The Alternate State

Chapter 9

*UNEDITED*
I rush over to her and help her up.
"Hey we're going to help you okay? You'll be okay." i set her down on a nearby rock and examine her wounds, she was shot in the shoulder and she's pretty beat up, probably from running through the woods. Other than that she looks pretty good, I think she'll live.
"Thank you" she says weakly, i smile at her, " stay right here ok" I start searching around for where my bag ended up after our tumble, "Anyone see a blue backpack?" I say over my shoulder. We all fan out searching, "Um is that it?" Arabah says pointing up to a nearby tree there my backpack sits wedged between two branches, "Uh, ya that's it" I say and before I can say another word Comille is scaling the tree, "Oh. Be careful!" I shout up after him. He must be really agile for being able to manuver up the tree this well being this weak looking, or maybe it's whatever they gave him, maybe he looks worse off than he is, or maybe whatever they pumped him full of is actually helping him in some way. Once I have my backpack I return to Hannah who's sweating and pale.
"This is going to hurt, but i need to see if the bullet is still in your skin." i grab a pair of mini scissors and cut the previously white shirt that is now covered in blood, where her wound is. I look at the back it went clean through just like I suspected. i grab a shirt and hold it firmly to her wound. She squirms and yelps.
"Here take my hand and squeeze it." gabe says smiling up at her. She blushes and gladly accepts his hand. I suddenly realize i was putting more pressure on it than i needed by the sound of her yelps.
"Sorry." i mutter and look up find gabe looking at me, youre so cute it says. I just turn back to hannah. After afew minutes of small talk I put gauze and some ointment on it, not much more I can do. The sutcher kit I already used on Lincoln and I have no way of cleaning it, so I pack it as best I can and wrap her shoulder in an ace bandage.
"Thank you..?"
"Crescent, cress for short."
"Thank you cress." she smiles "So what are we going to do now? We have to get out of here. Why are we all just standing around. We need to run!"
"We, we're going back in." A look of shock and horror sweep over her face, we explain the ins and out of what we've come up with, why we have to go back to the place we just broke her out of, after a few minutes she begins to cry silently but agrees "I just, I thought I was free. I thought I could go home." She sits quietly and stares at her hands. "We need to get moving, deeper in to the woods" Linsoln says. We look at one another and finally Gabe says, "he's right. We should move." We begin the long slow trek through the woods, with three wounded (including Linclon) we move at a pace much slower than I'd prefer, I pull my phone out and check it as we walk, ten missed calls. That's a problem I'll have to work on later, if there is a later. We walk on for quit a while following the stream, we walk through a very thin stretch of woods surrounded on all sides by farmland. We're not in the city anymore.
"This seems like a good place to stop." gabe says as we walk towards a clearing in the woods.
"Should we work together to make a shelter or do you guys want to just hoof it and sleep under the stars?"
"I'm beat, let's just sleep under the stars." link joins in.
"Sounds good." i say setting down my bags. "Is this far enough away though?"
"Yeah what if they find us?" hannah asks sitting down on a log.
" I don't want to push it, too many are injured in our group." gabe says thoughtfully, giving hannah a sympathetic smile. I dig through my bag using the last of my first aid supplies on wound care for everyone. Hopefully what we've done will hold off infection until we can come up with a better solution. I feel like we're walking a fine line between being far enough away to keep from being found but not so far I burn everyone out trying to sneak back in. Once we're settled in, finishing off the last of the food. I give Trey a call, at this point he's our only hope. Things are hot for him right now I'm sure, I know calling him is a gamble. The phone only rings once, "who is this" a gruff voice answers the other line. "Um hello?" I say, Trey returns to his normal voice and says "Oh, hey is this.. Actually I'm not going to say names. What kind of restaurant did we first meet at?" I smile to myself, "Greek." I say. "Oh good, you made it. Did you get all the cargo?" he says seriously, "I got four packages, there are six of us now and four got damaged in shipping. Do you think you could help us with a supply drop or a pick up?" I say trying to sound as natural as possible. "Things are pretty tied up at work right now he says, I could possibly assist you in the morning after my shift if you send me your coordinates." My phones low on battery but i also don't know how I feel about sending those out floating around in the universe all night long either, what if someone finds his phone, they find us unprepared and unarmed. "I uh, I'll send you my coordinates, but for security purposes I insist you don't keep in on your device. Find another place to store it" He chuckles understanding, "Yes, yes, very good. I will do that, and I will see you first thing tomorrow morning to assist you with your delivery." I breath a small sign of relief "Thank you Trey, I really apprecitate it. You''re the best really you are." I turn to Gabe hanging up, 'Trey is helping." He had just filled our waterbottle from the stream, no fire though so there's no way to clean it, we're just going to have to roll the dice on not getting bever fever. "That's great news. We need to refuel tomorrow before we make our move. We need to get a list together for him of supplies." Arabah walks up to us wringing her hands, "Um so the incinerator is a large portion of your plan, um I am sort of a whiz with computers, its my specialty actually and if the best way to ensure we all survive is hacking the incinerator then I have a plan." Gabe and I exchange glances, there's more to this girl that what meets the eye. "If you're so great with computers how did you end up here?" She looks up at the sky signing, "I can't do anything non technical, now P.E., not art, not English, just math, science and technology. My brain is limited in it's capacity and this is what I reserve all the room for I guess. I am an amazing hacker, coder and wesite designer in case you need one of those made for our adventure." She chuckles softly to herself. I look over her shoulder, "Lincoln" I say waving him over. He gets up with a grunt and strides over, "Yes?" He says giving Arabah a nod, "Arahbah here is a tech whiz, she has a plan for how to get the computer system hacked and working for us." He looks at Arabah like he's seeing her for the very first time, "Oh is that right?" He says smiling in his coy way, "Yes, I am the best I know." She says confidently lifting her chin slightly to accent the point. "Hmm, well we'll just have to see about that." he says smiling at her wickedly, I could just puke same old Lincoln up to his old tricks. "Yes. we shall" she says back, "and if youd like to discuss my idea I'm open to sharing information with you." He leans in to her bumping her shoulder with his, "Why yes, I would like that very much" he says smiling sweetly. She just rolls her eyes and pulls him over to a rock by the wrist. "Come one then." Gabe and I exchange glances as they walk away laughing flirtatiously. Well he sure moved on quick, never trust the murderous ones I guess. I take a long breath in and turn to Gabe, wrapping my arms around his neck, "God I've missed you" I breath, his hands are at my waist in an instant, "come with me" he says smiling down at me, he grabs me by the hand and leads me a little way away from the others down by the brook, A big over turned tree root gives us some privacy, we stand there just watching the water trickly by, listening to the birds in the trees, just enjoying being together again. Finally he turns to me, cuping my face in his hand, I turn to him full on this time my hands find his waste, "I've dreamed about being in a place like this with you so many times, or back at our spot, there are so many things I wanted to tell you, so many things I don't have the heart to tell you now, about what my last three years were like. The things I've endured, they, they don't matter now anyway, now that I have you" he leans down finding my mouth gently with his, his lips hovering just before mine, I lean in to close the space but he leans back just enough to keep me at bay, my eyes slide to his but he just smiles in response, finally when I can't take anymore I grab him by the face and crush his mouth with mine, three years of passion erupts between us, I am up against the roots not carring about the dirt or bugs likely filling my hair. We stay like that entangled in each others arms for quite a while, our hands finding all the places time took from us, until finally Hannahs quiet voice breaks through the serenity, "Um, excuse me, can we discuss the plan one more time? It's nearly dark and I'd like to go to bed now" she says weakly.
"Uh yeah sure" i say while backing away from gabe my face bright red.
"Haha lets uh get back to camp." Gabe says messing with his hair. The sun has begun to set, its a beautiful fuse of pink and blue. We walk awkwardly for about teo minutes to the camp. I guess lincoln isn't back with arahbah yet. Not like i care. Gabe sets up a fire and we all sit at camp for awhile, still no sign of link and arahbah. How can he move on so quick? I guess it really was just pretend anyways. The moon is just beginning to cress over the horizon when arabah comes stumbling into our campsite with link besides her, barely awake.
"What happened." I demand. Suddenly I realize, I don't know these people or what theyre capable of, did she do this?
"We uh were trying to figure out what the plan for tomorrow was and he just passed out. I managed to get him awake and drag him over here." I put my shoulder under Lincolns arm and help her, help him walk, we set him down on a rock and out of habit I ift up his shirt over his head and begin unwrapping the gauze, "oh." suddenly I pull back my hands, the feeling of Lincolns skin suddenly feeling both too familiar and completely foreign all at once. Lincon looks up at my sudden stop and our eyes meet, for a moment I forget who I was siting with, for a moment I forgot I wasn't in my room with the boy I called my best friend.
"Cress." he says barely a whisper " I'm sorry. I really am." his eyes pleading with me now, " I couldn't bring myself to kill you, because I love you cress. I do, really I do." The words send my stomach in to a roll, and suddenly I feel nauseous. "Let's not talk about that now, it doesn't matter now anyway." I say just as Gabe walks over, I reach up and feel his forehead. It's hot, like really hot.
"He's sick" I say as I finally get the last of the gauze off, it looks bad. It's hot all around it, and theres pus all over. This is bad.
"Cress. I meant what i said in the elevator." He says not looking at Gabe
"Link, your wound is infected, you have a fever and it's affecting you. we need to fix it." I say with a sigh
" Gabe, can you get my bag?" He nods once and takes off looking for it. Suddenly a hot clammy hand grabs mine "Princess." he breathes, his eyes searching mine.
"What?" I whisper, unsure what to say or do with this sudden intimate familiarity
"I have always loved you, I will always love you, no matter how much you or I may hate it." he says, his hand reaches up for my face, his thumb weakly tracing my cheek bone, guilt and bile rise up in my throat at his touch, this feels all wrong, although it may have been only days since we were tangled up in each others arms, that's the thing about humans, your whole life can shift in an instant. And the moment he pulled that gun on me everything changed, the moment I wrapped my arms around Gabe there could be no doubt who my allegiance is with. The raw ache of crying myself to sleep, the dreams I let die slow painful deaths as I lie awake at night forcing myslef to forget Gabe, to forget what we had, to let him go so the ache would stop. Now that I have him back, I won't ever let him go.
"Link you just, you need to rest okay?" he nods sleepily just as Gabe returns with my supplies. I grab some medicine and water. "Here take these." I say shoving them in to his hand before standing up to leave.
"Okay." he says shooting them back with is eyes shut, with that i leave Gabe with the job of cleaning and re wrapping his wound. He works wordlessly cleaning the wound of his little brother, Its dark now, the stars shining brightly. I stare up at them looking for any shooting stars. I come upon the others, gathered around our small fire, even one this size is a risk.
"Does anyone need there wounds looked at?" i say standing warming my hands by the fire
"Yeah you should probably look at mine." hannah says, she's still looking quite pale and clammy.
"Yeah of course." i say walking over to her with my bag in hand. The others begin to get ready for bed. I have her take the sleeve of her shirt off so i can look at it. It looks okay, but it needs cleaning.
"Hey crescent?" she suddenly asks as i begin rewrapping her bandage.
"Yeah?"
"Do you think i could help you guys, like when you blow up the building?" she says fiddling with a strand of knotted hair.
"I don't know it's going to be really dangerous, but I think we all will have a part to play to be successful." i finish wrapping her up and sit next to her.
"Good." She says starying somewhere far off, " i have a sister and she was only 7 when i left. She cried so much, she didn't know what was happening. This company took everything from me, i never got to see her grow up. and i want to watch it burn." she says looking me in the eye as if your prove the point.
Softly I ask, "how long were you there"
" 7 years." shes says looking off in to the distance again, she's older than i thought, she looks really young. Maybe its the testing.
"Oh, im so sorry. So that makes you about 22 right?"
"Yeah, actually my birthday is tomorrow." She says shurgging.
"Oh, uh happy early birthday!" I say, not really sure what more to say. "In different circumstances I'd say let's throw you a party." I say smiling and closing off the bandage.
"Thank you crescent. You actually remind me of her, my sister I mean, you have the same sweet smile" she says standing, "guess I should get some sleep, we've got a long day ahead of us." with that she leaves me, finding a place near the siblings to sleep. Just as she begins settling in for the night a sound like rustling bushes and twigs snapping causes me to jolt to my feet. Right then a young boy covered in blood breaks through the bush line and into camp. He's panting furiously and shouting something, "Run!" he says, " RUN NOW!"