𝕀 𝔻𝕠𝕟'𝕥 𝕂𝕟𝕠𝕨 𝕎𝕙𝕪 - Gabriel [ROTW]

𝕋𝕎𝔼𝕃𝕍𝔼

| CHAPTER TWELVE - 824 WORDS |

"THAT WAS THE same alien from camp, I thought we killed that thing!" Dariush exclaims as they walk up a dirt pathway near the city.

Mackenzie clenches on her side slightly, biting her lip in pain. She wasn't going to mention anything to Gabriel because he would worry even more then he already was so she kept it to herself. Her feet were already hurting from the walking, the running, and the constant life or death circumstances.

"If it came down with the capsule, that means it survived the heat of atmospheric re-entry. Which means it must have tremendous cellular regeneration abilities."

"English, please." Mackenzie responds shakily. She couldn't get the image of those men with purge masks off her mind.

The group stopped walking and stared at Alex, waiting for him to say something that would make sense to the group instead of smart people things. He sighed, "it's like wolverine!"

"Ohhh." "That makes sense." "Thank you."

"But why is it following us?" Mackenzie asks.

"It's probably pissed about its dog." Dariush responds, gaining the attention towards him. He stops walking for everyone to hear. "You ever watch Marley and Me or Beethoven?" He asks.

Mackenzie nods. She remembered watching those with Gabriel, non-stop crying over the sad dog stories.

Dariush continues, "—it's like a primal bond. It's out for revenge, ask John Wick!"

Alex bickers back and forth between Dariush, trying to make it more realistic than human motivates. Mackenzie stops in her tracks as she hisses at her head pounding. She groans softly in pain, trying not gain attention from the others. She felt the world spinning around her, faces of her mom and dad getting killed by alien in front of her. Mackenzie shook her head as they called out for her help in the vision, grabbing her head and trying to knock it off her brain by gently rubbing her temples as the real world blinked back and forth between it and her parents death.

Until it all stopped.

Mackenzie felt better as she raises up and sees Gabriel getting knocked down by Dariush with a head-butt, about to tackle him until Mackenzie whips her hand around and slaps him across the face. Dariush is taken back by it, holding it until Zhenzhen pushes Mackenzie and Dariush back, Gabriel getting back up.

"You don't know me! My family has nothing!"

"Oh, yeah? Except for a car dealership and a mansion and a yacht!" Gabriel lists off.

"No, the dealership is gone! It's all gone! Why do you think they sent me to camp, man."

Gabriel shakes his head, wiping off some blood below his nostril. "It's just stuff."

Dariush runs his hands through his hair, "I don't know who I am without all that stuff. And.. they're taking my dad. He's going to jail."

"I'm sorry, Dariush.." Mackenzie apologies, Gabriel looking at her and nodded to signal he was too.

The radio in Zhenzhen's backpack starts beeping morse code frequently, everyone looking at it as she unzips her backpack and gets it out.

"We gotta go." Zhenzhen puts it away after making sure it was Dr. Fielding.

"Maybe we should change clothing. For all we know, it could be tracking us by our scent." Alex explains.

"Then let's go!" Zhenzhen exclaims as she starts running with everyone else following her.

—

"Hope this place had a McDonalds, I need me, like, two McDouble's and an ice cream."

Dariush yells as the rest of the teenagers run through the parking lot. Cars were flipped over with small fire around them, Mackenzie shivering slightly at the remembrance of her parents. Gabriel looked at Mackenzie sympathetically. She shook it off and ran inside and down the escalator.

Gabriel and Mackenzie head towards the mannequins that had Adidas clothed on them. Mackenzie takes some clothing from a girl mannequin. Gabriel ushered for her to try it on as he watched her choose the clothing. Mackenzie grabbed some rings, watch, bracelets, hoop earrings and sunglasses from a nearby store.

Mackenzie ran into another shop, changing into it to see everyone else having the other clothes on the mannequins. Her eyes averted towards Gabriel to see him already looking at her, his face full of amazement from how she looked. She had braided her hair into matching dutch braids rather quickly in the shop. Blush flew across their cheeks as they look away to the ground but back up to one another. He leans his lips to hers, connecting them together passionately. She wraps her arms around his neck, ultimately bring them closer.

The kiss was cut off by a cough, the rest of the group stared them down with wide eyes. Dariush looked pissed, Alex looked amazed, and Zhenzhen looked distorted by it. Gabriel and Mackenzie stared at the ground in embarrassment.

And of course, a dance montage happened to clear the tension that was in the air.