When we reach the Sanctuary Tom is ahead of the group and my breathing is starting to get hard and the pain in my side increases. Hal must've heard this because his arm around my shoulder tightens. I just him a slightly pain filled smile which he returns.
"Some night; we took a big hit for this one," Tessa's father comments.
"It was worth it," Clayton answers and I'm disgusted at how they can talk about kids like cattle. We walk right outside the building when Clayton orders to get all the kids into the stable. Matt, whose hand Hal is holding, gets grabbed by one of Clayton's men and pushed away from him. Thankfully Lourdes intervenes and places an arm around his shoulder walking towards the stables. Matt keeps looking back at me, Tom and Hal who aren't allowed to go with everyone else to the stable.
"No, I'm not going. Dad!" Matt screams. Tom takes a step forward towards Matt, but has a gun pointed on him. Then there's a single shot that rings out and the guy holding a gun on Tom falls dead.
"Drop em'," Weaver shouts as he comes out of the house with Dai and a whole lot of fighters. Another one of Clayton's tries to take out Weaver, but Weaver's faster and takes him out first. Then I'm being dragged away by my arm and turn to see Clayton pointing his gun on me and using me as a shield. Hal tries to pull me away, but Clayton puts his weapon on him and pulls me farther away from everyone. I struggle trying to escape from his grasp, but this just causes him to wrap his arm around my waist and pull. He knows that I have a wound there and I hiss in pain.
"Don't move or I'll put a bullet in her head," Clayton warns and everybody's still.
"Clayton, we can all still walk away from this," Tom tries to negotiate. Clayton ignores him and starts creeping backwards dragging me with him. He keeps his arm around my wound so I don't struggle.
"Oh, yeah and tell me how that ends; with us as your prisoners? I don't think so," Clayton says, still moving backwards.
"Clayton its over," says Tessa's dad who has already laid his weapon down.
Clayton ignores him and I know it's time for me to step in.
"You know Clayton, that guns not loaded," I say loudly enough for everyone to hear, "None of the guns are."
My hands might be tied but I can still move my fingers a little, so I reach into my pocket and grab a few bullets.
"Of course they are," he says.
"Are you sure about that?" I say and put my hand out flat and let the bullets drop. Then he does something that I didn't expect him to do. He pulls the trigger, but of course nothing happens. He pulls it twice more and I feel his arm go stiff with the realization that he's not getting out of this. He sighs and his arm loosens on my waist. I elbow him in the face and he stumbles back. I calmly step away from him but I only get about two steps before the pain in my side becomes too much. I start to double over and feel myself sinking to my knees when a familiar pair of arms catches me, again. He helps me stand and when I start to wobble he puts one hand one my shoulder and the other on my waist to steady me. When he takes his hand off my waist we see a spot of blood on it. He looks at it for a second before wrapping my arm around his neck and helps me walk over to the house. He sits me down on the spiral steps and kneels in front of me. He knows that my side started bleeding again from the wound that he had re-stitched just the previous night. He takes out his knife and cuts the ropes off my hands, again. He puts the knife away and looks back at my side.
"Can I?" Hal asks, pointing to my shirt and I nod. He lifts my shirt up and briefly grimaces.
"I'll go get Lourdes," he says and leaves me with Jimmy who has been standing behind Hal. Jimmy sits down beside me and I lean into him. While we wait I watch Ben who's getting high fives and thanks from all the other kids, even the ones that were prejudge against him before.
"I'll be right back," Jimmy murmurs before he gets up and walks over to Ben. He gives him a high five and they talk a little. I smile, knowing maybe that he'll be nicer towards Ben.
Then Lourdes, closely followed by Hal, Tom and Weaver, comes and kneels down in front of me. She takes a look at my wound.
"Hal, could you go get my backpack?" she asks, not looking at him, but keeping her eyes fixed on my side. He nods, even though she doesn't see it and goes inside the house.
"Tom, could you help me get her somewhere more comfortable?" Lourdes asks and Tom steps forward and I take his hand to help stand. Tom assists me inside and I sit on the couch. Weaver follows us, standing off to the side. Hal comes back from upstairs, carrying Lourdes backpack along with his own on his back. He hands it to Lourdes and sits on the couch's sidearm.
"She gonna be ready to move soon?" Weaver asks.
"She should be. I just have to redo her stitches, fix her cheek and head and then give her something for the pain," Lourdes answers. Weaver nods and leaves.
"Hal can I talk to you?" Tom says pointing outside. Hal nods and follows him, giving me a worried parting glance.
Once Lourdes finished the stitches and practically forced some painkillers down my throat she declared I was ready to move. People had long since come and gone and Jimmy got me my backpack, which is now sitting at my feet. I grab the backpack and go through it. The Book isn't in here and then I remember that the last place it remember it is in the living room by the kitchen. Lourdes packs up her backpack and goes out front. I take this chance to go upstairs and try and find it. I look everywhere and can't find it.
"Shit," I curse under my breath because I know Weaver wants to move like now and I won't be able to come back for it.
"You looking for this?" someone says and I whirl around to see Tom holding the Book. I don't know what to say, so I don't say anything.
"I'll take that as a yes," he says putting it on the table.
"It's an interesting read. But it would explain some things," he says.
"Like what?" I ask.
"Like the arrow that stopped mid flight and the fact that Clayton thinks that you're the most dangerous of everyone," he lists. Once again I don't know how to respond.
"I'm not going to tell anyone. I didn't even understand what half of that stuff in there means, but Clayton seemed afraid of you. So I just have to be sure if I should. I need an explanation, sooner or later. Now you've done nothing but help the Second Mass so far, so I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt. I'll wait until you're ready to explain things, but I won't wait forever," Tom says and looks at me, trying to read my expression. I guess he was hoping I'd say something, but when I don't, he sighs and walks away. I walk to the table and pick up the Book.
"Oh lord, what have I gotten myself into?" I ask no one.
I put the Book into my backpack and put it on and go outside. Everyone is talking and ready to go. I see two fighters carrying a stretcher with a cloth laying over it. That must be Mike's body. I feel an over whelming sadness spread through me, knowing that I was right there and did nothing to try and stop it. When Weaver sees me he shouts for us to move out and I snap out of my daze. Jimmy comes to my side and I take his hand. We walk in silence for the first quarter of the trip before Weaver says that we'll be taking a five minute break. I can see Jimmy wanting to go hang out with his friends.
"Go," I say.
"Are you sure, because I don't mind-" he halfheartedly protests, but I cut him off.
"GO," I say louder. He smiles at me and walks off. I sigh and am about to try and reach for my water bottle when someone else takes it from its side pocket and hands it to me. It's Hal and I gladly accept it. I take a drink and say thanks.
"No problem," he says and then he steps closer and whispers, "So are you ever going to tell me how you pulled off that magic act and made that bullet stop in mid-air?" he asks.
"Yes, but not here," I say.
"Ok, fine. But I am a little curious about how you found us in that house, you know before Clayton came," he asks.
"Well I didn't really, it was just luck. I saw Clayton on the street, so I ran into the nearest house," I say.
"When you found us though, you already knew that Clayton had made the deal with the skitters; how?" he pushes.
"Well, let me just tell you from the beginning," I say and I tell him everything from when I found Pope to when I found Hal and everyone else.
"And what about when you said the guns weren't loaded, how did you know? How did that even happen?" he asks.
"More as you put it 'magic act' which will also be explained later," I answer.
There's a moment of silence when I finish my story before Hal changes the subject.
"Earlier when we went out to get the drugs to de-harness Ben, you said you were in your second year of college studying psychology," he says.
"Yeah, what about it?" I ask.
"So you were away from your family when the attack happened?" he asks.
"No, I was going to a community college while working a job to save up money to go to a university. I still lived at home," I say, "I guess I got lucky, I was supposed to go to my first class the day after they came. I'm lucky I guess because if they had attacked a day later I wouldn't have been with my family," I explain. The mood gets really serious and there's a moment of silence.
"And what about you, did you want to go to college?" I ask hoping to lighten the mood.
"Me, oh, I don't know. I guess. I knew that my dad wanted me to, but I didn't even know what I wanted to be yet," he says.
"Oh, come on, every kid has a dream of what they want to be," I say, nudging him with my arm. "You said you played lacrosse, ever dream of going pro?"
"Yeah, once, but it was more about having fun and having something to do when school, or my job for later on, would get to stressing. I've sort of been out of practice since the attack," he says, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Well, maybe you can teach me. Start getting some practice in," I say with a smile.
"Maybe," he says returning the smile.
"Alright, break over. Let's go!" Weaver yells and everybody packs up and starts moving. I see that Jimmy's still with his friends, or should I say friend, since he just talking to one other kid. I smile when I see its Ben.
"Look at that," I say, nudging Hal with my arm and pointing at Jimmy and Ben.
"Yesterday they couldn't stand to be in the same room and now they're acting like best friends," I say.
"That's good; Ben needs a friend that isn't in his family," Hal says.
"So did Jimmy. Although I saw him talking to Lourdes earlier; you don't think that there's anything going on between them do you?" I ask, half joking, half not.
"No I don't think so, Lourdes has a crush on me," he says blushing at the fact a little.
"It's not a bad thing to have admirers. Plus you defiantly have the looks," I say.
"Oh, so are you one of my admirers?" he jokes.
"Maybe. Are you one of mine?" I joke back.
"Um, let me think about that for a minute and get back to you," he laughs. I elbow him in the ribs, but laugh with him.
Just then Pope comes stumbling out of the bushes right in front of our group. All the fighters raise their weapons but Tom intervenes.
"Wait, wait, he's on our side," he says, walking to Pope's side. Pope's leg is bleeding, so I guess he did get shot, just not fatally like Tom told Clayton.
"Tom, what is the meaning of this?" Weaver demands, not ordering his men to lower their weapons.
"He was trying to help our kids get away from Clayton when Clayton shot him," Tom says.
Weaver think about this new information for a second before nodding his head and the fighters lower their weapons.
"I want to know the whole story as soon as we get back to base," Weaver says to Tom. Tom nods and Anthony comes forward and helps Pope walk as we continue our walk to the school.