Chapter: 36
Omega wasn't sure which was creepier, the almost maddening movements of her hands, or his reluctance to look away from said hands.
For the past fifteen minutes they'd been up to this. She kept solving puzzles after puzzles, oblivious to the rest of the world and he kept watching her, almost oblivious to the rest of the world.
It's the sixth one, isn't it? He mused. The largest piece I've seen yet.
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"Remind me again," Iggy grumbled when he hit his head for what seemed like the fourth time. "Just exactly what on earth we're doing!"
"Oh, come on!" Sian almost barked. No offense, but she was kind of getting sick from all these whining. "It wasn't my decision."
"But it was your idea." Iggy snapped. "I mean, why couldn't we just break in, kick butts, get the kid and get out?"
"'cause Max said so. She thinks you're out of shape. "
"Well, we're also a bit out of shape for this too. Literally. I just don't see how she could think that we would possibly fit."
"But I fit just fine."
"Ugh!"Iggy got smacked for the fifth time. "You've got to be kidding me!"
If Sian knew he'd be complaining these much, she would've never suggested the vent.
"Well, okay! Maybe I'm skinny then!" Sian blenched. "But what about this big silent mighty brother of yours, huh? I don't see him complaining."
That was true. This whole time Fang had been silently following them. Then again he was probably the mute type. Throughout this whole fiasco, Sian could probably count the times he had spoken more than three words, which generally consisted of 'are you okay' between him and Max.
So, yeah, probably not the best example. But damn it! She was running out of come backs.
And Iggy definitely took the chance and snorted. "Uh-huh. And that's just as you said. He's a big silent mighty masochist. Hence the reason of his majesty's silence."
"Yes and if you two don't shut up anytime soon, I will call those damned dogs myself and throw you out there in a sack of meat."
It was quite silent after that.
According to Max, it was too risky to just fight their way in, since they were not only out of shape , but also were short-handed and needed to find the others. So it was best to be sneaky. And so Sian suggested traveling through the vent. Now for Sian, it had turned out just fine because the vent was actually spacious enough for a decent sized human being.
Now let's focus on the word 'decent'.
She didn't mean to be rude or anything, but almost every one of these guys were huge. all of them were at least six feet, including Angel who was almost six and still growing. They were more muscular too, except the girls even though they had wider shoulder length than that of normal.
Seriously, with Sian's five-foot-seven height and leaner than a normal body, she felt like a sweet little kid standing beside them. And so while going through the work of moving inside the vent, Iggy kept banging his head almost repeatedly. Not to mention they had also split up in order to quicken the search. So Sian, Iggy and Fang were supposed to crawl through the vent even though aside from Angel only Iggy could be defined as skinny, they were in a disadvantage because of Sian's lack of fighting skills. If a fight happened to break out, Iggy would be on his own. So Fang was supposed to squeeze in with them while Max and Angel were supposed to smuggle their way in. Although Sian wasn't sure how that could possibly work with all those guards and people walking around in broad daylight. But when she'd asked about it, Max only gave a vague answer about Angel taking care of it.
"Hey." She finally decided to ask, unable to contain her curiosity. "How're they going to get in?"
Since she was crawling in between Iggy and Fang, Sian wasn't able to see their faces. But the way Iggy suddenly stiffened and his back straightened and relaxed right after, she swore that she could almost see his gears turning.
"Well," Iggy seemed to hesitate, like he wasn't sure of he could trust her or not with something this personal. "It's kind of complicated. I'm not sure I'll be able to explain it properly."
And of course there was no response from Fang.
"Hmph!" She huffed. She knew most of them weren't really ready to trust her and she could understand that just fine. She wasn't going to pester him about things like these, it'd be pushing it too far. And so she let it be.
Didn't mean she wouldn't be poking him about it though.
"Y'know, if you would've just told me that you aren't willing to share this kind of informations, I would've left it alone."
"Hmm." None of them seemed very eager to take her on that. Instead Iggy snorted. "Just saying, for a journalist, you're quite...persistent." He muttered.
"Hey now." Sian frowned. "I didn't even do anything this time. And journalists are supposed to be persistent."
"I'm not talking about this time."
"Then what're you talking about?"
Iggy sighed. "Whatever. Forget I said anything."
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Nudge was scared. She wasn't sure why, she wasn't sure of what, but most importantly, she wasn't sure for whom. Was it for Evan? Maybe Gazzy or the others? Maybe herself?
Or maybe, she was simply scared for the sake of everyone.
Nudge had always known how much of a scaredy-cat she was. Yes, she was capable of protecting herself but not like the others. Not like Angel or Gazzy or even Iggy when he was still blind. While others tried to put up a brave front and fought with grace, she searched solitude in fear and tried her best to protect her family.
Because she was just always so scared of loosing them. Didn't work much though. She ended up loosing them somehow anyways.
And now, as she refused to go anywhere without Gazzy, she couldn't help but be scared. Scared because she knew there was no use of her or Gazzy to them. Then why did the Director wanted to see her? What if when she came back, Gazzy wasn't there anymore? No. She refused to go anywhere without him. And for the first time in her life the Whitecoats actually agreed with that. Which worried her more. Why did they agree?
Even so, Nudge decided to ignore it. She was tired of being scared. For now what mattered was that they were together.
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They decided to walk right in.
Yep, it was idiotic. But with Angel, hopefully not that much.
In past, it would've been impossible. But after that, Angel had developed. She was much better at controlling people's mind then before. So their get-in plan revolved around Angel and her mind reading. Of course Max had insisted, (Damn hell she did! She hated these manipulating shit!) but even she couldn't deny that in their current condition, this was their best shot. They were already in a tight position with their getting out plan.
And as they walked passed another whitecoat without the guy noticing (all thanks to Angel and her mind manipulation, really) she couldn't help but feel pathetic.
In the end, they were of the same nature.
All the School ever did was to play with them, even Jeb. Until this day, Max still wasn't sure what to think of her so called bastard father. After all these years, she still felt played by him. Used, to be more accurate. And now they were using this whitecoats by playing with their minds. She watched as Angel handed a white blank paper to a guard and the guard nodded, letting them through.
"All right, Max." She said enthusiastically; or as enthusiastically possible in this kind of situation. "We're in."
Max flinched.
In the end, they were all just a bunch of manipulative bastards really.
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Iggy swore to never follow any of Sian's break-in plans ever again. In fact, he swore to duct tape the kid the moment she'd utter 'I have a plan'. And also to never be on a mission with either Sian or Fang. Seriously, the way he was silent the whole time and left Iggy to handle every question of Sian, he was surprised he had never noticed his teamwork, or the lack of it when they were teens. Maybe that was why Max was always so irritated with him.
So, Iggy was quite irked by the whole situation. Not only was he stuck with the two most bothersome partners, he also didn't have any of his bombs with him. He didn't have any time to make any, not to mention the ingredients. Nine years ago, he would've had a whole lot of them with him. But when you have to take care of four younger siblings and one older sibling, you become surprisingly responsible and serious. And that rules out careless placement of dangerous weapons including bombs. Well, more like especially bombs.
Was it weird? The fact that he was trying to be cautious about deathly weapons with kids who had been fighting for their lives from the start of existence? Probably. Definitely.
But before he could come to terms with his inner turmoil of whether or not to attack without bombs, he peeked through another vent opening and found Janice Woodcomb bound to a chair.
"We're here."
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Nudge couldn't remember the number of times she had felt absolutely helpless. But this was definitely one of those times. She looked at Gazzy, then they both eyed the situation.
But as much as she tried, she couldn't really focus on Omega. Her mind was more transfixed over the hunched over form of Evan and the dried blood on her clothes.
Then, Evan noticed her presence. "Nudge?" She whispered and stood up shakily. She tried to take a step forward, her face breaking into a childish grin. "Gazzy?"
And she collapsed.