All That Remains

22. Elias

"Tobias!" Eden squealed, racing towards the man at the back of the cafeteria.

Elias stayed where he was, glued to Jae's side, wary of the chef. Tobias had always been so kind and pleasant, but given all of Elias' recent revelations, he wasn't sure if he could trust him. Eden reached the other end of the room, throwing herself into Tobias' arms. He caught her easily, whirling her around with a massive smile on his face before placing her down and walking towards where Elias, Jae and Tyrell were standing.

"Elias!" He grinned, clapping a hand on Eli's shoulder. "It's so good to see you. Lorenzo told us that you died. I knew he was lying. I-," Tobias stopped in his tracks as he took in the carnage at the front of the cafeteria.

Keenan's body was still on the floor, encircled by a pool of blood. Jae was determinedly avoiding looking at it. Elias could feel how tense she was as she averted her gaze. Lorenzo's almost decapitated head lay by his body, though no crimson surrounded him. Chairs and tables were knocked over and broken. Medical supplies were scattered on the floor where they had tried to fix Jae's arm.

"Lorenzo... had the chip?" Tobias asked uncertainly. "What happened here? Who is that? Who are you?" He looked away from Keenan's body and directed his question at Jae and Tyrell.

"I'm Tyrell, this is Jae. We came from another group. That," he looked sadly at Keenan's corpse, "was our leader."

"Did Lorenzo..." Tobias trailed off, clearly unsure how to ask the question.

"Your leader was a murderer," Tyrell said bluntly. "He was killing survivors by trying to remove the chip when they were still alive."

"No." Tobias shook his head vehemently. "He was removing chips from the Risen."

"Tobi." Eden tugged his hand so that he looked down at her. She pointed to her forehead, where the small cut from Lorenzo's scalp was visible. "Tyrell's right."

"Lorenzo hurt you?" Tobias looked down at Lorenzo's corpse with disgust before reaching down and scooping Eden up into his arms. "I'm so sorry, Eden. I'm glad you killed him, or else I would have ripped him apart with my bare hands," he said to Tyrell.

"All that matters is that he's dead," Elias stated, speaking for the first time since Tobias appeared. "Now, we need to find Delta. Do you know where she is?"

"I haven't seen her since this morning. Hey, are you okay?" This time Tobias was looking at Jae, concern crossing his face. "You look really pale."

"I'm fine," she answered in a small voice. "Broken arm."

"Want me to have a look at it?" Tobias offered. "I took a first aid course a while back. I won't be able to fix it or anything, but maybe I could help. I'm sure there's plaster somewhere in one of these rooms, I'll take you."

"No," Elias answered before Jae could. "No offense, Tobias, but Jae's not going anywhere with you."

"Elias," Tyrell started but Eli cut him off before he could finish.

"I mean it, Tyrell. I'm not letting her out of my sight. If you want to help then I'm coming with you to make sure she's okay. How do I know you weren't working with Lorenzo and Delta?" he questioned, eyeing Tobias suspiciously.

"Don't be silly, Eli," Eden insisted. "It's Tobias."

Elias looked down at his little sister. He knew that she was right, but a little nugget of doubt had settled in his chest. He wasn't sure who to trust anymore, apart from her and Jae. If anything happened to either of them, he wasn't sure he could continue on in this life.

He had already lost too much.

But, so had Eden and yet she hadn't let the world ruin her yet. Elias should have been grateful for that. He should have been happy that Eden was still capable of trust, the same way he was before all this had started. Something had changed in him and he knew that the shift was permanent. He may have been able to recover from it if he hadn't of seen his father's corpse right outside this very building.