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GPS Zone - REDZONE [LOCATION: border of Zero tribes KillTag & Ratiborx]
DAYS OUTSIDE: ZERO
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The sun shines overhead by the time we enter the REDZONE, but I blink at the derelict buildings as we fly down the weathered roads. Sunburn already stickles my skin, and the ache from my wounds seems to play tag with the throb in my head and the clench in my chest... everything swivels into one dull thought.
The army would never send troops into the REDZONE. We're out.
But the thought doesn't prompt any sort of joy. It feels like we're flying out of a sharks throat and into the jaws of a crocodile. Soldiers to manics, and a city full of gangsters. We left so many people behind. Lake Darling kids.
Behind the shattered glass, Scorpius sits in the driver seat, crooking his head to the side every now and then to check on us in his side mirrors. He's here... he pulls onto a back road, signalling our descent along the escarpment. Trent, Sax and Blu sit huddled behind the canopy, having claimed the best spot, but Elias leans on his knees with his head in his hands.
I dig my thumb into my shoulder, trying to stretch it out. When they pulled me into the boot the force dislocated my shoulder, and I had to set it right. It's gon' ache like a bītch for days.
Blu looked offended that I knew how to take care of a dislocated joint on my own... stupid cow.
Trent uses his boot to callously nudge mine, rousing me, "Warrendale. Why did Wilkes have blood all over him uniform? An' those feral marks on him throat?"
I glance up, "What marks?"
"Him neck was covered in this, this pink scar, but it looked like there were packets of blood in it. Him skin looked like a balloon." Blu explains accusingly like I should've noticed it. I vaguely remember the plasma.
"She probably didn't see, he was about to smash her skull in," Saxon mutters, coming to my defence.
"You sure didn't do fuck about that," Thai spits at Blu, fixing her with a hostile glare that makes Blu's indignant features flare into defence. But I catch Trent watching me, like he's noticed that I was artfully trying to avoid answering his original question.
Frustrated, I grit my jaw, "Stabbed him." I raise my blood-caked hands, flaring my fingers in surrender. I fail to admit that I shot him in the back of the neck too, purely for self-directed hate. Why didn't I pop him in the fucking skull? Nauseating guilt clenches it's fist in my stomach. Gisselle would be sitting next to me if I just thought for two seconds.
"You got a thing for cutting people across the throat." Trent snarls, cold vehemence crackling in his pale blue eyes.
Elias enters the conversation, "Should've put a bullet in his head too."
The knife in my chest twists. I look away, sniffing when pressure collects at my jaw, like half of me wants to scream and the other wants to cry.
"Is it safe to stop yet?" Thai asks, looking at Reid's unconscious face in her lap.
Dark rings circle his eyes, and the veins in his face are raised like purple worms wiggling under his skin. His masculine features are permanently twisted in pain. But, I know the infection would make his wounds feel good... the pain he's feeling is from the hallucinations.
It's like the shīttiest high in the world, but that's what the infection does—it fills your head with thousands of twisted hallucinations that fück with you forever, except the euphoria tells you to like it.
I still get the nightmares.
My nerves are so shot that I don't even hear Thai at first, but she gets her answer when our breakneck speed starts to ease. Scorpius isn't gentle when he veers right, off-roading us until we reach a small stream shrouded by gum trees and dirt-caked bracken floors.
The relentless wind eases, no longer roaring against my ears as we come to a stop. Scorpius kicks his door open, "Let's make this quick," his weathered combat boot hits the ground just as he pulls the handbrake, letting the engine idle in neutral. The sound of his voice gut-punches me with a wave of de-ja-vu. Tears prick my eyes.
They turn to gape when he emerges, but he casually rounds the boot and leans over the edge, his chorded forearms revealing his leanly muscular physique.
The gold chain dreaded into Scorpius's hair sparkles in the sun, his nose ring contrasting the black kohl streaked from his chin to his neck in a masculine display of war-paint. Manic fashion. He's a blonde triber with a cheeky smile and quick eyes.
Seeing him hits me like a tonne of bricks, and I clamber to my feet, nearly treading on Thai's leg as I extend my arms before I crash to my knees and hug him tightly.
"Viper," He coos, squeezing me.
I burst into tears, hiding my face in his shirt when my cheeks flame with the discomfort of everyone seeing my hysteria. Their invasive eyes pinch me so much that I slap myself back to reality and I grit my jaw through the sobs that wrestle to break free. I slip out of his arms, unable to let them see my face as I trudge off.
"Vi," Thai tries to call but I don't stop walking.
"Yous make introductions." I croak, pushing my hands through my tangled hair. "Scor, you got the comm-tech to disable the nano trackers?"
"She can't go, it's dangerous," Thai tries to reason, her voice twinged by panic, but Scorpius clears his throat.
"We're safe near the water," He presumably gestures at the stream, but I keep my eyes fixed on the bush ahead, struggling to breathe. I need to write my conversation with Barra down. I can feel myself forgetting everything.
"You gon' go get her?" Saxon sounds concerned, but I fall out of earshot when I reach a tree ahead.
The facts he threw in my face spin out of control, and my mind races with the fear, latching onto every detail and scrambling it. I imagine that Zero they were experimenting on. They've had the cure since 2067...
Oh god, what government conspiracy have I stepped in? They used Wep-Tech in the Unfinished War, but the way Barra was talking it sounded like they were going to weaponize the Manics against their will and make a brainless army to control all of post-war Australia.
And Teacup, oh god Teacup. Her face plays on repeat, the terror and shock as she tried to cry out. Or Wilkes. I killed him, how did it take them twenty minutes to heal his wounds? It's cruelly unfair. I killed him.
Unable to help myself I grab the bark roughly and double over, gagging, once, twice, before I throw my guts up. My throat burns and tears cloud my vision as I choke on the bile.
I try to grapple with everything that happened—What Reid and I said, the sex.
Questions, the same relentless questions, hound me.
Can I trust him anymore? Will he trust me?
My heart aches, and I press my head to the tree, squeezing my eyes shut as I try desperately to reign everything in.
Someone treads behind me and I lurch around, but then Scorpius raises his arms in surrender, his face stiff with concern. He grips a spray-painted water bottle in one hand which crackles as he clenches it, and in the other hangs the Comm-Tech.
A glimm-screen appears, but it reports the device as Unkown, which reminds me that I need to get myself a phone to pair with the eSight tech in my eye.
"I'm sorry." I croak, and he lowers his hands slowly, edging toward me before he rattles the weathered bottle coaxingly, but I reach for the Comm-Tech and start programming it. "You cleared everyone?" I ask as I place the metal pad on my forearm.
One electric pulse deactivates the nano-chip tracker the army put in me, effectively blinking me off their map like a blown light bulb. I shrug Jewel's phone out of my thigh pocket, but Scor grabs my arm when I prepare to fling it away— "No, no, I got mates who want to make the trek to Lake Darling, so they're buying the car tonight. We plant the phone in there and the army will track you to the wrong city."
"But they'll track us heading toward Newcastle and figure we're not dumb enough to go back to Lake Darling." My voice is thick from crying.
Scor shakes his head with a grin, "We're hiking in from Kyte Ridge. I thought of it all, Vip. Come on. Drink," He unscrews the cap. Water like this doesn't bug him, but when you live with the Voytek's you learn to hide anything that might trigger someone's phobia. "I got a toothbrush too if you want."
I take it, grimacing at the taste in my mouth before I swish a mouthful around urgently and spit it at the ground. He falls in line with me, casting an apprehensive look at the stream ahead. The only thing that really triggers Scor's phobia is dark bodies of water.
"Can I drive?" I rasp, wiping under my eyes to try and recover some of my makeup.
"With that arm?" He mutters, and I frown but he mockingly pouts right back at me. "Fück no."
"Please," I ask and he laughs.
"Don' you wan' sleep?" He tries.
I knead my shoulder, frowning like a sooky kid, "I'm not gon' be able to sleep."
He deliberates for a moment, watching me sceptically, "Yeah alright," He caves, "I've been driving two days straight, could do with some Z's." I flash him a smile and he shakes his head, snickering like he knows he just fell for a manipulation act. "You wan' clean off before we go? I got a hygiene kit in the glove box," He offers, gesturing at Wilkes's blood on my arms and clothes.
I try my luck, "Medical kit?"
Scor looks alarmed, "Wait is any of it yours? Where—." But then he sees my uncomfortable grimace and arches a blonde brow.
"Morning-after pill?" I try, and he barks a laugh which makes my lips quirk. Only he could make me smile right now.
"Fück you're a hot mess. The guy who looks half dead, right?" He clarifies, and I wrinkle my nose at the knowing smirk on his stupid face.
"No?" I mumble, but he grins, revealing his white teeth.
"I'm just glad it's not that blonde." He grins and I snicker.
"Trent? Oh ew, please don't."
Scor just wiggles his brows, looking in the direction of the ute, but then his features grow solem. "Lotta tension back there, aye."
"I killed Trent's secret boyfriend and him tried to kill me to make good. But he was in the cells and I needed him and his friends to help me get Reid out." I explain and Scor nods along, the corner of his lips tugging down in understanding.
"Makes sense why they're tip-toeing then." He looks back at me, and his features go serious, "Do you wan' a hug or something?"
I fall quiet again, my bottom lip tremoring before I nod, "I missed you." I croak and he pulls me to his chest.
"Fück, don' make me cry." He tries to laugh but his voice goes thick and he squeezes me gently. Then, after a peaceful moment, he rubs my back, "We better get gone. That pack noticed us."
I nod, sinking the last of the water before I pass him the empty bottle, "surprised they ain't caught up yet." I agree, and we start walking to the car.
"At least you look hot when you cry," He remarks, shooting me a teasing grin, but I kick the back of his shoe, and he barks a laugh.
"You hitting on me?" I play along, and he snickers.
"You wan' me to?" Scorpius flashes me a grin, though, mid-smile he bounces his chin at Thai in greeting. She sits in the cab of the truck and the other's remain sprawled out in the tray. Scorpius rounds the vehicle to open the passenger door. "Guess you're taking that morning after pill dry cause I don' got no water left."
I cringe, feeling when everyone looks at me.
"Manics don't do subtle. Do yous?" I mutter at him, and he flashes me an expression of 'yikes'.
I open the driver door and pull myself in. Reid lies in the back with his head draped on Thai's lap, unconscious.
Scor starts rummaging through the glove box when I hang my head out the window, "It's a two hour drive. We don' got any stops till then." I tell the others, and then I put the clutch in, ignoring how awkward it feels knowing they just saw me break down.
"Morning after pill?" Thai raises her brows at me in the rear-view mirror but I chew my lip. Scor reaches around me so he can grab my seatbelt, clipping it with a scolding frown, but then he makes a point to catch my eye.
Scor glances at Thai subtly, then shoots me a smirk.
I knew he'd like her.
"Scor, you got pen and paper?" I knock the car into first, relishing the thrum of the engine. I'll write it all down later.
Scorpius looks at me quickly, and his brows shoot together in dislike, "Paper?"
"Kyte Ridge?" I clarify.
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