Irradiated

Chapter 5: The One Fear

Eventually, I did end up falling asleep. Waking up in a recognizable place, but knowing I wouldn't stay there for too long, really left me scarred on the inside. The cabin felt empty to me, and it only made the feeling worse.

Upon waking up, Angeli was nowhere in sight. I still looked around anxiously, as if waiting for her to appear and I realized that she really wasn't in there.

Laughter came from up on the deck, and I felt myself relax a little. She was probably hanging around with Derrick, still annoying him to death. I stood up from the bed and climbed the small stairs up to the upper area of the boat. Like I anticipated, she stood by the steering wheel and was giggling at Derrick's blank expression.

"Hey guys." I greeted, sitting down on a built-in bench.

"Hi. Check it out, I got Derrick to show me his eyes!" She exclaimed happily. "Well, he didn't show me them, but I got him to tell me what color they are and you were right! They're blue!" I looked at her with a shocked expression. It was just a simple guess, but I was right?

"They're not blue. I told you. They're a crystal color." He corrected and scoffed a little at Angeli's apparent ignorance.

"Same difference." She said, leaning back against the railing.

"Well, I see you're getting better." I said with a soft chuckle.

"With what?"

"The sickness. It looks to have gone away."

"Yeah, it did! Thanks to your advice." She smiled and looked up at the slightly cloudy sky. The sun was beginning to set in the horizon and I looked at Derrick worriedly.

"We're almost there, hang in there for a little while longer." He assured and continued to stare out into the vast sea. I looked over at Angeli and she still stared out towards the sun.

The sky was beginning to turn a light shade of pink and orange that reflected off her face. Her auburn hair flowed gently along with the soft wind. I caught myself staring at her and turned away after realizing it. That had been happening often, but I refused to let it mean something.

Once the sun had gone down, everything looked pretty dark. Slight light shone on the water from the moonlight above. It just made the feeling much more eerie. To my surprise, however, a large land mass came into view. It could only mean one thing. We were finally arriving in Germany.

Hitting against the shore, Derrick ordered us to jump on off. As we did, I landed in the water, but quickly emerged out of it and crawled up to the shore. Soon after, Derrick was tying the same rope onto a stake that closely resembled the one we had found the boat tied to and secured it.

"There. Now we have a way to go back. Now come on, we don't have much time to waste." I hastily picked myself up and went after him, still trying to catch up.

"Hey, slow down, will you?" I screamed a little, frustrated with his speed.

"Oh, sure! Sorry." He called back and slowed down a bit. Why was he even going so fast, anyway? That's when I realized where we were. Moderate country. We really did have a reason to be quick. Night wouldn't be a good time to get caught by Moderates.

"Derrick, where are we staying for the night?" Angeli walked beside him, while I walked beside her.

"I'm not sure, but we'll figure it out." He seemed confident about this, so I decided to trust his word. Then, he screamed out all of a sudden and clutched his side. I looked to where he was holding himself and saw the familiar sight of oozing blood. A knife protruded from his body. I fixed my eyes around the landscape and spotted someone hiding in bushes.