The Perfect Human

Chapter 18

"No duh. Look princess, I don't care. I only gave that to you because Barbara couldn't find you. How about you stay put when people are trying to be nice." He huffed and walked away. I crossed my arms. Well I did a good job of ticking off my only friend. When I looked back to the table the boy gave a long sorrowful whistle.

"Couple fights are so stupid. He'll probably be crawling back in a couple days." He rolled his eyes and stood up and left as well. I sat down regretting my outburst. I shouldn't have assumed he was like Adam and Cole, I was just tired of being thought as something that needed protection. Even if sometimes I did, everyone gets scared but that doesn't mean I need constant care. Maybe a hug and a reassuring comment and I would be fine. So what is Parker like? He's not the overprotective type obviously, I felt myself smile at that thought. That's nice, I'll never have to worry about that happening. Then I realized I didn't know guys to be any different, I knew no other types than the overprotective kind. So what am I supposed to do to figure out Parker's type? I shook my head. I shouldn't even be worrying about that, I have more important things to think about than how to get back on Parker's friendly side. It would be nice to be there again though, I wouldn't be sitting here alone then. I huffed and put my rams on the table, resting my forehead on top of them.

"I'm just making myself lonely here aren't I?" I mumbled to myself while wallowing in my self pity. I studied the top of the table in front of my eyes, the rings in the wood were distorted and no longer had a round shape and looked like little arrows pointing to my left and right. I started thinking about why I was here. I'm supposed to save humanity, but what exactly do I need to do? Everything seems fine right now. I heard a shout and looked up. A group of people were standing around a thin rectangle with moving pictures on it. At the moment it was showing a man crumpled to the ground and bleeding, other men were standing around him wearing green and brown outfits and were beating his already defeated body with large stick like weapons. He didn't even react anymore when he was hit. Whoever shouted earlier was now sobbing and a few other people were as well. My stomach felt hollow and my palms were sweating. I walked over to the rectangle slowly, people moved for me to pass when I got close staring at me.

"W-why are those men doing that?" My voice cracked as I said it, I touched the picture gently. It was so horrible, the man on the ground stared blankly at his attackers, a mix of fear and anger still showing in them. He didn't even have a weapon to defend himself. No one answered my question.

"Why are those men doing that!" I yelled, just then the screen moved and a woman appeared, I took a step back.

"This man was attacked for speaking out his rights as a human against the Jamal army. Of course knowing the goal of this army he wouldn't have spoken out without knowing something would happen." The woman said, her eyes teared up slightly but she sniffed and they were gone. "The Jamal army will someday bring peace to the world ending all ideas of superiority among people. Someday horrors like this man," she paused a minute just staring at us. "Will be gone, and everyone will be safe." The screen suddenly went black. I looked up and the woman with gray hair I met at the door had pressed a button on the rectangle turning its screen black and making the woman and dead man disappear. Her face looked grave.

"Alright, I guess everyone is reminded of why we are hiding out. I think that's enough of being afraid for one day." She looked tired and just as much afraid as everyone else in the room. "Who turned this TV on anyway?" No one spoke up just looked at the floor, or stared at the TV. Someone spoke up above the crowd.

"No one has ever been killed before!" the person who spoke up shoved his way through the crowd, a man with a beard stood in front of the old woman. "No one told me this rebellion would go so far as to let people die! I almost would rather be one of those poor saps who have given up! I won't let my family die because of this war!" The woman's face grew hard at his words.

"People are going to die no matter what! If we let the Jamal army win, everyone dies and this thing," She points at me. "Will be in power. Or we fight and just a few of us die, and the world goes back to how it was before this mess."

 I pound my way over to the old woman, her gray hair billowed down her shoulders and her icy gaze landed on me in fury. "Neither of those choices are an option! I will not be in power ever, and the Jamal army or whatever won't win. But the world won't be how it was! We're going to make it better, stronger, so that nothing like whatever is going on now will never happen again! I won't let it!" I take a few deep breathes, pausing long enough to notice more tears coming down my face, perfect. "And no one is going to die!" The woman looked shocked and didn't speak, no one did. I wiped the tears from my face and turned toward everyone. "I am not whatever you think I am! I am me, and I don't want anyone to die, or be scared like I am. I am terrified and don't understand much, but I will do everything in my power to change myself, to change this!" I point to the TV hoping they knew I meant that man's death. "Because like everyone here, I want to live! But not by myself but with the people I love. I've met a lot of people here and already I love them. I'm not going to let them slip through my fingers. Not now, not ever. Isn't that why you joined the rebellion?" No one answered again, I felt the last bit of my spirit crumble. I looked at all of the faces of people I knew, well at least met, and tried to not cry again. A lot of people were smiling but I had no idea what that meant. My heart pounded as I waited for an answer or something other than their stares. A tall man walked out from the crowd, he looked a little familiar but I couldn't remember where I saw him.

"You're right. It is why I created the rebellion. We have a lot to talk about Eve." His dark eyes raked me up and down and a shiver crept up my spine. This was Colin, the man who kicked me in the side and broke my nose. I was afraid standing here alone. I couldn't talk to this man alone, he'll hurt me. He started to turn around to leave expecting me to follow.

"Wait." He paused raising his eyebrow at me. "I won't go without Parker." I blurted without thinking. I was to scared to remember he probably hated me now. Colin smiled.

"Of course. We'll find him on our way upstairs." And we started walking, and the staring continued. As we walked by people looked on like animals waiting for something interesting to happen.   I walked a couple feet behind him still scared that he would pounce. He was a lot stronger looking than the rest of them and had the face of someone who had been through the worst thing anyone could imagine. It made him intimidating and dangerous. I saw Parker's face in the crowd moving closer to us. He silently joined us staring straight ahead, standing between me and Colin. I stared at his back welcoming the distraction of how his muscles moved underneath the shirt. My heart calmed and I started thinking about what I just did and about what was ahead of me.