Chapter 6: The Fog Car
"I said no."
"Oh c'mon Mono," I replied, "You can't seriously say that you're not even a little interested."
"I can, and I just did. I'd rather not have my second in command wasting our time on something as ridiculous sounding as a blue number."
"We are on a train with a seemingly infinite number of cars that could contain literally anything you could think of, but blue numbers is the thing that's ridiculous to you?"
"We aren't discussing this any further, now drop it Shay."
Mono and I were in his personal quarters/office, talking about the interesting news David and his team brought us a couple days ago. The walls and ceiling were made of green stone engraved with ancient looking texts and pictures, covered with numerous pieces of stolen art that were, as well as a few places on the walls, defaced in spray paint with the Apex's symbol. There was a bookshelf with dozens of ruined books, a desk and chair with a few papers on it, a king sized bed in the back middle of the room with the softest covers and pillows we could find, and a large golden throne right in front of the bed facing the door. To be honest, I thought the throne was a bit overkill, considering there was already a perfectly fine throne room here, but for some reason he needed a second one in his room. But Mono's the leader, so he can do what he wants. Anyway Mono was sitting in his very unnecessary throne jotting down things in a notebook as we talked.
"But what if it's true? This girl could be something special, maybe even be some kind of asset to the Apex."
"I don't care!" he said, raising his voice, "Drop. It. That's an order."
Now Mono's orders would be followed without question by anyone else in the Apex. I mean it makes sense, Mono scares the living crap out of virtually everyone here due to how he operates. In fact a couple years back, someone questioned his right to lead us and… that kid left the Apex, without most of his teeth. But Mono's become more understanding since then, plus I know he'd never hurt me. We've been in the Apex together for almost twenty years now, and as terrifying as he can be, he still sees me as his little sister. So his orders don't phase me as much.
"Okay then," I said turning around, "I guess you're right, I mean who knows what a blue number really means anyway? For all we know, it could be a rating of some sort. Maybe this girl is somehow above us in some kind of ranking system. She's probably more important than us even."
Mono stopped writing, then after a moment he sighed. I know what Mono's like, and exactly what would hook him.
"Fine," he said annoyed, "You want to know so badly, go and bring her back then."
"Thank you, Leader Mono, I'll leave at once."
"And while you're at it, take David's team with you."
"You're giving them another shot?" I asked. Mono isn't known for second chances, so this surprised me.
"They were the ones who supposedly saw this girl, so they have the most experience here. Plus I don't want to waste any actual useful resources on this."
As blunt as Mono's reasoning was, I was happy he hadn't completely given up on those three. At least, I don't think he has.
"You got it, I'll be back before you know it." I said going for the exit.
"Oh, and Shay,"
"Yes?" I turned my head.
"Try not to die out there." He said almost playfully.
"Ha, no promises."
Later, I was standing next to the exit door to the car. It was outside in a jungle-like area with tall trees covered in moss and vines. There was a stone path in the ground leading back to the Apex about a ten minute hike away. It was kinda humid out, but I liked the scenery out here. Honestly it was a sight better than all the graffiti spray painted on every other structure here, a feature that I hoped wouldn't carry over from the Apex's old residence, but seeing how young most of our ranks are now, I guess it was a given.
After a bit of waiting for them, I was greeted by David, Billy, and Alex walking on the path.
Sorry for the wait Commander Shay," said David, "We had some urgent business we needed to take care of."
"Yeah, if you want to call finishing lunch, "Urgent," then sure." Alex said with air quotes.
"Shut up!" David yelled, "We're already in hot water thanks to that supply run, don't make it worse."
"Well maybe we wouldn't be if you just stopped flirting with every girl we come across on the train." he retorted.
"That's not why we… shut up!"
I couldn't help but let out a laugh, these guys were just really funny to me.
"So why did you send for us, Shay?" Asked Billy, "Are we in trouble?" All three looked at me worried when he said this.
"No, don't worry, it's nothing like that. Mono has assigned you three to come with me on a mission."
"He has?" Alex asked.
"Us?" said David, "After what happened last week?"
"That's right. He even said you three are the best pick for this one." I decided to paraphrase a bit, because I don't like to be as harsh as Mono is sometimes.
There was a brief silence before David spoke up.
"Again… us?" he said before I gave him a nod, "Alright then, what's the mission?"
"Before I say, I'm going to need you to tell me everything that happened with the blue numbered girl."
"I didn't know you could draw, Meg." Hazel said surprised.
Hazel and I were currently walking out of an art themed car, where you had to win a drawing contest to open the door.
"Yeah, I took art as an elective last year, but I don't think my stuff's all that great."
"Are you kidding? Your drawing was so good!"
There were a few things in the car we could use as bases, and I made a sketch of a bowl of fruit. I figured the bowl was a bit boring on it's own, so I drew some of the fruit climbing out of the bowl dressed as prisoners. After I was finished I thought it was a super dumb idea, but I was surprised when I was given first place.
"You think so? I don't know."
"Seriously, you have talent. You should draw more often, especially now that you got that cool notebook."
In my hands I was holding a big dark blue spiral notebook with a blue ribbon design printed on the front. Turns out the prize for first place was this. I opened it up to see the thick paper within. The right pages were blank while the left were lined, I think it's meant for taking notes and making illustrations of them. Along with the book came a special pen that could be changed to mimic loads of different colors and drawing tools. As cool as it was, it only seemed to work on the pages of the notebook. I looked down at my first drawing with it.
It was a man in a red and black suit, a mask with white eyes, and two katanas on his back, eating a slice of pizza through his mask. Honestly I was surprised how good it turned out, but I think the pen helped a lot with that. I don't know why I stopped drawing, it was always a fun little hobby for me. I guess after my art class was done, I lost most of my enthusiasm for it. Maybe I should start doing it again.
"Thanks Hazel," I said as I put my notebook in my bag, "I think I will."
As we approached the next door, I started to see a vision of a young Hazel standing with an older woman with greying brown hair. They were both wearing identical grey uniforms and black belts with a wavy red line on them. They were facing away, making it hard to see their faces, but I assumed the older woman was this mentor Hazel's talked about before.
I let out a little sigh looking at it. These visions were becoming more and more frequent lately, and honestly they were getting old. I mean seeing what happened to Mom, Dad, Aunt Tulip, and Hazel on the train has been interesting, but I started to notice it's only mainly those four in them. I mean there were a couple exceptions like with Lincoln, but they only happen close to when I first meet them and stop after we part ways. Plus, ever since I started having these visions, I haven't had any involving Emily. I don't know how it works but I wished I could see what Emily was going through. The lack of information was making my imagination turn on me, making me think of all the terrible things that could be happening to her.
I shook my head. If I wanted to find her, I couldn't let myself stress too much over it. I sucked it up and continued through the door ahead of us
The next car we went in was a lot different than ones we've been in before. This one was covered with a thick blue-ish fog, completely hiding the contents. The ground kinda looked like stone, but that's all I could see, and I could barely see it at that.
"I can't see a thing in here." I said, struggling, "This dumb fog isn't poisonous or something… Is it?
"No way, One wouldn't go that far. He wouldn't just make a poison car." Then Hazel pulled her tablet from her bag, "Buuuuut… just to be safe, let's see what this stuff actually is."
Hazel then started tapping her tablet until a beep could be heard. She looked a little annoyed at that, and said something quietly to herself.
"Oh sure, you can analyze this stuff in an instant, but it takes over two weeks for… whatever." She said with a sigh.
"So uh, what is it?"
"Well it won't kill us, but breathing it probably isn't a good idea." Hazel held her tablet for me to see and it had the letters Fe on it. "This fog is mainly made of iron particles, and I'd be willing to bet it covers the whole car."
Hazel then went into her bag and pulled out two black face masks before putting one on.
"Here, put this on." she said, handing me the second.
"You have extra masks on you? Wouldn't you normally only need one?"
"It's good to always be prepared, Meg. You never want to be caught out without a mask, especially now."
I shrugged it off.
"Fair enough, but we still can't see a thing in here." I said putting on the mask. "Don't you have something else in your bag that could help?"
"No, sorry. I honestly wish I had something to blow away this fog, same as you."
The way Hazel phrased that, it gave me an idea.
"Hang on, what did you say this stuff was made of again?"
"Iron, why do you ask?"
I smiled hearing her answer, then took off my backpack and opened it up. A moment later I had pulled out a dented small metal cube with a switch and panel on it.
"Your friend's science fair project?" Hazel asked, "How's that gonna help?"
"You'll see." I said holding it in my hands before, speaking quietly to it, "Please work, I've literally just hyped you up."
When I first found it, I didn't actually tell Hazel what it did, I didn't think it was important at the time. But I'm kinda glad I didn't, because the look of awe on her face as I switched it on was amazing. When I flipped the switch, the cube turned on and immediately began to push the fog a few feet from us. There was now a dome reaching six feet in radius of clean air around us with Emily's cube in the center.
"Whoa!" Hazel exclaimed, "What's happening?"
"Cool right? Emily built this cube to repel metal stuff with magnets, and by the looks of it, she made it even stronger."
"Wow, and your friend made that?" Hazel said pulling down her mask, "Man, she must be a very smart girl."
"The smartest," I said enthusiastically, "Emily is a straight up genius!"
With that hurdle out of the way, Hazel and I began to walk to the other side of the car. We still couldn't see through the fog around us, but it was a lot better than not being able to see a foot past our faces. Hazel said that cars like this, where it's just a big room with one gimmick, should have their exit doors right across from each other. In other words, if we just continue straight, then we'd be out in no time.
Unfortunately as we walked, I started to get a headache. At this point, I had gotten used to the smaller visions with people just appearing and wouldn't feel pain from them anymore. Instead I would just get a feeling. But this time, it was really hurting. It must be a big one this time. I let out a quick yelp in pain, causing Hazel to turn her head back towards me.
"You okay Meg?"
"Yeah, I'm good. Just a little headache."
"You sure? Because you've been having a lot of headaches lately." she said, concerned, "Really, what's up?"
"Nothing, I…" I was about to lie again, but I started to feel kinda bad. Hazel has proven many times that she's on my side, on Emily's. As time went on, I felt more and more guilty about keeping this from her. I let out a sigh. "No… No you're right. Something is up."
We both stopped, and Hazel turned to me with a curious expression, waiting for me to continue.
"Hazel… I've been having visions."
"Visions?" Hazel asked surprised, "What do you mean? What kind of visions?"
"Visions of past events on this train, visions of me, people we've met… even my parents."
"Your parents?"
"Yeah, turns out they were on the train at some point too, who would've guessed. I've also been having visions of you."
"So these visions have been giving you headaches?" she asked before I nodded in response. "When did you start getting them?"
"I think… it was right before the car I met you in. I was in one that showed me the past, like the visions, before my number glitched out. After that, the car shut off or something, and I started seeing the past on my own. I have no control over it, and I don't know when or even if it'll stop."
Hazel spent a minute thinking, before she spoke with a calming tone.
"Well that explains the inactive car I found after finding you. From what I can tell, it was your number that made this happen. It might've absorbed the ability from the car itself into you, but I can't say for sure." She explained before she bore a hopeful look, "Don't worry though, once we get the results, we should know everything."
"Results?" I asked confused, "What results?"
An immediate look of regret grew on Hazel's face. She clearly didn't mean to say that.
"Well, um…" she said with a hand on the back of her neck for a moment. Seeing no way out of this, Hazel sighed. "Meg, there's something I need to tell you too."
I didn't like the sound of that, whatever she had to tell me, I doubted it was good.
"What is it?"
"...Back in that car with the ghoms, after I helped you, I sorta… Um..." she started to say before pausing.
Hazel looked the most uncomfortable I've ever seen her, and it was taking her a long time just to say it. Unfortunately she took just a second too long, because right before she could go on, I felt one of the worst pains I've had from a vision in a while, making me fall forward holding my head.
"AHHH!" I yelled.
"Meg!"
Hazel quickly stopped me from falling by grabbing both my shoulders in support, but this pain was so bad, I actually started to black out like in the desert. I could barely hear Hazel call my name again before I fully passed out.
I stood on the sand of this ruined car, as I watched the ghom burrow into the ground in retreat, making me let out a sigh in relief. With it gone, I was now free to help the passenger it was attacking. I turned around to see that the girl I saved was now lying down on her side in the sand. I jogged up to her then slowed to a walk as I got close. When I was in front of her, I could see her look up at me. I took off my visor so I could see her clearer. This girl was wearing a purple shirt, blue jeans, black and white sneakers, a red backpack, and a grey hoodie tied around her waist. Before long, the girl had closed her eyes as she passed out.
"That ghom really did a number on you huh?" I said, kneeling down and picking her up in my arms. "Don't worry, there aren't any of those things where I'm taking you."
Sometime later, I had arrived back in the hotel room and placed the unconscious girl on the untouched second bed before placing her hoodie and backpack on a chair across the room. I sat down on the bed I slept in, and looked over at the girl.
"You should be safe here until I get back."
As much as I wanted to keep an eye on her, and as much as I wanted to finally make pancakes, I got a new alert on my tablet on the way here telling me there was something wrong in the car prior to this one, so I had to check it out. I was about to leave, but I looked back towards the girl feeling kinda curious. Specifically of her right hand. What was her number at? Now I didn't think it would be a big deal, I mean every passenger has a number, and I'd learn it eventually right? But when I turned over her hand to look at her palm I was completely floored.
"What the… what is…"
I could barely comprehend what I was seeing. This girl had a number of 274 which would be normal on it's own, but her's was glowing blue.
"A blue number?" I asked shocked, "What... what does that mean?"
Of all my time on the train so far, I've never seen a number that was blue. Amelia mentioned something about red ones before, but never blue. I just looked down at her number with my mind racing. This couldn't be normal, I have never seen anything like this ever. Every passenger I've ever met has had a regular green number, so is something wrong with hers? I doubt it was as simple as One being responsible for this, otherwise he would've made one of those stupid documentaries explaining it, and I know he didn't because my tablet receives one every time he makes them. Speaking of, why can the conductor send me stuff on this when Amelia's the one who made it? Also why didn't she add a communicator or something? I could really use her help right now.
I shook my head. I was getting off track. Amelia wasn't here to give me advice, but she did show me what to do in situations like this. I opened up my bag and pulled out two things. First I grabbed my tablet and turned it on, then went to the analysis program on it. Next thing I pulled out was a little plastic container. I faced the girl again as I opened the container and pulled out a syringe.
"Sorry about this," I said to the sleeping girl as I held the needle close to her arm, "But if this is something serious, then I need to know what it is."
With that I slowly injected the needle into the girl's arm before filling the little glass tube with a sample of her blood. I then took the needle out and inserted it into a little hole on the top of my tablet. After a moment the screen changed. It now read "Analyzing DNA sample," before it changed again into a progress bar with a percentage at the top. To be honest I was a bit confused because the bar was moving very slowly. Usually whenever Amelia does it, it's almost instant. Though I guess that was with train stuff and not with girls with weird numbers. After a moment of waiting, I put the tablet away figuring it would finish eventually before I turned to the girl again.
"I'll be right back, we can talk then." I turned to the exit once more, but before I walked to it I said one last thing to the girl next to me. "Whatever's going on with your number, I guess we can figure it out together."
As I started to regain consciousness, I could see a blur of slightly blue fog above me. I was sitting on the stone floor as I could feel myself being held up by another person. When I looked, I was promptly irritated. Hazel was looking down at me while propping me up with her arms.
"Meg, thank goodness. Are you okay?"
Without hesitation, I quickly raised my hands up and shoved her away from me before standing up on my own. As Hazel did the same, she stared at me completely shocked.
"Meg, what the hell was that for?"
"You took my blood." I said almost with a whisper.
"I… what?" Hazel said now frozen stiff.
"Don't what me! I saw it! You took my freaking blood, I mean are you serious?"
"M- Meg listen, you don't understand." She said with a cautious tone, "Your number, it's-"
"It's what?" I interrupted, "It's wrong? It's broken? Yeah I know that! But how the hell is that an excuse?"
"It… It's not, but Meg, I've never seen a number like yours, ever. I had to find out, for your sake, and for the train's."
"You couldn't have at least waited until I woke up to ask me?"
"I couldn't risk you wandering off before I could analyze it."
All this did was earn a disgusted groan from me. Then I had a bad thought.
"Was that the reason you even wanted to travel with me in the first place? Just to wait for your stupid results to finish?"
"No!" Hazel said quickly as she raised her hands up in defense. "That wasn't… well…"
With that last word of hesitation from her, I now knew the truth. I was now furious and started to scream.
"Goddamnit, I knew it!" I yelled before pointing at Hazel, "You never wanted to help me find Emily, you just wanted to learn about my stupid number. No one actually cares about me, or her. Not you, not Bill, not even my goddamn parents!"
"Meg that- that's not true. I-"
"Don't you dare lie to me again! That's all you adults ever do. Lie or abuse. Lie to me, and abuse her! Well I'm done trusting anyone. Emily is all that matters!"
With that I turned around and sprinted into the unending fog.
"Meg wait!" Hazel yelled after me.
It didn't matter though, I was done listening. As I ran, the fog around me became denser and denser, and the further I got, the less I could hear Hazel's voice. I ran for what felt like a good minute before I finally stopped to catch my breath. Unfortunately all that did was get the iron-rich fog into my lungs. I immediately began to hack before quickly pulling up my mask. It was then that I realized that I must've dropped Emily's cube when I passed out.
"Dammit…" I said aloud, "Well I can't go back for it now… not with her there."
The part that I hated the most about this, was she was most likely now using it to try and find me. Hazel had no right to speak Emily's name, let alone use her project. I was so angry with her, but at the same time I was also angry with myself.
"Why did I let this happen? I knew Hazel was hiding things from the start, but I still pretended everything was fine, now look at me. I swear I should've done what other me wanted and just left her in…" As I began to say this, I caught a glimpse at my number when crossing my arms.
It had gone up. My number was at 189 before, but now it was at 205. I let out a sigh as I looked down at it.
"No… I don't mean that." I said, "Even if I hate to admit it right now, Hazel has been pretty helpful so far. I'd be dead without her at this point, and Emily would be stuck here forever."
I gritted my teeth as my number shifted. I hated it, but I knew deep down that I'd need Hazel to find Emily, and leaving her is the wrong choice. The train knew it too, and as if to confirm what I've been thinking my number lowered to an even 200.
"Damn you train."
I knew what I had to do, but before I could turn around I heard footsteps ahead of me. As I looked up, I could see a feminen figure approaching me from the fog. I sighed from seeing her.
"Listen Hazel," I said, "I'm willing to put up with travelling with you again, but when we find her, we are done! Do you understand m…"
I stopped. As the figure came into view, my eyes widened in surprise.
"Wait… you're not Hazel…"
"Meg! Meg where are you?" I yelled as I ran through the fog with the dome of air following.
Before I ran after Meg, I quickly picked up her friend's device and sprinted forward with it in my hands.
"Meg please, I'm sorry, just come back! We can talk about this!" I continued, earning zero response.
I knew this would happen if I didn't tell her myself, but I still let my fear hold my tongue until the very last second. Now Meg knew what I've been analyzing all this time, and she most likely hated me now. Dammit, why didn't I just tell her?
No, I couldn't think like this. What mattered right now was getting us both out of this car. If she got lost, she probably wouldn't be able to find her way out. I partly transformed my legs for an extra boost in speed. That was another thing I'd have to tell her, but after what just happened I didn't think now was the best time to bring it up. When I do tell her I'm a denizen though, it'll be on my terms. Well, assuming she'll trust me again after this.
After some time of fruitless searching, I decided to just use my tablet's anomaly scanner again. When I booted it up, I could see a blip in front of me on the radar. Without wasting any time, I sped toward it, and after a moment, I could see a figure in the distance.
"Meg, please stop. Let's at least get out of this…" Before I could finish, something made me stop in my tracks.
When I was close enough to distinguish the figure some, I soon realized that it was not in fact Meg. And not just that, but I saw a second figure lying on the ground next to her. The standing figure turned to me as I cautiously stepped closer.
"You must be the second passenger I've been told about," a woman's voice said calmly. "Hazel right? Sorry, did I come at a bad time? Your friend seems really pissed at you right now."
As I got closer, I started to see the woman speaking, and when she was inside the cube's radius, I could see her clearly. She had dark brown hair that dropped just past her chin in the front and spiked out from the back, a slightly faded left eye, and a wavy red line across her face. Another Apex passenger. She wore a blood red open leather jacket with familiar looking armor underneath, jean shorts, and black boots. I looked at her with caution before looking back at the figure on the ground. With the fog around her gone, I could see the girl with reddish brown hair and a grey hoodie. Meg laid unconscious on the stone. I looked back up at the woman with anger in my eyes.
"Who are you?" I said with a serious expression, "What did you do to Meg?"
"You can call me Shay," she said nonchalantly before she looked more remorseful, "And sorry about her, she didn't give me much choice. I hoped to talk her into coming with me, but she wasn't willing to listen. She's gonna have to be carried back to the Apex now."
"Why? What do you want with her?"
"You might've not known this, but blue numbers aren't exactly a common thing on this train. They always glow green, but for some reason hers is blue. The Apex simply wants to know why, and if it means something special, then maybe we can have her join us."
"That's not happening anytime soon. Meg's seen how you guys operate, and she'd never want to be a part of that."
"You never know. When we take her back, she just might change her mind when she learns what the Apex is really about."
"You're not taking her anywhere." I said sternly before taking a defensive stance, "I'll make sure of that."
Shay's expression went from a casual look to a more serious one. She took a step forward as she put a hand into her jacket to grab something.
"You don't have to do this y'know, It's just her we want. You could continue on, and no one would have to know about you. Or if you wanted, you could just come with us, we're always looking for new passengers. We don't have to start a fight."
She had a point, I could've let her take Meg and just follow along with her. It probably would've been easier for me too. I'm not just talking about fighting either. Sometime after I went on my own, I decided to look for someone I haven't seen in a long time. I always knew finding Grace on this train would be almost impossible, since not only One apparently can't remember every car's placement anymore, but also because they're not actually named in the system. They're just labeled by numbers. At least the older ones are.
My goal was to find the Apex and meet with Grace again, but ever since I saw those three twerps in the box car, I've been afraid of what I'd see, and what Grace might've become. I hoped that she was different now, more understanding of the denizens, and honest with herself. Even back then I felt a goodness inside her, but there was just one problem.
Simon. When my fears invade my thoughts, I see Grace being influenced by Simon, turning her back to how she was before we met. And seeing these Apex passengers only strengthened that fear. I looked down at Meg again. Seeing what Shay had done, seeing what the Apex was willing to do, I knew the reality. Grace or no, the Apex still isn't good. I looked back up at Shay again.
"I'll take my chances here."
Shay let out a sigh.
"Fine, have it your way, but you should know something. When it comes to the Apex…" Shay said before taking out a short metal pole from her jacket, extending it to about five feet, quickly spinning it in her right hand, then slamming it down on the ground, "I will do whatever it takes to complete my mission."
"Hmpf, well you won't be completing-"
Shay wastes no time here. Before I could even finish, she charged forward with her staff intent on striking me. I quickly dodged out of the way, but as soon as I did Shay used her remaining momentum to swing her staff at me. At the last minute I raised my now partly transformed arms to block the attack, but she wasn't done. She continued to vigorously slam her staff down as I defended myself.
After about five more strikes, I decided to retaliate. For the sixth blow, I jumped back and caught the staff in front of me in my hands. I felt a brief smirk grow on my face before I was quickly surprised when she lunged forward striking me in the chest with the metal pole. I didn't expect her to over power me that suddenly.
I noticed two things in that moment. One, this woman was stronger than she looked; and two, she clearly wasn't messing around.
I backed a few feet from her after the sudden pain, and held a hand over my chest as I glared at her. She looked back with a smirk of her own before she backed up into the fog, making herself harder to see. When Shay had completely disappeared from sight, I swiftly began to glance around me, hoping to spot her next incoming attack. It was then I noticed Meg halfway outside the dome of air, so I quickly stepped closer and kept her in sight. If I wasn't careful, Shay could easily run off with Meg when I wasn't paying attention.
I wasn't having any luck finding Shay. I could hear her footsteps, but I couldn't pinpoint where they were coming from exactly. Leaving Meg wasn't an option, so I couldn't go looking for her. And trying to see Shay out in the fog was next to impossible, even with my denizen abilities. I had a way to see in the dark, but I had nothing that could let me pierce through this dense fog.
I stood there looking all around me, before I heard what sounded like something shooting out. Suddenly out from the fog, a metal round object connected by a metallic rope flew at me. I moved at the sudden sound so the thing could only graze me. As it flew back into the fog behind me, I heard the metal part attach somewhere on the ground, and the rope then became taut. Before I could realize what was happening, Shay followed suit as she zip lined past and smacked me with her staff. I fell back onto my hands as she was pulled back into the fog. She was now using one of those harpoon pack things Grace and Simon used. I knew the armor under her jacket looked familiar. Though I remembered those things being a bit bulkier, especially in the back.
I began to get up, but right as I steadied myself another harpoon shot through, pulling in Shay as she got me in the back. Shay kept attacking as she continued zipping through the twelve foot dome of air around me, but after a few more times I was fed up. The area turned silent as I waited for her next assault. I listened to her running steps around me before she stopped. That's when I prepared myself.
When I heard the harpoon shooting toward me, I quickly turned, and right before it could pass me, I grabbed the rope and yanked on it with both hands. Each time Shay attacked so far, she had a concentrated expression. This time though, she looked completely baffled. When Shay flew toward me this time, I promptly side kicked her right in the stomach knocking her back into the fog she came from. Before anything else, I briefly used my claws to cut the rope, then changed my hand back to normal. I knew what the Apex thought of denizens, and I didn't want them to know I was one. I heard Shay groan in pain as she got back up.
"Dammit," She swore under her breath, "You're not a pushover I'll give you that, but you still won't stop me."
I heard her shoot her harpoon pack once more, and I was ready to grab the last rope, but it didn't come. Instead I heard the harpoon attach somewhere on an apparent ceiling, and after hearing the rope retract and the harpoon let go, I could see a figure high above with a staff falling toward me. She was attempting to throw me off with an air assault, but at this point I was done with this.
Shay swung her staff down expecting me to either dodge or block it. However, when she landed in front of me I effortlessly grabbed the staff above me in my bare hand, earning a look of confusion from her. Aside from my head and hands, I had partly transformed my entire body giving me more strength than Shay could possibly hope for. Her confused look became one of worry when I pulled her closer by the staff and grabbed her wrists.
I then forced her through the air over my shoulder as I slammed her down onto her back in front of me. She let out a coughing exhale as I knocked the wind out of her. After a breath, Shay looked at me with a now angry look.
"Oh you bitc-"
She was cut off when she realized I had grabbed her staff, and was now standing above her pointing it down at her, solidifying my victory.
"Like I was saying, you won't be completing this mission."
Shay kept her angered eyes on me before they darted down for a split second. That's when she noticed something. Her eyes widened some as she stared at my right arm in confusion. Curious, I followed her line of sight and became worried. As I held the staff down, a small portion of my arm could be seen between my glove and my sleeve. About half an inch of green scales were exposed.
Before I could say anything else, I could feel two little metal prongs shoot into my back that promptly sent electricity flowing through my whole body, which was followed by an incredible amount of pain. The metal pole I was holding wasn't helping either. It was giving the electricity a straight line to travel through my torso to my arm, making the pain even worse. After a few agonizing seconds later, it had stopped and I fell to the ground. Three others approached Shay from the fog as I started to black out.
"You alright Commander Shay?" Asked a familiar sounding boy.
"Yeah, she just caught me off guard is all," Shay said, getting to her feet. "Thanks for the assist, David."
"It was my pleasure, and sorry we couldn't help sooner. We were securing the area for you."
"Yeah sure, securing the area." said another voice sarcastically, "We totally weren't just watching the fight from a safe distance."
There was a moment of silence before David spoke in a deadpanned voice.
"Sometimes I really hate you Alex."
Shay let out a laugh before she turned to me with a cold expression. She then walked over and knelt down over me before examining my right arm. However when she pulled my sleeve down, all she could see was normal looking skin.
"What?" She said confused, "I swear it was…"
"Commander Shay?" Spoke David, "Is something wrong?"
"No, no. I just thought I… Nevermind. Help me with these two, you three. It's a long way back to the Apex from here."
"Wait, I thought we were only after Meg or whatever her name is."
"...Slight change of plans."
When I started to wake up for at least the second time today, I could feel myself sitting on the ground leaning against a wall. As my eyes fluttered open, I soon saw my colorful surroundings. The car I was in was a pretty strange one. Each and every thing in it looked like it was folded from origami paper. The ground, the hills, even a few trees, everything was made of colorful paper. Even though this place might sound fun and playful with how I've described it so far, the vibe was the complete opposite seeing the rest. Littered throughout the car were tons of crumpled, torn, or squashed pieces of origami. Some looked like they were supposed to be flowers, tiny buildings… even little birds. I shuddered at the thought that they could've been living beings at one point.
I tried to get up, but I soon discovered that my arms and legs were tied preventing me from going anywhere. The area I was sitting in had a campfire with a metal spindle for cooking above it, some stools, and a large roofed tent in the corner with a few large red A's spray painted on it. Seeing roughly only four passengers here, I guessed this was a sort of outpost for the Apex.
Something else I noticed, that just a foot or two away from me tied up as well, was none other than Hazel the blood thief herself. But unlike me she looked out cold, which was fine by me. I did not want to talk to her at the moment. I managed to scoot away from her a bit as somebody noticed me awake. When I was happy with the little distance I've made, someone walked up to me. It was the woman with brown hair and red jacket from before. She squatted down to my level before speaking.
"Good to see that you're up," she said as I only stared at her with an unamused look on my face, "Meg right? My name's Shay."
"Yeah I remember, you're the lady who knocked me out." I replied coldly.
"Right… sorry, I didn't want to do that."
"Oh yeah? Then why did you?"
"My mission was to escort you to the Apex, but you didn't really give me a chance to explain that. We were hoping you would potentially join us."
"Oh is that all? Well how can I say no now?" I said ramping up the sarcasm, "I mean the bruise on my head is making me feel sooo welcome right now."
"I said I was sorry, okay? Hurting you was the last thing I wanted to do, but you wouldn't listen to reason."
Honestly I couldn't really argue with her there, when I get angry it becomes hard to listen to other people sometimes. Guess I got that from Mom. Not that I'm defending this Shay woman here. I looked away before responding more calmly.
"Yeah, whatever. What do you guys even want with me anyway?"
"Well, your number, the Apex has never seen or even heard about anything like it before, so we wanted to find out about-"
"Oh god!" I exclaimed annoyed, "How'd I not guess it? Well you're gonna have to get in line, cause I've already got someone going to weird lengths to find out about it."
Shay glanced over at Hazel for a moment before responding.
"Well… I'm sure the Apex can-"
"Look," I said cutting her off, "I'm not here to join your stupid group, I'm not here to make new friends, and at this point I don't care about my number. I'm only here to find someone I really care about, and I will do whatever it takes to see her again. Now will you leave me alone?"
Shay was shocked by my sudden outburst. Silence hangs in the air for a moment before a light frown grows on her face.
"Okay, I'm going." She said in a softer voice, "But please, when we get to the Apex, at least hear us out."
I didn't respond. I simply continued to look away as I watched her walk off out of the corner of my eye. She seemed genuinely upset over that.
I let out a sigh. I couldn't help but think of how much this sucked. First I figure out Hazel has been lying to me this whole time, next I run into another Apex goon and she knocks me out, and now I was tied up about to go the the Apex! I couldn't believe how crappy this day was going. Although the more I thought about it, I soon realized this was actually a good thing. At least the last part was. Ever since I found Emily's cube, I've been hoping to find the Apex. Whatever happened to Emily, the Apex had something to do with it, and I was heading right to them.
If nothing else, I felt better knowing I'd get some answers… but I was also worried about what those answers could be. I sat there thinking to myself for a moment, before I started to get a small headache.
"Really?" I said quietly to myself, "Again with this?"
Soon the area around me began to change, although not into a different car like before, but a different version of the one I was in. It became much lighter out than it was previously, all of the stuff put in from the Apex was gone, and there were far less crumpled objects in the car. Although there were still a few leading to the exit door. Other than that, the car was pretty much the same.
I looked around for the star of this vision, before I saw a woman appear near the entrance. She had dark skin, black hair tied in dreadlocks, and a wavy line across her face. It was that Grace lady I've seen before, and she was laying on the ground looking totally out of it. Though it might've had something to do with the line of tape coming out of her head. I was confused from seeing her, so I looked around to see if there was someone else here, but it was just her.
I didn't understand because all of my visions so far involved a person I've at least met, but I've never met Grace, so I shouldn't be having a vision of her right? I then started to think about how my visions actually work. I know meeting or being connected to a person can give me visions of them, but what if it worked with more than just people? Maybe just being in the same car where certain events happened lets me see them in visions too. At least that's what I guessed. And here I thought this power couldn't get any weirder.
I soon heard a light gasp from Grace. As she woke up she let out a groan before putting a hand over her face. She was in the process of getting up when she noticed the tape. She looked at it confused until she realized it was coming out of her head.
"AHH!" she exclaimed.
After her brief moment of panic she carefully grabbed the tape, making it stop, before she started to pull it out. It looked incredibly uncomfortable for her as she did it. Once it was out, Grace looked in disgust at the tape covered in some weird goo before she threw it away from her, then frantically brushed whatever was left from her hair. She then sat there for a moment trying to catch her breath, before she turned toward the exit and noticed the crumpled birds in front of it. A look of sadness was on her face as she got up and walked over.
Grace knelt down, and stared at a crushed chrome bird in front of her.
"I'm… I'm sorry, you didn't deserve this…" she said to it, "If I knew, then I wouldn't have let him…"
Grace looked like she didn't know what to say, she stared lost in thought before she looked up at the door. Her look of sadness became one of angry determination.
"I… have to make this right."
With that, Grace stepped up and walked toward the exit with a stern expression, leaving the crumpled birds behind.
After that, Grace disappeared as the car returned to normal around me. I wasn't really sure what to make of this vision. From what I understood, the Apex only had jerks with high numbers in it who only care about those in their group. But it looked like Grace was actually upset there. I mean with how cruel I've seen it's members be, it was strange to see one care this much. Then again if she was friends with Hazel, then maybe she stole people's hair in their sleep or something.
Upon thinking this, I heard a bit of shuffling on my right. Speak of the devil, Hazel was waking up. She let out a groan as she started to open her eyes.
"Ugh… What happened?" Hazel said before she noticed the ropes that prevented her from getting up, "Wha- What's going on?"
"It seems like that lady from the Apex really kicked your ass." I said blankly.
Hazel looked over surprised at my voice.
"Meg? Are you alright, Meg?"
"The back of my head hurts now, but I'll live." I turned away some as I continued, "It looks like she's taking us to the Apex now."
"Well don't worry, when I get out of these ropes we can get the jump on them."
"We're not getting the jump on anyone, Hazel."
"What do you mean?" She asked confused.
"The Apex has to know about Emily, and we're being taken straight to them. There's no point trying to get away, I'm going right where I want to be." I turned my head back to give Hazel a glare out of the side of my eye, "Besides, I think I've had enough of your help for today."
Before I turned away again, I saw a face of guilt on Hazel. She then tried to speak in an apologetic tone.
"Meg… Meg I-"
"Stop…" I interrupted, "I get you were doing what you thought was right, but that doesn't mean it was. Especially not to me. You can keep traveling with me, but when we do find Emily, we are through. Do you understand?"
The silence was deafening, and the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. I knew where she was coming from, but I still couldn't forgive her for going against my back like that. After a few moments, Hazel finally answered.
"Yes… I understand."