The Secret Society

Cole

The next four days we're training day and night. I met the others briefly, including Ten, a girl that seemed very quiet but once I caught her up talking to Eleven animatedly early on Friday morning. Twelve and I often spent time shooting and talking about the mission, but One rarely did anything other than order us to many meetings. He seemed crest fallen and avoided Three at all costs. He often shrugged off my comments, and I caught him and Blade arguing a few times over the girl. It was Friday night, around lunch time. One and I often ate in silence, me on my phone doing research to try and contribute to the mission and him staring off at the wall. Today though, he watched me thoughtfully.
"What are you thinking about the drive?" He asked, taking a sip of his water.
"I don't know. I'm kinda of excited, I guess. I mean we've been planning this for what feels like forever. Plus I get to spend a whole ten hours in the back of a dusty truck with an over talkative guy, a shy girl, and a grumpy guy. Could it get any better than that?" I asked sarcastically. He silently took a bite of his food.
"Yes. Look, I know I've been treating you rather harshly-"
"That's an understatement."
He glared at me. "Cmon now, Twenty One. I'm trying to apologize here."
I gaped at him. "Apologize? Are you sick? Dying maybe?"
"Oh never mind," he grumbled, taking another bite of food.
"No! Come on. Continue." He took a deep breath, looking over at me.
"I know I've been treating you badly. Blade has put this whole mission on my shoulders. And all while I'm upset about breaking up with my girlfriend of almost four years, it's been hard. And if anyone dies on this mission, it'll be me who's punished for it. And I'll never get my own mission again. So I've had to do what I could." I cocked my head thoughtfully.
"Apology accepted. Breakups can be hard. I understand that. And I'm sorry you had to go through that, especially with this all on your shoulders." I leaned back. "Though, you're going to have to find a way to make up for treating me like crap."
       He rolled his eyes, but I saw him smile a bit.
        "See, why can't you do that more often?"
       "Do what?"
       "Smile." His smile faltered and he stood. "It looks nice on you, One."
         "Oh shut up," he said rolling his eyes again. He flipped me off and walked out of the room. I smirked a bit. He poked his head back into the room. "Take the rest of the day off. And make sure you have everything packed. I mean it. We're going to be gone three days. Bring that much stuff. We leave at exactly seven. If you're not ready you're not coming."
        "You can't go without me!" I shouted as he disappeared around the corner. I smiled a bit and walked into my room and saw Ten in front of the door, knocking on it. "Oh, hey Ten! Can I help you?"
     She jumped and smiled sheepishly at me. "No. I just wanted to know if you wanted help packing up. I already finished my packing and One told me to have the rest of the day off so I've been bored."
        I smiled a bit. "Sure. Come on in." I opened the door and she followed me in.
         "How are you feeling?" She asked as she shut the door behind us.
        I took a deep breath. "A little nervous. The car trip's gonna be awful."
       She giggled. "No, the car trips are always the best part. We get a ton of snacks at Walmart and play games. Which is usually hard because of the car shaking." She suddenly grew sober and sat on the bed. "Look. You're going to see things that you might not be ready to see," she whispered. "There's going to be a lot."
       I took a deep breath. "Yeah. That's what Twelve told me," I mumbled. "And Seventeen said the same thing."
       "Okay." She stood, and started helping me drag some bags out from under the bed.
       "What are those?"
       "You get the choose which weapon you want to use!" She said cheerfully. They have a bag for it." She pushed one towards me. "And then this is just a suitcase for clothes and stuff." I nodded and inspected the gun case appreciatively. I whistled under my breath. "This is nice. I could probably hold a ton of ammo as well, huh?"
       "Yeah. Probably." She watched me.
        I sat beside her on the bed and she scorched away a bit. "How'd you end up here?" I asked curiously.
        "I..." her eyes because unfocused. "I don't want to talk about it." And just like that she shut off again. I frowned a bit.
      "Oh okay. I'm sorry."
      "It's fine I just...am not comfortable about talking about it." I nodded. "What about you?"
      My mind flashed back to that night. "I...my parents died. I guess I don't really want to talk about it either." I smiled shyly at her. She nodded and opened my closet, grabbed a few of my uniforms out.
       "Less talking more packing, yeah?"

       We barely talked and after I was packed, she left and I went to pick out a gun. Three was there going through the guns. She grabbed the one I had been planning to pack.
       "Hey, Three," I said and she turned around. I saw there were a few others with her, probably a training session. I smiled sheepishly and waved to Seventeen who waved energetically back. "Is there a chance I could use that gun?"
      She loaded it. "Are you going to use it to blow yours or One's brains out?" She questioned.
       "I-no?" I said hesitantly.
       "Then no. There's another one in there I'm sure. Suck it up." I frowned and she walked into the shooting room. I sighed and went looking through the guns. They were mostly pistols and a few snipers. I heard footsteps behind me and turned around. One walked in, grabbed a sniper, then swore.
       "Did you take my pistol, Twenty One?" He asked, raising a brow at me.
        "I was going to. But freaking Three took it just as I got here for her training."
       "Did you tell her we need it more for the mission?" He asked, frowning. "You're going to be in there hand to hand with me. We can't use snipers for that. We need good pistols."
       "I know that. She obviously doesn't." I sighed and grabbed a pistol. "Guess imma have to use this one. I can't find the same one."
        "We have another one in the other gun room. You go grab that, and I'll deal with Three." I nodded and he backed up to let me out. I went to the gun room and found my pistol. I packed it carefully into the bag and walked back to the shooting room to see if One had gotten it sorted out. He was up in Three's face. He looked furious.
"-re who you think you are, Three. But you are risking my agents for your pleasure and I don't appreciate that!" He snatched the pistol from her hands. She was glaring right back at him.
"You are the one who got me into this job, Cole!" She shouted. "You forced me-"
"Don't call me that," he growled. "I forced you into nothing!" He stepped towards her. "You are a selfish girl, Three. You know that? You said you'd stay with me. And the next day you were cheating on me." His voice dropped. I had never seen him this upset.
"You never payed any attention to me, Co-"
"One," he corrected before she could finish and walked out. It was obvious the people Three had been training had been sent out of the room so when One turned around, he paused in surprise then walked around me out of the room. Three slid down the wall and buried her face in her knees.