World's End

Chapter Eighteen

Marissa's head throbbed when she finally came to.

"Ouch." She lifted a hand to her head and groaned. A cool hand pressed to her forehead and she opened her eyes slowly but had to shut them almost immediately, her head spinning.

"She's awake!"

"We have to stop meeting like this." Marissa heard Daniels' voice. It was extremely loud and very close. She groaned and waved a hand and winced, hissing in pain.

"Do you ever shut up?"

"I haven't even said that much." Marissa opened her eyes more slowly than before, letting her eyes adjust to the light. It was dim and they were in a room but she didn't know where. "How do you feel?"

"Like crap." She opened her eyes fully and looked at him. He was banged up and Ellie Rae was beside him, equally as battered and bruised. She moved her arms and legs stiffly, feeling every ache and pain as she moved. Her clothes felt stiff, the creature's blood having dried. "How long was I out?"

"A few hours. We all kind of passed out as soon as we got here. You have a concussion though so it's no surprise you passed out when you did." Ellie Rae spoke, smiling as she helped Marissa sit up. She groaned as she moved but sitting up was better than laying down. Across the room, both Jax and Lincoln were passed out over the sofas, legs dangling over the sides. Marissa placed her palm to her pounding forehead and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Where are we?" She asked, opening her eyes again and looked between the two of them. Daniel had sat back in the dining chair and picked up something and began scraping it clean.

"We're at a motel just outside of West 34th Street." Marissa slowly nodded her head.

"And how did we get here?" Ellie Rae smiled.

"Jax hot-wired a car." Marissa's eyebrows almost disappeared into her hairline. "Yeah, a car. And it worked."

"Huh. Nice."

"I don't know if I'm more surprised that he successfully found a car with gas in the tank or the fact that he drove a car without getting ya'll killed." Ellie Rae shrugged.

"He's a bit nuts, our Jax, but he got us safe. Do you want a drink?" Marissa nodded and Ellie Rae handed her a cup. "We had to boil the hell out of it because we lost the drink bottles when we were back at the restaurant. It was salt water," Marissa took it and sipped it. It was warm and left a funny taste in her mouth but it was better than nothing. She drank the whole cup, draining it of the fluid and smacked her lips, mouth no longer so dry. She gave a small smile and then she looked at Daniel.

"So what happened to you three?" And then he told her. They had been chased down by six of the creatures, only Daniel had a bit more ammunition that Lincoln and Marissa did but it hadn't lasted him long. He had figured out that their mouths were their weak spot quicker than Marissa had and had shot the skull off one right before he ran out of ammo. Marissa pulled a face. Remembering the purple blood and the tongue ripping she had done was too much for one day, let alone actually doing it. Daniel then proceeded to tell her about how Jax disappeared, found a car, put a flagpole on the car to turn it into a jousting stick and then speared three of them through the chests and into a wall. Marissa looked over at her sleeping friend, an expression on her face that was a mixture of shock horror and pride at his ingenuity.

"And the car is still in one piece?"

"Surprisingly." Ellie Rae nodded her head, a look of pride on her face. "It was the smartest thing he has done yet."

"I take offense to that." A very sleepy voice came from across the room. The three of them looked over at Jax and all said,

"Go back to sleep." He flipped them the bird but that didn't stay up very long, his arm falling down as he dropped back into sleep. Marissa shook her head.