If I Die Young

55. Sundown

Days passed. Kathryn and Emile stayed at the bunker with us, Emile doing a food run to gather stuff for however long we'd be staying. Lily and Ritter came to us one day, worry in her eyes as she spoke about the situation in Pennsylvania; they needed to leave, but they didn't want to abandon us. I told them we still needed time to recover and that we'd be alright. They left that night, not before giving each of us a big hug and a tearful goodbye.

Ethan was...coping. He desperately wanted to go outside but the terror in his eyes the moment he saw sunlight was unmatched. Emile came back one day with a bottle of sunscreen and we gave it a shot; he put his hand tentatively into the sunlight, relief on every feature as he collapsed and smiled. It worked. I leaped into his arms and felt him lift me from the ground, our raucous giggling echoing in the woods around us. I locked eyes with him when he set me down but what usually would've been a setup for a kiss ended in broken gazes and pained looks.

We talked about it that night; Ethan and I sat outside, watching the moon through the trees and sitting in the bed of Emile's truck. I reached for his hand and he gripped it gently, a knowing gleam in his eyes. They'd turned red in the darkness.

"Another place, and another time," I sighed, "but not here, and not now..."

"I still love you Sable, no matter what happens," he whispered, "but Gal and Ladon both just died...and we both need time to get reacquainted with who we are. Maybe in the future we can try again. In another place, and another time."

I cried myself to sleep that night. Quiet tears soaked my pillow and a body nestled up against mine, Noelle's kinky curls brushing against my nose as I wrapped my arms around her. She gripped my hand and ran her thumb along my own, her soft humming a lullaby that eased me into a fitful slumber. I was so grateful for her presence and if I'd ever lost her, I'd lose my mind.

It was well into the next week when we finally began to seriously consider following after Lily. Brandon had grown stronger and even with his loss, he'd use it to fight, to urge him onward into the fray. Delilah was still a battered, broken girl no older than Lily with the powers of God himself; she could create and destroy with a single thought.

"Okay, but how would we do this?" I asked as everyone gathered around the table. "We have the car, and the weapons, but...where do we go?"

"From what Sergei communicated to me before the breakout he has a place out in the mountains he's taking everyone to," Emile piped up, walking over to the computers and pulling up a map of Pennsylvania on the screen; there was a lone road he zoomed in on and followed, right up until he circled an area in red, "these are the coordinates. We could-"

News on the TV distracted everyone. We all turned back and saw an image on the screen, one of fire and destruction: they'd demolished the Pittsburgh facility. There was video clips from above, showing first a very, very familiar face as Ritter teleported out to the street, his arms wrapped around a larger man as they stumbled away from the half-demolished building. Within the next few moments I saw a group running out from within it's walls, a girl with fiery hair at the front of the pack as they sprinted to safety. She stopped in the street, turning to look at the remains as they went up in one final explosion. It was beautiful.

"They'll be leaving soon," Kathryn noted, "we'd never make it to that location in time."

"I hate to say it, but Kitty's right." Emile sighed, reaching up and running a hand through his hair.

"Emile," I said gently, catching his attention, "I don't think you should come with us."

"What? Why not?"

"You still have your credentials at PASCI. They haven't marked you as a traitor yet," I explained, pain in my voice as I did so, "you need to help the other subjects here. Transfer to another facility, help them to freedom. We're not going after facilities like they are, we're just trying to find them."