Subject A7

Chapter Thirty-Three

"Noah is in room nineteen," Billy says as we entering the massive green tent with a red plus symbol on it. It was the biggest tent I have yet to see. "And your other friend, Colin, he is in room Twenty-two."
"How are they both?" I ask Billy worried about both of them but Noah more so.
"Noah is fine," Billy assures me. "Just wish he would cooperate a little better. Colin is still unconscious but you'll have to ask a medical person on what his status is." He bites his lip. "Oh, and I apologise for making you crash your car. It still amazes me that people will stop when seeing someone standing right in front of the car..."
"Don't apologise to me, you apologise to Colin when he wakes up," I tell Billy.
He nods. "Will do."
I look away from him smiling, this feeling of excitement that after all this time where I thought I would die, I would actually get to see my best friend again.

"I'll call for you when they are ready for you," Billy says. "Go speak to your friend."

"Thank you," I tell him and made my way through the tent searching for room nineteen. I glanced into each of the rooms seeing some that were empty and others that were occupied with people with bandages and dried up blood on it, some were elderly, there were a few children and a couple who was heavily pregnant with their partners with them. I saw the number nineteen and paused. I had to pinch myself to make sure it was not a dream.

"You can do," I took a deep breath.
For some reason, I was dreading for the worse even though Billy did assure me that he was fine but those words meant nothing until I saw it for myself. I took another breath and then I took a step into the room.
Noah sat on the bed with his back to me, he was humming something which surprised me as I have never heard him do so before. He sighs and says, 'I don't need another damn dosage, I am fine' he then turns to see me glaring as he did so but as soon as he saw that it was not a medical person and it was me he froze up.
Tears stung my eyes as I said with a croaking voice, 'you shouldn't talk to people like that Noah, especially if they are trying to help you' and laughed as tears spilled from my eyes, Noah slowly stood up wincing slightly as he did so, he wore a dark blue shade of shorts with a bandage tightly wrapped around his bullet wound.
"My god, you're alive," he whispers.
I strode across the room to wrap my arms around him tightly, he hugged me in return. I could feel the wetness from his tears dripping down my arm damping my shirt.
"I missed you," he whispers.
"I missed you," I whispered back and leaned away from him.
"How are you? You okay?" he questions me.
I smiled. "I am fine but I should really be asking you that since you were the one who was shot?"
"Was in pain, it was beyond anything I've ever felt, to be honest, but they gave me stuff that's help ease the pain and been on bed rest ever since. Now they give me this crap that tastes like shit, so over it."
"Well, as I said, you should not talk to people like that especially if they're trying to help you."
He rolls his eyes and changed the topic of the conversation. "What's been happening?"
"Boring as hell, I should be asking you that" he smiles through his tears. "You look different."
I looked down at my outfit. "Is it because I'm not wearing white?"
Noah shakes his head. "No, that's not it... but whatever it is, it looks good."
I smile at him and when I look up at him I could not stop staring, he looked different as well and I couldn't pick it either... a lot has happened to both of us and I guess it changed us from being naive to see the world for what it truly was... that is not something I can stop thinking about.
"So how about we start with you," I motion to the bed and helped Noah the best I could to sit down and lay down on the bed, we positioned his wounded leg on the pillow. He groaned a little and sighed when he relaxed, I sat down on the bed. "What happened?"

Noah lowers his head ashamed. "You know I didn't want to leave you."

"I know," I tell him.
"When I heard your screams, we heard that both you and Dylan were fine and that was the last time we heard from either of you. Man, it was so difficult not knowing..." he looks up looking a little uneasy. "I think that Nick guy and Hunter are together," he whispers it as if it was a secret.
"They don't really hide it that well," I whisper back.
Noah frowned.
"Oh, Hunter and Nick found Dylan, Colin and I at the town," I tell him.
"Hold up," Noah holds his hand up. "Who the hell is Colin? What town? How did they find you? No way Avery, you tell me your story first. Sounds a lot more interesting."
I laughed. "Save the best to last Noah, jeez!"
"Fine," he rolls his eyes with a smile. "Basically Nick and Hunter both couldn't remember which way to go into the sewers, you should have seen them, both talking at the same time and the same bloody sentence... they both went the different paths and it turns out Nick was right, Hunter was not too impressed."

"Why does that not really surprise me?"
"We ended up climbing out outside of Arcane, Nick vanished while Vincent and Hunter held off the guards that were coming towards us, I honestly thought I was going to be forced back to Arcane because the guards surrounded us...but thank god Nick came back just in time."
"Sounds lucky."
"Dude, you have no idea," Noah says, "they must've parked the car close enough to reach us in time in case we would be surrounded but also far enough that no one noticed. It was all quite clever. Anyway, we met back up with that Tegan person and that bigger guy... what is his name again?"
"I think it was Bronson."
Noah snapped his fingers. "Bronson! That's his name!"

"So pretty much, we thought you and Dylan would end up back with the others but you weren't so the group went off to find you, Vincent made the call to take the immunes back here to the campsite and when Hunter called me a weakling and a liability and I called him out on it."
"You did not!" I paused. "He called you what?"
"Weakling and a liability," he repeats looking unimpressed.
"That dickhead," I couldn't believe it. "You were shot for god sake."
"I told him that one day soon, he'll regret those words, and then we'll see who has the last laugh... I made that promise! How much of a badass I am?" he chuckles very proud of himself.
"Noah, please do not call yourself a badass... it just makes you a jack ass," I tell him while laughing.

Once we both calmed down, I smiled at him.
"I've missed this, I hope our friendship doesn't change now that we aren't in Arcane anymore," I whisper.
"Seriously?" Noah questions. "We've been best friends for as long as I can remember, nothing can change that."
I sniffed feeling my eyes stinging."Promise?"
"Promise, we're in this shit together."
He held out his hand with only his pinkie standing up. I laughed wiping my eyes.
"You're so childish," my voice cracked slightly. I pinkie promised him.
"And yet, you still did it," he chuckles.
I was about to tell him my story when I realised I forgot to ask him.
"Have you seen Dylan?"
"Dylan?" he questions. "Oh, right that Dylan guy. Jeez, there are so many new faces I just keep forgetting who is who sometimes. No, I haven't... wasn't he with you?" he asks.
"No, we got separated... hmm..." is he okay? "Maybe we should wait for my story until I know that Dylan is safe."
Noah gives me a look. "He is an outsider, he should be fine."
"That still doesn't help me not to worry about him," I reply.
"Josephine?" someone was calling someone. We both ignored it as I continued to worry about Dylan.
"Josephine?" the voice was in our room.
I frowned for a second forgetting my lie and quickly turned seeing Billy. "They're waiting for you."
"Okay," I nod and Billy left the room, I turned around to Noah who looked absolutely confused.
"Josephine?" he gives me a different yet weird look, he lowered his voice. "You lied to them?"
"I didn't know they were the Fireflies, I didn't know who to trust," I smacked myself on the head. "I've made a lot of mistakes since leaving Arcane and I bet this one isn't going to be the last."
"Well... maybe they'll understand... maybe they won't and kick you out to the infected."
I flip him off. "Not helping."
Noah chuckles. "They won't. You are Vincent's daughter... but good luck anyway, you're going to need it."
I got off the bed, was tempted to whack his bad leg to stop that smirk from getting any bigger on his face but decided against it and left the room to follow Billy. When we left the tent, it still took me by surprise at the sight of this place, would I ever be used to it?
"What will happen in this meeting?" I ask him.
"Just want to know more about you so that way they can know if you are trustworthy or not," he shrugs like it was no big deal.
"That sounds like a lot of pressure to put on one person," I tell him.
"Well, if you have nothing to hide, you'll be fine."