The Altered.

Chapter LXIII.

For the following days, Miles dedicated effort into reinvolving himself with the group's activities.

Much to his surprise, his worries vanished faster when he was distracted compared to when he was sulking. As hard as it was to bring himself to tear his mind away from Ty and everything else that bothered him, he found that once he was busy, he was much more content. For most of their time, the group had been working tirelessly with the e-Screen, but it was a difficult process when they had to reserve its charge. The book that Lia and Miles had found was proving to be the most valuable one, and Miles had spent a lot of time explaining to Eira what everything in the book meant.

They were all confident that it wouldn't be long before they finally deciphered the message on the e-Screen, but Miles couldn't help but be pessimistic at times. So many things had gone wrong so far that by the time they deciphered what was on the screen, they might realise that it wasn't even worth anything.

Miles was currently not doing anything productive. He was distracted.

Whoever had ever ignorantly remarked that men would only be distracted by the bare skin of women had obviously never seen the way Miles' eyes were trained on Aaron as the blond pulled his shirt over his head to change into a new one. At least, this is what Lia said as she made a show of seating herself beside Miles and diverting his hungry eyes from Aaron. "Miles," she said after her previous comment. "He's going to see you're staring."

"Was I staring?"

"Without question."

Miles winced at his own obliviousness and then turned to face Lia. She was staring at him. "What?"

"You really like him," Lia said.

"He's a good friend," Miles responded a little desperately.

Lia nodded slowly. "Mm." She sounded unconvinced.

Miles rubbed his temples, trying to ward off the headache he could already feel pulsing at the back of his head. He'd been getting headaches frequently, and whether it was because of how exhausted he was or just because he still hadn't fully recovered from his fight with Ty, they were painful. "Let's change the conversation topic. To something I have to energy for."

Lia didn't seem to mind this. With a weary sigh, she pulled her legs onto the couch and folded them, then flopped sideways to rest her head on Miles' shoulder. "My phone died today."

"Ah." He leaned against the back of the leather sofa, letting Lia rest on his shoulder without objection. "That's no good. Mine can't be far off. Once mine dies, we'll have nothing."

"Does Percy have his phone with him?"

"Of all people, Lia, you should know."

Miles felt Lia bury her face in his shoulder to hide her smile, and a short burst of laughter slipped his lips. "Shit, Lia, you're into him."

"We're talking about phones," she reminded him, voice muffled. "I don't think Percy has his phone. We'd definitely know by now if he did."

Miles snorted. "You would know."

Lia lifted her head and gave Miles' head a soft flick with the back of her hand. Her bronzed cheeks dimpled with her smile. "Shut up."

There was something wonderful about having a conversation like this with Lia. It reminded him of everything before this - when he used to do this with his old friends. The conversations that happened late at night instead of in the middle of the apocalypse. The conversations that made him laugh until his legs gave way beneath him. He missed them so much it hurt - he missed laughing and he missed his friends and he missed the things that he used to forget to appreciate.

"You look like you're having an existential crisis," Lia stated, and Miles realised he hadn't said anything in a little while.

"Oh." He blinked a few times in rapid succession, then shook his head. He regret that immediately when his headache intensified. The headache combined with the conversation he was having with Lia had almost kept his mind completely off Ty and everything else he didn't want to think about currently, but in that short moment he'd been taken back to everything horrible that was in his mind. He shook his head again, and this time when his headache pounded, he winced but ignored it. "I think I was."

"Okay, well, I need your attention." She clapped her hands, which did manage to snap his gaze to her. He was once again fully attentive. "Miles, we can't stay here forever."

He subconsciously let out a groan, rubbing his face. "Lia, I'm really not prepared to talk about the future."

"Well, prepare yourself. It's a conversation we need to have."

"Have it with somebody else."

"You're the computer geek, so you're the one I need to talk to."

Miles stared at Lia, unimpressed. "I won't help you if you call me that again."

Taking this as her cue to go ahead with the topic, she continued, "We can't stay in this library forever. Somebody has to figure out how to stop everything that's happening before the Altered kill every last Unaltered on the planet."

"We don't have to be the heroes."

"But what if we are? What if we figure this out?"

"Lia." Miles straightened up. "You remember when you killed that man, right? On the night that the notification came."

Lia's posture slackened, almost as if she'd just been reminded of what she'd done. Without a response, she turned her gaze to the ground.

Miles felt like he shouldn't have brought it up - Lia's reaction wasn't what he'd been looking for. "Would you kill somebody again?"

Lia's voice was thick when she replied, "Miles, you have to stop. You have to stop. I know you're hating yourself for killing Ty, but you need to get over it." Hearing that in such a raw, blunt form, was almost as painful for Miles as a physical blow. "You know what? I would kill again. If I had to. If it meant protecting you or my other friends. The Altered might be people, but unless we defend ourselves, they're going to be stuck this way forever. If hurting them means saving them and us... I'll do it."

Lia's eyes watered. "I would kill somebody again if I had to. Just like I did that first night. And you would too. I'm sure of it."

The fact that Ty had been one of the most important people in Miles' life made it a lot harder to process the fact that he was dead, now. Comprehending that the man Lia had killed was dead was easier than thinking the same thing of Ty. But Miles had to remind himself - forced himself to believe - that that man had had family, too. People would miss him just as people would miss Ty. Ty being dead was no more significant to anybody else than the death of that man was. But to Miles, Ty being dead meant losing a part of his world.

Lia pursed her lips and rubbed her eyes. "I don't want you to keep acting like you can't be a hero. We all can, and we might have to be. We need to get the hell out of this library and find out what's happened. And how to put a stop to it."

Miles knew Lia was right. If nobody took initiative, the state that the world was in currently would last forever. The thought of living with insane Altered until the day he died - probably killed by one of the very things - made Miles' feel sick. "It's impossible, Lia. There's no way five kids can figure out how to stop all this."

"Then don't act like a kid!" Lia snapped, exasperated. "Be optimistic about this. This whole thing is forcing us to grow up and you're fighting that."

Miles exhaled one long breath. He stared at Lia, at her eyes glittering with rage and sorrow and desperation. The fact that she believed so thoroughly that they could pull this off gave Miles a flicker of hope. "Tell me we're going to save the world."

This took Lia by surprise. "What?"

"Hell, Lia, I thought you wanted me to have a more positive attitude." With a roll of his eyes, Miles repeated, "Tell me we're gonna save the whole fucking world."

"We're going to save the world."

"Fuck yes we are."

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+1419 Words.