⋆The Survivors [UNDER CONSTRUCTION]⋆

Chapter nine

The van slowed down, the van getting dark as we headed into what appeared to be a warehouse and the second Dunham hit the brakes, we burst out of the van though most of us toppled over each other. I breathed in the fresh air, shaking my head free from the smell as I moved away from the group putting my hands on my knees. My body shook with tension trying to shake the feeling back into my legs as Frankie moved beside me bowing her back with a satisfying crack. 

"Fucking hell... I'm never doing that again. I'll fucking walk." She sneered, her complexion almost green as Spencer yawned behind her stretching his arms over his body with a grin. 

"I had a great nap, what's wrong?" He mused and Frankie huffed at him reaching forward to touch her toes. "You guys seem tense, what's wrong?"

"Don't worry about it," I scanned around cracking my neck in the process to see Eli walking away from us. Gritting my teeth, I walked towards him and kept my pace calm as I called out to him. He seemed to ignore me and with my wobbly legs, I jogged towards him reaching to grab his arm with force. "Hey!" I hissed at him but he ripped his arm from my grasp. 

"What Olive?" He snapped at me folding his arms over his chest. 

"You gonna let me explain or you going to act like a child and throw a tantrum?" I murmured harshly hoping that no one was paying attention to us. He bristled at my accusation his body turning defensive and I tried not to roll my eyes at him. 

"What more is there to say? And don't worry, I'll wait till we get back home before spilling your little secret rendezvous. Ryan did think it was odd that he didn't attack you and I see the feeling is mutual." Eli hissed at me and I felt like he had slapped me. Resisting the urge to scream at him I took a deep breath letting go of my clenched fists before reaching into my back pocket.

"You have no fucking idea," I shoved the photo at him raising my chin as he grabbed it frowning. His eyes went wide, his jaw dropping as he pulled it closer to examine the photo. He was probably remembering the day just as I had when the hybrid had shown me. "See? You have no idea what is going on here." To be fair, neither did I...

"How did you get this?" He whispered, his finger running over the picture almost as if he could reach in and go back in time. I softened, the tension leaving my shoulders as I inhaled deeply stepping closer to him. 

"The hybrid... He..." I rubbed the back of my neck trying to think of a way to say it all without sounding like a lunatic. "I was just looking through the offices when he came up to me. He didn't attack me on the train and he didn't attack me then. He said he knew dad, that he is alive and to prove it, he gave me this." 

"And how can we be sure he isn't lying? He could have taken this from dad." Eli murmured his eyes never leaving the photo.

"To do what? He could have killed me twice and didn't. I don't understand what he is doing but in my gut... I believe him. In fact," I took the photo slowly from him and put it in my pocket, "He threw me my pack as we were leaving which has something very valuable inside. C'mon, we should show Duke and the others." 

Finding my pack I called for Duke and Dunham to follow me over to a table. I opened my back as some others began to crowd around us and I pulled out the tubes containing the maps. "I found these in the office building in Salt Lake. With everything that had happened I hadn't had a chance to show you guys but," I began unrolling them and using bottles of water to keep them from curling back up. Eli helped me as I spread out each of the maps in front of them with a smug grin. 

The crowd had gone silent as we worked and once we were done I inhaled standing upright and raising my voice so everyone could hear me, "Salt Lake, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas... Maps lay out what they have planned for each city. I'm not sure how old they are though," Sergeant Dunham looked stunned as he pulled the Chicago maps towards him and I cleared my throat, feeling everyone's eyes on me. "I also found some other papers but they're written in their language so unless anyone can read them, they're a bit useless. But I thought it better to be safe than sorry."