Subject A7

Chapter Nineteen

Dylan's POV

They walked for hours, none of them had said a word since being in the forest. They were now in the middle of a scorching desert, a few buildings were in sight and Dylan's throat felt like he swallowed razor blades, they needed to get some water as soon as possible.
"Now," his voice croaked, it hurt to just speak. "This is the small remaining area where people gather, trade things, to be safe from the infected and away from Arcane. Its full of people who are not immunes so whatever you do, do not speak to anyone or let them know you are immunes. Are we clear?"
"Okay," Colin responds.
Avery did not say anything, she just nodded.
"Vincent has a friend here, his name is Brandon. He'll help us" Dylan continues on, "he is the only we trust - no one else."
Colin said, 'okay' again but again, Avery just nodded.
They reached the buildings, Dylan noticed that a few changes have been made since he was last here.
"Oh, I almost forgot to mention. Some people here are fucking creeps, don't leave my side."
They walked through the street, people were either walking around or sitting down. Some were coughing, a child was crying and some kids were playing running games. He headed over towards one of the buildings and opened the door for both Avery and Colin, he looked out making sure no-one was following them before he himself entered.
The room was full, music was playing. He looked around to see the tall man over drinking, Brandon was speaking to someone, his appearance changed, he grew his hair now tied back into a low ponytail and grew a beard. He also looked thinner than last time.
Dylan made his way through the crowd, checking to make sure he did not lose either of the two.
"DYLAN!"
Dylan jumped looking forward to seeing that Brandon noticed him, he put his drink down and came over to him.

"Dylan!" Brandon pulls Dylan into a tight hug. "Been a while kid, how're things?"
"Not good I'm afraid," Dylan admits relieved to be let go of that bear hug.

"Same here," Brandon nods. "And who are your new friends?"
Dylan smiles. "This is Colin," he points to Colin. "And this is -" he stopped noticing a red-haired man standing too close and appeared to be eavesdropping. "Got someplace where we can talk privately?" Dylan asks not liking the feeling he was getting.
Brandon nods. "Yeah, sure kid but first, this is my side man Angus. He'll show you to your room, so you and your friends can go wind down a little, get something to eat and relax. I'll come to get you later on."

Dylan nods looking at Angus, he was a weird looking man. Red hair, blue eyes, and freckles. He was missing one of his front teeth and his jawline was uneven but that was not was stood out to Dylan. Brandon's side man continued to look at Avery, a smirk appeared on his face. Dylan wrapped his arm around Avery's waist pulling her closer to him if he made out they were a couple perhaps the man would leave her alone. Luckily Avery appeared to have noticed this as well and leaned her head against his chest. Angus wrinkled his nose and looked away.
"See you soon Brandon," Dylan nods.
Angus led them upstairs and opened the door. Two beds were inside and a bathroom.
Colin walks in and looks around.
"Beats sleeping in a tree," he says and jumps on one of the beds.
"Girls room is this way," Angus says pointing to a door down the other end. Dylan pulls Avery into the room with him.
"She's with me," he says glaring at the guy.
Angus glared but walked away. Dylan closed the door.
"I don't like him," Avery says softly.
"Neither do I," Dylan agrees with her.
He turns to look around the room. Two beds and three of them, he looked at the shower.
"Want to have a shower first?" he asks her.
She shakes her head. "No, you can."
Dylan grins. "What? Saying I smell?"
Finally, a smile appeared on her face. "I can say the same about what you said."
A gagging sound came from Colin. "Cannot handle this shit," he says, "you two enjoy your lovers fight, I'll take the first shower." And without another word from him, he gets up and goes into the bathroom. A few minutes later, the shower was turned on.
"Hopefully he stays in there a while," Avery mutters. Dylan laughed.

Avery went and sat down on the bed, looked at it and bounced on it a little testing it.
"Seems comfortable enough," she says.
"You and Colin can have the beds, I'm happy to sleep on the floor," Dylan says coming to sit beside her. She looked up at him.
"No way!" she says looking annoyed that Dylan even said that. "Don't sleep on the floor."
"Avery, there is literally nowhere to sleep," he smiles. "It is fine."
Avery bit her lip looking away, her face turning a slight pinkish shade. Made Dylan wonder what was going through her mind.
"You can sleep next to me," she softly says.
"What?" Dylan was not too sure if he heard her correctly.
She finally meets his eyes. "You can sleep next to me... it's for one night I assume anyway and I'm fine with it... are you okay with it?"
Dylan was taken back by that a bit. "Umm..." he had no idea what to say, the thought of sleeping next to Avery made his heart flutter. He had slept next to Tegan and some other girl before but while on missions but with Avery, it felt different.
"It's okay," she says moving away from. "You can say no, just did not want you sleeping on the floor or anything."
Dylan blinked, he did not realise he took too long to answer.
"No, I am happy with that. Thank you, Avery."
She smiled.
Dylan returns the smile.

"Can I ask you something?"
She nods. "Sure."
"I have been thinking about it and now that we're alone for a few minutes, I need to ask you... What happened back down at the waterfall Avery?"

She shifted uncomfortably.
"Not really sure," she says looking away from him.

Avery began to explain it the best she could, Dylan tried his best to not give away any emotions as he listened but found himself clenching his fist in anger.

"Turn around," he orders. She did as he asked. He moved her hair away exposing her neck. "Strange..." he whispers stroking the spot. "When you were down there, I saw an orange light... right now, I don't see anything anymore nor is there a bump... I must've imagined things..." he trailed off. Avery turns around to look at him she reached up to touch her neck.
"What gets me is that she said, 'you will come back Avery, whether you are willing or whether you are forced'," Avery said, "that is what Linda said to me..."
Dylan shakes his head. "They won't fucking touch you," he says angrily. "I'll kill them if they do."
Avery sighs. "Everything they've done... all those people they've killed... all for some stupid cure, there probably isn't a cure..." she looks away. "It is unforgivable and even if they did find a cure, they have nothing but blood on their hands, Linda is wrong. I will never go back there willingly."
Dylan takes her hand into his. "I'll protect you."
"And you have protected me, thank you for that but I need to learn to protect myself as well as others, I cannot be the sheep surrounded by lions."
"You've proven that," Dylan says with a smile. "You've threatened to shoot yourself which was stupid but brave, you thought of climbing those trees and punched Colin which is something I've been tempted to do. You are one of the bravest people I know... I probably don't need to protect you as much as I thought when I met you back at Arcane but I want too."
Every single word Dylan had said, he had meant.
The door from the bathroom opened, Dylan and Avery both dropped their hands.
"Shower was amazing!" Colin says. He stood in just a towel, steam was coming out of the bathroom.
"You better have not used all the hot water," Avery growls.
"Don't you have something decent to put on?" Dylan glances at Avery and whispered so only she could hear "the only I wanna protect you from right now is this idiot."
"If that towel falls, I'm going to kill him," Avery whispers back.

Colin, totally unaware of their conversation walks over and looks inside the dresser. He pulls out some clothes and walks back into the bathroom. Soon as the door was shut, Avery leans in whispering.
"Dylan, there's something that has been bothering me... remember when you held Damon at gunpoint and I threatened to shoot myself?"
He nods.
"He is really bad... as bad as Jaxon is... us getting away, it should not have been that easy. Damon would have put up more of a fight."
She was right when you think about it, it did look like they came off easy.
"And you know what else?" she asks glancing nervously at the door. "I think Colin has something to do with it."
Dylan frowns. "You think?"
She nods. "I sure do."
"Look, I was questioning it myself Avery but honestly after everything I've seen, if he is one of them... I just don't see them sending someone like him... he is unusual but c'mon, a guy like him?" Dylan gives her a look like he was hoping she was joking but with the look of determination written all over his face, she was not.
"You never know..." was all she said before Colin back out.