Static

CHAPTER TWELVE

Blake's point of view

Walking out of the block, I nearly carried Imogen, she was leaning on me so heavily. Though she was healed, Wasp, who I now knew went by Ethan, explained she'd be unsteady on her feet for awhile and not quite right in her mind.
It was strange, to see a place like the zone, feared and a prison to many, fall with such little loss. Though as we walked out the door of the mess hall, I couldn't look at Alice. I couldn't look at the girls whom I've never met but their absence still ached inside of me. Why did death have to hurt so much? Although, with her golden hair strewn across her face and her blue eyes dull and glassy, Alice was still breathing. But she felt dead to me. She wasn't the little girl who's parents had raised me when mine dropped me off at Order's doorstep and fled before my eyes had even opened.
Alice didn't look like the adoptive sister she had always been to me, she didn't look like my friend. She looked dead. She felt dead. She should be dead. But the guilt was still there. How could I kill her? Maybe she wasn't always like this, a traitor. But she was so strong minded and maybe I would never know why she betrayed her family and friends and me, but I couldn't kill her, could I? But then again, I couldn't just leave her here either. Who knows what assets or capabilities she has or what havoc she could wreak. Maybe it was best if she was dead. I didn't want to think about that now.
Alice may be dead to me, but Imogen was as alive as anyone who had been on deaths doorstep just minuets ago could be. Time would tell if she could fill the void my friend had left inside of me. It hurt to know that Alice, the girl that had always been there to complete me, didn't actually fit. Maybe Imogen was my missing piece. It's still too knew to think about but I had kissed her. And she had kissed me back. I could tell that she had wanted it as much as I did and who knows how long we would have sat there if Will hadn't interrupted with a squeal of utter horror and disgust.
And perhaps the kiss meant nothing. Maybe we were just two crazy teenagers caught up in the stress and terror of what reality was pushing at us. It could be we were just looking for release, for closure. I could offer that until the day I died if it meant Imogen would kiss me with the same fire again.
Taylor held the door open for us as we filed out like soldiers leaving a battle field. Imogen and I in front like the commander and his right hand, though Imogen was the one who deserved the title of leader. I had made the plan but it had crumbled to bits as soon as Imogen was shot, not her fault it was mine. I shouldn't have risked her so carelessly. Her life meant more to me than my own and maybe that what love is. When your willing to through yourself off a cliff so the other person has a soft landing at the bottom. Maybe I loved Imogen Vast with her courageous heart, fiery soul, and green eyes that I always felt could see right through me.
Then again we'd only met just days ago. She'd tried to kill me. But she had reason. Strange people from a strange organization claiming they work for the greater good whatever that means these days. I had been surprised by her honesty, her forwardness. She spoke her mind and didn't care if people filed her ideas and opinions under crazy. I already knew that much about her but there was so much I didn't know. Did she have any siblings? Maybe a family member named Charlotte, the name had come up a lot in idle chats but I'd never asked her to elaborate. What about her favorite subject in school? Favorite color? Where did she even live before her world was interrupted by her variation? But is it really a persons background that sparks love? Or is it the way they think and act now? There was too much going on right now, I'd touch on these thoughts later.

Imogen groaned with each step, her tangled brown hair falling in her face as she watched her feet as if it took all of her concentration not to trip or sink to her knees. Taylor and Wasp, who I now knew was Ethan, made small talk behind us with Will kicking up snow as he sulked off, thinking about something heavy enough to temporarily dull his wild spirit.
"Where do we go from here?" Imogen asked, each word sounded choppy and broken, almost like she'd never spoken before. The sounds of it struck me off guard that it took me a minuet to think of a response.
"Up, if your looking for something metaphorical." I said, smiling faintly though she couldn't see it. The yard of the zone was eerily empty. The variated kids that had been working had ran, I didn't know where but if I were them, I would have ran far far away.
"I'm looking for a more strategic answer." She mumbled. I squeezed her shoulder as we reached the middle of the grassy, snow covered, area.
"Me too, Mo." I said, trying out the nickname. She didn't seem to like it, tightening up like she expected a punch, her voice cracking when she tried to speak.
"Call me anything but that, please." Imogen said, nearly begging. It felt like she was stabbing me with just her words and I didn't even know what was wrong with the name.
"I won't, I promise." It was all I could say. I decided to drop the subject. Whatever was wrong with her, whatever she kept hidden, it would come out when we figured out where to go from here. That was the most pressing issue now, leaving the cave now that we've slaughtered the beast.
Taylor and Ethan made small conversation as we began to walk on, getting closer to the gate, to the monitor cars parked outside, some missing, some with their engines still growling, others rammed into the fence and smoking. I'm not sure how they crashed, maybe in hastily attempted escapes, fear had influenced their driving skills. I didn't want to think about the possibility that variated kids had caused the wrecks but it wasn't totally eliminated from an option.
"We have to get the other ones!" Will piped from just to my left. He'd snuck up on me, tugging on my hand in a vain attempt to pull me back towards the bunkers. For as young as he was, Will was surprisingly strong, causing me to stumble just a bit and jostle Imogen enough to make her groan in what I couldn't decipher as pain or stress at moving. I turned and scowled at Will who shrank back immediately, realizing he had done something wrong. I felt bad for him but I didn't want to, hurting Imogen was not something that should be taken lightly, not after she'd been hurt so much already.
"You alright?" I asked, trying to pull her hands away from her waste so I could see whatever she was holding tight to try and cover up.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. But Will is right." She said, tugging away from me. But she didn't get very far before wobbling a bit and I had to rush to her side and loop my arm through her's to keep her up right and she didn't fight me.
"I know we need to help the other kids but what can we do? There's only a few Monitor cars left, we could never fit the 150 or so kids still locked up here in them. Not to mention I'm the only one who knows how to drive. Trust me, we'll come back for them but we don't have the ability to help them now." I assured her, she didn't look helpless or stressed. Hell, she didn't even look angry at the idea of leaving variated kids behind at the mercy of whatever might come to get them before we can arrive with backup, wherever that may come from. The look on Imogen's face was pure ferocity. I've said it before and I've thought it thousands of times since the day I met her. Imogen Vast is a fighter, she was not going to give up that easily.
    "I can drive." Ethan piped up, only the second time I had heard the kid speak. Taylor had been the one to let us know his real name since he seemed reluctant to share it with anyone else. Maybe he stuck by Taylor because she was the only one who wasn't busy with someone or something to fuss over. Me keeping Imogen steady whilst she tried to keep her eyes focused and Will inspecting piles of melting snow to stomp in. Taylor was good at that, I had discovered, making people feel needed. I had always thought Imogen was the leader of their friendship, the glue that kept them together. And while she might be the strongest of the two with her emotions, Taylor had most of the empathy. Ethan clung to that empathy and though he didn't say it, I could tell that he was grateful to have someone who would just listen to him instead of ordering him around and treating his greatest fears and worries like minor concerns.
    "That's great but the monitor cars fit like ten at the most. Even if you took another car, we'd only be able to fit fourteen other kids. How would we choose?" I said, feeling slightly uncomfortable that I had to be the Debbie Downer and rain on everyone's parade. But someone had to do it, someone had to remind all the wishful thinkers that reality still existed and that somebody just happened to be me.
    "I can contact Order, get them to send some reinforcement and pull all of us out of here." He said it so casually I almost didn't notice the statements absurdity.
    "How do you know about Order?" I asked him in a slightly more accusing tone than I had meant. Ethan didn't look the least bit phased although Taylor looked like she'd punch me right in the face if I ever talked to him like that again. Ethan didn't appear interested in me as much as he was in Imogen, trying to catch her eyes as her head rolled side to side, clearly tired from this much physical exertion.
    "See I was wondering how you didn't remember me but then again, it has been awhile." He said, shrugging his shoulders like whatever he was hinting at was the most obvious statement in the world.
    "What are you talking about?" Imogen asked asked, I tightened my grip instinctively on her. She flinched and I loosened it.
    Ethan looked at Imogen like he was wondering how she didn't understand the punchline of a simple joke. A faint smile on his face, brown eyes bright with expectancy.
    "I'm your sister's best friend." He explained disappointment in his voice that she didn't know his origin story. My face fell and beside me Imogen stiffened just enough for me to tell she recognized the title.
    "Corey?" She said hesitantly in a raspy whisper. I eyed her with a confused look but she wasn't watching me, her eyes were glued to Ethan. She took a small step forewarn and though I was reluctant to let her go, I did figuring that if Ethan had planned on hurting her, he would have done it a lot sooner.