Purple | Cole Stewart -VERSION DISCONTINUED

Chapter Seventeen: A Kick to The Back

I winced as I removed my hands from my ears, pushing myself up off the floor slowly -agonizingly slowly.
My eyes were watering when I opened them, but not enough that I couldn’t see the man trying to pull an unconscious Chubs out of his seat. I reached out, swiping at the man, hoping for the tug that would stop him from taking Chubs. And like a miracle- it came, but weakly. The man only stumbled back a few steps, not even losing his footing before coming back to take Chubs.
No! No!
I couldn’t tell if there were words coming out of my mouth, or if they were all in my head. More tears filled my eyes, and I grabbed blindly for anything that would stop the man.
My fingers hooked on a string of some sort- a chain- but it broke off and fell onto the floor of the van. Again. This time I gripped fabric, probably a shirt sleeve, and pulled down as quickly as I could, putting all of my weight into it.
I felt a dull thud as the man hit the car, and hoped to god he had hit his head. When he didn’t make a move to get up, I used the seats to turn myself around.
Ruby was there, grappling with the second man, who was holding her off with one hand. His other hand-
His other hand was holding a gun to Zu’s head, and she didn’t even notice.
I flung out a hand, wanting nothing more in that moment than for Zu to be safe. But my actions did nothing other than draw attention to me, specifically from the man holding the gun.
I had just enough time to realize that he had wrapped a hand around my wrist before my arm was yanked away from me, the rest of my body following it against my will. I tumbled onto the rough pavement as the man let go of my wrist, landing face up and blinded by the sun.
Then a blow to my left side, enough to make me cough out a gasp. I rolled onto my side, just trying to get away from the pain as more blows came to my back and sides. My arms were shaking, and I could barely breathe.
This is it, I thought. This is the end. 
What a shitty way to die.
And then one single element of my torment ended- the White Noise. My head was empty for a moment- empty enough to draw my attention away from the beating I was receiving.
I could hear muffled voices coming from somewhere around me. “This is Larson, requesting immediate backup-”
He stopped talking- and kicking me, thank god- as Ruby scrambled for the White Noise machine, grabbing onto the handle of the machine as I rolled onto my stomach, crying out in pain.
“Leave.” Ruby was saying. “Leave.”
And he did.
Our tormentor fumbled for his radio as he walked away, and canceled his request for backup.
How-
Ruby. 
Orange.
I

turned back to her, struggling not to cry out from pain as I did. “You-” My voice came out as barely more than a whisper- partly because I had been screaming so much, partly because of what I had just seen.
“I know,” Ruby whispered back, dragging herself towards me. “I know. Please don’t tell the others- I can’t- they don’t-”
I nodded. She was like me- I knew that now- and if I didn’t want the others to know that I was a Red, there was no reason they needed to know Ruby was an Orange. It was safer if they didn’t. People like us- the Reds, and the Oranges- we were dangerous to everyone around us, even our friends.
She nodded back at me. We had an understanding with each other now.
Ruby stood up first, holding her hand out for me, which I gladly took, before the two of us headed over to Zu, who was sitting on the road just beside Betty.
“O...kay?” Ruby asked.
Zu nodded as her teeth chattered.
“What.. happened?” In response, Zu just curled in on herself.
“Okay,” I said, my throat throbbing from continuous use, “you get her back in the car, I’ll get Chubs. You- um, you’re gonna have to drive. Sorry.”
She nodded, and we began our work.
For all of the weight he had lost at Caledonia, Chubs was still a pain in the ass to lift back into Betty. If he had been pulled any further out of the van, I don’t think even Ruby and I working together would have been able to get him back in.
•••
We made it maybe ten miles before the boys began to wake up, and to tell the truth, I envied them. You didn’t have to deal with White Noise if you were unconscious. But I suppose there was no way Ruby would have been able to get us out of there by herself.
“Holy crap,” Liam croaked, obviously still out of it. “Holy crap!”
“Yeah, tell me about it,” I groaned, throwing an arm over my eyes, my entire body screaming at me as I did so.
“I think I’m going to be ill.” Chubs groaned.
“Zu? Zu? Did you-” Zu only cried harder at Liams questions. “Oh my god, I’m sorry- I’m so sorry- I -” He sounded agonized.
“Zu?” Ruby said. “Listen to me. You saved us. We wouldn’t have made it without you.”
I uncovered my eyes. “Really? I definitely must have missed that part then, what happened?”
“Carter oh my god! What the hell happened?”
“I think a better question to ask might be what didn’t happen, if that's alright with you.” I sat up as slowly as I could. “But, if you want a short answer, I’ll give you one: Boot, Back.” Liam winced. “Now I think I’m going to go to sleep, please- I hurt all over, Lee.”
Liam nodded. “Yeah, okay.” He whispered. “Goodnight, Cara.” he pushed a few strands of hair away from my face.
I let out something a little closer to a cough than a laugh. “I can try, Lee.”
“I can try.”