Her Compound

Chapter 22

"So, what will we be doing today?" I asked Zack who was chewing on his bottom lip as he stared at Alex, at the other side of the cafeteria's table, with his own group of teens.

When Zack didn't respond, I followed his gaze and could see Alex trying to comfort a crying teen. He looked like he didn't know what he was doing as he had his hand hovering over top of the young girl's shoulder.

I looked back at Zack, who was across from me, and raised an eyebrow. "Zack?"

He finally turned his attention to me, looking slightly started. "Sorry, what was that?"

"What are we doing today?" I asked again.

"Just some target practice, that's all."

He picked up an apple slice off his plate and shoved it into his mouth as he looked back to Alex who looked like he was failing dismally to get the girl to calm down. I turned my head to look at Willow and hopefully get her to help me, but she quickly shrugged before shoveling a spoonful of scrambled eggs into her mouth.

Matteo, who was across from Willow and sitting next to Zack, caught the little exchange between Willow and I, and glanced at me before looking at Zack.

He cleared his throat before speaking up. "You good?"

Zack's grey eyes met with Matteo's blue ones and he nodded his head as he looked at Alex again. "It's his first time training a group. My mother thought it was a good idea that he train them, but... well I don't know. She doesn't really know him like I do."

"What do you mean?" I questioned, my eyebrows furrowing.

He shrugged with a small smile and picked his fork up. "Let's just say, he's not the most serious person nor the most responsible."

I bit down on my cheek as I looked towards Alex and then at Wyatt who was eating quietly near the end of the table. I didn't know what Zack had meant by what he had said, but I hoped that Wyatt and the rest of the teens would remain safe.

"What happened to the other trainer?" Willow asked, speaking up for the first time in a while. "I highly doubt you were the only one, especially with the amount of us coming through here."

Zack moved his head up and down as he trained his eyes to the table between us, the small smile slipping from his face. "He got called for a mission a couple weeks ago, and... he didn't return."

"Oh."

Our table part of the table fell into an uncomfortable silence as we all finished our plates of food. The cafeteria continued to buzz with chatter, the sound almost soothing in a way. When we were all finished, Zack stood up and gestured for us to follow him to the training room. We passed by Alex's group on the way out and I could see from where I was right behind Zack, that he gave Alex a strange side-eyed glance.

Thankfully Alex was too busy with the girl to have seen the look, and we exited the cafeteria, leaving the noises, Alex, and Wyatt behind.

* * *

"I hope you know you're holding the bow all wrong."

I dropped the bow and arrow down by my side as I rolled my eyes and turned around to look at Zack. "Then show me how to do it right instead of criticizing my way of doing things."

Zack chuckled as he took a few steps closer to me. "Alright, hold it like you were doing it before."

I brought the bow up like he had taught us, with the arrow strung, and then pulled it back. My breathing and heart rate immediately picked up as I felt Zack take another step closer and bring his hand up to my right elbow to lift it up a bit higher.

"You really like dropping your arms," he commented with a large grin.

I gulped and took a deep breath. I could feel the little space between us and wanted to close it, but I forced myself to remain as still as possible. I could hear the sound of the arrows burying themselves into the targets, but it was nowhere as loud as the thudding of my heart against my chest.

Then just as fast as Zack had grown closer to me, he took a step back and gestured to the target.

"Okay, now shoot."

I took multiple deep breaths to calm my racing heart and then stared down at the red dot as I aimed at it. Then, just as I heard the training room's doors slam open, I let go of the arrow and watched it fly through the air and plant itself near the outside of the target.

I then quickly turned to the right, towards the exit, and saw Alex and his teens entering, Wyatt somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Zack glared at Alex as he entered and then walked towards him.

"What are you doing here?" he asked him, the glare not leaving his face.

Alex put his hand up to stop Zack and walked right by him towards the punching bags. I, along with the rest of us teens, stopped what we were doing and stood, staring at what was about to go down. Matteo and Willow, who were both using the targets on the left of me, came up and stood next to me as we watched Zack follow after Alex.

"Alex, what the fuck. What are you even doing here? I have the training-"

"No," Alex quickly said as he turned around to finally face Zack. "Your mother had made it very clear that both groups can train at the same time." He gestured to where we were all lined up at the target section of the room. "You guys are over there, and we," he gestured to the punching bags, "are over here. As you can see there really isn't a problem."

From where I was, I could see Zack open his mouth to say something else, but Alex quickly brought his hand up again to stop him from speaking.

"No," he said again, dropping his hand. "If you have a problem, then you can bring it up with Joan."

Alex then turned away from Zack and that was it.

Zack, with an eye roll, left Alex and joined us again, but as we returned to training I could tell the fight seemed to have done something to him and his entire mood.

Although no matter how hard he tried hiding it throughout the rest of our time in the training room with Alex and his teens on the other side, I could tell there was also something else there that must have happened way before any of this even took place.