty good.”

  “Well, you returned the favor, didn’t you?” Everyone will go. It's the right thing to do. Excuse me while I make the arrangements."

  General Stone stood to leave. Camden let his eyes wander until they landed on a letter opener lying on Rocky's desk. The absurdity of the tool made Camden angry. There were no letters to open on Mars.

  “I don't belong to you,” Camden said, a crazed look on his face.

  Then he used the letter opener to carve something into his forearm, blood gushing from deep lines as he cut.

  “Camden, stop!” Rocky ordered, lunging to disarm the boy.

  But Camden held up the skinny metal blade like a knife and stepped towards General Stone, who stepped back knowingly.

  “I know you’re upset, son, but every second we fight is time your friends don’t have. Their bodies are literally running out of oxygen.”

  “There's no more M6. Do you understand? We’re not pawns. You won’t be locking me up or putting your hands on any of us. I'm M7 now. And when we get home, you’ll wish you’d never met me.”

  But Rocky wasn't listening to Camden. He couldn't take his eyes off the bloody patch of ripped away skin on the boy's arm, gaping holes forming the letter M, and the number 7. His face was pink and wet, as if he might throw up, his eyes tracking the letter opener.

  "Camden, put that down, please," he said.

  "Get us on that rocket," Camden said, slamming the bloody letter opener down. "And no space jail, man."