"We don't have a lot of time," I say as I peek out of the bedroom door, making sure Brianna isn't anywhere near this flat. Seeing and hearing nothing, I close the door and turn back around to face the girl.
"What is happening?" I hear her mumble, keeping her eyes on mine which no longer looks to be scared, just confused. Her dark eyes are back to normal, not so wild like they were before she figured out I was a Freak.
"I can't explain everything here," I reply, taking a few strides towards her. "I know a place where you'll be safe."
"Where?" she asks, brushing her wild hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear. "Soldiers search every single building around here, looking for us."
"Ever heard of the Underground?"
She doesn't reply for a moment. Then she scrunches her eyebrows together. "The Underground?" she repeats, her eyebrows still furrowed as she shakes her head slowly. "We're forbidden to enter in there."
"Not anymore." I take one more step closer to her, shrugging slowly. "And besides, who's going to stop us?"
She doesn't say anything about that. I hold my hand out for her to take, but she just stares at it. She shakes her head once and says, "There's no way in there anymore. It's completely caved in."
I quirk her a small grin. "There's always a way in there." My hand inches closer to hers. "That's what makes the place so special for us."
She still doesn't take my hand. She looks from my palm to my eyes and takes the smallest step backwards. "I don't even know your name," she says, her gaze moving around my face.
My hand is still hovering between us as I say, "My name's Luca." I nod at her. "And you are...?"
She gives me a small smile, the first one I have ever seen from her as she takes my hand. "I'm Christina," she says, and I smile once as I close my eyes—
Letting the world shift and drop from beneath our feet.
I open my eyes and I'm back in the Ghetto.
Christina staggers and sways as she grips my hand even harder, staring at me and then her surroundings like it's not real. "Whoa," she breathes, shaking her head and making her hair fall over her eyes again. "That felt strange."
"Tell me about it," I say quickly, ignoring the pounding of my heart in my chest as I bring her down the hallway towards the main room, where I can already hear many voices. I cup my hands over my mouth as I shout, "I've got the first Freak!" to whoever will hear me.
The main room goes silent and for a moment I think no one will come to me, but then I see two Freaks—one male and one female who I don't know—peek their faces around the corner. The girl quickly comes to us and softly talks to Christina while the male Freak slaps me on the back once and then takes Christina from the girl.
Christina stops in her tracks and looks over at me.
I nod, giving her a smile. "You'll be okay. I promise." I look to the girl whose arm is around Christina's shoulders. "Get her something to eat and a change of clothes."
I step back and ready myself to head back up above when suddenly Christina hugs me tightly, wrapping her arms around my neck. I stagger backwards on my feet and hug her back softly. "Thank you," she whispers, "for saving me."
I look at her as she pulls away. "No one will hurt you down here, okay?" I say, nodding down at her once. "They'll take good care of you."
She thanks me again and walks back to the two Freaks, slowly looking at me over her shoulder before she disappears from view.
I'm back to the surface in a matter of seconds, the bedroom coming back to me quickly as I open my eyes, seeing it completely empty.
I just hope Brianna hasn't found any more Freaks on the first floor.
When I make it to the hallway again, Brianna is just making her way up the stairs. I see the light reflecting on the shining metal before I see her, red-faced and grumbling under her breath as she walks over to me.
"No luck?" I say, quirking a little grin as I fight the urge to burst out laughing that she didn't find a member of my people, to either capture or kill them.
"Come on, Parker," she snaps, glaring at me as she moves my body out of the way so she can climb up the next flight of stairs. "We haven't got all day."
We don't find any more Freaks in this block of flats. My heart was thumping with each door I opened. Just under half of the flats seemed like a Freak lived in there. There were burn marks along the walls and water stains along the carpets when I know for a fact that the water in these flats have been turned off. In one of the rooms, everything—and I mean, everything—had been broken beyond repair. The settees' were ripped apart or in half, and the bedroom was more mess than anything else.
Brianna mentioned that she saw a dead animal carcass that had been burned—it was either a dog or a wolf or a fox, she couldn't tell—and then ripped in half. It stank, she told me. She said she was going to puke if she stayed in that room any longer than need be. Everything she said about that room made me thankful I took the second floor instead of the first.
We make our way outside again, the strange colour of the sun just passing below the roofs of the still-intact buildings around us. As I continue to stare at the structures seemingly almost touching the sky with an emotionless look upon my face, the whole place seems so familiar—like home—but so different at the same time. My mind doesn't register the fact that I grew up here with my family before the radiation took them away from me.
Growing up, London looked huge as a child. But now it has never looked so small.
Brianna and I both turn our heads at the sound of a door being opened. Nox and Taylor both emerge from the block of offices next door to the flats we were just in, their boots crunching the rubble below their feet. Nox comes out first, a strange look on his face as Taylor moves past him.
Dragging someone behind her.
Heart pounding, I take a glance over at Brianna who has a smug and proud look on her face as she watches Taylor drag the person—a boy—closer and closer to us, his whole body scraping against the rubble under him. He leaves a small trail of blood on the ground the quicker Taylor pulls him to us, and when I look closer, I see too many cuts and scrapes along his arms and torso. He winces and grunts in pain, but Taylor doesn't seem to care as she continues bringing him closer.
"Yes, Taylor!" Brianna shouts. "Finally some action!" The sound of her voice echoes loudly between the buildings and us and I flinch involuntarily.
I see the boy struggling in Taylor's grasp. She's got the scruff of his T-shirt in her fist, pulling him behind her hard enough to be able to choke him to death. His hands are tied in front of him with the power-suppression cuffs around his wrists. The phantom feeling of them around my own skin burns suddenly, so much so that I have to holster my gun again and rub at my wrists subtly, willing the non-existent pain to disappear.
Taylor shoves the boy in front of Brianna and me, his arms covered with even more blood from being dragged across the rubble and glass and whatever else scattered on the ground. It takes everything in me not to rush to him and help him up. The boy winces as he pulls himself to his knees but doesn't move any further as Taylor and Nox come up behind him.
I drag my gaze from the Freak to Nox. He swallows hard, his Adam's apple moving as he tries to fight the emotion away from his face and his eyes. He notices me staring and looks up at me.
What happened? I ask inside his head, letting Brianna's and Taylor's excited voices drown out from beside us.
Taylor got to him first, he replies, taking a quick look over at her. His eyes land on me again. I somehow convinced her to bring him out to show you two. Maybe she wanted to show off her hunt to you guys. I might have just delayed the inevitable.
No. It can't end like that. There must be a way I can save this Freak. Maybe I could use my powers. I shake the thought from my head quickly. If I do that then I'm putting myself and the boy at risk. Then maybe I can create a distraction and get him away before the girls notice? I wonder, dimly, how far I'll get if I take the Freak and run before Brianna buries a bullet in both of our backs. Not very far, if I know the girl standing beside me.
I breathe deeply, looking over at the girls and wondering what they plan on doing with the Freak. My eyes catch the boy kneeling in front of me, but he doesn't look away. His eyes seem to bore into mine like he can immediately tell who I am under this uniform. For a single moment, I wonder what sort of ability he has, even though at the moment he can't use it.
What are we going to do, Nox? I ask in a rush, the words probably giving him a headache. How are we going to get out of this?
You're asking me? he snaps, having the nerve to sound sarcastic. You're the one with multiple abilities literally at your fingertips. You can figure something out, Luca.
I'm just about to reply when Taylor yanks the blood-testing kit from her belt and kneels down in front of the Freak who is now staring at the ground. He winces and forces away a grunt as the sting of her knife pierces into his finger, drawing a thick droplet of blood that slowly spills down his finger.
I shoot a worried look at Nox but he's not looking at me; instead, he's glaring down at Taylor like he suddenly remembers something similar to what is happening right now to this Freak.
An audible beep sounds from the small device clenched in her hand when it's finished testing the boy's blood. Taylor stares at the little screen for a couple more seconds before her face breaks out into a large grin that looks like it could split her face clean in half.
"Oh my God," I hear her whisper to herself, re-reading whatever it says on the little screen. Then she suddenly looks up at us with a strange, wicked look crossing her features. "You guys, he's twenty-one!"
I can't feel my legs anymore.
"Finally," Brianna says again, dragging out the words. "I've been waiting to do this for a long time." Her face lights up as she whips her gun from the holster and aims it at the boy's head, her finger poised on the trigger.
I rush forward on instinct, wrapping my fingers around her wrist and shoving it towards the sky just as a BANG! rings loudly in my ears. I see Taylor and Nox both flinch as the shot explodes, echoing around us and bouncing off the buildings.
If a look could kill someone, I would be dead ten times already. Brianna's eyes are dark as she stares at me, her mouth curving into a frown as her face turns thunderous. I make sure my face doesn't show fear of her about to kill the Freak; instead, I adopt a look of amusement.
"Brianna," I say slowly. "What gives you the right to shoot the Freak?"
She stares at me for a moment before saying, "Because, Parker, I cared enough to complain."
"A very, very good point, Jones," I reply sarcastically. My head tilts to the side as I continue to study her expression, my heart lifting only slightly when the look of anger leaves her face. I take a quick glance at Taylor and Nox next to us, then back to Brianna as I say, "But shouldn't we get a vote to see who can shoot him?"
Brianna breaks away from my gaze to look at the boy again. I can almost see in her mind the thoughts swirling around inside her head, debating whether or not she should just push me out of the way and put an end to the poor Freak still in front of us, visibly shaking with his head lowered, either staring at the ground or his blood-stained hands, I can't tell.
For a split second, I consider sending my thoughts to Brianna in a deeper voice to convince her she's going insane, to tell her to give up trying to kill the Freak, maybe even to let him live. But I push all those thoughts from my head.
I don't do anything crazy but place my hand atop the barrel of Brianna's gun and push it down towards the ground, watching with my heart lifting as she slowly holsters her weapon again. I can't tell whether her anger is dissipating or growing.
How am I going to save this Freak?
"Okay," she finally says, looking at me once as she takes a step back. She crosses her arms over her chest and glares down at the boy at our feet. "How are we going to fairly decide how we're going to kill this Freak?"
"Maybe we could—"
And then, just because the world seems to hate me at the moment, all of our radios burst to life. The words die on my tongue as the familiar crackling of Hartman's rough voice drifts between us and the buildings around.
"Jones, Parker, England and Hayes." Hartman's voice sounds gravellier than usual. "Hunting time is over. Report back to the prison immediately!"
Brianna shares a quick look with Taylor before scoffing loudly. "That's it," she snaps, the words angrier than I've ever heard before as she shoots a dark look my way. "I've had enough of this."
She pulls her gun out so quickly from the holster and aims it at his head. My heart beats so fast against my chest that I don't have enough time to move, not even enough time to formulate a coherent sentence inside my head that I want to shout out to her.
I just have enough time to send I'm sorry, I tried to the Freak's mind.
He looks up at me then, like he recognizes my voice despite the fake American accent I spoke with out loud. His face doesn't hold anger or disgust, which is what I thought it was going to be. No.
His face holds acceptance.
He bows his head again, swallowing once, and time slows down and the floor plummets as a bullet tears from Brianna's gun and through the air—
Landing directly into the Freak's head.
I squeeze my eyes shut as his body jerks backwards into the gravel and stones with a thud. And silence is the only thing that follows. Even my thoughts are quiet.
But one thought peeks out above the others, and it's one that sends my heart into another swell of both rage and anguish.
I saved one Freak, but I didn't have enough time to save another.