The Elements Trilogy: The Secondaries

Chapter 58: Wood

"You did what?!" Diamond said in a low voice.

Tony and I jumped, not expecting Diamond to be so angry.

"You complete idiot! You had one freaking job, and you screwed it up! You messed up the whole plan, do you have any idea what you've done?!" Diamond was uncharacteristically angry, and it was taking it's toll on Tony.

"Diamond, por favor...que fue un accidente. Lo siento, mi amor." Tony's voice was shaking along with his hands, and he looked like he was going to collapse at any given moment.

"It was an accident?!" Diamond shouted, throwing her hands up in the air. "Putting all of our lives in danger, that's an accident? Putting the world at risk, that's an accident?"

"Diamond, stop." Kyler said firmly, resting a hand on Diamond's shoulder. "Before you say something you regret."

"Diamond, I'm sorry!" Tony whispered, sounding scared. "It was a reflex, I panicked. She scared me, so I automatically struck at her, I wasn't thinking!"

"Yeah, you also weren't thinking when you panicked, fired your gun, and completely missed the clone that shot and killed me!" Diamond's breath caught in her throat, and she froze, her eyes widening as she realized what she had said.

Before anyone could do anything, Tony turned and bolted back down the hallway he had come from.

Diamond took a half-step after him, but was immediately stopped by Kyler. "Leave him."

"Go get Skylar, now!" I shouted at Kyler, who nodded at me, still keeping a firm grip on Diamond's arm.

I sprinted down the hallway after Tony, expecting to catch up with him fairly quickly; My legs were longer than his, and his breath was already short from his panicking but somehow he managed to stay ahead of me.

"Tony! Tony, come on, man! Stop running, we need to find the others and tell them what happened!"

Tony skidded to a stop, and violently spun around, tears streaming down his face. "Why?! So they can yell at me too?! So Skylar, then the twins, then David and Harry can all tell me what a giant fuck up I am! So they can all be disappointed in me for ending the world?! That way when the fucking world comes to a halt they can say 'oh yeah, it wasn't our fault, it was the fucking Mexican's!'."

"Spaniard." A new voice said.

"Huh?" Tony blinked some of his tears away, and looked behind me, staring at someone.

I turned around as well, and saw David and Harry watching us, an assault rifle slung over Harry's shoulder.

"You're a Spaniard, Antonio." David said, his voice comforting. "Not a Mexican. I'm sorry I kept calling you that."

"And you're not a fuck up, Tony." Harry said, shaking his head. "People make mistakes, it's no big deal."

"But the world could end." Tony whispered.

"So?" David shrugged. "It could've ended anyway."

"We could all die." Tony insisted.

"Haven't some of us anyway?" Harry laughed. "Come on man. We were gonna do this eventually, you just jump started it. It's like in football, when I set up this amazing plan, right? But then this idiot freshman screws it all up, and we have to improvise before we can begin the actual plan. It's what we're gonna do here. No difference."

"I feel like there actually may be some difference, Harry." David rolled his eyes.

"Shut up, shortstack, I'm having a moment. I feel intelligent for once." Harry grinned at Tony, who hesitantly grinned back.