Phase 43

Chapter 11 - Finn

"Hey, get off my bed you ass," I called, hobbling over to where Elliot was sat. For some reason, he was in my room, his jacket tossed over the chair in the corner. He had his phone in hand, staring at the screen. I glared at him until he finally looked up.

"Oh Jesus, sorry," he scrambled, shuffling over. I plopped down on the bed, relieving my knee of my weight. Elliot turned his phone off and glanced at my knee.

"Thanks," I breathed, ignoring the look he gave the large brace as I worked to slide it off.

"How'd you hurt it again?" he asked. Once I slid it off, I discarded the wretched thing on the floor. My knee felt light without it.

"At the airport. Some lady tackled me to the ground to avoid being in the line of fire. Crazy phasers. Anyways, my knee got twisted. It's not bad, just means more time with this stupid thing," I explained quickly. After assuring myself that my knee was not going to snap without support, I sat back and worked to pull my hair up. I was running low on hairbands and had resorted to using rubber bands. The rubber snagged on my long locks and tugged painfully on my scalp. Elliot watched in a moment of silence as I battled with my hair.

"You ever gonna cut your hair?" he asked once I had won my battle. I shrugged.

"Maybe, maybe not. I like it long, even if it is a pain in the ass," I huffed. I eyed Elliot's long hair. "But I don't really think it's me who needs a haircut, Axl Rose," I laughed, reaching over to tug on a particularly long piece of his hair. Elliot rolled his eyes, smacking my hand away.

"It's not that long," he defended. I raised my eyebrows, a laugh building up in my throat.

"'Not that long?' Dude, it's literally touching your shoulders. You look like some hipster slash surfer dude. You could use a trim," I chuckled. Elliot huffed, blowing a piece of said hair out of his eyes as he did so.

"Ey! You guys should come down and eat some lunch!" I heard my father's voice call up from downstairs. I groaned, dreading the fact that I would have to shove the brace back on if I wanted to walk downstairs. Elliot stood, doing me a favor and grabbing my brace for me. I quickly thanked him, and then with a shove and a hiss, I slid the brace back on. Pain flared, but it wasn't that bad. Once the brace was secure, I followed him downstairs.

The parents were all sitting around the table, a plate of small Panini's in the middle. The kids were in the living room, seated around the coffee table. Sam was entertaining Lucas in his lap, and Charlie had his nose buried in one of Ashley's many books. I sat down next to my brother, the older one, taking a bite out of his Panini.

"Finn! Wook! I'mma be a big boy cause I'm eating weawy good samwhiches!" Lucas cried happily, taking a big bite out his own sandwiches. I laughed at my little brother's adorable accent, applauding him on his accomplishment.

"Good job Lucas!" I smiled, kissing his golden locks. Elliot had brought over a plate with two more sandwiches on it, along with two cans of Sprite, which I had not seen sitting out. I quickly thanked Elliot, popping open the soda with a hiss.

"Yo, El, where's my soda man?" Sam teased, shoving Elliot lightly with his elbow. Elliot chuckled.

"Get your own, they're in the kitchen," he said, flicking his head back towards the kitchen. Sam made a face for a moment, but then he decided to just grab my soda and take a large gulp.

"Dude, seriously. Get your own," I spat, snagging my soda back. Sam was laughing, having difficulties swallowing. "And swallow. Don't spray Lucas with saliva Sprite." Lucas shrieked at the sound of his name, and then saw Sam's full cheeks and clambered off his lap. I was laughing for real now, clutching my sides.

"What is going on in there?" my mother called from the kitchen. Sam and I glanced at each other before he swallowed quickly and called back.

"Everything's good, don't worry." I held back my laughter as Sam replied. Elliot was silently chuckling. Sam made another face at me as my mother called back a quick "okay". Then, all three of us burst into giggles. Charlie actually looked up from his book and cast us a dirty glare. I winked back at my little brother.

We quickly finished lunch, and then Ashley came in and offered to put on a movie. Lucas immediately hopped on that train, sprouting off numerous kid movies he wanted to see. I glanced at my brother and best friend before deciding to just stay and watch whatever movie Lucas decides on. The two boys eventually decided to tap out and go play videogames in the old XBOX in the attic. I shook my head at them as they left, but smiles as Lucas climbed into my lap. Charlie ended up coming over and leaning into my shoulder as Ashley popped an old classic, Cars, into the DVD player.

I tried to pay attention to the movie, I really did, but my ears kept drifting over to the adult's conversation as my eyes watched animated cars with eyes race around a track. My little brothers were loving the movie, but I wasn't really watching.

"- if this facility breaks in, what are we going to do?" that was my mother. Her Brazilian accent was thick with concern.

"The airports in other states might still be up, but I doubt Europe will still let anyone in. They've had several outbreaks. There really isn't a safe space anymore. Not until we start either rounding up the infected or looking for a cure," Ashley responded. I felt horrible for listening in, but I couldn't just tune out now.

"We should stay together. It's safe if we do, for now at least. We're safe here, unless there's a break in, but we should at least be prepared. I had a bad feeling about this whole thing, but if we need to take off, we need to be ready," Scott said.

"Where would we go? How would we get there? Is this really safe for the kids? This world where phasers run around like zombies?" Francis questioned quietly. I almost didn't hear here.

"There's this place – some say it's been named the pristine. It's another huge compound like this, but it's build into the Mall of America in Minnesota. Whoever's building it supposedly ripped out all the rides and crap in the inside and started to build a large survival facility. In one of the large hotels on the outskirts of the city they've set up a huge prison basically. People say that they're gonna block off the mall and only let people in through the hotel. There's gonna be huge tests and checks before you can get in, but it's been said that this place will be the most secure spot in America. Someone was telling me earlier today that the founders even have the military in on it." This was from my father.

"How are they gonna fit the remaining population of America into that mall? I mean I know it's big, but you've gotta have something at least the size of the Big Apple to keep this many people safe," Darren said.

"Well, I would assume that they plan to expand. And, with the amount of people that have already been infected-" my father's voice lowered. I strained to hear him over the sound of the movie. "-I don't really think that there's gonna be that big of an issue with space. It's more the threat of too many phasers I think, rather than too many innocents." There was a moment of silence following his words. I turned back to the movie, processing what I just heard. The parents resumed their talking, but I decided that I had soaked in enough. Charlie had just begun to talk the logistics of cars with personalities, so I decided to engage in that conversation instead of one regarding large paradises in malls.

It was a relieving switch.