You Better Bring an Umbrella, Vol. 1

Chapter 12: The Hit Man

        Night had fallen by the time Diego drove us to wherever we were going. I had sat in the back of my car with Five and Delores, pushing him back up as he occasionally fell over. Every now and then, he'd wake up for a second, mumbling something incoherent before passing out again. I took a closer look at my brother, surprised at the deep dark circles under his eyes. Had he even slept these past couple of days? I understood stopping the apocalypse was important, especially because it was drawing closer and closer, but not at the expense of his health.

Just before I got him out of the car, he fully woke up, looking over at me with a big, goofy smile.

"Hey sis," he slurred, shaking his head. "What are you doing here?" I rolled my eyes and picked him up, making sure Delores was safely cradled in his arms. "Delores says hi too."

"Oh, my word," I muttered. "We found you in the library. We're taking you to a safe place now. But we need answers from you, okay?"

"Mm-hmmmm..." His head lolled to the side a bit.

"So, where exactly are we going?"

"Well, we can't go back to the house." I shifted my arms a bit as my brother started to fall. "It's not secure. Those psychopaths could come back at any moment."

"My place is closer." Ah-ha. So that's where Diego was leading us. "No one will look for him there."

My nose crinkled in disgust as Five belched.

"If you vomit on me..." I warned.

"You know what's funny?" His voice still drawled a bit, but at least the majority of the slurring had stopped. "Aah! I'm going through puberty. Huh. Twice. And I..." He laughed at himself. "I drank that whole bottle, didn't I? That's what you do when the world you love goes bye-bye."

I had to admit, it was strange seeing him like this. I'd never seen my brother act this childish for as long as I could remember.

"Poof. It's gone." Like a light switch, he changed his focus. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Two masked intruders attacked the Academy last night-- the same ones that came after us at Gimbel Brothers," I explained.

"They came looking for you," Diego added.

"So I need you to focus. What do they want?"

"Hazel and Cha-Cha," Five muttered. That answered absolutely nothing.

"Who?"

"You know I hate code names." I looked to Luther, one eyebrow raised.

"That is weirdly specific, Luther."

"Ah, the best of the best. Except for me, of course."

I kept following behind Luther and Diego, focusing more on what was being said now than walking.

"The best of what?" I asked shakily. Diego looked back at me for a second, as though trying to figure out what exactly had set me off. To be honest, I couldn't put my finger on it, either, but something about all of this felt very wrong.

"You know, Delores always said she hated when I drink." Even intoxicated, he was amazing at dodging the question.

That statement brought up something more worrying for me, however. Sure, Delores couldn't actually talk, that only happened in Five's mind, but the fact he recognized he drank too much... and he was young too. This kid had really been put through the ringer.