Disclaimer: The Gone Series belongs to Michael Grant.
Time Frame: Post-Lies as if Plague hasn't existed yet.
Author's Note: I just have the feeling that this story is going on and on with no purpose. But it'll have to ramble on more 'cause I wanna have the longest Gone story in fanfiction. Think I can do it? Only your support can get me there :)
Raynold dragged Drake through the streets of Pilot Spring, cursing the entire way. It wasn't as if the sadist was much trouble. Quite the opposite. For one of the first times in his life, the visitor did as he was told. He followed along complacently; he knew who he was going to see and Drake was almost happier than the time he had held his first gun. He stared dreamily at the gun Ray had pointed at him and reminisced on the memory.
But the problem Ray had with his prisoner was the looks everyone else gave him. Few people really knew Raynold and fewer actually knew what he was doing. All they saw was him—their new Emergency Action Chief—towing a boy bound in feet of rope and at gunpoint back to the hospital. The mob who had met up with the trio from Perdido Beach had passed Ray and his prisoner with wide-eyed looks. Instantly the chatter changed from chimichangas to aliens. Ray shook his head as he hurried Drake away. People were becoming lunatics when this new wall thing came down on them. Ray had even questioned his own sanity for a few brief moments when he saw Drake's whip. Soon the boy had pulled 'Whiphand' to the hospital and to the room where Nerezza said she would be in. It was empty apart from a small boy sleeping on the gurney. Raynold stared at him and realized with a jolt that it was the kid they had pulled from the ruins of the front door at the mental hospital. Raynold glanced guiltily at his left leg—rather lack of leg. He somehow felt that if only he had gotten to the boy sooner, he wouldn't have had to have it amputated. Ray sighed and shoved Drake away. Instantly the ropes fell apart. Ray still held the machine gun and waved it threateningly at Drake. The dirty haired boy smirked at the younger boy's leg and turned back to Raynold. The idiot doesn't even have the safety off.
"You know, brilliant EAC, the gun is on safety. It won't shoot." He laughed at Ray's flustered appearance.
"I knew that!" retorted Raynold, trying to look like he had everything under control. "I didn't want you to be alarmed. I…I have more than enough ways to keep you following my instructions!"
Drake was about to say something else when Nerezza entered the room. Ray instantly looked relieved.
"I brought the 'cruel and solemn' boy as you wanted," Raynold said, trying to hold off his smile.
Nerezza's eyes grew darker as she glanced at Drake. Drake stiffened. "Master," he murmured softly.
"Drake," the girl sniffed. She turned to Ray. "This isn't the one I need." Her voice was cold. Ray lowered his eyes. "But thank you for bringing him to me. His sadistic nature would have forced him to harm unimportant people which would ruin our entire plan." Drake's expression was a mix between a hard scowl and a gleeful smirk. "You two will now look for the three. Whiphand knows who it is we need."
Ray nodded slowly. Was Nerezza seriously suggesting that he and this sadistic freak should work together? The boy was pretty sure that one of them wouldn't make it out alive. Ray caught the dangerous glint in the sandy haired boy's eyes. A sick feeling in his stomach told Ray that he would probably be the one who wouldn't make it.
The whip that served at Drake's arm cracked. "I won't be able to decide who to kill first! Temple, Soren, or the wetback." The gleeful smile lit his face again.
Raynold spun around to face Nerezza. Kill…?
Nerezza scowled. "Do not kill them, Whiphand." Ray breathed out in relief. He couldn't kill anybody. "I want you two to bring them to me. I wish to finish them myself," she growled. "They have all caused too much trouble to be dispatched lightly. They must suffer."
Ray felt a bubble of panic rise up in his chest. "What do you mean? You can't kill people! That's like…not nice." he said, eyes wide.
Drake cackled at the boy's expression. "Aww, is our little EAC scared of spilling a little blood?" he cooed sarcastically.
Nerezza fixed Ray with a cool expression. "Killing them is the only way that can save you from the blink out on your birthday."
"Wait… He doesn't know how to get out of the poof? How old is thi—" One withering glare from Nerezza caused Drake to shut up.
Ray hesitated. His birthday was still in four days. He wanted desperately not to disappear. He didn't want to die. But to kill three seemingly innocent people to survive? Ray frowned. "I don't want to kill them," he said again, this time more firmly.
Nerezza sighed. "Fine," she hissed, sounding very exasperated. "You catch them and Whiphand and I will kill them. Bring them to me and you are through…for the moment."
Ray frowned. It still wasn't a good deal….but he wanted to live so badly. The producer sighed. What could he do? Nerezza had him trapped. "Fine. I'll do it."
Sam and the others crossed into town with few other problems. A couple people stopped them, asking where they were from. Caine stepped in and told them that they were visiting cousins. The boy even made up names of his group and the fabled cousins they were setting out to see. Slowly, Sam noted, his brother's charismatic charm was coming back. They weren't exactly best friends yet but Caine was learning how to tolerate the townies and vice versa. 'Friendly acquaintances who could possibly last an hour in the same room without all the furniture being "Drakified"' was how they put it. The Coates leader had to remind Sam and Edilio many times that once they got back to the real FAYZ they would go back to being enemies. Sam just smiled; he was very relieved his brother's thoughts weren't suicidal anymore. Edilio rolled his eyes. He thought Caine's being friendly was a scam and couldn't wait until things were right again. After seeing no signs on where they were, Sam decided to ask a random pair of kids.
"Hello, excuse me," Sam asked in a somewhat timid voice. "I'm sorry but we are a bit lost. We were coming to visit our cousins when suddenly our parents disappeared." Sam's eyes went wide and frightened. "It was awful and we ran into a tree!" His voice shuddered slightly.
The boy in the group looked a bit frightened at the three. He was young—about L.P.'s age. His older sister smiled at them. "It's okay. Everyone older than 15 disappeared a day or two ago. We think they are on the other side somewhere. Well, that's what I'm kinda hoping. I work with the hospital but this is my free break." Sam smiled hesitantly at her. "But I don't care about that. If you need it, I can get you to a hospital—you three look really beat up."
"We're fine," Sam said hastily. "We just need to know where we are. And then we'll leave you to your free day."
The girl shook her head and tutted almost motherly. "I gotta go check up on something back at the hospital anyway. A kid who was in the same exact circumstance as you. Runaway cars, they're a killer." She looked at the three suspiciously. "You two look okay," she said pointing to Sam and Edilio, "but your brother…not so much. Why don't you guys come with me? I can get you on your way after a quick fix up. He is your brother, right…?" She asked, eyes darting from Sam to Edilio. It wasn't hard to pick out who she was asking.
Sam nodded slightly. "Yeah. He's mine. He was sitting in the front passenger seat because, you know, him being older and all." He purposely avoided Caine's eye while adding a dramatic pout. He didn't want to see that amused glint in his brother's eye he knew must've been there.
Edilio spoke up for the first time. "I think it would be a good thing to visit the hospital," he added brightly. "Caine here has been complaining about a sore arm the entire time up here." He rolled his eyes in mock annoyance.
"I have?" Caine muttered. Edilio stepped on his foot hard. Caine jumped and held his right arm. "Yeah, it must've banged against the wheel…"
The girl gave him an odd look. "Um, okay… Well, I'm Mina," she said holding out her hand. Sam, Edilio, and Caine all shook it; the latter's being a bit awkward due to his 'sore arm.'
"I'm Sam," Sam said smiling brightly again.
"Edilio," the Honduran added with a grin.
Caine didn't look as if he wanted to answer so Sam answered for him. "As you've probably figured out, this scowling one is my brother Caine."
Mina smiled again at the three. "Nice to meet you. We rarely get visitors here. I'll be right back. Have to take my brother back home. Stay right here and I'll be back in a few minutes." She led her brother away and threw a backwards wave in their direction.
"Well, she was friendly." Sam said after a moment's silence.
Caine turned to face Edilio, a scowl on his face. "My sore arm?"
The Honduran shrugged. "You kinda messed it up there, man, with the 'right against the wheel.' Think about it for a moment." He pantomimed hitting his right arm on something invisible on the opposite side of his body. It looked very painful and very difficult from the way the boy portrayed it.
"It doesn't have to be that complicated," Caine bristled, eyes narrowed.
Sam decided to break in before the argument got messier. "I can't believe this town has a hospital. Imagine how much easier life at the Perdido Beach would be with a hospital!"
"That would be very nice. Especially before we had Lana. Before all we had was Dahra and that book." Edilio added.
Caine frowned. "Some of us never had the privilege of having either." He said flatly.
"Can we change the subject…again?" Sam asked all of a sudden, steering away from another potentially dangerous topic.
Edilio nodded, a teasing grin on his face. "Nice acting, Sam. Maybe you should make that your new job."
"Yeah, we hit a tree 'cause jeepers our parents disappeared!" Caine rolled his eyes again. Still, he was feeling a bit pleased about being the elder of the twins at the moment. He hadn't forgotten what Sam had told the girl and he decided to burn that conversation into his memory.
Sam ignored Caine and turned to Edilio. "I can't believe she bought it."
"They just have to trust everyone they meet in this strange new world. I know we did," Edilio said, casting a dirty look to Caine. "Turn's out it was a big mistake. We should keep that in mind."
Caine was about to say something scathing when Mina appeared again. "Come on," she called, grabbing Sam's arm and pulling them down the street. After a few moments, they could see the large building of Pilot Spring Hospital.
"This is Pilot Spring," Sam hissed to Edilio who nodded.
"Doesn't exactly help unless we know where Pilot Springs is." Edilio whispered back. Sam felt it would sound like a dumb question to ask Mina after he told her they were here to visit cousins. Surely a person would know what state or county their cousins lived in. The three had to depend on seeing a sign somewhere.
They came in through the automatic doors in the front and Mina led them down a clean hallway. "This is for the kids who have no home to go," she explained.
"You should have something like this for prees." Sam told her without thinking. She stopped and looked at him oddly.
"The what?"
Sam went red, realizing he had spoken that out loud. "Prees is slang for really young kids from where we come from. I guess it'd be good to take care of them and get them in one place because I doubt they could take care of themselves." Sam said in a forced ignorant tone. "Toddlers runnin' around in nothing but diapers can probably get messy." The girl already didn't exactly seem to trust them completely. He didn't want to mess up his first chance at help in this bizarre new place.
Mina nodded slowly then smiled. "You're a genius! That's almost as brilliant as the suggestions this one girl with really green eyes had."
"Green eyes…?" Sam asked slowly.
"Yeah, it's weird. She's really new—I'll never seen her before—and she knew just what to do. Like an Emergency Action Chief to handle disasters and a leader and stuff." Edilio's eyes bugged at the term and even Caine looked slightly uncomfortable at the mention of a 'leader.'
Sam nodded bleakly. He had an idea who this girl could be. "That's…really weird."
They continued to chat about aimless things as they went down the corridor. Sam and Edilio were the main two who would talk to Mina but Caine would occasionally respond. Along the way, they ran into a boy who Mina introduced at Raynold. He seemed pleasant enough to Mina until he caught sight of Sam, Edilio, and Caine. The boy's eyes widened and he haughtily left, mumbling about something he had to do. Mina smiled and explained that he had a lot of work on his hands. After that they had reached the rooms they were supposed to stay in. Edilio and Sam were only across the hallway while Caine was a few rooms down. The two townies got settled in while Mina dragged Caine and his 'sore arm' down to an examining room.
Part III coming up soon. Do you guys like this so far? I have a feeling Edilio and Caine are a bit out of character. Technically our 'villain' and heroes have met each other for the first time. Only 38,000 words later xD. Review or I shall find Drake to come and 'Drakify' your computer o.O Just kidding, guys!
HungryInTheDarkForNachosLOL- Thank you very much for your review! I was worried about that part being too comical but things are about to get very serious and there won't be much room for humor D: