After The Trials

Chapter 19

I clenched my jaw and pushed Thomas away. "You son of a-" I storm at Isaac.

I get cut off by Thomas, who already stepped between us. "Calm down, Tessa, he's here to rescue us. Right?" he asks Isaac, who nods fast. 

"You can't trust him! He's the reason we're here in the first place. He wants to kill us both after we find the cure so he could take credit for it." I say, disappointed by how fast Thomas trusts him. How doesn't he question the fact that Isaac is here or has the keys to this room?

"Please, you have to trust me with this one. If I let you down again, you can kill me. We really don't have time, the Cranks are on their way and this building is not big, they could be here in any minute. Please, Tess, you have to give me another chance and I'll explain everything to you, I promise." Isaac tries to coax me.

"Why? You already admitted you're a manipulator and all this time you lied to me."

"You can continue this fight in a safer place. I hear them coming, we should hurry." Thomas interrupts us. "If you don't want to follow Isaac, follow me, consider this plan as my idea."

I sigh, but obey. Isaac might be our only chance to get out of this building, he knows it better than me or Thomas. But I swear to god I won't let him live if he betrays us again. I won't kill him either. I'll deny him death until he begs me for it. It's even better when I know what's painful, but not necessary deadly. I know Thomas is still sleepy from whatever they've done to him and I wish there's something I could do. Hopefully, that exit is close. I don't understand what's taking so long, Isaac said that this is a small building. 

I hear a whistle and the next thing I know is being pushed on the floor. I turn on my back ready to defend myself from whomever attacked me. Instead of a Crank jumping over me, I see Thomas laying on the floor, holding his neck with one hand. I almost stumble rushing to him. I take the small syringe that was shot in him and look at it. It has black stains over the walls, which could mean only one thing. They injected Thomas the Flare. Why is it affecting him, though? I thought his blood destroys the disease.

Isaac looks at him like he knows what's going to happen and it won't be good. "Are you going to help me or would you rather watch?" I ask him. He knows he's not allowed to pick the second option, so he takes Thomas' left arm and helps me carry him.

I can feel that Thomas can barely stay awake, but he tries to walk to not slow us down too much. Isaac leads us to the garage and shuts the door behind. "I'll keep them away as much as I can so they'll lose your track." Thomas says almost inaudible.

"There's no way in hell I'm leaving without you. You'll make it, I know you can." I try to convince myself. I don't know how the Flare attacks in its pure form, but I have to hope he will survive. Thomas is the only thing I have left, I can't imagine what I'd do without him.

"I can already feel it taking over me. Please go, you're wasting time." I know it's hard for him to say this for almost the same reason as me. He can't accept the fact that we have to take on different paths and he won't be there to protect me.

"Thomas, you can't say that! You must live. You have to!" I burst in tears. With every second I see him struggling with the Flare, my heart breaks a little more until there's nothing left to ruin and my soul slowly fades away, leaving me a numb, emotionless body.

"I love you, Tessa. You're the daughter I've never had." he said and pointed his gaze to Isaac. "I'd tell you to protect her, but she can fight better than you, so don't let her get herself killed. I'll never forgive you if you do." he ends and pulls me in a hug. I cry harder than I've ever did, not only because Thomas dies, but because he sacrificed himself for me. He pushed me away from that dart. I was supposed to die, not him.

Thomas signals something to Isaac, who tries to pull me away, but I refuse, tightening my grip even harder if possible. "Tess, we have to go, they're almost here." I don't give up, so he grabs my waist and takes me to one of the cars.

"Thomas!" I cry after him. I can get out of Isaac's arms, but now I'm too tired from all the crying. I helplessly look at him as Isaac drives away. I can't believe I let him die for me. I hear some gunshots and close my eyes. Leaving him is one thing, seeing his corpse is another. "How could you do this to us?" I ask Isaac when I finally recover.

"Every thing I did was to protect you. I was never on their side, I had to act because they were watching and listening to us. I could've killed you, why do you think I didn't?"

"You could've used something discreet to tell me you're just pretending, like Morse Code."

"I don't know Morse Code. Besides, it made your reactions more realistic. I didn't mean a thing from what I said."

"Let's say I believe that, even though I'm skeptical. A lot. How did you know we're going to be kidnapped? Why didn't you tell us to hide? Why did you actually involve in the first place?"

"I wish I could do something sooner, but I only heard Liam talk to another Crank and one of them said they captured you. I barely convinced them to let me join. If I wouldn't have joined, they would've killed both of you just because they hate Munies and use the cure only for themselves."

"Maybe you should've let them. I'm not afraid of death, but do you know what I'm afraid of? Living without Thomas. So thank you very much for bringing my worst nightmare to life."

"Do you think Thomas would've wanted you to die? Even dead he wouldn't forgive himself for not doing his best to keep you alive. I know how it feels doing everything you can to save someone and them dying anyway. You and Thomas were the only people I had in my life left, it wasn't easy for me either."

What he said really touched me. I knew Isaac had a dark past, but I didn't expect him to not have any family at all. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. And sorry for what I said in the lab."

"If you didn't mean it, it's ok, you had your reasons to be mad at me. If you did, it's also ok, they're not news to me."

"Are you just going to forgive me that easily? I wanted to kill you and that Crank almost disfigured you because I kept that gun pointed at me."

"So? You don't want to kill me anymore, so we're cool. A blackeye doesn't compare to the fact that you could be dead if I wouldn't have done anything."

"It's a bit late, but thanks for saving my life." I say and lean to kiss Isaac on the cheek. It's the biggest form of love I can show and I haven't done that before, not even to my parents when I was little. I don't usually like sentimentalisms, but he deserves it. He's the reason I'm alive.

Isaac widens his eyes and looks at me, trying to hide a smile, but fails lamentably. He turns his head to the other side so I don't see his face. "Denver is not safe anymore and we have nothing to eat." he says after a few seconds.

"We will manage to do this like we did until now. Both of us are good at hunting, so that's not a problem. But, there's always a 'but', where do we go? Even if I somehow find the cure here, I need the tools I have home to synthesize it."

"Then, we go in the Safe Haven. Do you know how the island is called?"

"No, but I know where it is. If we had a map-" I get cut off by Isaac who hands me a piece of paper he got from the glove department. "Thanks. Pull over." I get out of the car and spread the map over the hood. "It's a small island next to Miami, right over Bahamas. Here." I add after I find it and mark it.

"Do you just casually carry a pencil in your pocket in the middle of the apocalypse?" Isaac asks rhetorically.

"Do you have something against it? Focus on the plan, not what a girl has in her pockets. We should avoid the populated places. I don't know how this world is, so that's your part." I say and give him the pencil.

While Isaac finds the shortest route, I check the surroundings. We're in a field, thing that's both good and bad. If something happens, we won't have where to hide except in the car. The good part is that, if someone wants to attack us, we'll see them early. Speaking of fight, the only weapons I have are a piece of glass and the gun I stole from that guard. So technically something that hurts me when I use it and something that's finite and I don't have stocks. Great. Hopefully, Isaac came more prepared, because I don't want to craft spears again to hunt.