What We Become | Book Two

49. Breathe

Sophia covered her eyes as we stepped out of the house. I didn't know how much she'd seen or how she would react to the devastation that had wrecked her home but she handled it better than I thought.

The others were back in the centre of Carnelian, standing near the truck. Pilot was examining a small item he held, twisting and turning it as if that would give him more information.

Sophia caught sight of Ben before he turned around. She dropped my hand and sprinted towards him, her tiny legs moving as fast as they were capable. Chris nearly jumped as the girl hurtled past him and his eyes followed her figure down the road.

"Soph!" Ben shouted, crouching to her level.

He too held out his arms for her but this time she leaped into them. With the impact, Ben wrapped his arms around and lifted her up, pressing his nose into her hair.

I made my way towards the truck when all eyes were on the pair.

"You were right," I said to Pilot in a low voice. "Sophia said it came from the sky."

"Why would anyone do something like that to survivors?" Chris asked. "Even from the sky, you'd be able to see there's no danger here. Who would do something like this?"

"G.U.N ring a bell to anyone?" Pilot replied, raising the piece he'd been examining.

It was a small piece of shrapnel but the glistening silver letters stamped onto it was still clear beneath the charring. G.U.N. Whatever it had come from was long destroyed but the piece that remained gave us more questions we had no answers for.

"No clue," I shrugged. "But anyone who calls themselves 'GUN' can't be good."

"Maybe Ben knows something," Chris suggested.

Our heads turned to where Ben and Sophia were beginning to make their way over. They walked hand in hand and Sophia held a wide grin across her face. There was hope in her eyes, different from the look she'd given me when I first saw her in the wardrobe. It was contradictory to the scene that surrounded us but refreshing all the same.

"What do I know?" Ben asked.

Pilot held up the item to him. "Have you ever heard of an organisation called GUN?"

Ben stuck out his bottom lip, shaking his head as he took the piece. "Not that I remember," he said. His forehead creased as he began to examine it, rubbing against the charring with calloused fingers that came away coated in ash. "Is finding this good news or bad?"

"We'll know the answer to that when we find out who they are," Pilot replied.

Chris turned to him. "You haven't heard of them at all?"

"No," he said. "And you'd think if there's an organisation out there big enough to cause something like this, at least one of us would've heard about them."

Chris exhaled before pulling his bag to the front of his body. From it, he pulled a green first aid kit. "I found this, by the way. I think it should have everything you need."

"Thank you," I replied, taking it from him.

The small, green bag was deceiving in its weight and was surprisingly heavy. It felt like a small victory as I clutched it, like the world giving us a chance when we needed it.

*

We managed to lift Julia into Sophia's former home and rest her down on the sofa. It wasn't ideal but it was the only space we had.

She'd screamed as the tweezers dug around in her stomach. The bullet had lodged itself deep and there was no other way to remove it. She was supposed to be the doctor, the qualified one, not me. One of the boys could have done it but surprisingly, they didn't want the job either.