Sorrow's Gift

Chapter Forty-Three: Parrish

"What the hell did you think you were doing up there?" she shouted. They were back in their room downstairs, and it had been hard to keep her mouth shut about it for the past half hour. Karmen had put everything in jeopardy for no reason.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Karmen said, sitting on the bed and crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," she said. "We agreed we weren't going to use our abilities for a while. We don't want to freak these people out. You of all people have to agree we have a good thing going here, right? Why would you risk that? Just because you couldn't take a good enough shot to kill a rotter from fifty feet away?"

Karmen didn't answer. Instead, she turned away and picked up a book, as if she didn't even care that she'd put the whole group at risk.

"We have electricity here. Food. Safety. You were being selfish," she said.

"What's going on?" Lily opened the door and stepped inside.

"We were just discussing Karmen's childish behavior on the roof," she said.

"Why are you suddenly the leader of this group?" Karmen asked. "You can't tell everyone what to do and where to go."

Parrish took a deep breath, trying to calm her anger. Just this morning, they'd had a major breakthrough and Parrish had believed everything was going to be better between them. Why was Karmen stirring up drama now?

"Look, I'm not trying to be anyone's leader. I just want to make sure we stick together," she said. "If we make an agreement, we stick to it. We're guests here and they're being extremely nice to us, but all this can come to an end at any second, and we need to be ready to get on the road as a team. That's all I'm saying."

Karmen didn't offer an explanation for her behavior. Instead, she put her headphones on and turned on her iPhone.

"Maybe you should cut her some slack," Lily said. "You're always causing drama these days."

"I'm causing drama?" Parrish asked, hardly believing what she was hearing.

Lily sat down next to Karmen, a challenging look in her eyes that sent a wave of anger through Parrish's body. Was she intentionally trying to cause trouble in the group?

"Fine," Parrish said. "I'm going to get some lunch. I'll be in the dining room."

She left the other two girls in the room and stomped toward the dining area.

"What's wrong with you?" Crash asked when she sat down next to him at the table.

Kaya had made hotdogs and baked beans for lunch, and it smelled like heaven. Parrish was starving after her busy morning.

"I tried to talk to Karmen about what happened on the roof, but she's acting like a spoiled child."

"And that's any different from her normal behavior?" he said with a laugh. "It'll be okay. I think we covered it pretty well."

"Yeah? Well what about next time? What if we get attacked and she does it again?" She kept her voice low so no one else could hear their conversation, but she didn't even like talking about this out in the common areas. From the way Tank had stared at those rotters, she knew he'd understood something was off. Another instance like that and they'd all be back out on the street.

Crash sighed. "I'll talk to her again tonight when she's had a little time to calm down," he said. "Tank told me he was pretty impressed with our shooting skills and might be sending us out to do a job soon."

Her heart skipped. "A job? We just got here."

He shrugged. "Maybe we shouldn't have done such a good job on the roof," he said. "He told me they could really use some good fighters like us and that he had a job in mind for us. That's all he said, but I don't like the sound of it."