WARNING: This chapter is VERY feels and pain. I just hope you guys are ready for it. Anyway, tanks to the following! Kaitlin1198 (I hope you like this then!), Uknowiloveu (Thanks for reading!), Dreambig28169, GallagherGirlXOX (Yeah she did. Read on girl!), Guest1 (Thank you. I'm glad to know I like reading this a lot. It took me a month to get the courage of writing this.), PatchLover25 (I think I like you! I love how you ask me questions when you don't understand. It helps me understand what my readers don't get, and it's helped me improve.), Guest2 (Oh my gosh thank you so much! I can't believe you only like this one though; there are SOO many better ones than this one! But thank you!), and cheeky-monkey-hehehe! Here's this chapter!
Cammie's POV: Spies are born to do amazing things. Among those things, they are assigned amazing tasks that, for most, it's too much for them to handle. Like, for instance, my dad's assignment with the list. It's very possible that the Circle could have just come to our house and killed us all before the list ever spread to anyone else's memory. Another example would be trying to choose between your cover and the truth. One protects you, while the other seems like the right way to go.
It isn't our covers that protect us. It's how much we believe in that cover that makes things work. What I realize now is my mistake about my summer. I thought I was searching for my dad, and for the truth, but what I found was ten times what it was worth.
After everything goes black, I get hit in the head with something. I lose consciousness for about a minute before everything comes back to me. It isn't just bits and pieces anymore. It's all threaded together, and I don't like what I remember.
Looking around and holding my breath, I swim to the opening in the truck. I push myself out and I'm immediately hit with a sort of panic that I'm slightly used to. The its-going-to-end-soon kind of panic. Then I see the figure drifting lower and lower in the water a few feet to my right and I nearly choke on the water around me.
I swim as fast as I can and take Zach, wrapping my arms around him securely. Then I pull him up to the surface. Gasping for air, I frantically look around. We're in some sort of lake, and no one is here. I look for Preston, and I see him surface a few feet away, so I feel somewhat relieved. I start pulling Zach to the surface when I hear people screaming my name.
"Hello?" I yell when I lay Zach down, away from the water.
I press my head to his chest, and I gasp when I realize that he isn't breathing. There isn't a heartbeat, and he isn't telling me that I need to be a calm Gallagher Girl. Something inside of me breaks, and I look at his for two seconds before someone yells again.
"Oh my god! Cammie!" Macey screams, rushing over and pulling me into a hug.
"I'm okay! I need to help Zach!" I wrench myself away from her and start giving him CPR.
"Guys! She's over here!" She calls, and everyone else comes running, crowding me.
By then, I've been doing CPR for two minutes. I'm quickly losing hope, but I keep going, relentlessly pushing on his chest and blowing air into his lungs through his mouth.
"Kiddo, I think you should give up." My mom says sadly.
"No! No, he's fine!" I respond forcefully.
"Cam, just let him go." Bex whispers, and I can tell she's crying.
I shake my head and keep trying. After five minutes, I stop giving him CPR and start crying, laying my head on his chest. No one makes a move to touch me, and I'm glad that they don't. I need Zach. He's more to me than anyone else seems to think. After a few more minutes of me sobbing, someone wraps their arm around me and I try to push it off. Suddenly everyone gasps around me, and I look over at them with a glare.
"What?" I shout, still struggling to move the person's arm when I realize that everyone is right in front of me with wide eyes.
He laughs, interrupting the silence. "Gallagher Girl, I won't go down that easily."
I whirl around to see Zach, who looks really pale but alive, and I sputter, "But…But you didn't have a heartbeat!"
"Spy." Zach replies with a smirk while pointing to himself.
"You idiot!" I scream, smacking him, and then I grab his damp shirt and kiss him before pulling away and saying, "I love you. Don't you dare pull that with me again."
We sat there for a few minutes, talking and trying to comfort each other. Preston insists he's fine, even though he has a huge gash on his forehead, and Macey didn't hear it when he says no to getting it looked at. I sit with Zach behind me, his arms wrapped around my waist, and Liz and Bex sit down next to me as well. I knew that this wouldn't last long, but this is my bliss and I wasn't ready to let anyone take it back.
"So Cammie what do you plan on doing after Gallagher?" Bex asks.
"I don't know. I guess I really need to look at my options, but I've been so busy lately I haven't had the chance." I reply with a shrug, knowing I'm running out of time.
"I think I'm going to be a lab scientist." Liz dreamily sighs, and I can already imagine her in a lab, helping the President.
"I'm going to be a model, of course." Macey smiles, and I know that she can be Miss Universe without batting an eye.
"I'm planning on going to be an active spy with my parents in the M16." Bex cheerfully makes a fighting gesture, and I laugh.
Looking at the three, I can't believe that I'm going to graduate soon, and we will all go our separate ways. I can see how meaningful their futures are, and I can just visit them anytime I want. Despite all of that, I'm going to miss them. They've been with me since the beginning, and they'll be there until the very end, like every sister in Gallagher Academy should.
"So Zach, what's your plan?" I ask, turning to face him.
"Well I-"
"Oops! It seems to me like I'm interrupting a little rescue party. Am I too much trouble for being here?" says a sickly sweet voice, and I look away from Zach to see his mom standing a few feet behind him.
I stand up. "No, we've just been waiting for you to come so that we can finish this."
"Cameron! How nice to see you, but I thought that you and your friend took a swim with the fish?" She asks, jerking her head to the lake.
"It was lovely, but we couldn't miss seeing you." I grit my teeth, glaring at her.
"Well if you don't mind, I brought a few friends of my own." Her voice goes cold, and suddenly she has a whole group of burly looking guys coming up behind her.
"What do you want from me now? I thought you didn't want me anymore." I point out, and she laughs.
Zach stands in front of me to protect me from the newcomers. "You have what she has, so why bother?" He asks in a low voice.
"Yeah, piss off." Bex's voice is suddenly to my right and she takes her hand in mine.
"Before we make you the hard way." Liz says bravely, coming to my other side and taking my hand as well.
"If I have to ruin my manicure because of you I swear to god you're going to get it." Macey says evenly, coming over to Liz.
"We can take you down. We have the list." I say, new strength surging throughout me.
"You think I have the list?" Catherine inspects her nails with a smirk. "I did. I took down all of the leaders without a single flaw in any of my plans. But you, darling, will gather your forces just to take me down, so I tried getting rid of you."
"I guess I should have taken all of your friends too, that way you'd all be dead." She continues, "But I didn't have the heart to kill so many young prodigies. I even have a soul when it comes to my son, but he seems to know where he stands now, so I guess I'll have to best you all."
"You wish." Mr. Solomon growls before lunging for her.
A huge fight breaks out, and soon everyone is occupied with an attacker. I have three on me, and I kick the first one in the head, and I hear his jaw snap, blood shooting out of his mouth. When he collapses, I turn to the next one just to get punched right in the face. Starts dance across my vision, and it takes me a second to remember what's going on.
Just as the third one goes for the deathblow, I narrowly escape by ducking and rolling underneath him, and I stand up hurriedly. Gaining momentum, I pick up a metal pole that was in the truck that had exploded and I swing it at guy number two, and I hit his neck. A huge cracking sound is heard and a vibration goes through the pole, and he collapses. I just broke his neck, and for a second I remember I've actually killed before.
With just the third guy left, I drop the pole and go hand on hand. I punch him in the face, but he kicks my stomach. I go flying and I land a few feet away, gasping for air. The pain is unbearable, and it feels like something huge ran me over twice. I struggle to get onto my knees. All around me, people are occupied with fighting, but I can see that we are slowly winning, and Bex is especially going all out on killing, not bothering on sparing anyone anymore.
The third guy towers over me, and I get up despite the sharp pain. I think I broke a rib or two. I quickly end it by delivering a few punches and kicks (One may have been in a very soft spot), and I dust myself off. I push my hair away from my face, looking for Mr. Solomon and my mom, or even Aunt Abby.
"Looking for someone?" Catherine snarls from behind me, and I turn around quickly and pale.
On the ground is mom, Abby, and Mr. Solomon. My mom looks fine, just unconscious, but Abby and Mr. Solomon look worse for wear. Abby is breathing shallowly with a huge cut on her head, and Mr. Solomon…I don't know what's wrong with him. I catch my breath and Catherine laughs.
"Oh don't worry sweetie. Joe is gone. He's with your father now. Your Aunt is pretty close; I accidentally shot off a bullet into her stomach. Your mom, now, is just fine. And when this is over, I want her to see you dead before I finish her off." Her glare crawls into my skin, unnerving me in every way possible.
"You killed him? You bloody murderer!" Bex screams, running over to me, Liz and Macey following close behind.
"Where's Zach?" I ask them, too afraid to look away.
"Right here." He says, suddenly in front of me, walking towards his mom.
"Oh sweetheart, come give your mother a hug, will you?" She pulls out her gun and casually puts in a round of bullets before pointing it in my direction.
"Don't touch them." Zach says calmly, stepping over Mr. Solomon while I choke back a sob.
"Don't move another inch!" Catherine screeches, pointing the gun at Macey and Zach freezes.
"Mom, put the gun down." He moves toward her again, and she fires the gun.
In a blur, I watch the bullet go flying. Macey doesn't have time to move, but Bex pushes her out of the way. The bullet sinks into Bex's chest, and her eyes roll back into her head as she collapses. Preston comes over, trying to survey what's going on when another shot goes firing into him as well. He falls to the ground too. She watches in triumph and then moves to shoot Abby, but all of a sudden someone pulls Abby out of the way. Agent Townsend glares and protects her body with his, and doesn't move. Zach yells and takes the gun from his mom, and in seconds he finishes Catherine off.
I rush to Bex, but Liz and Macey are both already there, sobbing and telling her to stay with them. When I get a good look, I start tearing up. The bullet went straight and true, a few inches below the middle of her heart, and blood is pooling all over the place. She's whimpering in pain, and she is really pale, even though her tan doesn't make her too pale.
"I want you guys to remember me, okay?" She asks, her hand frailly touching each of us lightly and weakly before she starts crying too, "I don't want to be forgotten. I want you guys to know that you are the best people I could ever surround myself with, and I would be bloody nowhere without you. Tell my parents I love them, tell Grant to move on."
She coughs and closes her eyes. "I'll miss you guys. I'll tell your dad and Solomon you said hi, Cammie." She says, and with one last breath, she goes limp.
That's when everyone starts crying for her. My mom wakes up eventually and inspects Preston with teary eyes to see he only got hit in the shoulder. I just sit there, holding onto Zach with everything I have left. Bex, of all people, dead? How is this possible? She is so, willing to protect her friends, her family, she is the most lovable girl in the world. She is beautiful, and she knew how to disarm people with a piece of uncooked spaghetti. Was, I tell myself, was.
Even with her lying in blood, her hair looks like silk, and other than the blood and her wound and her pale quality, she looks just like living, breathing Bex. There's only one difference. She is dead, not sitting here with us.
I slowly get up and go to Mr. Solomon. He has the exact same wound that Bex has, except he was stabbed. There wasn't much blood to see before, but it's everywhere now, turning the sand red. He looks so at peace now, and I wonder for the first time if death is peaceful.
He was one of the last people who knew my dad really well, other than my mom. He was always there for my mom, and Aunt Abby, and me, he showed me the right way, and he taught me to be the better spy than I would ever imagine possible. He was my replacement dad, really. He means so much to my family, and now he too is gone forever.
My sobs echo through the early morning, and I can't help but lose hope of having a good life for a minute.
"I think we should go home, kiddo." Mom says after walking in front of me and putting her hands on my shoulders, her eyes just as red and puffy as mine are.
"They're gone, mom. Just gone." I mumble, wiping my eyes.
"I know kiddo. They are in a better place now. But we need to go before the police find us." She replies sadly.
"I can get us a jet out of here." Preston offers as we turn around to face the rest of them.
"That would be brilliant." Agent Townsend says, picking up Abby.
"I'll make the call." Preston mutters as he turns around and pulls out his phone.
Macey picks up Bex, who is limp in her arms, and my mom picks up Mr. Solomon. Liz tries to gain her composure again, sniffling and wiping her eyes. Zach was crying too, but he stopped a few minutes before, and he walks over to me and pulls me into a hug that I gratefully return.
It's all over now, I want to think, and I'm done with all of this, I want to say. I pull away from Zach and go over to Liz, giving her a hug too. As soon as I wrap my arms around her she crumples into me, sobbing, but I can't cry anymore. I'm too tired to feel anything anymore. All of this happened because of a stupid list, and I don't care anymore.
The aftermath of this is terrible, and everyone is silent as we wait for the jet to arrive. By the time it arrives, Macey and mom are both soaked with blood, but I knew that they don't care. We all load onto the jet, and I stumble going up the stairs, falling onto the ground.
Zach scoops me up into his arms and carries me inside. He picks the seat the furthest away from everyone else, and pulls me onto his lap. I stay silent, and he seems to realize I don't want to talk so he strokes my hair soothingly. I relax a little, but pretty soon I'm tired and I'm starting to fall asleep.
"Zach?" I say quietly.
"Yeah Cam?" Cam, not Gallagher Girl.
"I love you." I say, curling up against him.
"I love you too much to put it into words." He mumbles into my ear, and I fall into a very deep, very dreamless sleep.
Hey guys, ZammiePercabeth here. I hope you guys like this chapter, even though it's very tragic. I love Bex so much, but I knew in the end that she would want to save her friends, so I knew right then and there that she would be the one to take the bullet for Macey. Bex is my hero, and I can't imagine going on after losing someone like her. So review guys. Tell me what your reactions are. I might have one more chapter posted up for Bex and Mr. Solomon, just to give closure on the entire project I have going on. I'd also like to know this: Would you guys mind if I made another Gallagher Girl Fanfiction? Review, guys. They help a lot. XoXo/ZammiePercabeth