"So, what info do we have, after almost 24 hours of stalking Dr Lance?" asked Ris, handing Five his cup of coffee. (Tall, black with 2 sugars) while sipping her own. (It was a mocha, extra chocolaty, with 2 sugars and a touch of cinnamon. Usually she would go for hot chocolate, but they were stalking Dr Lance for hours. She needed a cup of coffee.)
"That he is up to shady business, that he might be the manufacturer of the said eye, he likes Italian food and hates pizza, he has a no life outside work. Besides his dog Sparky. Has been dumped 95 girls." Five recited in a bored voice, this felt pointless. But it was their only lead, might as well follow it to the end.
Ris sighed. "It's not much, Rissa. But it's something, something important. I know it is" Five said taking a sip of his coffee. Ris raised her eyebrows. "What?"
"Nothing, I'm just…surprised. Usually, I'm usually the optimistic one." She said with a wryly grin, before straitening up. "There's our guy. So, you wanna do the talking?" she asked as she watched Lance walk towards his car, his dog in hand.
"It will be my pleasure, my dear Rissa" Five said taking her hand with his signature smirk, the two spacial- jumped away.
"Oh, Jesus!" panicked cry of Lance as Five pulled out his knife and pressing it against Lances throat.
"One chance. That's all you've got. One chance to tell me exactly what's going on in that lab." Five growled. "I, I manufacture prosthetics devices for fake patients. I bill the insurance companies and then sell them for cash on the black market." Lance said in his panicked voice. Five looked at Ris, she nodded. Lance was telling the truth. So far.
"Including eyeballs?"
"Yeah, they're my biggest seller. I mean, they sell like hotcakes. I've got a waiting list, probably 20 buyers."
"So, the serial number I told you" Five pressed. "Uh, could've already been bought. Yes, off off the books." Lance stuttered. Five groaned. "I needed that list, Lance. Names and numbers, and I need it now!"
"Better listen to him" Ris chirped from the backseat when she had been petting Sparky. "He's using his whining voice. Which means…" Ris drew her finger across her neck, while making a quiet clicking noise.
"I don't have it. I mean, not on me. The only copy's in my safe at the lab." Lance answered, his voice if possible going higher than ever.
"Well, you start the car, then. Cause we're going on a field trip." Five said slowly removing the knife. "Okay."
"Now." Five snapped before turning to Ris giving her a small smile. "Cute dog, Lance. Really, its soooo fluffy. Is it a poodle?" she asked as the three of them drove away.
"We need to find shelter." 13 said as they walked across the wasteland. "And, how to you propose we do that?" Five snapped a hint of malice in his voice. They had been walking for days, water and food were finished. The two of them were close to dehydration and starvation.
And 13 was talking about shelter! She wasn't wrong, they needed it. The days were getting colder the nights were even worst. But Five was more focus on feeding their stomachs than fighting the cold.
"I'm serious, Five. We'll freeze. The average human can survive 2 weeks without food and a week without water. It's been 4 days with no food and 2 without water. But we will die, if we don't find a place to stay in. We will freeze to death in the next few hours."
Five bit his lip. She was correct. The temperature of Earth had changed after the apocalypse. He sighed dropping the handle of his wagon, while running his finger through his hair.
"Where do you, suggest?"
Five and Ris (they dragged Lance along) walked quickly towards Meritech. The plan was simple. Lance gets them in and gets the file. Five and Ris track down the idiot who starts the end of life on earth and kill them. Then they celebrate with ice-cream and Griddy's donuts. With a grin on her face, Ris skipped towards Meritech, nothing could ruin this plan.
Suddenly she froze, sniffing the air and looking up. 'Was that…smoke?' Ris turned to Five, both wore equal looks of horror. The two ran toward Meritech.
The building was in flames, smoke billowed out and the sound of things breaking and glass shattering was all that Ris could hear.
That and Fives yell of "Nooooooo" which seemed to echo in her ears. Like her brain put the scene on fast-play. She knew it was going to happen before it did.
Raising her left hand grabbing Fives with the other as the building exploded. The two flew backwards. The debris that had been flying towards them, but stopped in mid-air, the smoke flew upwards as if someone had pushed it up. Someone did.
Five slowly picked himself up, before helping Ris. While the pavement had been cover in pieces of the building the patch of pavement where he and Ris landed on was untouched and still holding its colour.
The debris still floated in the air. Ris swatted her hand and the debris fell to the floor. The two stared at the building, with mixed emotions. The sound of sirens brought Five back to his senses.
"Come on, Rissa" he said gently taking her hand and spatial-jumping them away.
"We've been walking for hours, 13. There's NOTHING here!" Five yelled angrily as he followed the girl who never seemed to listen to him. It was extremely irritating! And…Smach!
Five had walked right into 13, he hadn't noticed she had stopped.
13 tilted her head to the side, before crouching down. Staring hard at something, she was so deep in thought she hadn't even felt Five walk into her. "What are you looking at?" Five asked as he looked in the same direction.
His eyes widened. It was the place were 13 had been trapped at. Now that Five didn't have a life to save, the place looked…strange, like something sinister had happened in the cave-like structure. It sort of came out of the ground, curving upwards.
13 walked towards it, in a trance-like state, Five followed her in confusion, making sure to remain silent. 13 slowly entered the mouth of the cave. The memory of her banging against the wall of rocks entered her mind, not knowing that Five was thinking about the exact same memory. 13 gave a small shiver, that did not go unnoticed by Five. Who instantly gave her hand a small squeeze of reassurance.
He knew about the nightmares that she had, and the sleepless nights. But he never talked about it, she didn't either. She never talked about anything, unless he asked and even then she would give vague answers or not answer at all. Which bothered him greatly, but how was he meant to ask? Something horrible happened to her. He knew that, but it was difficult to talk to a person who was silent most of the time. "13?" he called out when he felt her hand slide out of his.
"We need to go in there." She said calmly though her body language said otherwise. "Why?" Five asked. "There's food and water in there. It should be sheltered, it is underground, after all."
"What is 'it'?" Five asked even if possible more confused. "The lab." 13 said shortly before she walked into the darkness.
"Slap me,"
"No, Rissa…Why the hell would I slap you?"
"Because if you don't I am never going to believe that just happened." Ris said. "How…How in the name of…life itself did Meritech blow up? The building connected to the, apocalypse randomly exploding is as likely as Hermione Granger deciding to blow up a library!"
"Keep your voice down! And stop using Harry Potter references! I'm trying to think!" Five snapped as he dumped a black duffel bag onto the floor. The two were hiding out in the Argyle Public Library.
Mostly because it was the first place Five could think of, since he spent a lot of time in here as a child and in the apocalypse. Sitting down on the floor, Five turned to Ris who looked rather flustered. Taking her hands he gently guided her to the floor. Sitting down Ris's shoulders slumped and she rested her head on Fives's shoulder.
The two fell silent. "What do we do now, Five? We have no leads, no people, no…everything…" she asked turning her head to face him.
Five remained silent, before reaching into the duffel bag, pulling out Delores, a stack of books, a couple of pens and pencils and a large bottle of vodka. "We…find a new lead, a new variable." he said with an uncharacteristic burst of optimism.
"And if we don't! We drink!" Five cried out, grinning. Ris stared at him as he opened a number of books. "We've are gonna die." she murmured. "We are all gonna die."
4 hours later…
"SHIT!" Five yelled as he jumped up and started to fling his books and snapped his pencil. "Five! Shut up, we're in a library" Ris whisper-shouted angrily. Five ignored her and started to rip out pages from his book in anger, whiles muttering "This is shit! Shit! Fl-"
Ris grabbed his hand that was holding the book, placing her other over his chest. "Relax, we…we just hit a…roadblock…that's all. We'll figure it out, Five. I know we will." she said soothingly, rubbing his shoulder as he slowly he sat down.
Five having a mini meltdown was…unlikely. Especially one that caused him to fling his books around. Ris bit her lower lip, deep in thought.
"Stop,"
"Hmm"
"Stop that," Five said as he flicked her face causing her to stop biting herself. "You're going to hurt yourself and it's a bad habit."
"Your one to talk." Ris said, looking around, before jumping up; walking towards a bookshelf. After a few seconds she returned with 'Hunger Games', 'Catching Fire' and 'Mockingjay' by Suzanne Collins.
Returning to their corner she handed him 'Mockingjay'. Five raised his eyebrows, looking at the book. Before turning to Ris. "You never finished it." She said giving him a smile. "You finished the trilogy." He said after a few seconds. "Why are you reading it again?"
"Why are you asking me stupid questions?" Ris replied, sharply staring at Five as if he were crazy. "The entire trilogy was there. How could I not?"
Five grinned at her, this was his dear Rissa in her natural habitat. And it was the best time it witness it.
6 hours later….
Five slowly twirled his fingers through Ris's hair as she rested her on his chest while she read 'Catching Fire'. The two had settled into a peaceful silence of reading.
But after Five finished 'Mockingjay' he simply started to play with Ris's hair. It was oddly therapeutic and it also gave him time to think. About the apocalypse, about his messed up family, about Clarissa…Okay, his thoughts were mostly about Ris at the moment.
About where she had been, why was she 13 years old again, how she found him, What the Handler did to her? Because he knew something had happened, he could see the signs. Ris's signs. He also knew to would take some time for her to tell him.
She did only tell him the full story about the lab after knowing him for 2 months. And that's when they were the only people on the planet. How long would he have to wait? Considering the world was still intact.
"What happened to you, Ris?" he asked quietly as if trying not to break the calm that they had. She looked up at him. "What do you mean?"
"How are you here? How are you 13 years old again? What happened to you?" he mumbled, he might as well. The end of the world was in 5 days anyway.
She straighten up at stared at him, before giving a sigh and looking down at the closed book in her hands. "I found you, because I was sent with Hazel and Cha-Cha. I was sent to kill you."
"Yeah, I remember" Five said darkly, he was lucky he only got out with a few scratches.
"You do. What did I do?" she asked looking both hopeful and sad.
"What do you mean by 'What did I do?' You were the-…The Handler" he said in realization. Ris looked down her body language confirming his thoughts. "Holy Shit…Clarissa. Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't want to worry you." she answered, looking ashamed a look that did not fit her. "Guess, "I failed at that." she mumbled, tucking some hair behind her ear. "Wow…I feel so much better now," Five said dryly, before his voice turned gentle. "How much did you forget?"
"Not much, the days after you left…are blurry. I get flashes, bits and pieces at most. But Five, I did something. Something…monstrous. And the worst part is…I have no idea, what I did. What she made me do. I can read minds, but she, manged to use me. Like a toy. All because of that stupid chip. " Ris said her voice filled with anger and hate both for the Handler and herself.
"As for me being 13 again. I portaled-"
"Spacial-jumped" Five interrupted.
"Whatever, I spacial-jumped to Hazel and Cha-Cha. I don't know why she asked me to. Maybe to see if I could do it on my own. Anyway, once I entered the time stream. Poof, I was 13 years old again. I think it's because of my mimicking"
"Sorry about that." Five said slightly smirking as he looked at her. "That's my fault."
"Yeah, it is. But you know if you had listen to me about the frequency..."
"Oh, Shut up," Five grumbled.
4 hours later…
It was a bad idea. Five knew it was a bad idea, but he needed it… He really needed it. He didn't mean to finish the entire bottle it was an accident…. Honest.
'Ris is gonna kill me' seemed to be the only thought circling in his mind. She hated loathed when he drank. Apparently because he never knew when to stop. It appeared that was true. At least she was still asleep. For now…but it was only a matter of ti-
'Speak of the angel and she will wake up.'
Ris blinked her big doe eyes groggily still half asleep. Trying to rub the sleep out of them, Ris noticed Five's frigidly behaviour. Which meant 2 things: 1) He was keeping something important from her. Or 2) He was drunk, like high as a kite drunk. She got her answer when she spotted the bottle of vodka. Which was empty.
Ris eyes flew out of her skull as she stared at the empty bottle. "You drank an entire bottle of vodka?! Five. Five, stop ignoring me! This is serious!"
"How is it serious, you and I both know I have drank more than that in a day. And I unlike you can hold my liquor." He slurred, grinning at her. Ris sighed, rubbing her forehead tiredly out of every argument they had, this was the one problem that they couldn't compromise on.
"Five," she said patiently. "That was when you were 58 years old. You are 13 now."
"And?"
"When you were 58, you were an adult and you could hold your liquor because of your metabolism, body weight, height, size and your body was able to break down the alcohol. Because you are 13, your body hasn't had this much yet, not to mention your metabolism." Ris explained, slowly as if she was speaking to a 2 year old.
Unfortunately for Ris, Five had fallen asleep again clearly bored with her explanation. Ris rolled her eyes as she rested her head on his chest. He is going to regret this in the morning or a few hours later.
'He thinks he's so smart.'
1 hour later…
"Do you ever stop talking?" Luther asked Diego was they searched the library for Five. They weren't having a lot of luck with this job.
"Where are their parents?"
Diego had paused mid-sentence as he started to walk towards a pillar.
"Wow, that was easy." he said to himself before following his brother.
"I'm gonna call security." came the woman's voice again as her heels clicked against the floor. Luther and Diego turned to see Five snoring in a corner with Ris lying on his chest (also fast asleep), a mannequin named Delores, a couple of books and equations on the walls and an empty bottle of vodka.
Luther gasped. "Is he, um?"
"Drunk as a skunk."
Hiya Readers! Dang is was long! Don't worry I will post P2 soon. That's when things REALLY get interesting…Trust me ;)
This was a bit of a filler…I wanted to make it longer, but I felt it would be too long so…yeah Thank you for reading, reviewing, favouritng and following! It means sooo MUCH to me.
Till next time….
