I feel so proud to get thus far in a fanfiction, it is vastly better than any of my previous attempts at writing a fanfiction indeed. If you have any comments, or noted any mistakes, please tell me, right now I am very eager to churn these chapters out, so I will be reading the comments frequently of course. Also, this chapter was quite a big one to write! Things finally get *interesting*!
Enjoy!
After discovering the sketchbook and the note, I couldn't really sleep that night. The following morning, I didn't really feel like eating either, not the kind of food that gets dished out here. Apparently, nor did anyone else. Everyone was sick or as the boys called it, 'blowing chunks', which as much as I hate to admit it, was pretty funny. Everybody had food poisoning, including our teachers, and the fact that I didn't have food poisoning did not escape the notice of my colleges and 'friends'. So, due to the fact that I was still healthy, the trip to a small art gallery closer to Penn Station would still take place. However the only people going would be me, and of course Slutty Natasha... Oy vey...
"How did you not get sick?" I questioned passively as we walked through the crowded streets in the direction of the art gallery. She sniffed, almost like a snob would and spoke in that high pitched voice of hers. "I, am on a diet, thank you very much." She sneered at me, "I didn't eat any of those fatty hotel foods, they are just packed full of calories. Not that you would know..." I sighed my signature sigh. "And here I thought you were intelligent." I shook my head as the cogs in her mind finally processed I had insulted her. "Hey! I am not stu-" I pulled her back from the dangerous road, effectively silencing her protest as she watched taxis and cars drive past at breakneck pace as the lights flashed green on the traffic lights. I gave her a bored look as her mind once again took a few moments to register what had taken place.
The lights turned amber then red, and we walked across safely, Natasha still having not spoken. "You saved me from getting ran over..." She finally muttered, not looking directly at me. I nodded in confirmation, not particularly fazed by her statement. I would of much rather pushed her, but I can be a nice person occasionally. "What, you expected me to push you into oncoming traffic? Despite what you think, I'm a decent person to those who deserve to be treated nicely. Think about that for awhile." I walked slightly ahead of her, making her pay attention to her surroundings while she thought, which for this girl was easier said than done. Eventually she was back to her normal annoying self, glaring at everything in existence. "This doesn't make us friends you know! Your still I temperamental freak!" I bristled slightly at the word 'temperamental', but I kept my cool and replied in a bored tone once again. "I didn't expect to be friends. I just wanted you to know I'm not a total bitch. I could of pushed you if I wanted to."
We walked another two minutes before she asked me a question I was expecting at some point. "So how did you not get sick then? Did you not eat either?" Her tone wasn't as harsh as before, but it still held an edge. I replied after a few moments of looking around the street. "Yeah. But for different reasons to you." We crossed again, getting close to our destination, and Natasha pipped up again.
"What were your reasons then?"
I turned and looked at her, giving her a slight glare saying 'please shut up after I answer this question.' "Did you look at the food they served?" I asked, probing to see her reaction, which sadly disappointed. "No! Of course not! Like I said I didn't touch any of those fatty-" "Those foods, for a start, were not fatty, most of them were actually quite healthy such as pasta, and leek soup. There were plenty of vegetables available too. And secondly, the reason I didn't eat was because I noticed all of the foods were rotten or contaminated. Hence why I left early." Her reaction was quite funny to watch really, it was a combination of rage, embarrassment and if I saw correctly, longing. I had a feeling she wanted to eat, but was too vain or self conscious to bring herself to.
"Why didn't you tell everyone else then!? You could of prevented us all from getting food poisoning! Including Kyle!" I continued walking ahead of her, pretty much ignoring her until I thought of an answer she could understand, which let me tell you, was quite a hard task. I stopped walking, making her bump into me, and I turned to look at her with the most seriousness I could muster. "Would you of told me if you had noticed? Or would you have giggled along side Kyle as you watch me poison myself? Everyone has eyes, they could of easily seen the health and safety risk on their plate." She fumbled for words as I paused, but before she could form a coherent sentence, I continued my small rant. "For this past year you people have done nothing but bully and make my life a living hell. Why should I go out of my way to help someone whom just yesterday injured me for entertainment? I see no reason to help you people if you insist on stupidity. Helping a fool will only make you one."
After my rant, she seemed to understand my point of view a little bit, even if I did let the rest of the class- teachers included, eat poisonous food. Natasha only asked one more question before we finally came to an unspoken agreement. "Then why did you stop me from walking into traffic?" She mumbled quietly, knowing that she was defeated. I smiled at her in an odd way before replying, "because one, like I said, I'm not a bad person. And two, you need help."
Natasha didn't notice what I said, and if she did, she must of kept quiet. Not long after we finished talking, a newly founded truce in the air, we arrived at the Art Gallery we had been assigned to visit and take notes on for the rest of the class. We decided mutually we should do separate sections each, myself doing sculptures and abstract paintings, while she handled landscapes and portraits. I didn't mind doing the hard things, she looked like she needed to think all too much.
Resigning myself to making notes and sketching out pictures, I opened my recently retrieved sketchbook and began on a clean page, making sure to skip past the page with the chemical structure of sulphuric acid (which I had yet to correct). The first painting was of some weird floppy clocks and a melted tree by Salvador Dalí, which I really didn't like. Abstract was meaningless to an artist who preferred still life and realistic paintings. I made as few notes as I could get away with, and moved on to the next. After about a mind-numbing hour or so, maybe more, I was about to move onto sculptures, when Natasha was running towards me in an uncharacteristic way. "Alison!" She whispered urgently, pulling me down behind an exhibit table, "there are army people here, they all have guns and are rounding up any people they find in this area! I heard them talking about a quarantine zone and test subjects, I don't think this is just a movie recording..." She looked at me in genuine fear, and I knew this wasn't some kind of joke. Something was going on, and we were caught I between a rock and a hard place.
"This raises a big problem..." I mumbled. I reviewed my memories from the past hour quickly, thinking back in as much detail as I can to see if there were any escape routes. I looked up suddenly, Natasha looking at my expectantly. "I recall there was a series of air ducts, and each one lead outside, were there any army guys outside the main entrance?" She hesitated a moment, before speaking. "There was a two trucks outside, but they were positioned like a barricade. There were no men outside there, as far as I could see." I nodded in understanding, before looking at her with the most seriousness I have ever used. "Good, we can sneak through this hallway under the table cloth, and when we reach the main air ducts, you will crawl through. I am fairly sure the air ducts lead outside the barricade, but you can get past it." She looked confused, "What about yourself?" I smiled at her grimly before I answered her question. "I'll distract them to let you get free. It's an art gallery, I'm in my element here."
Her eyes flew wide open, and she opened her mouth to argue but we heard footsteps coming our way. I immediately pulled her under the table with me, holding her still until they I was sure they had passed. "Unless you want to become a test subject for whatever they have planned for the people they have rounded up, I suggest you listen to me. Follow my lead, do what I do, these people do not joke around. And nor will I." She pressed her lips into a thin line, but she nodded and followed me under the table. We crawled under exhibits and tables, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. One came close to almost spotting Natasha because of her stupid neon lipstick, but I threw something in the opposite direction which instead gained their attention. We snook past before they realised it was just a lump of charcoal from my art kit.
Finally, we reached the place where we meant to part ways. Natasha was surprisingly more calm about this situation than I expected her to be. "Natasha, this has to work flawlessly. If you hesitate about anything, my distraction will be for nothing and we will both be captured. I want to at least see you get out of here." I was actually shivering inside, but I tried my best to hide it. "Carry a message back for me IF I don't return within two hours... Tell the teachers to get out of here as soon as possible, and... To my dad, tell him that I'm sorry..." Natasha nodded seriously, clearly blinking back tears. "Ready?" I asked as a pair of soldiers walked past the ducts across the room. She nodded, shaking slightly as well. I turned around and stood up, and grabbed a wooden decorated pole from a sculpture nearby. Right as a soldier turned the corner, a whacked him to the ground with the blunt side of the stick. He went down almost immediately with an audible 'Oof!'
"Now!" I yelled, and Natasha charged towards the duct entry, prying it off with ease and slowly refitting it back on behind her. "Good luck!" She whispered as she crawled further into the ducts. I smiled slightly but focused on the soldier who was rapidly recovering from his initial beating. Mighty stick in hand, I swiftly hit him over the head with all of my strength, knocking him out cold for a while. I smirked despite myself and my situation, but that smirk was quickly erased when more of his buddies showed up with rifles in their hands. "Hey you! Drop the weapon, now!" The first one shouted, aiming his weapon while the other one clicked a button on his radio device. "Sir there is an armed civilian in the sculpture rooms, Williams has been... incapacitated, orders?" While the second was radioing his supposed superior, the other ordered me to drop my stick again. I looked at my feet, and discovered something very frightening. The guard I knocked out had grenades, which one happened to roll right next to my foot. A very dangerous idea popped into my head.
Slowly lowering my stick to the ground, as if to look like I was obeying orders, the first soldier got a reply as the supposed superior officer had walked into the room with his rifle ready. Using the distraction to my advantage, I swiftly plucked the grenade from the floor, the soldiers to busy to notice what I was doing. "This is the civilian who 'incapacitated' Williams? He'll most likely be demoted for this blunder," the higher up person laughed. I laughed too, making them immediately glare and raise their rifles again. "What are you laughing about bitch? Your about to be plucked from the face of the earth and turned into an involuntary test subject," the superior soldier taunted. I just shook my head and replied, "oh yeah? Well then. Eat this fuckers!" I pulled the pin on the grenade I had hid behind my back and threw it at them as best I could, the higher up commanding them to open fire as they backed away from my grenade I 'borrowed'.
I threw myself to the ground, dodging effectively all of their blind fire except from two. The first one one grazed my cheek, and shot off a small lock of my hair at the back. The second got me much worse on my upper arm near my shoulder, cutting out a streak of flesh from where my arm used to be. It didn't help the fact that I landed on it as well, causing me to yelp out in pain. Not long after I landed the explosion went off, both deafening me and effectively dealing with the soldiers for the most part.
I crawled behind a table, effectively hiding away from any more soldiers, and sat up to check my injuries. My forearm was bleeding a hefty amount, and my cheek had a trickle of blood running it from it too, however it didn't hurt too much, which was the only positive right now. More soldiers had joined me inside the room, inspecting the damage done to the soldiers and the room. "Williams and Daniels are down, fatalities are unknown yet. How the fuck did this happen?" One of the marines cursed, and it sounded like he helped somebody in the explosion up. "Lieutenant, are you-" "Get the fuck off me runt, that bitch is still alive!" I paled considerably, knowing he was going to send men after me, and this time I had no tricks up my sleeve. "Who? a civilian?" "No, it was the Easter bun- of course it was a fucking civilian, spread out and find her, she can't of gone far. I want her captured and shipped straight off to those damn Gentek assholes. "
"Oh shit..." I cursed quietly to myself as I heard somebody walk in my direction, a rifle being loaded. I prayed to whatever god was listening, to send me some help, but what I wasn't expecting, was to actually be answered. The window to my right shattered, fragments of glass raining down upon everyone, and I flinched backwards to escape the rain of deadly daggers. A person had flown straight through the window, aiming for the soldier walking in my direction. He collided with the soldier, knocking him down to the floor and almost riding him across the floor like a surfboard, which would of been quite funny if this was a game, however it wasn't. I didn't need to hear the sickening 'SNAP' of his spine to know he was as good as dead. I looked up from the body on the ground to the figure standing just by it, and of course my blood ran cold. My prayer was answered alright, but of course it was Loki who answered. There standing next to the recently made corpse, was the man with the ice blue eyes and strange hoodie/jacket.
Boom! Another cliffhanger? I am sorry. I need to get better at ending chapters. I swear that is like 3 cliffhangers in a row. D: anyhow, what did you think? I am still quite pleased with it :3