Kate Andrews

Chapter 11

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Chapter 11

"Can you walk?" I asked, turning back.

"What do you think I'm doing?" Seth answered through gritted teeth, limping along slowly behind me and Kevin.

"Let me rephrase that. Can you keep walking? You see, moving is good. Not moving is bad," I replied, saying each word slowly as if I was talking to a child.

"You do realize that this doesn't affect my brain at all, right? I'm not a 6-year old. No offence," he added to Kevin.

"Hey! I am not six!" Kevin said, indignantly.

"Whatever you say, kiddo," Seth grinned.

"So?" I asked.

"You both move on. I'll catch up."

"Sure," I said, turning the next corner, pulling Kevin along with me. We had pretty much been squabbling like this for the past ten minutes. It started out okay, but then Seth started getting slower and a lot more annoying. The path we were taking was just a jumble of narrow pristine white hallways and a lot of turns. We hadn't encountered anyone the entire way, and save for a few couches and cameras, there was nothing on the walls.

"So we're really leaving him behind?" Kevin asked.

"He'll be okay. We won't got too fast, though. And listen, Kev-" I continued, remembering something I had been meaning to say for the last ten minutes.

"Am I getting another lecture?" he asked warily.

"Sort of. Look, what you did back in that room, with the Hologons and whatnot, was really brave, but seriously, you don't need to that, okay? If you hadn't moved back in time, you would have gotten shot. And that is not okay, with me. I need you to be safe. This is real and people are going to get hurt and I am going to make sure that it isn't you, but you're going to have to keep yourself safe, too. Next time there's something going on, please be careful, okay? For me."

"Yeah, yeah," he rolled his eyes.

"I'm serious."

"Fine. What about you?" he looked up at me with wide eyes, and suddenly I saw the tiny baby my parents had brought home one day and told me that I had another brother. I saw the 2 year old I used to play with, "When you got knocked out, I thought you were dead!" he said in a trembling voice.

"Hey. Look, you don't need to worry about me. -"

"You probably would have died if Seth hadn't stopped that big orange guy."

"It's called a Hologon, and wait, what? What are you talking about?"

"Don't you know? After you fainted-"

"I prefer the term 'fell unconscious'"

"Whatever. That orange Hologon was coming at you, but Seth stopped him. That's how he broke his ankle."

"Oh," I didn't know that. I kind of felt like a jerk now for leaving him behind, "How about we go back and see how far away he is?"

Kevin shrugged, "Fine."

We turned around and retraced our steps, referring to the GPS-Map device that Crobis had given us. I realized how far we had gone, after making seven turns. Where was he? We found him after our fifth right, and not in that great a state. He was leaning his back against the wall, and his face was white, all color drained from it. That ankle must have gotten to him. 

He saw us and got out, "Uh, hey."

"Well this is awkward," I said.

"Really?" He squeezed his eyes shut in pain, "That's the best you can think of?"

"What do you expect?" I asked, walking up closer and crouching down.

"I don't know. Isn't that supposed to be your stength, or something?" 

I shrugged. I didn't really want to think about that being my strength right now, "So you're obviously not okay-"

"Brilliant. I can't believe you figured that out," he got out through gritted teeth.

"Look, do you want me to help or not?" I muttered.

"I don't need your help," he said, "I'm perfectly fine."

"Clearly. You're can't even stand," I pointed out.

He cocked an eyebrow, "What do you call what I'm doing right now?"

"That's leaning against a wall. Not standing."

"It's close enough." he said, resolutely. Using the wall to support him, he inched forward. I just crossed my arms and waited. Let's see how far he gets. His face was pale, and that just made his blue eyes look brighter, and his hair darker. Suddenly, he stumbled, and I had to grab his arm to keep him upright.

"Whoa. Steady. You were saying?" I asked.

He glared at me, but didn't say anything. Slowly, too slowly for my liking, we inched forward, with him occasionally grabbing at the wall for support. It wasn't much, but it was progress.

"Take that next left, and I think we're there," Kevin, to whom I had handed the GPS device, said, pointing. The next turn brought us to an identical passage, except with a couch against the wall. I wondered what was going on with Aaron, Cassidy and their discussion with Phaedril. I'd much rather be there, than here right now.

Seth sank down on to the couch, looking absolutely drained, and I let him. I took the GPS from Kevin to see how much farther we had to go. From what I could make out, three rights and two lefts later, we'd be there. Hopefully we'd start moving in a couple of minutes. I knew perfectly well that I'd be the one who got blamed by Aaron for being late. I handed the device back to Kevin since he'd be interested in anything electronic and went and sat down next to Seth, for lack of anything better to do.

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