The Mars Experience

Chapter 13: Emma

While Bree and I take care of Donna, who remains sulking, and Hugo and Jedrek work on waking up Athena, everything feels hopeless.

"Ugh," Athena groans, "How long was I out for?" Hugo puts a finger over his lip and tilts his head over to Donna, making her fall silent immediately.

Poor Donna. It's not like she ever said anything to anyone, but she's had this huge crush on Conner since she was ten. Everyone knew about it. He helped her get Bree out of their old building when it burned down. Whenever she was around him, she got really giggly and awkward. It was embarrassing to watch. Donna's really strong. None of us have seen her break down before this. Except, maybe, Conner.

Athena starts fiddling in her backpack and takes a big bite into an apple. "You know," she whispers to Hugo. "Maybe we should just hijack a car. I'm really good at it, and it'll be a lot faster."

"We're not doing anything that raises our chances of getting caught. Now shush, Donna is devastated," he replies.

Jedrek stands up and walks away without saying anything. We all look around except for Bree, who's still solely devoted to helping her sister.

Jedrek comes back a while later with a newspaper. Donna doesn't even bother looking up. The most jarring thing is that she definitely noticed. Donna always notices. She just didn't care.

Jedrek sits down next to Hugo and Athena, and I crawl over on the hot floor to read it as well. Bree signals for me to come back, but I cross my arms and shake my head.

The headline in the news, "Huge Fire Started Because of Anti-Mars Experiencers". We keep reading.

"Policeman Cole Rutherford voices, 'My fellow policemen, Ray Anson, Bayron Dayholt, and Ripley Sine did not survive. They were shot by who they think to be Conner Findlay,' he says with grief.

'The complete list of deaths by protestors today adds up to 176 and counting. Horrifying,' policeman Torque Leeyung declares. Find the full list of those who passed in this tragic event on pg. 3."

Hugo flips over to page three, and I scroll my finger down, scanning to see many familiar names. I freeze at, "...Crystal, Luna, and Nova Orman. (Triplets)"

Athena looks puzzled. "Donna and Bree's sisters that went to live with their rich friends," I whisper.

"I don't think we should tell them yet. Bree may be able to handle it but there's no way Donna can," Jedrek replies.

Find out everyone's been keeping your dead sisters from you, or add another three people to the list of loved ones that died today? Tough choice. Protecting them. They're too weak, they can't handle it. Where have I heard that before? Before opening my mouth to protest, I look over to Bree and Donna. Donna lays on the floor on top of a small puddle of tears formed over the cement beneath her. Bree sniffles, sitting down beside her, with tears forming in her eyes while she pets Donna's head. After many moments of consideration, I decide Jedrek's choice is best. It'd destroy them.

Hugo takes the newspaper and continues to read page one. "Scientist Dr. Dimitri assured, 'These deaths have been unnecessary. We have tested The Mars Experience and, to our concern, nothing seems to be wrong.'

However, Dr. Caleb denied, 'Yes, there may be some potential harm in [The Mars Experience] but everyone signed the forms and were told to read carefully, so this cannot be tracked down to us.'"

Athena, upon reading this, shoves her knuckles on the hard cement. She stands up, kicks rocks, and pulls her hair before lying back down.

"It should be able to be tracked down to them. It's their own fault!" While she continues to whisper, everything about her is indignant. Hugo puts his hand on her shoulder, immediately after, a tear slips from her eye. She shrugs Hugo's hand off and wipes the tear away.

We sit in silence, waiting to see if Donna will get up until the night falls.

"We should get going. The cop was chasing us, remember?" Athena takes charge.

She walks over to Donna and Bree. I follow from a distance.

"Hey," she says softly, crouching down to meet Donna's eyes. "We're thinking of heading off, y' know, because the cop was asking for backup. Are you cool with that?"

Donna hesitates. You can tell she wants to yell.

"Yeah," she whispers. "I'm fine." Her voice crack contradicts the phrase. Donna pushes herself up from the ground, using her arms to try and keep herself stable. When Bree offers a hand, she shakes it off, slinging her pack over her shoulder and trying to keep her head hung high. Everyone else awkwardly trails behind.

Nobody wants to ask Donna about figuring out where to stop for the night. She's usually so strong and enduring, but it's as if Conner's life being taken took a part of hers as well. Donna's been through just about everything, yet this is what makes her break. That's the funny thing about people. They can only handle so much.

"Donna." Jedrek's voice is so loud and strict that it mirrors a yell. "I know you're sad about Conner, and trust me, we all are, but you have to keep your chin-up. You're the oldest. You're the one that needs to do this."

Donna turns around, her face still red from crying. "You expect me to chin-up? Do this? I am doing this. If you're so brave and intelligent, do better." She first yells, then lowers her voice. Neither manages to mask the voice cracks behind her words.

I nudge Jedrek in the ribs. "Well somebody needed to say it," he responds just a tad too loud. "In case you haven't noticed, our best friend just killed, like, three cops and shot six. We're paired up with the head scientist's daughter. We're fugitives now, and I'm sorry if Donna's moping about Conner but she needs to suck it up and keep going because we lost time for mourning when we paired up with Athena."

Everyone freezes to look at Athena before even thinking against it. Immediately, we try to pretend it never happened, but most of us continue to whip our heads back periodically. I initially guess we look to see what she's feeling, but that's not it. We look at her to see if this was worth it.

Brianna falls back from her pace and goes from Donna's side to Jedrek's. "You're a real jerk, you know that?" Jedrek doesn't need to answer. He knows.