Chronicles of the Unknowns: Control

Chapter 17

It took a long time to reach Alex, but he was ready when we got there. He'd found a car for us and everything.

"You guys look terrible," he said, noticing the body we had with us. Lei carefully placed it in the trunk, out of sight.

"You catch the brunt of an explosion and then talk," Scott said from the back seat, his foot propped on the arm rest between Alex and me up front.

"That's what clones are for. So I don't have to," Alex shrugged. He glanced over at me.

"Surprised you haven't morphed yet and fixed yourself up."

"How about you hop off my case? There's no rush. I'm here, in the car, in one piece. When I'm ready to morph, then I will."

"Just making an observation. No need to get defensive."

"Just drive."

"Celeste informed me that Leona and Giovanna were in that building. Which meant her brother was in there was well," Lei piped in from the back seat. All the admiration I felt toward her earlier was replaced with the barely contained urge to lash out at her. Not that it would do anything because she could just regenerate.

It was silent for a long time before anyone spoke again. Alex carefully kept his eyes on the road, but I could feel Scott looking at me. I made the mistake of looking into the rearview mirror and we made eye contact. He had this bewildered expression, like he couldn't believe what was right in front of him.

"You killed your brother? You used us to kill him?" he said, finally breaking the silence.

"I did what needed to be done."

Scott opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but his jaw snapped shut. He did that quite a few times.

"Oh, come on, Scott don't act so surprised. This isn't some new development here," Alex said.

"Fine. Whatever. I find it hard to believe, but If you can live with yourself, who am I to judge?" he said, backing off.

"Let's just get back. I'm sure everyone else is wondering where we are by now," I said.

***

Needless to say, when we returned to the camp was in absolute chaos. And, naturally, Jason was the first person waiting for us.

"What the hell?" he said looking at each and everyone of us. His eyes landed on me first, ran over the rest of them, and then doubled back to me, taking in the body I had flung over my shoulder.

"Celeste, what the hell? What did you...?" he demanded, trailing off as he read everyone's minds.

"We had plans, Celeste. Meetings that you were a part of, present for, participated in, however you want to word it. Now you're going behind our backs and acting on your own with absolutely no disclosure!" he said, his voice rising with each word.

A crowd was beginning to gather. Jason being mad wasn't something that you could just ignore. Jake was one of the first faces to appear. Daisy Lynn. Everyone else filtered in, slowly and cautiously. I could see Sakima and Dziko in the back of the crowd, somewhat obscured. I avoided eye contact with him, knowing as soon as he could figure who I was carrying he'd rain fire down on me.

"What's going on?" Jake asked coming, to my side.

"Celeste decided to secretly recruit Lei, Alex and Scott on her own personal mission to kill Leona and Giovanna."

"Wait, what?" Jake said, shocked.

"It gets better. She and Lei didn't find either of their bodies, so they couldn't confirm their deaths. Let's not forget Timothy was with them...so she's pretty much sentenced her own brother to death if he isn't already dead," Jason looked disgusted with me.