Blake's Point Of View
Ben came with me, I could use him a lot more than I could use Mark. We had left him and Wasp with Imogen who had sat up as soon as I'd crawled out of the hiding spot with Ben. It pained me to leave her, to not be there when she woke up. She'd think I'd left her for dead. But I knew she'd be fine, Wasp was there, he could help her if she went under again.
"Dude, I only have a few more screams left in me." Ben called from behind me. I was jogging for the door of the storage facility but he seemed content with a fast walk.
"What do you mean." I asked, swinging open the door and thundering down the stairs, my steps echoing in the metal hall.
"I mean, even my curse doesn't last forever. It's a lot of power for me to use, if I use it too much, I loose my voice. I can tell I'm getting close." I ran my hand along the railing as I took the steps with lightning speed until I reached the first landing that led to the Mess Hall.
"Rest your voice. Don't talk unless you have to. Let's just get this over with." I muttered, clasping my hand around the metal handle that was slick with blood. I didn't want to think that it could be Imogen's. I'd already nearly spent her life, I didn't need any reminders of how close she was to never setting fire to the dark again.
I swung open the door and didn't think, I just acted on instinct. I let my genes, my DNA, do what needed to be done. I wouldn't let my morals get in the way, they never have before, not when I'm fighting for something worth killing for. That's what Order was after all. You fought the bad guys no matter the cost because they were the bad guys. They deserved death and the rest of the world's innocent people deserved justice. We had to be the heroes to get it for them.
I reached to the wall and tried for a new magic trick, begging in my mind for the particles of the metal to collapse and shift until they were at my command I could make them do anything. They wouldn't just drip to the floor, they would be my arrows, my bullets. They would be fired without guns but they would cut the air just as fast. I could do this, why not, right?
I locked my gaze onto the stampede of Monitors just now rushing into the building and I pulled a hunk of metal from the wall, letting it drift in mid air until I had directed it out in front of me where it could shield Ben and I from the open firing of the monitors.
"Woah." I heard Ben whisper in awe behind me. Same, I thought, shifting the boulder of iron until I had a glassy smooth sphere the size of a Volkswagen Bug orbiting in a small circle out ahead of me.
"Stop! Hold your fire, don't shoot!" The voice was cold. Colder than even the purest of evils. I used to never think that, whenever I heard that voice, I thought of warm vanilla sugar, of moonlit walks on a beach somewhere on the West coast. I used to think of tag at midnight and truth or dare under bunk beds. Oh how those happy memories pained me now. I can't ever remove it from my memory entirely, it had been a part of me for so long. It will always be there, haunting me, beckoning me to forgive it. But I won't, not now and not ever. I can't. Not after what she did.
The voice belonged to Alice. Alice Green. The traitor, the monster, the backstabbing cheat, the liar, the master puppeteer, whatever else you wanted to call her, the title was well deserved. I was not necessarily shocked, I had expected that I'd run into her at some point.
And the she shot me.
almost. The bullet whizzed past my ear. A warning. It didn't faze me.
A small part of me had hoped she would flea, track down her little sister, Bethany, who was still all alone at Order. A new kind of pain drilled into my heart when I thought of the mess Order must be in. The facility must be destroyed or raided by now, owed to Alice of course. What would that mean for Bethany? I hadn't thought of this in a while, maybe I was just telling myself there would be time to dwell on those thoughts later. But it was always later. Never now, never the right time. There were so many things, so many half plotted plans and abandoned schemes running through my mind that I had forgotten about Bethany, about Order and the people I had called friends that I didn't warn.
I had thought they wouldn't believe us if I'd told them a mole was selling Order's secrets. No I hadn't, actually. I had agreed with Alice when she had persuaded me that our cred wouldn't earn us any willing to listen ears.
I ground my teeth at the thought. She had been playing me since the very beginning, even when we were little, always making sure I took her side, always making sure I agreed with her every word. How did I not see it sooner? Why did the truth have to wait so long to come out to the point where it hurt to the point of nearly killing me. And here I was, my vision guarded by an iron ball I was ready to heave at the bad guys when that voice came back, the voice that will taunt my dreams forever. It stopped me in my tracks as it always had, making me second guess everything, making me worry the path I had taken was the wrong one. How could one girl have this much power over me? Was it simply because of our history? I didn't know the bonds of friendship could last through even the most unforgivable toils.
I dropped the ball of iron and as it contacted the floor it melted away into a puddle on the tile floor that reached up to my ankles. I looked straight ahead, right where I had been before, with a new kind of fury in my chest.
Her golden hair was tied back in a pony tail and the cruel beauty of her complexion was exposed. She wore the same camo clothes as the monitors only she appeared to be unarmed. She had only stopped the firing of the monitors by holding her hands in the air and shouting. Typical Alice, always getting what she wants.
Her grim face split with a sly smile that for a moment returned me to the days when she would dare me to do something she knew I didn't want to, but being the stubborn kid I was, would do anyway. She would flash that smug grin whenever she got the chance, making sure I knew that she'd won yet again.
"Blake! Oh it's so good to see you! I was worried I would have gotten here too late and missed all the fun!" My expression didn't change, her lighthearted tone didn't phase me. Not on the outside at least, but on the inside I was breaking down.
"I must say, I've never seen you do a performance quite like that before! Did Imogen teach you that one?" She asked, taking a step foreword, her boots clicking loudly in the otherwise silent mess hall. The bodies of the girls and their splattered blood remained untouched by the tables.
I bit the inside of my cheek, this was not ok, she couldn't get inside my head again. But she wanted to talk, she wanted to get something from me otherwise casual conversation was an unnecessary part of my execution. If she wanted information from me, then I would trade her for the same. An apple for an apple if that was the game she wanted to play.
"Nice guard dogs you got there." I said, gesturing to the monitors behind her who stood eerily still with their rifles still poised at my head. "Do they fetch too?" She chuckled a little and it nearly seemed real. Who knows, maybe in a different life Alice could have been a remarkable actress.
"I'm the alpha around here." She began, walking over to me, stepping through the puddle of liquid metal like the thing she was worried about most was her shoes getting ruined
"Without me, they'd be lost, have no one to guide them. But without them, I'd be solo, I'd have no pack to do my dirty work." I waited for one of the monitors to snap back to sanity and fill Alice with lead once they realized how easily manipulated they were. But nothing like that happened, to my disappointment. I guess I'd have to do it myself.
Alice was about a yard away, her right ankle casually thrown over the other with her arms crossed. She cocked her head to the side as if to examine me and her ponytail swayed behind her with the movement.
"Loose your shirt on the way here, darling? I hope that bug of yours is alright. I have a little gift for her." The venom on her tongue made me shiver. Alice had a talent for getting in people's heads with just her words and the way her eyes pierced even the most guarded souls.
"Imogen is no bug."
"Imogen now, is it?" She asked quizzically. I didn't give her a response and she didn't give me time to say one.
"Are you two that buddy-buddy now? Your not trying to replace me, are you?" I felt a flame ignite in my gut. Who did she think she was talking about me this way? Talking about Imogen like she was some kind of creature that didn't deserve to be called human.
"Nothing could ever replace you, Alice. Your the worst villain I've ever had the pleasure to meet." Alice pursed her lips and studied me even more. I flinched under her gaze and she laughed.
"Not as funny as you were back then, I'm disappointed in you, Blake." I've had enough of this useless chatter, we were getting no where and I had a feeling that's exactly what Alice was hoping for. She was tearing open old wounds to make it easier to sneak her poison back in.
"What do you want, Alice?" I asked, taking a step back from her. She didn't move, just stood there, looking me like a hawk looks at a mouse right before it plucks it from its nest.
"Same thing you do."
"And what's that?"
"There's so much to choose from."
"Pick one."
Alice considered this for a moment but after she ran a hand through her ponytail I was already fed up with her stalling. Just as I was about to confront her about it, she came to her conclusion.
"I can't pick just one so here's a few, normality, a sense of belonging, a legacy, and freedom." I squinted at her.
"I can already get all those things! Once we take down the zone, people like us will be free, we will be treated normally, finally find somewhere to belong, and we will leave whatever Mark we want on history. Why did you betray us, Alice? You could have had all those things." I finished, exasperated. Ben shifted in the puddle of metal behind me and I realized I had forgotten he was there. Alice's face harden, all trace of playfulness gone.
"You really thought thats what would happen? Gosh, your so naive." She put a hand to the bridge of her nose in frustration and took a shaky breath.
"People like us, with variations, we'll never be normal as long as we can do these things! We'll no longer be government weapons, we'll be kidnapped, bought, and sold for independent criminals and heroes without our consent. We're too valuable, to mixed up. That will never change, we won't belong anywhere. If we ever want to, we have to get rid of these curses inside of us." She was shouting now, letting me know that there was more to this story that I hadn't heard. She continued and I let her, to afraid of the power she had. She could give one command and I'd be gone.
"Forget about freedom, Blake. You will never get it until you cure yourself. I already did, I am free! I'm trying to help everyone else and your making that extremely difficult. I can help you, and we can end this. There is a way to extract the variation from our DNA. I can show you."
"Tell me about it." I said, urging her to continue. She was feeding me information, letting me know everything that I needed to know before I killed her. And she wasn't holding back, she really thought our powers were curses and she wanted me to believe it too, to be back on her side. But her tricks won't work on me ever again and I'll make sure this is the last one she ever plays.
"It's a procedure. I'm not sure how it works, monitors in the infirmary worked it out. They extract the portion of your DNA that's cursed and they bottle it, making you normal, making us normal. But the power, they discovered, can be transferred by injection into the bloodstream of another ordinary person."
"And that's what the pills are, the ones that took away our variations temporarily when we were taken here." I intervened, so lost in thought, I nearly forgot that it was the enemy I was conversing with. Alice nodded and explained that it was a special technology that devolves into your skin and enters your capillaries that way. It sounded like a sci-fi movie, like something from a fantasy. Variations can be removed? But that was what had always made me special, made me different and powerful. Why would I want to take something like that away. Clearly Alice thought it was a charity she was doing and I think those with variations and were brought up in the zone would agree. They'd been taught that they were cursed, that what they could do didn't make them special, it made them dangerous, threats to everyone they loved. They had to think that, otherwise they'd want to escape. And even though I'm sure they all hated the place, I think the reason they stayed here for as long as they did was because they were worried of the harm they could cause. They didn't want to start wars or murder loved ones and they thought that the zone was the only way to keep from doing that.
After a long while of considering these things and Alice waiting patiently as I did, I had my response. There were ways to protect those with variations, to make sure they would never be slaves or weapons or whatever else people wanted to use them for. Riding them of what makes them special and unique, that was not the way.
"Your dead to me Alice." I said through gritted teeth. The fury in her eyes eased and that easy smile only the devil could wear came back to her face. She took a few steps back until she was in line with the monitors.
"I was afraid you'd say that. Take him out." I barley had time to comprehend what she had said before I was thrown backwards through the mess hall door and I landed hard against the back wall of the stairwell. The door slammed shut but not before I saw Ben give a wink and a sad smile through the closing crack.
Bullets dug into the thin metal wall in small indents but they stopped abruptly and all was quiet.
I sat in stunned silence for longer than I should have. Then slowly, without taking my eyes off the near-holes in the wall, I slid up the wall until I was standing, still leaning heavily against it.
"Ben?" I said in a hoarse whisper. In a daze, my vision blurred, I felt my way back to the door and it took a couple tries before I could open it. When I did, I had to jump back to avoid being hit by-
Ben.
Or what used to be Ben. He was mauled by bullets, slaughtered by Alice's minions. I squeezed my eyes shut and let out a breath. I'd caused his life to end, I caused his eyes to hang open in a bleak stare, I caused his white uniform to be stained with red, I caused him to never again know true freedom. I caused his heart to still.
I knelt beside him and smoothed his mop of brown hair back from his face. I stared at it for a moment, the fat not yet gone from his cheeks, his long eyelashes that scraped his cheeks as I pushed his eyelids shut. I would make sure he got a proper burial when this was all over. He had saved my life, the least I could do was make sure his was ended in a way he deserved.
I couldn't take staring at his lifeless body any longer so I stood up and looked at the monitors who had crumpled to the floor along with Alice. Ben must have let out one last scream before he was shot down.
As I ran through the liquid metal, ran past the monitors, ran past the bodies of girls who'd died all too soon, ran past Alice, her face down to the floor and her body lying stiff, I didn't look back. I just kept going. I've had enough death for one day. It's time life takes its turn and lays down the winning hand.
Before I left I'd gathered more metal and let it hover through the air behind me in case I needed to fire a makeshift bullet at any attackers on my way to retrieve Taylor and Will from the cage area.
But when I exited the block, I found that there was no army of monitors waiting to take me on. The yard was empty, not a soul in sight. But there was plenty of noise. Sirens rang out from the guard towers that were empty, red lights flashed on the rooftops of the bunkers and a recorded voice repeated the same message over and over again.
"Zone control overridden, evacuate."
The monitors had fled, the army had escaped. The zone was a barren wasteland of screaming sirens and flashing lights and that unnaturally calm recording.
We won. That had to be the only explanation. We had frightened them with our powers, yes, put we'd beaten them with our determination, our willingness to sacrifice life for freedom, for the right thing. Or what they viewed as the wrong thing in their sick minds.
I couldn't help it, I smiled. I let a grin spread as wide as the Nile on my face and I stood there, enjoying the cries of victory and the sorrowful songs of their defeat. This couldn't be it. But it was. What was left? What was left but to set the kids free, take them back to their families and give those without guardians a new life. The fight was over and we were the champions.
I sprinted harder than I ever had for the monitor house, heart pounding and joy spreading inside of me. Had it been that easy? I could hardly believe it but that was the funny thing about victories, they always seem so easily achieved in the end because in the heat of the moment, we forget about all the loss, the sacrifice, the torment and the torture. We are too busy focusing on now. What's happening now is our only concern, not the past because that's already come and gone.
When I reached the monitor house I didn't hesitate before melting a hole and stepping through, back into the darkness that I new would soon be brightened.
"Will, Taylor! It's over, we- we won!" I yelled into the dark. A hand grabbed my arm.
"Blake? Oh my gosh, Blake! Your kidding! You actually did it, all the kids are- and the monitors got- and we never have to- holy crap, where's Imogen??" Taylor's rambling was faster than ever and that was saying something with how much she talked all the time. I slowly began to pry her fingers off my arm when a waist high bulldozer slammed into me with full on maximum speed, knocking me back a couple steps.
"We can go home! Yes, I can't wait for you to see where I live! It's really pretty and you'll love my brother!" Will squealed. I chuckled and squeezed him back and Taylor came over to join our bear hug. After a while of standing their, all of us in each other's arms, Taylor let go and spoke up.
"But seriously, where's Imogen?" My smile instantly fell and I stopped ruffling Will's hair. What was I thinking? Down here celebrating while Imogen had no idea of the news and was in some strange place with two strangers probably suffering and cursing me for leaving her when she had been so close to death.
"She was shot. Pretty bad." I said, looking at where I assumed Taylor would be in the dark, I saw a faint outline of her thanks to the hole in the wall that was slowly widening. I heard Taylor suck in a sharp breath and as she spoke, her voice hitched like she was trying desperately hard to hold back tears.
"She's not- she's not... Dead, is she?" She asked quietly. I shook my head even though I knew she could barley see it. I explained to her the situation, how I had met Ben and Mark, what had happened when we'd found Imogen nearly dead in the stairwell and how Mark had gone to find the one with a healing variation that they called Wasp. I also told her what had become of Ben and what all went down at the block. And I didn't forget to tell her that I had left Imogen behind without making sure she was alive and well.
"What the heck were you thinking?" She shouted at me. Before I could object, she ran for the hole in the wall, shoving past me.
I wanted to follow her out but I knew she wouldn't get far. I hadn't told her where exactly the hiding place was and although Taylor sometimes acted like it, I knew she wasn't dumb. She would wait for me.
"We got all the kids out of their cages." I heard Will say. He wiggled out of the grip I still had on him and moved farther into the black.
"They're all in real bad shape but you said that Wasp guy healed Imogen, so he can help them. Me and Taylor laid them down against the back wall. Most of them can't talk though, the ones that can told us that if they screamed too much, monitors would come down here and cut their tongues out to keep 'em quiet. I guess I haven't been here long enough to know." Will finished. He tried to speak loudly, to act brave, but I knew this whole endeavor was terrifying him. He should have never been a part of something like this.
"Good to know Will and yes, I'm sure Wasp will help. Let's go get Imogen now, ok?" I said gently, ushering him to the hole in the wall, he took my hand as we walked and I held tight to him as we stepped through and out into the sunshine where Taylor was waiting, leaning against the wall and inspecting her nails.
"I really hate you, you know that." She said as she broke into a steady jog just slow enough so Will could keep up.
"Aw, c'mon, you don't mean that." I argued. She didn't say anything else until we reached the block and were picking our way through petrified and dead bodies much slower than I'm sure Taylor planned to. I covered Will's eyes as we passed the bodies of the young girls, forgotten and strewn on the floor like a spider web.
"Those are the girls from bunker number two." She muttered when we reached the door. I had nothing to say to that. I know Taylor didn't know them personally but I could tell she was feeling a type of guilt for their deaths that I had already experienced plenty of times before and I knew that the best way to deal with it was to suffer through until you had explored every corner of the feeling that it was finally meaningless and dull.
"Imogen!" Taylor called once we had arrived in the storage facility. Her voice echoed against the huge walls and bounced back with no other reply carried with it. I led her and Will through the isles until I found the spot in the floor by the slightly disturbed box where I knew Mark, Wasp, and Imogen all were.
"Open up, it's Blake." I said, and then added, "It's over," While stomping my foot on the indent where the sliding panel closed up the gap in the floor. A few seconds later, the blockade was moved away and Mark's smiling face appeared in place of it. I wasn't smiling. I had news to give him that he was not going to take well.
"How's she doing?" I asked, as I helped Mark out of the hole. Mark jumped up and down on his feet while shaking his hands out as if readying himself for a boxing match.
"Great, she's nearly back to normal now, still a little drowsy but Wasp says its normal. Is Ben doing something else or-". Mark trailed off and I looked back at Taylor for support but she was already taking Wasp out of the hole and pelting him with questions about Imogen's wellbeing. I turned my attention back to Mark. He must have seen the pitiful look in my eyes or sensed that the news I brought wasn't going to sit well in the category of good.
"He's gone isn't he." He muttered, looking at me with a stare that demanded the truth. He wanted it straight up, no sugarcoating. Ben was his friend, his only sane partner and now he was gone and Mark was fully aware of that now. Why else would he think I hesitated?
"He saved my life, Mark. He died by his own choice and I think that is the most heroic death anyone can have." I said, landing a hand on his shoulder and forcing him to look me in the eyes. tears were already dipping down his cheeks but he wiped them away with his sleeve.
"He always was so reckless. I knew something like this would happen eventually it just hurts a lot worse than I could have ever thought." I watched him for a moment, squeezing his shoulder gently and doing my best to comfort him.
"Where is he?" He asked, brushing my hand away softly I let it fall to my side.
"In the mess hall. I can bury him with you if you want-" Mark cut me off with a wave of his hand and then a long sniff.
"No. I want to do it myself. I'll find somewhere he'll always be happy." With that he turned away and stalked off to the door, disappearing into the stairwell.
"Imogen?" I heard Taylor's faint voice call from by the hole. She was peering down into it but not for long. After she'd whispered her friend's name, she'd hopped down into it, searching for her companion while Wasp stood awkwardly next to the hiding spot.
"She looks awful and you just left her here?" She yelled up at me. I looked at Wasp and shrugged my shoulders in a 'what are you gonna do' kind of way before beckoning him over to help me haul Taylor back up. She kicked and thrashed but she was too small to really shake us off.
"I can't believe you! That's my best friend! My only friend and you left her for dead!" She screamed once she was out but I just ignored her. Wasp jumped down and disappeared for a moment before returning with a weary Imogen in his arms. I helped him lift her out and gently set her down on the cool floor.
I sat down beside her head and brushed the hair that had some how found its way back to her sweat-slick forehead. At my subtle touch her eyes fluttered open and though at first they seemed hazy, a few blinks later and the glow had returned.
"Blake?" She squeaked, her voice rough. I nodded and smiled as wide as I could, relief making it impossible not to. She was alive, she was ok. She had made it.
"Yeah, it's me." I responded, lightly brushing my fingers across her cheek, her jaw, the bridge of her nose, her lips, as if I still wasn't believing she had spoken.
She looked up at me, her eyes examining my face. Then they traveled down to the rest of me and she squinted.
"What happened to your shirt?" She asked, I laughed and she propped herself up on her elbows as if to get a better look.
"I'll get a new shirt before we leave." I told her, sitting back a bit. She had shifted up into a seated position but I could tell it was uncomfortable for her, some of the pain must still be lingering.
"Don't." She responded, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips.
"I like this look better." I was about to laugh again but she cut me off, a hand reaching out and catching the side of my neck.
My heart pounded to the point where I thought I might break a rib or two. I reached out an arm and wrapped it around her waist, careful to avoid the skin near her wound. She looked at me with a new kind of fire in her eyes. The new flame growing stronger as she pulled me in closer and pressed her lips against mine. Static exploded behind my eyes and stars danced in my head.
Her kiss was toxic, addicting and deadly. It was enough to make even the most self assured men crumble. And I was the lucky fool who got to fall apart under spell and melt in her hands.
CHAPTER ELEVEN ALREADY?!?!? GOSH THAT WAS FAST! HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED!