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print("Eight")

Lena

I shook Ari, my heart pounding in my chest. "Come on, Ari!" I choked. "Come on..."

She spasmed in my arms, coughing and hacking. She went pale, the blood draining from her face.

From behind me, Summer was searching around frantically for something. What it is, I have no idea. I didn't care what it was, I just needed Ari to wake up.

Summer took some sort of jet injector and put it to Ari's neck, a sound of relief coming from it.

Ari stirred, coughing a bit more. Her eyes opened slowly.

"...Yelena?" she asked, her voice croaking.

I stared at her, blinking. She was...she was...

I looked away, trying to hide my tears. Tears welled up in my eyes and fell on my lashes, trickling down my cheeks.

"You never got that right, did you?" I said, sob-chuckling.

Summer crouched down next to us, calling out in joy. "Oh, Ari, darling, are you okay? You scared us!"

Ari's eyes slitted, like something of a sleepy cat. "I'm fine..." She tried to sit up, and I pushed her back down.

"Hey, take it easy. We still don't know if you made it out okay."

Ari laid back down, sighing.

I snapped my attention to Summer, glaring. "I told you it wouldn't be safe!"

Ari shook her head. "Don't blame it on her. She did us a favor." Her eyes drew back to me. "Now we know what it does. Where we go from here, we still don't."

She motioned to me and Summer. "Come on, help me up. We got work to do."

We helped her up, her arms around us for support. We stood up, looking out into the world.

Everything was so gray. It looked nothing like our world; it was much more empty. Quiet.

Summer and I took her to the car Summer managed to find. We hopped into it, with Summer in the driver's seat and us in the back. It was nearly broken down, but we'd made a few repairs before Ari had woken up.

"Bring us somewhere safe, we'll need to gather ourselves."

Summer took us off.

"You know, you're really in no position to be giving orders," I said to her. "None of your company was real anyway."

Ari shrugged. "The relationships were."

I laughed. "You always were so adapting."

Ari looked over to me. "If you aren't, you can't survive in the unknown." She looked out the window. "That's a skill you're going to need to learn. Real good."

I swallowed. She was right.

We were in the unknown, wherever that was. There was no turning back.

end

end