CHAPTER NINE: IT'S BETTER IF THE PAST IS BURIED
HARPER'S POV
As soon as I was brought to the clinic, a doctor immediately came and patched me up, stitched my wounds, even gave me a couple of painkillers which I rejected by pulling out my flask and taking a swig from whatevers inside it. I always kept it inside my pocket, prepared for things like these. I watch him sigh before giving me prescriptions to take before I go back to doing whatever job I did.
In other terms, a fight. Something violent, I guess.
I mumbled out a thanks, walking back to the inn. By now the area's probably been tidied up. All I needed to do now was get a fifteen minute nap or so and fulfill the favor Mala's put upon me. The moment I got there, instead of seeing the guards, or whoever did the cleaning around here, I'm met with Mala who sat on the couch that was now perfectly clean and free of any stain of blood, and beside her stood Throk.
"Your majesty," I greet her, bending down just a bit to show my respect. An explanation was already prepared, ready to slip out my throat but instead it was paused by the simple gesture of her hand.
"Harper Haddock," she says, saying each word carefully, letting her tongue roll around the letters smoothly as she eyes me down, my eyes wide with what I've just heard.
"How long have you been using Drake and not your real name?" she follows up, the crease between her eyebrows deepening as she waits for a response.
I clenched my fists and bit my bottom lip, panic coursing through me as I tried to think of a good answer to a question I thought I took precautions with and made sure was buried, never to be asked or inquired by anyone.
"I-I..I...h-how-how? How did you find out?" I stutter, my breathing erratic as a smile stretches across her lips.
Fuck, if the gang knew who I actually am they'd tell dad.
"Remember, Harper Haddock, I am a director in a C.I.A branch here in the United States. I might be Russian in blood but I'm American in nature."
"But how did you find out about my identity?" I ask, completely dismissing what she's just said, "I mean, all power and satellites around the world have been shut down after the outbreak," I reason, not understanding nor grasping how she's got to crack out info in a place, time – or whatever the fuck anyone would consider – such as this.
"Now, Harper," she coos, but that didn't do anything to help calm me. "not the whole world. Only us," she stares at me for a moment, letting me process the words. She continues after a beat, "we are the only area, the United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. All of North and South America has been infected by the disease. Not Europe, Africa and Asia, though."
"How?"
"The information, according to what the Union said, came from a lab in Mexico, said that there's a military black site only known as Gladiator 7. Now, some sort of accident happened involving a miscalculation on the virus, causing it to mutate the plants in the lobby. Soon, after they've lost all communication in the lab, the government wanted the site erased and to be classified as a failure."
"How did you get communication if all of America has no contact with the outside world and how to do you know the plague didn't spread all across Europe?" questions upon questions left my mouth, I couldn't help but feel so curious about the situation, about what she's done to get out a lot of information, including the name I've grown out of.
"There's a relay tower not far from here. In the meantime, we are trying to ask for assistance. As for the plague, they said it's not air-based, neither is it water-based but rather land-based, so once a land is infected by the disease, all of the land is automatically infected. However, it's still viral to those infected but luckily the Union and the UN saw this coming and immediately shut down all borders and ports in all parts of Europe, Asia and Africa."
"Why are you telling me all this?" obviously it was because I was asking but for the most part she seemed encouraging and I really wanted to know why. I wanted her to answer questions I still haven't thought of.
Her smiles from awhile ago quickly faded, a serious one taking place. "I know about your past, Harper Haddock. I know the group you joined was supposed to save what's left of humanity. And I know why you went rogue-" I gasped, feeling my chest tighten at those words. I didn't really mean to cut Mala off, but Mala immediately caught on to my distressed look and quickly spoke, "which," she emphasizes, "I'll keep a secret in return of you keeping what just shared to yourself. Did I make myself clear?"
I nod my head, "I swear. Now, I have some favors to ask."
She smiles, "ask away."
"Do you have any spare oxygen tanks lying around that I could bring back to Berk?" I ask, my fingers fumbling with themselves as I anticipated for Mala's answer.
"What do you need them for?"
Sigh.
"My mother is dying, or will die soon. If I don't get the oxygen tank to her by tomorrow, chances are she won't make it. That's why I took the job for my mother, not for my father or the people whom I took with me," I explain, Mala's eyes glinted with a hint of sadness as she faced Throk, who similarly enough, looked just as sad.
"I'm sorry, Harper. We used the last tank yesterday and I'm afraid you're on your own," I felt air rush out of my lungs, I inhaled but it didn't make things any better, not until she responded at least, "but, I'm willing to give a spare vehicle and some supplies on your journey to Reagan's."
It didn't make the pain me ache any lesser, but at least hearing that would do and numb it for a bit. I nodded towards her direction, far too sad to even bother move my lips and mutter out a thanks, before wordlessly padding towards my room, hoping for the best that my mother would make it.
—
Sun poured through the tiny slit the curtain created, letting light in and hit Alek directly on the face, waking her up. She stretched her limbs, making sure to not stretch so much and hit Heather hard, but stretch enough to hit her lightly.
The only problem was Heather wasn't at her side.
And neither was her pack.
Alek just shrugged and assumed that she must've went downstairs, already with the gang. She quickly got ready, grabbing her belongings and the key before heading downstairs.
She drank in the lobby's clean state, sighing in relief when she sees that there were no more blood stains on places where it used to be on, and there were no more dead bodies on the lino either. Her eyes trailed over the room before landing onto the gang that lazily sat on the couch.
Rebecca picking at something on her teeth, Frank reading some book about invertebrates, his book about botany lazily held between his body and arm, Cami curling and uncurling her hair with an arrow, Heather just watching Cami and lastly, Harper, playing with his knife that he seem to love so dearly.
Cami was the first to notice Alek and when she realizes that it's only her who sees Alek, she elbows the person who sat next to her to the left, which was Heather. Heather let's out a yelp of surprise, rubbing her sore side while glaring at Cami. Cami rolls her eyes, nodding up ahead. Heather follows her gaze, her eyes landing on Alek who stood awkwardly, her hand running up and down her arm as she fiddled with her bag's strap.
Heather clears her throat, catching everyones attention, "Hey, Alek," she says, which Alek kind of took as a signal to come here because she's on her feet, making her way towards them. When she stood near them, Heather just gives her a nod of approval before clearing her throat again.
"Drake, she's here. So, how are we gonna get to the hospital?" she asks. The moment the question was out, everyone stopped what they're doing. Rebecca stopped picking at something in between her teeth, Frank closed his book, slipping a finger in between pages sixty-four and sixty-five, staring quietly at Harper, and all of the girls – excluding Rebecca who found herself busy yet again with her teeth – waited for a response.
Harper sheathed his knife, glared at Alek for being late only for his eyes to soften for a moment before settling back to the stone cold gaze they held minutes ago.
"I got Mala to get us a vehicle, along with some guns, ammo, and a couple of meds. It's parked by the gate, come, let's go we're running out of time," Harper urges, looking rather impatient as he casted another annoyed glance at the gang and headed out, leaving them to get ready.
Alek shrugs off what happened just a few minutes ago and instead headed towards her group of friends who seem to be staring at her as though they've seen a ghost.
"Um, why do you guys look like you've seen a ghost?" she asks, ending it with a chuckle but even that didn't help to ease the disoriented look that was plastered all over their faces, "what did I miss?"
She inspects closer and realizes that they all had a tinge of light pink on their cheeks. They were blushing, which made her eyebrows dip together in confusion as to why they were doing so.
She shoots another question, "You guys alright?" she raises a hand and waves it in front of them, "why are you all blushing?"
They gave each other glances that seem to hold an emotion Alek couldn't read. They muttered Frank to leave, and Frank gladly did so, muttering something under his breath about how demanding they were before disappearing behind the door, leaving them behind with a very confused Alek who's now being pulled towards the couch by Rebecca.
Rebecca quickly whips out her phone and scrolls through her photos, shocking Alek.
"Ruff, why do you still have your phone? We're not sup-"
The moment Rebecca stops on a certain photo, Alek's breath hitched, her eyes wide as she scanned the photograph behind the cracked screen.
It was a photo of Harper, his bare back exposed and facing them, beads of sweat rolling off of it. His hands were occupied by weights, making his arms blurred a tad bit, giving Alek the slight idea that this must've been taken when Harper was working out, or doing whatever he did to stay in shape. The only thing that covered him up were a pair of pants, but that didn't do anything to stop the blush from creeping up Alek's cheeks.
Unintentionally, Alek finds her finger tracing the screen until it swiped to the left, seeing another photo of Harper working out. She kept swiping and swiping until there was nothing left for her to see. They were all similar, except the only difference was his hands would either blurrily go up and down, carrying the weights.
She shoves Rebecca's phone back to her, earning a smirk from Rebecca as she sends a wink towards the two girls who towered over them on the couch.
"Why would you show me that?" Alek asks, an exasperated tone coating her question as the three girls sent unnerving glances towards each other.
"Told you she'll get the same reaction," she hears Heather whisper to Cami. Her hand flew and playfully slapped Heather's arm, making Heather laugh hard. Her scowl only deepens.
"How? How! How did you even manage to see him doing.." she trails off, frantically trying to find the right word before screaming, with an accusatory finger pointed at Rebecca's pocketed phone, "that!"
Cami waves her hand in the air, as if to signal she'll answer, "you see, we all woke up to a sound, some sort of grunting coming from the fourth floor. It kind of made us wonder why you didn't wake up because of it since, you know, your father basically taught you hunting skills or whatever category thay includ-"
Alek interrupts by mumbling something with regards to practicing picking up noise easily.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Cami says, dismissing her before continuing, "anyways. we got up and tried to find the source of the noise. During our search we found two things, first was a dining area with a balcony near it and the second was a gym. Eventually, we discovered that the noise was coming from the latter and headed for that. We all agreed on peeking and saw...that," Cami finishes, pointing at Rebecca's pocketed phone as well.
"And how long did you guys stare at him by the doorway?" Alek asks in disbelief, her arms crossed as she awaits a response from her friends.
"Uuuh," Rebecca stutters, a smile stretching across her lips and showcasing her teeth that was now free of debris or whatsoever that she was nitpicking out awhile ago.
"Until he caught us," Heather answers for Rebecca, making Alek gasp. "Look!" she quickly covers up, but it didn't do much of work to change Alek's expression, "we were basically fantasizing, okay? Don't blame us. Anyways, he caught us when he got out of the bathroom after wearing his gear. That's why we were relatively quiet when you got here."
Alek groans, feeling second hand embarrassment at what just happened, "can we just – I don't know – pretend we didn't see that? Let's go. Drake is waiting for us, and the same goes as well for Mrs. Haddock."
The atmosphere immediately shifts at the sudden mention of her name. The four girls' faces shifted into ones of uneasiness as they thought of how the chief's wife is doing right now. They quickly got out, only to be met with a very impatient looking Harper who tapped his foot on the ground.
"Alright," he acknowledges, "follow me. We'll be at Reagan's in an hour, so best expect some Freaks up ahead. Mala got us a rundown SUV," he gestures towards a car up ahead. It wasn't really in that much of a bad shape, but it wasn't looking good enough to fit in the category of good either, "it'll do."
"Once we get there I'll tell what each of you will do," he says, gesturing for them to follow him. They walked up until they reached the gate, where Throk stood alongside with a couple of guards who busied themselves with the crates they were picking up from the ground and placing at the back compartment.
"Throk, what are your men doing?" Harper asks, watching the last one of the boxes being placed before the door of the car was slammed shut, a bit too hardly which made him wince.
"Her majesty wanted to give you ammunition and some other essentials needed for your journey. We already placed armor plating in front of the SUV," Throk reassures and Harper sighs in relief upon hearing what he's just said.
"Remember what the queen said, Drake," Throk reminds him and Harper nods curtly at this. Throk hands him the keys and they got out of there immediately.
The trip so far wasn't that bad, except for the fact that Harper had to run over a couple of Freaks that were blocking the way which also disgusted the gang. Half of them couldn't stomach this – especially Frank – so eventually at one point they had to slow down and take a break while Frank opens the window and empties his stomach of breakfast and fear.
The silent car ride was interrupted by multiple shots coming from the car that trailed behind them. Alek was the first to notice this, then followed by Harper who instantly steps on the gas, taking a sharp turn before stopping.
"Well, don't just fucking stare! Shoot!" he yells, speeding up and going through the open streets of California. The cars did the same thing followed by opening fire at the SUV.
Everyone instinctively ducked, dodging the bullets that penetrated through the glass and disrupted the metal that kept the car together. Harper groans and pulls out a MP5 from the seat beside him before opening the window and shooting back at the opponent, his other hand gripping the steering wheel tightly as he attempts to multitask.
Alek got up and cocks her rifle, angling it out of the window and accompanies Harper, shooting back at the cars outside as well. Heather follows, taking the left window while Cami and Rebecca took the window at the back of the car and shot through it.
One of the cars sped up and drove beside the SUV, trying to ram it off the road. Harper notices this and pushes the breaks down, the car sharply stopping making the gang launch back and forth, regretting on not wearing a seatbelt as they felt the pain of the aftermath of their mistake shoot through them.
Harper rammed the other car with his as hard as could, watching it topple over and flop onto the other side of the road, making it lose it's balance and crash at the nearby building.
Another pursuer replaced the already down car, but this time, the moment they got close they got their guns out and readied to fire the SUV.
"Hang on!" Harper yells, speeding up and going in front of the car. He took a right turn and headed for the abandoned checkpoint near the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, stopping once he finally finds a safe enough spot before hopping out, bringing out his Springfield from his back, breathing slowly as he aims for the driver's seat.
He exhales and inhales slowly as he waits for the car to come close enough.
His eyes fluttered close as he waited for the right time, ignoring the pleads and yells of the group from behind as he pulls the trigger, followed by the sound of a loud ear piercing screech from the distance as the car crashed into a Humvee. He got out, grabbing the Mp5 then slammed the door, ignoring the cries of "What are you doing!?".
Harper sprays a few shots at the backseat, pinning down a few of the passengers who made a nimble attempt at escaping along with the few others who actually got out. He walks up towards the window upfront, and while doing so he reloaded his gun and switched the mag since this one was taped together. The barrel of his gun was placed inside the small panel, Harper then pulls the trigger after a beat. The bullet ricocheted inside the car as a satisfied smile crept up Harper's face.
He opens the door and is met by two dead men. He sighs, dragging both deceased bodies and out inspecting them, making them out to be an Outcast. He notices that they wore prison clothes, except there were a few altercations for it. Above the clothes were jackets and helmets that seem to belong to the police, alongside with other gear that would usually be used by the police as well.
He continues inspecting them, the smile on his face growing as he realizes that one of them had a Colt M4A1 with a tactical grip and a red dot sight. Tilting the weapon and inspecting it, he checks the barrel and is pleased to see that it had a suppressor on as well. He then looks around and searches for any magazines the Outcasts were carrying, opening several pockets' and vests. He ended up with a total amount of five mags.
Harper takes two of them and places the rest in the pocket of his vest. He slings rifle and makes sure it's secure before heading back to the group. They stared at him with the same looked they'd usually do, a bit awestruck and maybe impressed as well, Harper wasn't really quite sure. He just shrugs this off and heads for the hospital instead.
The entrance was sealed down with shutters and beside it, just a little bit to the left, slumped a Freaks already decaying torso accompanied by several decomposing bodies that belonged to both civilians and national guards.
Body bags that were placed in a pile near an ambulance fell into his line of vision as he ushers the gang to follow up behind him and keep their guards up. His eyes scanned the place, landing on a dump truck that parked beside a window that was conveniently open.
"Right there. Come on, let's see if there's an oxygen tank and get the Hel out of here as soon as possible," Harper says.
"I need Frank, Heather, and Rebecca to stay out there," Harper orders in a firm tone, handing Frank a walkie talkie, "if anything happens, call us. We'll be right here."
And with that, the three of them stayed while Harper, Cami and Alek went with him, climbing up the dump truck. They failed to notice that beside it sat a pile of Freaks along with plants and body bags burnt to ashes. The others still in the process of being toasted.
"Looks like we've got more of them coming to the dead zone. Make sure you've disposed of them," a man wearing a reflective vest, a hat, and a gas mask says to the radio he clutches close to his mouth. He turns around and looks at the man behind him, motioning to the SUV along with other men.
They immediately moved forward as flames came up behind them.
They continued walking forward with their reflective vest, gas masks, and propane tanks strapped around them alongside their makeshift flamethrowers, firing around without a single care in the world as they moved forward, ignoring the flames and wisps of fire that crackled behind them.