The Ruins Of Tomorrow

22. The World Is Gone

The gates opened as the guards above the walls waved at us to drive through. Noah had been gripping the steering wheel as his face looked bright red. The drive back was quiet, and he hadn't said a word to me. He got out of the car so quickly, without closing the door, and marched through the crowd that gathered, trying to find Dean.

He stood next to Melissa as she held a folder in her hands. Dean was looking through a few papers and looked up when Noah lifted his fist and aimed for Dean's jaw. I was yelling his name to get him to stop just as Melissa got in front of him to block him.

His fist froze mid air and there was a concerned look on Melissa's face. She tried to touch his cheek to comfort him, but he pushed her hand away. "You certainly got your priorities," Noah scoffed, balling his fists. "I just need to confirm something," he said.

"You...you risked our lives for us to bring back something so damn useless, just so you could get wasted like you always do. We almost got bombed at your dead friends' shop and we ran into someone who claims to know everything about us, and Scarlet got hurt. And guess what? We lost the gas cans too. Hope you're happy."

Dean's lips parted, and there was a change in Noah's voice. Like he sounded defeated. "I just hate-if anything were to happen to any of us, you wouldn't care as much. You only ever cared about Travis. Because unlike me, he shares your blood. So screw everyone else, right?"

Noah shoved past the people, and it only got silent from there. I wanted to stop him, but I knew there was nothing I could do or say to ease whatever he was feeling. All I saw was the blood dripping from his arm as he turned the corner.

I tried to breathe, as I couldn't let myself look Dean in the eyes. Instead, I tried to find my brother and Benjamin. I hadn't seen them all day today, which meant they were probably with Kate or some of the other workers. I walked back to the complex and found a figure limping up the stairwell, as I got closer I could see it was actually Lia struggling with the stairs.

She almost tripped as I grabbed her arm, and she looked back, almost frightened by me. "Oh... you're back so quick," she said. "Didn't you guys leave like an hour ago?"

I nodded. "I didn't know you were up and out of your place. Are you not still sick?"

Lia let out a cough and walked down. "I heard what happened and I can't say that I'm surprised about it."

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

She shrugged, rubbing her neck. "Dean is a selfish person, Scarlet."

"He's not the only selfish one," I said.

"What?" Lia snickered. "Do you like him that much? Is that why you're defending him?"

"It's not like that. I'm simply telling you the truth. Dean is selfish for his own reasons. But so are we. So am I."

Lia shook her head. "No, you're not. A real selfish person would risk someone else's life just so they could protect someone that they care about. But sometimes it's hard if there's more than one person you're trying to protect."

Lia started to cough again, sounding worse than before. I tried approaching to help but she stepped away and waved me off. "Are you hurting somewhere?" I saw how her body trembled.

"Don't worry about it..." she said. "You should take care of yourself first, Scarlet." I saw her reach the top of the steps when she turned and I heard a door close in the distance. 

The inside of my room was freezing. I took off my jacket and inspected the bruise on the side of my temple. I gently pressed it and winced as it felt sore and tender.