INCAPABLE - BOOK I: THE FALLEN

C H A P T E R 11

MAX'S words ring again and gain in my head. "Today, future Renegades, we're practicing head to head combat. You want to become a Renegade? Then do whatever it takes to stay in the ring... And stay alive."

"Get in ring already... Val" Casey spits, saying my nickname with so much venom leaking from her voice, I can't help but shudder. "Or I'll drag you in here myself."

Hesitantly, I swing a leg over the rope, and step into the ring. My mind is racing, coupled with the fact than it is throbbing with pain in my head, and before Max can even ring the bell, Casey is tackling me, shoving me to the ground. I dodge the first blow, moving my head, and scrambling from under her. She grabs me again and forces to me to the ground. She hits me, leaving a painful throbbing in my eye. I can't see and she continues with blows to my gut. Even if I had it in me to try again, I couldn't stand up straight. My mind was sent whirling as she punched me hard against my skull. Blood mixes with my hair, and I feel it dripping down my face from my nose. It doesn't take more than one more hit for me to be out cold.

"Nighty night, Val" she whispers, and I'm gone.

***

"Valerie" I hear a voice calling my name. It's muffled and as I try to open my eyes, I can't bring them to.

"Valerie" the voice is more prominent this time and cracks the wall around me. I feel a cold liquid thrown on my face, and I sprout up, my eyes open.

"Good you're up" Cole says, with an empty bucket in his hands. If I wasn't so sore I would've tackled him to the ground.

"Damn" Cole says inspecting my face, "Casey really took you out." I instinctively throw my hands over my face. "I mean... Wow she knocked you out cold. You should really see what she did to you face!"

I feel the tears threatening to spew from my eyes under my hands. I suck them up, and spit back, "You must be so proud of your girlfriend."

"What?" Cole asks, "She's not my girlfriend."

"Well she sure acts like it. She keeps claiming you as her territory and threatens me to stay away from you. For some reason she thinks I have a thing for you."

"Well that's because you probably do" he states confidently. I split my fingers and glare at him.

"But she's definitely not my girlfriend. Yeah, I did fuck her, but only because she practically threw herself at me the after I first captured her."

"Oh...", was all I could get out.

"Hey" he said.

"Yeah?"

"Want to get out of here?"

"Yes Cole I know you want me to get out of your room, after you saved my ass, what is it twice now?" I make my way towards his door after climbing from his bed.

"No" Cole says, stopping me in my tracks, "I meant out of here, this hideout. I think you could umm... use the fresh air."

"Aren't we not allowed to leave. And even if we did wouldn't we probably die?"

"Well yes... and yes. But council members, like myself are allowed to leave on occasion, and we won't die, as long as we don't get caught." There is a shirt silence, consisting of me thinking it over.

"What do you say?" He asks.

"Get me out of here."

***

"I still don't know how you managed to convince that guard that I was the Director's daughter!" I said, laughing as I threw my head back.

"Yeah, but I was nothing like you! You tee-peed the Official headquarters in New York, Detroit and Chicago!"

"No" I countered as we landed atop of the abandoned building, "We tee-peed it. You bought the tissue!"

"But the eggs were your idea!" He says laughing.

I stopped and stared at him. "Cole, what if we get caught?"

"We won't" he said bluntly, but assuringly. "For one, we're going straight back to the hideout after this. And two, we tee-peed them and egged them from the sky, and three even if they did recognize us, they'd never find us."

I considered this, and took it in. "You're right I guess." I walked over to the edge of the building's rooftop, and sat down, letting my legs swing off of the edge. I stare at the sun set, outlining the Chicagoan skyline. The buildings are black pressed against the light, and for a second I forget that it's broken. My home is broken. This city is broken. This country is broken. And soon the entire world will be broken. It will all be nothing but ashes burned by the flames if we don't stop Savage. I feel the tears strolling down my cheeks. She's already broken everything in sight, instead of helping it like she once did. That woman has my mom locked up! She's done experiments on her! And even tortured her. She... she...

"Its okay" I heard Cole's voice say as he placed his hand on my back. His arm finds its way around me and pulls me into him. I want to object, but I don't. I want his comfort, so I take it, and snuggle into him.

"Its not" I whisper. "But it will be."