Cole was half surprised that he ever woke up at all.
Part of him didn't even want to open his eyes, didn't want to see where he'd been taken. But curiosity got the better of him and he opened his eyes slightly. He didn't see much, just a white wall in the dim light. With a sigh, he realized he was going to have to sit up. He noted that he didn't seem to be tied up, maybe he was in a cell. With a grunt he rolled over onto his back, finally opening his eyes all the way.
He was not in a cell, he was in a room. Someone's bedroom by the look of it. There was a dresser and a nightstand, the clock read 2 am. He had been placed in the queen size bed. Cole had never been so happy to find himself in bed. The pillow case and comforter were the softest things he'd felt in ages. A glass of water and crackers had been left out. The closet was open and an assortment of woman's clothing was visible inside. This reminded him painfully of Trish, and of nights spent in her bed...
Someone had saved him and brought him here. That was the only explanation. The Reapers would certainly not be so kind as to place him in a nicely furnished bedroom with water and food. He considered this. Who would want to help him? Didn't everyone think he was a terrorist now?
The voice, he'd definitely heard the voice while he'd been passed out... but the voice couldn't have saved him. That didn't make any sense. It was just a voice... but still, his stomach squirmed at the vague memory of the voice singing sweetly to him...
Cole sat up, and immediately his head started spinning. If he didn't get some electricity in his blood soon, he was going to pass out again. Cole slipped out of the bed and wobbled over to the nearest electrical outlet. Crouching next to it, he willed the power to come out of the wall and into him. Jolts of electricity arched out of the socket and into his fingers tips. It was like the breath of life. Energy and strength poured back into his tired limbs.
Recharged, he stood up and considered his options. Should he try and figure out who rescued him, or just sneak out?
Maybe I should just leave, not bring trouble down on some innocent person...
However before he could act on this thought, the door swung open and light streamed into the room. Cole jumped as his racing thoughts were interrupted. He turned to face the light... And in the doorway stood a girl.
His first impression of her was that she looked like a teenager who had escaped from detention. Her silver blonde hair was cut short and spiked all over her head. She had a pale face and even paler blue eyes. Stick-like legs encased in skinny jeans stuck out from underneath an over sized hoodie that hung almost to her knees. She was cute in a punk rock kind of way, but she didn't look like she was capable of rescuing anybody. That was his first impression, anyway.
"You're awake," she said, sounding a little bit breathless.
Those pale blue eyes blinked at him, as if they didn't quite believe what they saw. For one long moment, the two people simply observed each other. Cole had the strangest feeling that she was waiting for him to say something... there was a slightly hopeful look on her face. Do I know you? The girl tilted her head to one side as the hopeful look disappeared from her face, to be replaced with something more neutral.
"Are you alright?" she added when it became apparent that Cole wasn't going to say anything.
"Yeah," Cole said uncertainly. Was this the person who saved him? "I'm okay."
"You've been asleep since yesterday," the girl said slowly. "I found you in the alley..."
"You brought me here?" Cole interrupted, looking the skinny girl up and down. This small girl had rescued him? Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"Yes," she answered, her eyes looking him over in response to the stare he'd just given her. Her gaze was almost appraising, as if she were sizing him up. "You're Cole MacGrath, aren't you?"
"Maybe," Cole said evasively. The girl laughed suddenly.
"Might as well admit it," she snickered. "The puddle you were lying in was glowing, you were sending off sparks." Cole cursed under his breath. Guess there was no point denying it...
"Okay, fine, you got me," he said, irritated. "Who are you?" he shot at her. "Why'd you bring me up here? I'm a terrorist, or didn't you hear?" he spat, voice dripping with sarcasm. This didn't get the reaction he'd been expecting.
The girl simply stuffed her hands inside her hoodie and looked up at the ceiling.
"A terrorist? Is that so?" she said finally. Cole got the impression that she was avoiding saying all that was on her mind. The look on her face was way too contemplative. He waited for her to say more, but all she did was lean up against the door frame. Cole fidgeted uncomfortably.
"So what is it?" he asked again. She turned her head to stare at him. "Your name?" he prompted.
"Shane Hunter," she said after a minute. She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "Nice to meet you, Cole MacGrath," she added, motioning for him to follow her out of the room. "Come on."
Cole trailed after her slowly, after briefly considering bolting for the window. Perhaps it would help to have company, if only for a little while. He hadn't spoken to anyone since Trish had died in his arms, except for the voice of course. He shook his head to dismiss those memories. Instead he let his eyes wander around the apartment he found himself in. It was sparsely furnished, but still cozy and bright. After weeks of living on rooftops, being in a nice apartment felt like being on Mars.
"You didn't have to help me," he blurted out as he followed her into the kitchen. Shane raised her eyebrows.
"I guess not," she said easily. "But I did."
Cole could think of no good response to this, so he said nothing. Shane went to the pantry and rummaged around in it. The man cautiously approached the island. As he did so, he noticed the reason the apartment seemed so bare was because half the furniture in the room was blocking the front door. The skinny girl turned around and slapped a bottle down on the counter in from of him.
"Here, you need this," she said simply.
Cole looked at the bottle. It was a protein shake.
"How did you get this?" Cole asked in wonder. He'd been scavenging food for two weeks now, with success being all too rare. Shane's blue eyes left his face and found the floor.
"Most of my neighbors, the people who lived in this building... they're gone," Shane whispered to the tile. "At least... they haven't come back. I took their food. It's lasted me a while... I don't eat much."
That certainly seemed to be the case, Cole thought as his gaze passed over her thin form again. She was already tiny, and that ridiculously large hoodie she was wearing was just making her look even smaller. He knew he'd lost weight as well, but his muscles were just as large as ever thanks to years of urban exploration and his job as a bike courier. Standing next to her with his tall frame and large muscle mass, he felt like he loomed over her. He took a step back.
"And this building hasn't been raided?" Cole asked incredulously. His fingers subconsciously closed around the bottle. Shane sighed, and Cole saw her shifting her weight from foot to foot like she wanted to bolt. Which was funny, since that was what he had been considering doing just minutes ago.
"It has, but I barricaded myself in here when I heard them coming," she muttered, stuffing her hands back inside her hoodie. Why did he get the feeling she was lying? She glanced at him. "You gonna drink that?"
Cole needed no other encouragement. He wrenched the lid off the bottle and downed the whole thing in five gulps. His stomach gurgled embarrassingly as food hit it for the first time in two days.
"You must've been hungry," Shane commented dryly.
"Yeah," Cole grunted in response. He tossed the empty bottle in the trash.
Shane sighed and flung open the pantry door.
"Eat whatever you want," she said serenely, flouncing over to the couch and plopping herself down on it. Cole's stomach growled loudly again at the thought of food. Food! Real food! As much as he wanted to run straight to the pantry and eat as much as his stomach could hold, he didn't. He wandered over to where Shane was sitting.
"Why'd you bring me up here?" he asked again. "You didn't answer me before."
He saw her eyebrows contract as she considered his question. It was a minute before she answered. Was it really that difficult of a question that she had to think about it for that long?
"You needed help. I couldn't just leave you lying out there," she said eventually.
"But that guy on the TV said..." Cole began, but Shane cut him off.
"Maybe that guy on TV did say you were a terrorist or whatever, but do you honestly believe everything you see on TV?"
Cole had to admit she had a point. It was a relief if he was being honest, to hear someone say that. To know that there was one person who hadn't automatically assumed he was guilty, that he was a killer, meant more to him than he was willing to admit. He felt a lightness in his body that had nothing to do with the thought of eating a real meal. Maybe he'd finally found a friend.
"Is it okay if I get something to eat?" he asked, with a smile tugging at his lips. She smiled back at him, a real smile, displaying her white even teeth.
"I said you could, didn't I?"
Cole picked a few things out of the closet and sat down at her island to eat when a thought struck him.
"Where am I by the way?" he asked, stuffing a handful of pretzels in his mouth.
"Knights Bridge Road," Shane answered without looking back.
Cole swallowed his inhuman mouthful of food.
Knights Bridge Road. Just like the voice said...
He stared at the back of Shane's head. A fierce internal struggle was going on inside him. He had been so convinced that the voice had just been in his head, but now it seemed that maybe he had been wrong...
The voice said they would find me, on Knights Bridge Road... someone I could trust.
Shane had found him. Saved him. Cared for him and fed him. Whether or not the voice had been right or this was all a big coincidence, he felt like he owed her something.
"Thank you, by the way," he said, setting down the power bar he'd been gnawing on. Shane turned her wide eyes on him.
"For what?" she asked.
"For, you know, bringing me up here," he said, fiddling with the trash on the island. He briefly debated telling her that he'd heard a voice telling him to come here, but quickly decided against it. He already felt like he was crazy, he didn't need other people confirming he was crazy. Shane shrugged.
"Don't worry about it," she said easily. "It's kind of nice having somebody to talk to after all these days by myself." Cole nodded and finished chewing up the nutrition bar.
"So..." Cole began hesitantly. He hadn't done small talk in a while. "What do you do?"
"Do?" Shane said, raising an eyebrow as she turned on the couch to face him.
"What's your job?"
"Oh," Shane said, nodding. "I'm a medical technician."
Cole immediately felt inferior. He hadn't gone to college, though he'd regretting that once he'd met Trish. Trish had been a medical student. And now Shane was a medical technician. And... Cole had been a bike courier. He didn't exactly get great benefits or pay. He knew he wasn't as smart as Trish, and now he'd suspected Shane was probably far more intelligent as well.
"I'm a bike courier," Cole said after taking another bite of food. Shane's mouth twitched as she nodded but didn't say anything. She wasn't offering up much information about herself. Cole started to wonder if he was annoying her. "So... how did you know I was outside your apartment?"
Shane shrugged once again.
"I didn't," she said. "I was going out to collect rain water when I saw you lying there. You were kind of hard to miss."
"Rain water?" Cole asked. "Why would you need that?"
"In case the power goes out again," Shane said. Cole lowered his eyes. Shane must have heard all the things the lunatic on TV had been saying about him. She knew people had been calling him a terrorist. Was she going to blame him for the power going out? Maybe the best course of action would be to apologize in advance.
"Sorry," he mumbled.
"Hm?" Shane said. She had stood up and wandered over to the window and was looking down. He wondered what she was looking at. It was around 3 am, still too dark to see much of anything outside.
"Sorry the power went out," Cole muttered, suddenly not hungry anymore. Coming into Shane's house and seeing how she was living made him feel even worse about being involved in the explosion.
Shane turned from her stare out the window, her eyebrows raised.
"Right, because it's all your fault, not that massive explosion..." she said, touching her own cheek in what seemed like a nervous gesture.
Cole felt his pulse lowering. She wasn't going to blame him. But now something else was bothering him. The more time he spent with this girl, the more he felt like he knew her. As much as she was trying to be closed off, trying to shut him out, Cole just had this unshakable feeling that she knew him too, and not only from rumors on the street. Why else would she have taken in a stranger during this dangerous time? He wished with all his might that he could remember more from the day of the explosion... His hands sparked out of anxiety. Shane barely even looked over at that. She had gone back to staring adamantly out the window.
"What's wrong?" Cole asked, after a minute.
"They're out there," she whispered, turning fearful blue eyes on him. "Those sick people who kill anybody who gets in their way..."
Cole stood up. He was feeling better than he had in days. He had had restful sleep, food in his stomach, and electricity in his blood. Granted, he probably still smelled like a dumpster, but Shane had tactfully not brought that up.
"Want me to go get rid of them?" he growled, stalking over to the window. He looked down and saw what she was seeing, a group of red coated men with machine guns was congregated near a street light. Shane looked alarmed.
"Are you crazy? Do you see all those guns?" she said, gesturing out the window. "No, if you need to leave, then go out the back where I found you."
Cole didn't want to leave. This place was the only place he'd found peace in what felt like ages. But... he couldn't let those freaks hurt this girl. Would she ever let him come back to see her once he'd left? Cole glared at the group of Reapers, wishing they would just leave... But what were they even doing? His gut clenched uncomfortably as the answer hit him like a ton of bricks.
They're looking for me. They must know I'm still in the area... I have to go before they find me. They'll hurt this girl to try and get to me.
"Could I use your bathroom? I'll leave out the back then. I really shouldn't stay," he said after a minute of observing the group out the window. They didn't seem inclined to move.
Shane nodded distractedly.
"In my bedroom," she said, waving vaguely in the direction of her room.
Cole wandered into the bathroom. He sighed exasperatedly when he saw his face in the mirror. His skin was lightly coated in grime. His beard was tangled and scruffy. His eyes were wild and yet dead looking. His clothes were ripped and bloody and filthy. He looked like a deranged psychopath. Why the hell had this girl let him into her apartment looking like this?
Shaking his head, he went to the bathroom and washed his face in the sink. Feeling slightly better but still wishing he had his clippers so he could trim his beard, he wandered back out into the living room.
Shane was still standing at the window when he came back. For a moment he felt like she was more transparent than any person should be... but then he blinked and she looked normal again.
"So, um... I really should go," Cole said. He glanced out the window. The reapers were still out there. They were determined to wait until he showed his face, apparently... Shane glanced at him distractedly, her blue eyes flicking from the window to him and then back to the window.
"If you don't mind my asking... what are you going to do?"
"Er... go home?" Cole said in an would be casual tone.
Shane raised her eyebrows.
"Why do I not believe you?" she said, her eyes locking onto his. Cole shifted uncomfortably. She really was pretty... now that he was closer to her, he could tell exactly what shade of blue her eyes were. They were a clear sky blue, like a summer's day on the beach.
"Okay, so I don't have anywhere to go per say..." Cole said, averting his eyes from her intense gaze. Shane nodded slowly, giving him a sad little smile.
"I'm sorry," she said simply. Cole clenched his fists. He could have gone back to Trish's apartment and lived there. But... he couldn't. He was certain Trish's ghost would haunt the halls of that place. With how many dead people he'd had in his head the last couple weeks, he didn't think he could chance living there without risking his sanity in the process.
"It's... it's okay," he said, staring at the floor now. It wasn't okay. It was pretty fucking awful as a matter of fact. Everything he'd said to the voice was true. He was alone, he had nowhere to go, and his girlfriend was dead. And he was slowly losing his grip on reality. Or was he?
The voice said I'd find someone to help me... Am I supposed to stay here? But she's just a tiny girl, younger than me even... I can't endanger her. That's not right.
"Are you sure you want to leave?" she said, regarding him with a piercing stare. Cole looked away from those sky blue eyes yet again. He felt like they could see too much this close to him.
No, I'm not.
"Yeah, I can't stay," he said.
"Okay, this way."
Shane moved the furniture away from her door. She led him down a darkened stairwell to a door that was bolted shut with a heavy iron lock. The lights overhead flickered as he passed. Shane made no comment.
"This is it," she said softly.
She undid the lock and pushed the door open, revealing the tiny alley that she had found him in. The small girl turned back to face him and fixed him with her wide eyes.
"I hope you'll be alright," she said. For a moment Cole thought she might hug him, but then she seemed to think better of it.
"Thanks," he said awkwardly. "For everything."
"You're welcome." She nearly smiled as she took a step back. Cole stepped back out into the alley. He wanted to ask her if they'd known each other before all this and he'd just forgotten they'd met...but then the door closed and her pale face disappeared.