*Chapter 29*
A scream awoke Zach, he had been expecting it but the pain within the scream made him cringe slightly. He sprung out of bed as Cammie started to wimper,
"Cammie!" Bex's voice was wide awake and Zach shook his head at her, she understood, Cammie will run, don't even try. As he got close she screamed again,
"NOOOOO!" Zach decided now was the best time he didn't crouch down but he did put a hand on her shoulder. Her eyes jumped open, she sprung out of bed and disappeared though the door. Zach didn't even hesitate to calm Macey who had also spung out of bed, he flew after her into the corridor. He could just see her blonde hair whipping round a corner and into the descending darkness, he followed it and saw she was running towards the door out. The guards were all still either on leave for headaches or dealing with bodies, she would be able to get out. Zach took a deep breath and as she ran down the stairs he jumped them all and caught her round the waist as she reached for the lock. She started to kick and scream, her eyes were open but she was fighting invisible people who were moving closer. He managed to carry her away from the door and he regretted training her so well, she was much stronger and therefore much harder to carry when she didn't want to be. Leaving one arm around her waist to restrain her he managed to grab one of her flailing fists and wrestle it open. She screamed again and Zach forced himself to forget it was Cammie and to remember it was a bomb that needed to be diffused. If he remembered it was Cammie then he would be unable to hurt her at all, unable to think straight when her screams sounded so painful, he forced himself to not remember that she was scared and forced himself out of wanting to console her. Saying her name would make it worse, she would think whoever was attacking her knew it and it would scare her more. He slid to the floor and forced her down too, she went down fighting still. Running one finger along each of her fingers her fight became softer, less violent, her scream died off and she blinked.
"No?" She asked, her voice was weaker than Zach had ever heard it but he forced himself to forget it was Cammie and forced himself to continue to run his finger across her hand. "Zach, please don't hurt Zach." She managed before her limbs gave up and she fell back into Zach's supporting arm, her eyes fluttering closed. Zach breathed out and finally looked up to see the team standing at the top of the stairs watching.
"What just happened?" Jonas asked quietly, Zach listened in the silence and could just hear an adult speaking calmly. He was holding Liz's hand and they both looked pale, Grant was pushing Bex and Macey was leaning on Preston who had an arm around her. Zach felt slightly sad that they could all get married someday, have kids and not have to run after each other in the night in fear for each other's lives. Then he looked down at Cammie, who was asleep, and forgot all of this, her hair was wavy from a nights disrupted sleep and her face slightly pale but finally calm.
"Night Terror, I think." Macey whispered as she began to climb down the stairs, the others following, Zach nodded in agreement, "They are nightmares that the person believes are real and they can look awake but really they are asleep." Zach nodded again and put his other arm under Cammie's knees picking her up. Bex and Grant stayed at the top of the stairs as Liz pointed at Cammie's hands and wrists. They were red and scratched, a few cuts covered them and a small amount of blood was under Cammie's nails.
"It's like Lady Macbeth, goes mad after she plotted the killing of King Duncan and ends up scratching her hands because she thinks she has blood on them."
"Except Cammie won't go mad, Lady McBath or whoever had nobody I guess Cammie has us and adults." Bex muttered from the top of the stairs, "Come on, the adults will be coming soon, Jonas do you think you could steal that printer thing and get it to our meeting room. I have an idea." Bex rolled off with Grant towards the meeting corridor, she stopped at the end of the sleeping corridor and then went past very fast. Zach stood up with Cammie as Jonas and Liz ran off down the teacher's corridor, Macey waited for Zach and she and Preston moved with them up the stairs and to the end of the corridor.
"They are going to freak if they see Cammie like this, even if she is asleep. They may not like you much but it is this way to the hospital as well and from all the screaming they might suggest stuff. And the girls are still freaked from Trampy Tina." Macey stopped about a foot from the end of the corridor and Zach could hear Abe and Graham telling the students to calm down. Macey eased Cammie's knees out from under Zach's arm so she was suspended vertically, Macey went the other side and put her arm around Cammie's waist, putting her head on Zach's shoulders she looked down to see Cammie's feet on the floor. She raised her arm to make her feet not touch the floor. "Ha, beat that she is walking now." Zach had to admire Macey's creativity, Preston grinned and went on Macey's other side, closest to the student. They turned and walked past, the students all watched but nobody remarked too much, one even said that she looked fine. On the other side Macey lifted Cammie's legs back into Zach's arms and lead the way,
"I literally love that girl." Preston grinned at Zach before he ran off to catch up with Macey. She pushed her way into the meeting room to see the table against the wall, its legs disconnected and holding it up, the glass was moved forward and the chairs were behind it. Zach wandered in with Cammie and Bex ushered him in before closing the door.
"We can lock this door, its sound proofed, it has a big screen and the adults can't come get us. We get pillows, a decent carpet, a load of sleeping bags and put a film on. It is 6AM, earlier than I ever get up, ever." Bex grinned from her chair as Jonas and Liz burst in with the small ball thing between them. She explained to them and they seemed quite excited. Zach kept them all quiet and he stepped outside with Cammie and placed her on the floor and sat next to her. She continued to sleep in the almost perfect silence and Zach closed his eyes too, letting his adrenaline go down.
\_ (O.o)_/
"Zach? Wake up." Liz stood next to him gently shaking his shoulder, "We have done inside, come on." Zach blearily opened his eyes and checked his wrist to see no watch, "6:32." Liz added as she walked back in, Zach blinked a few times and checked Cammie, she was still asleep. Her fists were finally unclenched, Zach slowly picked her up and pushed open the door to see them all sitting in a pile of blankets and pillows with one sleeping bag and pillow for Cammie. Zach stepped around them all, nearly falling over Grant, and placed Cammie down. She didn't even stir and Zach sat next to her head in his own pile of pillows Jonas threw at him. He realised the carpet was much softer than normal and he was fairly comfy on the floor in his pile, Jonas was using a small remote and going through Netflix. They all agreed finally on Alex Rider, deciding to laugh at the supposed spy world, and letting Macey and Bex drool over Alex Pettyfer. Zach lay back and watched the supposed spy, he was good, even if it was stage fighting.
"Oh my…" Macey flinched as Alex nearly got crushed in a car, Preston laughed light heartedly,
"Macey, please, this is hilarious."
"He could have died!" Macey squealed, Zach felt a small jerk next to his hand, looking down he saw Cammie rubbing her eyes. "Cammie! You decided to join us." Everyone turned to Cammie who blearily sat up.
"What is going on?" She asked faintly, Zach smiled and helped her sit up, she looked around the room, "I went to sleep and what?"
"Zach, you can explain as you had most the fun, just be quiet. He is talking." Bex lay back and Cammie looked round expectantly at Zach who rolled his eyes.
"You had a night terror and bolted, I managed to catch you just in time. You thought the men you shot were attacking you and you are remarkably strong when I'm trying to get you safe. Well because it's a night terror you won't remember it but you will run about with your eyes open but you won't be awake. Anyway I got you to calm down to normal sleep again and the others decided to camp out in here, we have locked the door and are not planning to come out except for food for enough time to make sure we are all okay and we finally have some fun." Zach put his arm around her in a one armed hug, Cammie followed and they leant back against the mountain of pillows.
"Am I not safe then?" Cammie asked quietly as Alex got blackmailed by some guy called Alan Blunt, "I mean if I keep waking you up should I be put in a ward…"
"I don't care if I get 3 hours sleep every night for the next 4 months, as long as you're safe. We are all prepared to help you; even Bex is giving up her sleep for you. We don't care if you are mad as a box of frogs, we are sticking by you Morgan, keeping you safe." Cammie smiled up at him and he kissed her on the forehead.
"I have no idea what I did to deserve you." Cammie muttered.
"I could say the same." Zach smiled back and they settled in to finally watch the film.
\_ (UU) _\
"Excuse me, but you do not own this place. You are still students and you will be suspended if you don't pay attention."
"What will you do? Throw us out into the abyss, we will just go to the local town and sort ourselves out with Macey's jet." Bex answered calmly, they didn't know who this particular adult was but out of the five who had been sent their way she seemed to be the calmest.
"I will get Buckingham."
"No you won't because I will kill you for forcing her out of bed for a group of ignorant teenagers." Grant laughed as the woman sighed and walked away. Liz was asleep on Jonas's shoulder and as she had the key to the room nobody was going to get it. They had a skeleton key but Jonas had fiddled with the lock and made it only accessible from the inside. They were going to be unable to get them out by force; they would just have to wait.
"Excuse me, but I have been told there is somebody inside with an unstable mental state." Grace's voice could be heard through the door, everyone except Cammie burst out laughing, "No, I need to see them now."
"They are trying to get you nervous so you force the others to let you out." Zach whispered to Cammie who smiled too, "Please don't say you thought you had an unstable head."
"Well i…"
"Don't answer that, whatever you say, you don't." Zach turned away from Cammie who sighed.
"It is not something to laugh about, one of you had an unstable mental night last night. We need to make sure you are safe."
"Oh trust me, she is very, very safe!" Zach called out, "Safer with us than she could ever be with you." Zach didn't know why he was so happy to backchat all of a sudden, but he understood why Bex did it, it gave him a sense of finally getting his word across and not getting walked over. He heard a humf from outside and they all cheered.
"God Zach I have never heard you sound so… so… teenageryish." Bex grinned, "Really, keep it."
"What? She needed to know!" Zach smiled back and they turned back to the film.
"It was almost you being cute." Cammie whispered and Zach turned to her with one eyebrow raised, "What? You needed to know!" She imitated his voice very badly, he laughed and tapped her on the shoulder, she tapped back and before they knew it they were having a scrappy fight while laughing. Cammie finally won and ended up sitting on his stomach grinning at him, he was grinning at her.
"This is how to be a teenager Zach." Cammie rolled off him and he sat up.
"You know what, I might just do it more often." Zach poked Cammie and she raised her hands in mock defeat.
2 films and 14 adults later Macey decided they probably should get dressed so they can at least steal food to come back. Bex decided, in the spirit of things, to have a makeover party and that the boys would be allowed to grab clothes and then they had to come back here, the girls would come back to them later. All four boys, Macey and Bex loved this idea. Cammie and Liz however could see where it would be going and didn't like it at all. Liz unlocked the door and they all snuck out, sliding down the empty corridor they listened and could hear the majority of the noise coming from the classroom corridor. They all moved almost silently to their room and were only caught at the last second,
"Excuse me one second." A female voice said behind them, they all turned very slowly and saw Grace B, Grace W, Abe, Graham and Townsend looking at them all disapproving except Townsend who gave them all a subtle thumbs up. "Don't you all look very much like kids with their hands in their cookie jar."
"Well at least we are alive." Jonas muttered just loud enough that the adults heard and they all flinched.
"Even so, you all have educations to continue. Boys it may be only 2 semesters but at least make your girlfriends go, they have at least a year left." Zach grinned and shook his head at them,
"Please, these four are as good as us, if not better. They would be better agents than us already." Zach turned around and walked into the dorm Cammie saluted the adults and followed him. Bex spun round in her chair and followed with Grant riding on the back. Jonas dragged Liz inside and Macey bowed before leaving with Preston.
"He is so your son." Zach heard Grace say to Townsend,
"Yep, and as much as I have done nothing for him, he is awesome." The door finally shut and Zach grinned, well until his jacket hoodie hit him in the back of the head. He turned round to see Cammie standing grinning at him; he scowled and went back to finding some socks that matched. Once they were all sorted with clothes the girls sent the boys to go get dressed somewhere else, Grant pointed out that they normally didn't but Bex just shoved him out with her foot. Macey turned to Liz and grinned, she groaned as she got pushed into a chair. Bex rolled over with a decent outfit and Cammie gave up and dived into the shower.
She had always been told the best time to think is when you are in the shower, but all she could think of was Zach. She closed her eyes and let the water cascade over her face, again it was like a video player.
"Why does everyone hate you Zachy?" She asked, she was hanging from the bars in the gym even though she was only 5 or 6 she was calm hanging by her knees from the ceiling. Adults around them were talking but neither cared, Zach sat on a wall bar opposite. His hair was slightly matted and he seemed distracted, he had bruises sneaking from the edge of his t-shirt and his one leg hung slightly limp.
"Huh? Oh, I don't know." Zach smiled at her, and she dropped down neatly.
"What is wrong with you?" She asked, she climbed up next to him and frowned at him, even when he was 6 maybe 7 he was strong, didn't have many muscles but he could pick himself up on a bar, just. "You have been distant with me and mum!"
"I have to be! Dad hated your dad and he hits me if he sees me with you."
"You didn't used to care; you spend your life down here. Why don't you see us anymore? Avoid us even?" Cammie turned to him crossing her arms, she forgot where she was or how high they were and she slipped off sideways. Zach caught her wrist to jerk her head away from the floor so he knees hit instead, he grimaced and flinched. He then jumped down himself, stumbling on his bad leg, and helped her up, "You are so strange! We used to be best friends, and then you left me, why?"
"Cammie, we can't stick together any more…"
"…But…"
"Cam, I can't change it but please don't make this harder than it has to be. I have just had my first jab from your aunt and I had to ignore her then too. I'm sorry but things are going to change and I can't keep things the way they were."
"Zachy, don't leave! I know you don't like your dad and mum but you can live with…"
"I promise I will find you again, I will find you and keep you safe forever. I will make sure when we are all grown up and can look after everyone else we will find new friends and I will come and get you from here before you take your oath. You can live a free life, have a real boyfriend and husband not a chosen one and choose where to live and what to do with life and I will find you and get you out. I promise, I will stick by you and be your best friend forever. Just please don't forget me, I won't forget you." With that Zach smiled at her squeezed her hand and walked off, leaving a young Cammie wondering when her mum would leave her too.
"Oh…" Cammie said, she realised she was standing in the bathroom in her pyjamas even though she couldn't remember finishing her shower. Remembering what she just remembered she slid down the wall, her heart beating twice as fast. "… He…" She hit the floor with a slightly bump.
"Cammie?" Bex said from outside the door, "Cammie!?" A bang was followed by Bex falling out of her chair next to Cammie. Cammie realised that tears were falling onto the floor in front of her, she started to shake and the other two girls appeared. Cammie felt Bex's hand tense on her shoulder and she started to ask Cammie questions.
"I saw… when he… I don't even know why!" Cammie spluttered, Liz wrapped her arms around her and Macey put her hands on Cammie's knees.
"What is it Cam?"
"I saw when Zach left… He promised to find me again, he… was really hurt. He promised to find me and… keep me safe… he then left and i… I wondered when mum would leave me too!" Cammie sobbed into Macey's shoulder.
"Cammie, he found you though. He, even though I probably shouldn't say this, has saved your life. I am 1000% sure he loves you Cam. He won't leave, we won't leave and the other boys won't either. We are your family Cam, we are Alpha now. Liz hacked they system with Jonas and put us in too."
"Never go…" Cammie started but Liz stopped her with a bone crushing squeeze.
"We are not going anywhere but round in circles in our solar system. Even then we are doing it together." Cammie looked up at her and saw she was smiling a true smile and Cammie smiled back.
"We have a makeover to complete!" Macey grinned and helped Bex back into her chair.
I think that will be that last one for now. So have fun readers.
Charlie xxx
