Faltered light

Part 13: Kurt the Genius

James' POV
The idiot pushes me too far this time. I hear a glass crash to the floor and Calla trying to tug me off the idiot. Violet distracts us but I'm still pissed as hell. The sound of an engine and the smell of gasoline pours through the room and I immediately know it is a generator. That must be where all this electricity is coming from. "What the hell do you people think you're doing!" Violet drops the damn door and it makes an even bigger crashing sound then the generator. The earlier roar and the instant buzzing that follows is amazing. How is that tiny door drowning out that much sound. We would have never guessed this house had electricity. "Idiots. Idiots. You'll get us all killed!" A scrawny pale kid wearing a rock T-shirt and a black faded jeans yells at us. I am already pissed off and judging by my face Calla grabs my hand. It is the most calming thing I've felt since we left the cabin. The anger dissolves like sugar on my tongue. "We're sorry dude calm down" Ian is the first to speak, how unsurprising. "You're sorry! They could've heard", his frantic and panicked. I nudge Calla. If anyone's going to calm this kid down it's her.
Calla's POV
It's him. The little boy from the photograph. His taller, lean and definitely maybe sixteen. James gives me the signal to try and calm this kid down but his way too freaked out that we're in here. We touched his stuff invaded his space. He won't trust us easily. "Hi. I'm Calla. What's your name?", "are you seriously asking him his name. Wait to go Calla", Ian gives me shit. "What do you care? Why are you here? Did you follow me here?" his voice cracks a little but he manages to hold it together, "look sunshine we're outrunning a hoard and this place looked cozy we're not stalking you or anything, and by the looks of it, it is pretty cozy so we might just stay!" Ian completely fucks everything up. The kid grabs something from his back pocket and before I know it his pointing a gun at us. More specifically at Ian. "Look. We were just looking for food. We didn't mean to touch your stuff. We'll leave. I promise", "leave! You want to leave. After you've led a hoard to my home. You stupid fucking bitch",the words sound foreign coming from the boy, like his out of practice or like his barley cussed in his life. "hey calm down. We didn't lead them here we ditched our running car miles from here and ran in the other direction we're safe", James is trying to diffuse the live grande Ian threw into this situation. Just a few different choice words and we wouldn't be in this situation right now. He frantically bursts into fits of laughter. "James I think we should leave" I say it as quietly as possible. This kid does not seem stable. Violet stands there quietly, I don't think he has noticed her. Perhaps if I can get her attention she could tackle him to the ground before he kills us all. "I'm leaving and you're staying here. If they find bait they might not think there's another one", "what are you talking about we just told you they're long gone buddy. Are you psycho", I should slap Ian and tape his mouth shut. "What are you idiots not getting, she those plants over there. They mask the human scent. They're coming because they can smell you. So you geniuses just led them right to us". They can smell us. The words echo in my head and everything starts making sense. The last six weeks. Why we couldn't shake them even when we drove miles and miles out of state line. We thought they were following the noise but they have been tracking our scents. They have been gathering in every town and following us. There's barely any oxygen in the room left all of a sudden, it's hard to focus. The rush of blood pumped through my heart, my head feels dizzy, I am going to throw up. My hands are clammy and I.. "hey hey hey. Breathe. We're okay", I try to breathe but it is harder now. All I hear is muffled voices and everything goes black. "Fine but if you try anything...", "we won't try anything. This way we can all get out of here". James' voice floats through the air. The blue lights are a strange sight almost magical when I push myself up. A tiny sofa is settled between the plants. "She's awake", Violet is leaning against the beam. "Calls are you okay?", James is annoyingly concerned after the last six weeks we had. "There's no time for this. You said when the girl wakes up we'll start packing up. If we have enough time to get away", the boy says. His not shouting and his not hysterical. "What happened?", I whisper to James. "We'll talk about it later, can you get up at all?, "yeah". The next two hours we're packing and planning. James tells me about the deal with Kurt —The scrawny kids name. We're going to carry all his stuff to the base in exchange for the serum that hides us from the monsters. The maliciously violent monsters....
The next two hours we are taking orders from Kurt. We have managed to make pulleys and wagons for the plants he will need to keep our scents hidden, heavy equipment in steel tool boxes, boxes containing beakers wrapped in bubble wrap, newspaper and towels we've managed to wrangle up from around the house.  My head is pounding slightly and the nauseous feeling is yet to subside. 'They can smell you', rings through my head. Flashes of memory flicker as I am reminded about the the gas station and Joe and the sickening thought that I felt safe at that cabin. We were never safe. Not me nor James. Either of us. We would have led that hoard to the base. If we survived that long.