When I came to, I was sitting with my back against the wall off to the side of the exercise area near the double door entrance. Tiffany was squatted down beside me holding a cup of water. I felt her hand brush through my hair gently as she looked at me with concern.

"Talk to me please," she said.

"What do you want me to say?" I said, half-jokingly.

Tiffany sighed a little with relief.

"Please drink something," she said.

I took the plastic cup of water and drank it all in a few gulps. Boy water sure tasted amazing after running for eight hours. By the look of it the exercise area was as close to empty as it had been just before I collapsed. My body felt heavy but my mind was oddly euphoric and floaty, as if it would be very difficult to be in a bad mood. I spotted my plimsolls by my right leg and slipped them back on.

"Was it really eight hours?" I said.

"Yes," said Tiffany; she sat down, crossing her legs, still facing me. She jabbed me in the shoulder.

"You twat," she said, "I heard about your fight with Tommy this morning. Thought you'd be black and blue or something. Got the fright of my life."

"Sorry," I said.

"It's whatever," said Tiffany.

She gripped my face and looked me over, "You don't look like you've been in a fight."

"Did you see Tommy's face?" I said.

Tiffany shook her head, "No, but I heard you broke his nose."

"Who told you?"

"Mikayla. Blain told her about it and she told me over breakfast; she thought I already knew about it."

I nodded.

"Yeah," I said, "I kind of feel bad about fighting Tommy. I let him push my buttons."

"No," said Tiffany, "By the sound of it he was being a– you know what– and you needed to stick up for yourself. Didn't know you had it in you."

Tiffany jabbed me in the shoulder again. We both grinned.

"Easy on the hits," I said, "You're tougher than you look."

"Whatever," said Tiffany.

She stood up and offered me a hand to take. I didn't feel like I really needed it to get to my feet but I took it anyway. Tiffany checked her Meter reflexively. It was still green.

"No orange for you yet?" I said.

"Not yet," she said.

She looked me over again; which made me feel weird, like a piece of meat or something.

"You're not red," she said, "That sunburn look, I mean."

"Yeah," I said, excitedly, "I think I figured out a way to avoid that."

"You don't even look tired," she said, "Are you really okay?"

"I feel a bit dizzy," I said, "And thirsty…and hungry…but yeah, other than that I could keep going. It actually felt really good."

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"Mate," she said, beaming, "We're going to make so much money out of this."

"Yeah?" I said.

"Yeah," she said, "Once people see what we can do we could charge money for it. Might not be a fortune but it'd be enough to live decently."

"Yeah," I said, nodding, "After we leave here."

Tiffany's enthusiasm soured a little.

"What?" I said.

We had started walking and had come to a start at the exercise zone entrance.

"It might be nothing," said Tiffany, looking around as if people might overhear us, "But I don't think anyone has left since they got here. I spoke to some girls that I'm sharing a room with; one of them has been asking to leave for three weeks and she's still here."

I felt my stomach tighten up with that familiar pang of anxiety. On some level I knew we were in bigger trouble being at the facility than I wanted to admit. None of it felt right, even from the start. A part of me however had seen it easier to compromise and go with the flow; that and because I was too much of a coward to start asking serious questions about what was going on.

"Maybe they're just focusing on bringing people in," I said, "I think Mike said something about it taking a few days to schedule a flight out of here."

"A few days, Burg," said Tiffany, her eyes fixed on me intensely, "Not weeks. Something is up."

"Just hold on," I said, "Maybe if we ask Mike he'll have a good explanation."

"Yeah," said Tiffany, "But what if he doesn't?"

I didn't have an answer. I needed to explain something to her but we needed privacy.

"Do you have anything to write with, by the way?" I said.

"What?" said Tiffany.

"You know, to make notes."

"No," she said, her eyes narrowing.

She watched me as I tried to think of another way to explain to her what I knew.

"Can I show you something, quick?" I said.

Tiffany didn't object but I could see she wasn't sure where this was going.

"Come on," I said.

The corridors were starting to get busy again. I led the way to the spot I had seen Sophie talking to the Pied Piper officer; I hadn't noticed before but my assumption had been correct. At this particular section on the third floor there wasn't a security camera, which is why they must have picked the spot to have their discussion. Ah, I thought, Sophie probably doesn't know the Meter's have microphones in them. I wondered if it would be a good idea to mention that to her; though minding my own business and leaving her to whatever she was up to might be the better way forward. I couldn't decide.

Regarding the Meters having built in microphones, I had put two-and-two together whilst in Robert's office; though I wasn't sure if he cared that I knew he was listening in on everyone's conversations; or maybe he wanted me to know and tried to make it more obvious. If so, then why would he want to make it obvious to me? The more I thought about it the more aware I was of how I didn't really have much of a clue of what was going on.

I brought Tiffany to the nook I had stopped in before.

"What?" she whispered.

I put a finger to my lips in a 'shh' gesture and then pointed to my Meter device. Then I pointed to my ear.

Tiffany understood immediately and slowly nodded.

"So," I said, putting on a bit of an act, "I came to this spot to take a break. It's quiet here."

"Okay," said Tiffany, "Thanks for showing me."

My stomach whined all of a sudden. "Want to get something to eat?" I asked.

"Yeah," said Tiffany.

As I walked with Tiffany to the cafeteria I couldn't help but feel like we were both just pretending everything was okay. If she was telling me the truth about what the other girls had said to her (and so far I had no reason to think Tiffany was a liar) then that meant Mike, and by extension Abigail, had lied about how easy it would be for us to leave the facility. Another bout of anxiety shot up in my gut, making my legs feel like jelly. No, no, I thought to myself, Don't panic yet, there's bound to be a perfectly reasonable explanation.

"I need to talk to Mike anyway," I said.

"Huh?" said Tiffany.

Sometimes I forgot people weren't following the train of thought going on inside my head.

"Mike," I said, "I want to call my Mum to tell her what's going on."

"Good idea," said Tiffany, "I want to talk to my Mum too. How about we go find Mike after you've had something to eat?"

"Sounds good," I said.

I took a moment to look at Tiffany; she must have felt my gaze on her because she looked at me back with a quizzical look; but she also couldn't help but smirk. I shrugged and looked away, feeling shy all of a sudden. Boy I'm lucky she's here with me, I thought, it'd be a nightmare dealing with all this alone.