Chapter 16: High
Rated: T
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: What's up? Cool. Me? Oh, not much. Just busy not owning Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
A/N: Hey! So like, I know I said I'd have chapters uploaded and all and I know it's been ages since I said that. I was busy being hospitalised and put into inpatient treatment for my eating disorder. I'm finally out! It's probably a bit too personal for me to post on here, but fuck it. I've been writing things for you guys for years. Four years, actually. Things that I've never even showed my closest friends. I think I would shrivel up and die if they saw it. But anyway, I'm like, okay now. Sorta okay. Better than before. I'm finishing up the last chapters now, so I'll keep posting. :)
I felt… high. Intoxicated. A little bit dizzy, but that might have been the alcohol still in my system.
But I felt good. Confused, kind of ashamed, a bit guilty, but good.
By the time I got back to my room, showered, changed, they were already gone. I could see them in the road outside the gate. I hurried out of the factory to meet them. Spencer looked hungover.
"Joining us today?" Jackson remarked as I jogged up to meet them.
I nodded. "Yeah, where's Daniel?"
"Didn't want to come today, said he was sick or something." Jackson replied. "Well, let's get to work."
We cleared off another street with ease. Now that the group was bigger, we could do it far more efficiently. Hunter and Valeriya turned out to be really good fighters. I watched them. Hunter was vicious and brutal, taking them down in one shot before moving onto another. Valeriya moved with more grace and speed than I thought possible, weaving through them with her knife and leaving a trail of corpses behind her. Breanna was more clumsy, but she was still better than me. As for Loraine, well we made a good team simply making sure the dead were really dead. However, their aim was perfect and so we were kind of redundant. At least I wasn't the only useless one now, though. Calvin and Brandon stayed in the factory. The others wanted Loraine to stay, but she came anyway.
The street we took on was teeming with them, and yet we finished in record time. We moved on to the houses, tackled those and got anything we needed. I found some small clothes for Brandon and put them into my backpack, tucking away a few comic books in there for him too so he wouldn't get bored.
We made it back at sunrise. A bit later than we normally do, but we'd pretty much done two days worth of work.
Brandon and Calvin were in the living room, and I gave Brandon the things I had brought back. They were very grateful.
Breanna started dinner for everyone, and I realised that I had forgotten to eat today. I practically devoured it as soon as it was served up, not minding the fact that it was scalding hot.
After that, people gradually retired to their own rooms.
I stayed up, sleep was the furthest thing from my mind. There was too much buzzing around my head, too many thoughts. Wonka showed up in them an embarrassing amount of times.
I looked at the clock, it was one now. I put the book in the shelf. I hadn't really been reading it, but books are a nice cover when you just want to stare at something and think without people thinking you were weird.
I went over to the kitchen, cleaned up a bit. I was stacking the dishwasher when Wonka came in with a box of food.
"Restocking the cupboard?" I asked, putting another dish in.
"Uh-huh." He put the box on the counter next to me and gave me a little kiss. I put a cup in, butterflies exploding in my stomach.
"I see you're not injured, that's the good thing. How did today go?"
"Haha, yeah." I said, hoping he wouldn't notice the bruises along my arm from being pushed hard into a brick wall, and the one on my calf from someone accidentally kicking me. "It went well. We got a lot done. Hunter and Valeriya are amazing at fighting. I'm convinced they used to be part of some government zombie-hunting group before being kicked out because they made everyone else look bad."
"Oh, your arm is bruised."
Fuck.
"Yeah.."
"I told ya so."
"Ha ha. When can I get this cast off? I really want to learn how to fight properly, but I can't with this."
"I can take it off tomorrow morning, if ya want."
"Cheers." I finished stacking the dishwasher, put some detergent in and started it. I washed my hands and looked over at him. "I don't like that suit."
He pouted. "Why not? I think it's just splendid."
"I like the maroon one better. Green doesn't suit you well."
"That's not very nice, Ember."
I shrugged and came in closer, touching the lapel of his coat. "I can help you get out of it, if you want."