The Uprisen

Chapter 23

“Home sweet motel,” he says.

Quinn throws his bags on the ground and claims the bed on the left by throwing his body onto it.  “Dude, we had absolutely no luck today.  Not even one elemental.”

Jake rubs his eyes to push away his exhaustion.  “I know, sorry about that.  Montana doesn’t really have a lot of homeless shelters considering it’s not as populated as the other states, so more people don’t have a place to stay.”

Quinn sighs.  “Well, we’ll keep looking tomorrow.  I’m going to bed.”

“Okay.”  Jake turns on the TV and mutes it so it doesn’t wake Quinn.  As much as he should sleep, he can’t bring himself to just lay down and give up.  He feels like the day was a total waste.

Since they got off the plane, he and Quinn went up and down Helena, Montana looking for any nearby shelters.  The ones that they did find didn’t have elementals, but they desperately needed volunteers, which was their way in.  Out of the three shelters they visited, they were on kitchen and cleaning duty for the most part.  Maybe the day wasn’t a waste to the shelters, but Jake didn’t fly all the way out to Montana to serve soup.

Tiredly, he empties his pockets.  A few scraps of paper with women’s names and the shelters they’re staying at come out in a jumble.  Apparently, Jake is quite popular with the ladies at the shelters.  He kneels to pick the scraps up, and finds a picture hidden underneath a few.

Alexa.

Of course.  He’d gone all day without thinking about her, but ironically he doesn’t go a day without remembering her.

Her promise of dinner when he gets back to Boston is going to be his driving factor for his trip to Montana.  He knows he’s helping by recruiting and looking for the books, but all he really wants to do is get to know Alexa more.  This war is important to him mostly because it’s important to Willow and Waverly, and they’re important to Alexa.

He looks at the picture and straightens out one of the fading corners.  The more he looks at it, the more he changes it to fit the woman he now knows.  Her hair is much longer now, and her face is more defined.  Even her eyes are a deeper blue, and her smile seems faded in the sense that she doesn’t use it that much anymore.  All of this compares in a strange way to the young woman in the picture: her eyes full of electric energy, her hair blowing as freely in the wind as her spirit.  Now, only two months into a war that she shouldn’t have to fight, she seems to have temporarily lost the person she used to be.  Deep down, Jake hopes that he can be a reminder to her of that person, the one who is clearly so excited about life rather than fearful that it’ll soon end.

He puts the picture aside and sits on his bed.  Off to the side, Quinn is already sleeping off all of the toilets and floors he cleaned today.  He’d never really talked to Quinn much, considering they’re both relatively new to The Group, but today he’s seen just how hard this kid will work.  No complaints, or second guessing; he just went to work.  Jake admires that.

From his bag, Jake’s phone buzzes.  He rushes to it, trying to keep it from waking Quinn, and answers with a whisper, “Hello?”

“Hey, it’s Mallory.  How are things going in Montana?”

When he hears her voice, he realizes that he half hoped it was Alexa.  “Hold on,” he says quietly closing the room’s door behind him.  “Everything’s fine, not much luck though.  We’re going to look through more shelters tomorrow morning.  How’s, uh, Kansas or Texas?”

“Oh, right.  This is Texas Mallory, and actually that’s why I’m calling.  We’ve found something.”

Jake listens carefully as Mallory describes her encounter with The Seekers in San Antonio, and her theory on their plans.