Her Compound

Chapter 12

I stood in one of the showers, under the warm blanket of water that ran over my body, while reliving the events that had unfolded close to an hour ago.

I had knelt there, in the training room, and watched as some people that I didn't know came in and took Logan and Grayson away from us. Their bodies were sent off to I don't know where and I was left with the puddle of blood and the memory of what happened at the front of my mind.

My eyes found their way to the tiled floor of the shower and the pink water that was disappearing down the drain. I wanted to cry. Let out all the pain that I felt. But I couldn't. I was left feeling numb.

"We're not going to die."

I felt as though I had failed him. I had made a promise, and now it was broken.

The water turned off just as I had watched the liquid turn back to being clear, but I remained standing there. I continued to stand there, even when the cold air started to bite at my exposed skin.

"Zoe?" Willow's hollow voice called from outside the shower.

I cleared my throat. "Yeah?"

I heard her take a step back. "There's some fresh clothes out here when you're done, and Zack told me to tell you to come to the cafeteria when you're ready."

I nodded my head even though I knew she couldn't see through the closed curtain. "Okay, thank you."

Willow stood on the other side a moment longer before turning away and heading to the exit of the girls washroom. I heard the door shut a second later and then reached down picking up the towel I had grabbed to dry myself off.

After patting myself dry, I stepped out of the shower with the towel wrapped around myself and walked over to the laundry basket, carrying my bloodied clothes. I stood over the basket for a moment, staring down at Logan's blood against the dark fabric, thinking of all the things I could have done to prevent him from dying.

I knew there was nothing now I could do to change any of it, so I pushed the ache that I felt in my chest down, and tossed the bundle into the container with the other dirty clothes.

I then turned away, swallowing down the urge to cry.

* * *

The part of the table in which all of the teens were seated at, remained silent as I entered the cafeteria. I quietly made my way past the eyes of the people in the room with my head down and then sat across from Willow and Matteo.

I noticed that both of them had a small plate of breakfast food in front of them, but it looked to be completely untouched as they stared down at it.

"I just can't believe he's gone," Willow whispered as tears started to brim her eyes. I could see that the white of her eyes had a reddish hue and knew she had cried quite a bit.

Matteo snaked his arm around Willow and rested his hand on her far shoulder, using his thumb to make reassuring circles against her shirt. Willow then leaned her body against him and rested her head against his shoulder as tears fell from her eyes.

I felt as though I were interrupting, so I quickly looked away and scanned the rest of the tables until meeting Zack's eyes. As soon as my eyes hit his, I looked down at the table before deciding to stand up and walk towards the exit. I didn't care about the consequences that my actions might cause. I just needed to get out of there and away from everyone's eyes and Willow's soft sobs before I myself might break.

"Zoe?" A familiar voice called out to me as I took the right out of the cafeteria. "Where are you going?"

I turned around to face Zack. "I need some time alone."

He nodded and glanced over his shoulder towards the cafeterias' open doors before looking back at me. "I'll walk with you."

What part of "alone" does he not understand? I thought. But regardless of this though, I nodded and resumed down the hall.

He caught up to me easily and walked with me silently.

I was quite surprised throughout the walk because I had expected him to say something at some point, but he remained silent and at my side for the entire duration until coming to room D4.

"I'll give you today to... accept your friend's passing," Zack said, breaking the silence as he came to a stop in front of my room, "but Joan expects you and the rest of you to get back to training as soon as possible."

I nodded and cast my eyes down to the grey floor between us. What had I been expecting? That we would be done with all of this? Done with the training?

We stood there a moment longer. I wanted to look up from the floor to see what Zack was doing, but I kept my eyes trained to the grey and crossed my arms over my chest, waiting for him to say something else.

Another minute went by and I was about to make a move for the door handle when he finally spoke up again and I looked up at him.

"I'll be going through some survival techniques with them for the rest of the day, but you don't need to worry, I'll get Willow to fill you in on everything later. Like I said, I'll give you the day." He then glanced over my shoulder before meeting my eyes again, his face turning thoughtful until returning back to the small smile. "When I come back to drop off Willow and the boy there's something I have to show you."

My brows furrowed heavily as confusion flooded me, pushing away the sadness that I had felt. "What is it?"

Zack reached over and opened the door for me to enter. "You'll see later."

I gave him a skeptical look before nodding my head and walking through the door he had opened. I then turned around and watched him with a wide smile, close the door and disappear, leaving me completely dumbfounded and greatly confused.