It was a stench that had stained my tongue long after it had hit my nose.

"It doesn't end," I said, and cupped my hand over my nose.

If Evee or Mat had said anything at all, I didn't hear. The shuffling of feet from within the crowd was loud enough to silence even a scream. I stretched my arms wide as the people began to part. Feeling desperate enough I walked closer to a cove of people. There in the break, I saw a man.

His blackened skin peeled from his face like burned parchment and exposed the stark white of his jaw bone. His long teeth wore almost a grin below a single lazy eye that looked down at his outstretched arm. His other arm was tangled under wires tucked into the tattered sleeve of his blood-stained shirt. I watched the slow rise and fall of his chest like a man about to meet his death.

He was the dead among the living, and I was a little less alive just looking at him.

That was all it took. Just a glance and I was lost.

"Are you serious?" I said under my breath as I look around.

I wanted to say more, but I had already broken the first rule. Don't get lost.

"White coat wearing scum," a man whispered into my ear.

The brush of his white beard rubbed against my cheek. I turned in time to see him spit towards my feet. His eyes glanced over me with so much hate, it was more suited for an old foe than a stranger.

A wallop of a scream crawled from my throat. It was all I could do.

Curiosity had left me cold, and all I wanted was to be out of this place.

A young girl, with tangled blonde hair and a dirt covered face, ran over to the old man. She dropped her arms and burlap bags to the dirt, as she scooped the old man away from under his arms.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, her eyes tearing up, "Please don't report him. He's just old. He doesn't know what he's saying."

"It's okay," I kept repeating, if not for her but for myself.

The girl carried her bags and the old man back through the crowd. As they disappeared, I felt for the first time a sense of loneliness. An understanding that without Evee or Mat I was truly an unknown here.

I kept walking, watching the crowds distance themselves from me. Every part of them wanted nothing to do with me except for their eyes.

You're not welcome here. I could almost hear them say.

I knew now why Dimitri didn't want us here alone. The people here were not willing to take on three white coats. But just one, a few were willing to take their chances.

I backed into a dark corner behind a garbage bin and slipped the white coat off my shoulders. It barely fit into my bag, but it was enough. With just my plain shirt and pants, I didn't stand out in this crowd. It was too bad I couldn't do the same for my bracelet. I would just have to keep it behind my arm. The only part of my uniform left was my boxy white hat. I most definitely couldn't take that off and reveal my mark.

A stark white figure cut through the muddy grays of the crowd.

"No!" I heard the blonde haired girl shout again, "You can't!"

The old man from before was in the arms of two large men in white coats.

White coats, I heard many say with disgust. I felt my bag holding my own white coat pulse at my sides. I wasn't a white coat like them. Not really. Still, I couldn't help but feel my chest surge in defense.

A large tuft of dark curls gathered in front of the growing crowd. If it was Evee, she had also been smart and taken off her coat. I looked through the bodies and saw little room for movement. It would take some time to get to her, but I needed to take my chances.

As I moved through, the brick-like force of the crowd pushed me back on both my sides. I had the brief thought to put my coat on again but remembered I wasn't a real white coat. If the other real white coats saw me, I would haven't nearly enough words to get me out of that conversation.

No, the coat would have to stay off. I just need to push a little harder.

On the tops of the crowd's toes, I could see a bit better. It seemed there were more white coats appearing, even some guards in their typical dark shining armor. I couldn't tell for sure, but it looked like they were blocking off the roads.

And just in time, the bustling square was filling with more people than it could fit. I felt as though I were at the center of a kettle, over boiling and steaming at the sides. I hadn't noticed until now the people around me were chanting. I had to get to Evee before I got myself even more lost.

I could still see the top tuffs of her hair.

"Evee," I tried to shout out, but my voice was swallowed into their chants.

With a roll of my shoulder and a kick of my heel, I lunged myself into the crowd and out the other side.

I landed face first in a pile of dry dirt that tasted like rusted metal, and saw Evee just a few feet away. I picked myself and my bag from the ground. As I looked around, I caught the eyes of a man in the crowd. He looked over my bracelet with a hungry greed.

I pulled the bag closer to my side to block my bracelet from view. I had to find Evee and Mat and quicker than I thought.

I looked over in Evees direction again. This time I could see her face. I was more than sure this was her now. She had the same heart-shaped face, the button nose, and full lips but her clothes were much drabber than before. I didn't remember her wearing something like. Maybe she was one step ahead of me and had changed to blend in.

"Evee," I shouted close by.

But she didn't answer. Could she not hear me?

I stepped closer, this time I was so close, I could see the brown freckles of her face.

"Evee," I said, "Where's Mat?"

This time she turned, just briefly. Enough for me to see her hollow eyes and crossed brows as if she had no idea who I was talking about or why I was even talking to her.

"Evee you're not funny," I said and grabbed her arm.

This time she didn't just turn, she snapped her whole body, snatching her arm away.

"What's wrong with you?" she shouted to me.

"What wrong with me?" I shouted back, "We need to go now!"

"You maybe," Evee said and looked down in disgust at my bracelet.

"Oh come on," I said and flailed my arms.

I didn't care who saw me, I was so heated with anger. This was not the time for Evee to have one of her fits. I had to break her from it somehow.

"Did you forget," I said and reached for her other arm, "You have one too-."

Before she could pull her hand away, I locked onto her other arm. I held it for a while, looking for a bracelet, but all I felt was smooth flesh and bone.

I looked down and in my hand was her elbow and nothing more.

I let out a howl. A howl that pierced through the crowds and stopped their chatter.

"What did they do to you!" I said and let go of her missing arm.

"Evee we have to get Dimitri, we have to go home!" I said searching the crowd around me hoping to find Mat to no avail.

Evee's face turned from cold to concern.

"Listen," she held me and lowered us to the ground, "You're going to get us in a lot of trouble. Just tell me what you're after. Is it rations? You're not helping fill a quota, are you?"

"Evee, this isn't funny anymore," I said, tears collecting above my lips.

"What's going on here?" I a deep voice said from above.

It was a guard, his gun cocked at his chest. I hadn't noticed how quiet the crowd had become, or how they all were facing us now.

"Nothing, officer," Evee said in the kindest voice I had ever heard her speak in, "My friend just got a little spooked. That was her grandfather, those white coats, I mean officers just detained."

It was the biggest problem I had with the guards and their shiny black masks that blocked their faces. You could never tell what they were thinking. We waited in silence. I dug my bracelet a little deeper into the dirt behind my back.

The officer finally waved his arm, to the disappointment of the groaning crowd.

"Keep it moving," I heard a man say.

I thought it was the voiceless guard until I saw the crowd behind Evee part and a pair of white coats emerge. As though all the blood from my face spilled from me, I felt every drop leave in an agonizing burst. It was Mat standing next to a white coat that looked just like Evee too.

I looked back down to the armless girl at my side. If that was Evee just who was this.

"That's right out of our way," Evee said from the crowd, her white coat on and arm still intact.

"Evee?" I said and looked at the stranger in front of me and back to Evee.

"Why do you keep calling me -" the stranger said, looking into my eyes.

"How?" I said, looking past her shoulders at the other Evee.

"Is it another guard," the stranger said and looked back towards Evee.

Evee's stopped as if the floor had turned to ice and looked down at the girl who was her identical.

" L -Lillie," the identical stranger said to Evee with tremendous pain.

Evee's eye turned white, and from her throat, a sound tightened as if she were being strangled from the inside. Her body fell to the floor and onto Mat's feet.

I lifted myself up and raced towards Evee's limp body to catch her.

We all had been waiting for answers, and now it really was falling right at our feet.