The interior of the shop was warm and extremely quiet, apart from the buzzing sound from the fluorescent lights.
Just what time was it? The space was deserted, so Maddy was guessing it was later than she had expected.
An old lady was sitting behind the cash desk, half-asleep. She murmured a drowsy greeting and looked at them through heavy-lidded eyes. Maddy pulled her hood lower and, with her hands buried in her pockets, she went to explore the shop along with the others.
Water, some protein granola bars, a big loaf of bread, some dried meat and lots of unhealthy snacks were things they picked up from the crammed shelves. Maddy stopped by the store freezer to say goodbye to the family pack of vanilla ice cream that she couldn't buy. The boys got a bunch of sharpened knives that sure weren't intended for cutting food. Sia made a pit-stop by the medical shelf on their way back to the till point to get some disinfectant, clean bandages, a thermometer and basic medicines like aspirins, antacids, painkillers, a bunch of injectable anesthetics and antibiotic ointment.
Logan pulled out a few bills from his pocket and payed the old lady, whose hands were shaking as she handed him the change. Then Carter stepped forward and asked politely:
"Could you please tell me the time?"
"Uh? What'd you say, boy?" asked the old woman. Her weak voice sounded like a steaming pot.
"I was wondering if you could tell me what time it is," repeated Carter, louder this time.
"Oh! It's... half past midnight. Quite late for you kids, isn't it? How old are you?" Her old, wrinkled eyes were concerned, but also curious, suspicious.
"Seventeen. Our parents are outside," replied Carter calmly, the lie so smooth on his lips that Maddy almost snorted. "We just went on a family road trip. Perhaps you could recommend a good place for food?"
"Ah, you should eat at Georgie's. Just down the street. The best diner in town."
"Thank you so much for your kindness. Have a good night," greeted her Carter, and they left the store with no further do.
"Since when are you so kind?" sneered Maddy.
"I can be kind." Carter plastered a fake smile on his lips. "Just not to you."
"I don't want your kindness," snapped Maddy at him.
"Then what do you want from me, princess?" mocked Carter.
"Don't call me-"
"Let's just go eat," Mia interfered.
"How much money do we have left?" asked Sia, and Maddy knew she meant that they shouldn't spend the cash so frivolously.
"Enough. Don't worry," replied Logan reassuringly.
They traversed the length of the street, which was lined with more empty stores and restaurants, until they finally reached Georgie's. The diner had the shape of a long caravan, and Maddy found herself reminiscing the first time her brother had once treated her to vanilla ice cream from an ice cream trailer. It had been her favorite flavour ever since. This diner looked like a trailer, too.
But Maddy didn't want to dwell on her childhood memories and the candied emotions of it all. Not when all the sweetness had been drowned in such a bitter ending.
Mia opened the door inside, and the smell of pizza and waffles that instantly hit her nostrils made Maddy feel dizzy. The diner was crowded, unlike the other empty restaurants of the street, but nobody seemed to be paying any attention to them as they entered.
They sat at a small table on the corner and remained silent, waiting for the waiter to come and take their order, all five pairs of eyes fixed on the large TV on the top part of the payment counter. A nauseating mishmash of fear and anticipation occupied the worried cavity of Maddy's chest as she watched the screen.
"Vaccinations are taking place all over the globe..." said the man on the news, making Maddy nervously chew on her bottom lip, a bad habit of hers.
Chill, Maddy, she told herself. It's not like our faces are on the news or anything.
There was a man in a suit on the screen, talking about the virus and how fast it spread. The same things, over and over again.
"Let's share our portions," suggested Logan. "Pizza and waffles?"
"Sure." Carter shrugged.
"I don't wanna share!" objected Mia.
"We have to save the money, Mia," told her Logan.
"Fine. I'll share with Sia. She doesn't eat much anyways."
"Whatever," mumbled Sia.
"We'll all share. Get it?" clarified Logan.
"Hello, what would you like to order?" asked a masculine voice.
The waiter was a middle-aged man with squared glasses and a little notepad in his hands, a warm smile on his thin lips. He looked like the butler of a millionaire.
"Umm..." began Logan. "A cheese pizza and waffles with whipped cream and maple syrup for now."
"I'll be right back!" exclaimed the waiter cheerfully and left them alone once again.
The five of them didn't say a word, just watched the news quietly.
"FROST are running tests on the vaccinated, although they seem to be particularly interested in the young, whose blood reaction to the vaccine seems to be showing the way to a possible cure. Investigation is based on the fact that young organisms are stronger, therefore..."
Maddy cringed when pictures of the experiments showed up on the screen. Young people no older than she was popped on the TV, stashed in laboratories, unconscious, getting tested through tubes and needles and machines. Her hair stood on edge at the sight of them leaving their lives in the hands of FROST, getting brainwashed and experimented upon like a bunch of laboratory animals.
And yet another part of her felt... guilty. Because, while those people were putting their lives on the line for the sake of a potential cure, she had been selfish enough to run away like a true coward. A part of her questioned whether she could have helped even in the tiniest bit by getting vaccinated, whether she was just being stupid and whether she should go back and... do it.
But, looking at those pictures on the TV, the pictures of young people becoming toys for the scientists to play with, to experiment with, she was positive she had made the right choice. It had to be the right choice. Because now there was no turning back. Not after everything she'd done.
"The number of refusers has significantly risen in the last few days ever since vaccination started at schools. A lot of students have started rioting in London, where the situation seems to have gotten out of hand. Many of the young refusers are said to have sought shelter in the countryside and the mountains, although their exact location hasn't been detected yet by the police or FROST. There is no way of telling whether the young rebels who are in hiding are still alive in the mountains, or whether the infected have attacked them..."
"The mountains? That's suicide," commented Sia. They had all experienced first-hand what enemies lurked there.
"But that could mean anything. They're not even saying what mountain, or what they're doing there, how many they are..." Maddy stared at the TV. She remembered those three young figures jumping off the train with the grace of cascadeurs, and then heading for the mountains. But those could be any mountains, and a million things could go wrong in the woods they'd have to cross first, if they wanted to get there.
"Some of the refusers have become even dangerous, as their refusal to get vaccinated..."
"Great. So now we are dangerous." Mia sat back, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"Well," sighed Sia. She cocked her curly-haired head to the side and raised a dense brow. "Aren't we?"
Maddy shuddered. Sia was right. They had been up against professionals, armed men shooting at them, with real guns, and they had blown them to bits like they were a joke to them. Maybe she'd nearly pissed her pants in the process, and maybe she was screaming her lungs out too, and maybe it was just the adrenaline, but the last few days had made her feel... fierce, and strong, and dangerous.
Maddy could feel it flowing in her veins, the danger. But she wasn't afraid of it. No, it wasn't the danger that scared her.
It was her attraction to it. She was dangerous, and she liked the sound of it.
"Snakes don't bite unless provoked," noted Mia, picking at her nails with a look of utter boredom on her pretty face. "They've done nothing but forced us into doing things we don't want to do. How can they force us into getting vaccinated through bullets and violence and expect us not to react, not to fight back?"
"Shhhh." Logan put a finger on his lips to notify them of the waiter approaching their table.
"There you go," he said happily, laying a steaming hot pizza in a carton box and a delicious portion of waffles on the table. Maddy's mouth watered. "Hope you'll enjoy! I'll be back if you need anything more!" the waiter crooned and turned around, taking the first step back towards the counter.
But then he froze on the spot, his back to them. He went so still Maddy contemplated the option of getting up and seeing if he was okay. Why had he frozen all of a sudden, still as statue?
"Fuck," rasped Carter under his breath.
And then Maddy saw it. She saw her face, on the screen of the TV. And four other faces that she had come to know too well the past few days. And then she saw the photos of the two smashed SUVs, low flames still burning on them, the fires sending little tornados of black smoke twirling in the air.
They were showing their faces on the news, and WANTED was written in large letters all over the screen. Crap.
The waiter turned around slowly, and when he faced them, Maddy saw the calculating recognition in his eyes, mixed with fear. His lower lip was quivering.
Killers. He thinks we're killers.
"It's them!" shouted the middle-aged waiter, his voice a shriek.
And then every eye in that diner was fixed on them.
[A/N]
I'm aliveee.
Oh, and thanks for reading❤️