Ultramarine | The Darkest Minds Fanfic

Chapter 12, Cole

When we reached Burbank, California, twenty minutes after we hit the road, I had finally allowed the exhaustion to take over my body a little—I hadn't sleep for longer than ten minutes continuously in the past two weeks. I didn't like the feeling of giving in to unconsciousness, not when we were outside.

　　The streets in this city looked abandoned, just like Glendale. Still, I scanned every passing intersection carefully, watching out for surprises, and occasionally, spared my attention for Liam in the car behind us, and the girl in the backseat of our car.

　　Sheena looked alert, but exhausted, just the same as everyone else. She is an indomitable girl—she might look small and fragile, but I know her level of tenacity is one most of us could only dream of having. I would say I am proud of her, but the truth is, she's like this long before she met me.

　　Hell, she even got herself out of the wreckage back in HQ, no thanks to me. Why did I leave her? Why did I listen to her? I should've stayed. If she hadn't gotten herself out in time, she would've been trapped down there, like those other kids, like Kalb, like Barton...

　　Ah. These thoughts are going to haunt me for quite some time.

　　I didn't know what had prompt me into looking around at that moment, but I found nothing odd except that itch in the back of my neck.

　　"I don't like this." I said to Ruby, who was behind the wheel. "Make your next right—"

　　An explosive sound of metal banging against metal had me whipped my head around in shock, and saw the one thing that frightened me more than anything.

　　The tan SUV carrying Liam was gone; in its place was a military Humvee, clearly just stopped after diving its nose into the other car.

　　Liam. No.

　　Somewhere out of the burn that exploded inside me, I vaguely felt our car stopped, but I saw none of it, heard none of it—not Clancy Gray's wussy protest, not Sheena's hand on my shoulder—all I felt was the flame, swallowing me whole.

　　My mind started to jump from one moment to the next. I didn't really remember kicking the door open, or making the Humvee explode, or sending the bullet into that first soldier's face. When I finally started to get awareness of what I was doing, I was standing in front of the other soldier, one hand balled up in his collar, the other hand swinging towards his face, again and again.

　　I released him, and he fell to the ground. Before I raised my gun and pulled the trigger, the last thing I saw was his eyes, burning horror into mine, and I knew what he was seeing—a monster.

　　A fire breathing monster.

　　Beside the SUV, Ruby was half-hanging on the window on the driver's side. I ran towards her, and saw—thank God—Liam's face, fully conscious, talking to her. The other two kids were alright, too.

　　As I got to Ruby's side, Vida asked from the backseat, one finger pointed to the burning Humvee, "What happened? How did—"

　　I cut her question off with my answer, "Bullet to the gas tank—lucky shot."

　　I honestly hoped they wouldn't think any deeper into this.

　　I shouldered Ruby out of the way as I realized she couldn't get the door on Liam's side open—she was either too shaken or simply didn't have the strength to begin with. But I was not that much better—my hands were still shaking, jerking, spasming with the burn when I put them on the door handle and yanked on it.

　　The door gave way in a shriek. Inside, Liam's face was pale except for the blood dripping down his forehead, his expression agonized. I reached in, hands still twitching, and hauled him out.