Prologue
I grimace as Marina placing her hands on my back, the familiar feeling of iciness creeps up my back healing the damage Five did to my back. Fury fills me at the thought or Five, the lying, cowardly, traitorous, bastard.
"Marina, about what happened with Eight, I am so sorry, if I hadn't taunted Five-" I begin.
"Just," Marina cuts me off, "leave it alone, it's not anyone's fault but Fives."
The cold feeling suddenly intensifies as Marina's hands tense on my back, as I regain the feeling in my legs Marina withdraws her hands and curls up in the back of our stolen vehicle, it being to dangerous to take my ride with Fives treachery. I exchange a concerned glance at Six at Marinas behaviour, not that I blame her, even I'm emotional about Eights death, and I wasn't in a complicated not-quite relationship with him.
"We're almost in Chicago, do you want to pull out the Glass Orbs that you think I don't know you took from Fours chest, let's find the others before anyone else dies." Six asks me.
I sigh and pull up my chest as Marina lets out a sob, I grab the glass orbs that I borrowed from four and threw them in the air. The solar system expanded around me, I zoomed into earth and located one dot moving south down to Dallas.
"Hey Six, we need to change course down to Dallas, that's where they're headed," I called up to her.
"Dallas!? What are they doing all the way down there?" Six practically screamed.
"They obviously felt the new scar, and remember, Five said they were attacking my penthouse, they probably had to move." In my head I add what we're all thinking, that maybe Johnny was the only one left, I really hope the kid is alright.
"Well, we've got a ways to go, try and get some sleep Nine," Six says after a brief pause.
I considered refusing, not wanting to seem weak, but she was right, I had my back broken, was nearly drowned twice, been in several fights, and had been running on an empty tank all day. I got as comfortable as I could in my seat and nodded off in seconds.
I groaned as I my head bashed against the car door, squinting in the sunlight I could just make out Marina in the drivers seat.
"Well whattaya know it lives." Marina jokes, although her voice was still hoarse and somewhat mellow, I decided to go with it.
"Hey, that was quite a rude awakening, care to enlighten me as to why you bashed my head against the wall?" I ask.
Marina tries to laugh but fails, rubbing at her mouth she replies, "What do you think Eight tried to say before he…before he….you know…"
I sigh and take a minute to run over what I want to say in my head as being sensitive to people's emotions is not one of my strong points.
"Before we left Eight and I had a little conversation on what we'd do if we were about to die and couldn't do anything about it, naturally I said fight nonetheless, but Eight….he was a bit more sincere. He said that he wanted to spend his last moments holding you, just talking; he said that he wanted his last words to you to be I love you." I reply, rushing the last bit, that was a bit of a white lie, but I don't think she could handle the real truth….especially while she was driving.
"I let her absorb that for a couple minutes before asking, "So where are we?"
"About 7 hours away" Marina quickly replies, "do you want to wake Six up, we should stop and rest soon."
We stopped at a rundown motel in St. Louis , and by rundown, mean falling apart, smelly, and rat infested. After checking in at the receptionist desk we went up to the third floor with Marina and Six sharing one room and me getting the room directly across. I thought it would take forever for me to fall asleep, but the second my head hit the pillow my eyes closed and I drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
"NINE!" I jerk awake as Marina screams my name, "NINE COME QUICK!"
I shake away the last tendrils of sleep and run across the hallway expecting to find the girls in the middle of a heated battle, instead I run into a holographic planet and nearly piss myself, I stumble and fall on my ass right in front of a laughing Six.
"Oh thanks guys, make me think you're being horrifically murdered and laugh when I run into your perfectly harmless holographic planet," I shout, glaring at Six.
"Look at this Nine," Marina says urgently, ignoring Six and I.
I summon my dignity and get up, stalking over to Marina who was staring intently at the Earth, her eyes were puffy and red, and it looked like she hadn't gotten any sleep. I turned to look at the globe and was happy with what I found. Johnny had moved. He was in Arkansas, a mere 5 hours away from our position in St. Louis.
"Sweet, only a few hours away," I reply.
"No!" Marina persists, "he was still in Dallas a few seconds before you came in, I turned around to grab a tissue and when I turned around he'd moved! John can't teleport, so….you don't think…"
I knew what she meant, I didn't want to smash her hopes down but it simply wasn't possible for it to be Eight, so instead I said, "Well unless Johnny suddenly got and perfected a teleportation legacy I'm guessing the Mogs have something to do with this, which means we gotta move."
Six let out a breath I didn't realise she'd been holding, that's right Six, I thought, I can be sensitive to peoples feelings.
"Well then let's go!" Six says, "Go grab your crap Nine, we're heading to Arkansas."
