Simple Talents

Chapter Thirteen

Ami's day had been long and exhausting; after her talk with Danny, she felt too dispirited to go on with the hunt for Rannolia. She first went down to the convenience store and got a heavy duty backpack and a can opener, the man at the counter raised an eyebrow, she simply stared back, too upset to actually give an explanation. He bagged the items as she swiped her card.

She only had a handful of points left. She wouldn't be of much help in getting important items... but then she reminded herself that she had a huge wad of Canadian Cash in her get-away box, along with matches, a flashlight, batteries, and a few other good things to keep around, like her journal and some photos. It was a small enough box to fit into any real bag, and was something she always had stocked, in case she ever had to run quickly. She wouldn't be much help prepping for the run, but her hundred and fifty dollars would definitely help them after they left. She almost smiled at herself, but then remembered that it wasn't a getaway trip, it was an escape attempt.

She looked up at the man behind the counter before leaving, for the first time, actually noticing him being an Enviro. She thought then back to Carper, then to Ria, and had to leave quickly to hide her tears before making her way to the hospital. She knew that the news probably wouldn't be good, but she thought she should at least visit Ria if she could.

-

That was when she broke.

Ria was having her lungs pumped to remove some more of the excess blood in her chest that hadn't been absorbed by her body when she awoke from her coma. She had had tubes inside of her lungs when she had awoken... Ria hadn't stopped crying since. She still hurt from the blood, seizure, and pump, not to mention her actual experience being comatose.

Ami was so sad to see her friend in pain, but so happy to see her alive, while still trying to handle all of the other emotions roiling inside of her. Just as Ria had been, Ami could not stop crying. She called down Danny and Benjamin between fits of crazy emotion, managing to get them down to talk with Ria, though she wouldn't say much.

The only thing that she could or would say was that they weren't safe... they had no idea why she was saying that they weren't safe, or how she knew, they just did their best to explain their side. After Ria and Ami had dried up on tears, they finally began a true conversation, and Ria told her side of their safety crisis, while Danny, like always, watched for any coming thoughts.

"She's there, and they're here, and we are all doomed! We're fucked. She even said so, nowhere is safe. Nowhere." Ria sobbed as Ami held her.

"We have a plan, we're gonna make it out of this. You said that Sara thought they were no labs in Canada, just a sort of round-em-up group, right? So we'll just have to keep to the North, keep hidden, and then..."

"And then what? Wait for capture? And what about everyone else? We can't just leave them all here, what about Theonda? Alexis? The Enviros... they're my family, my talent family, how can I leave all of them?" the room remained silent until Ami spoke up again,

"We can't save everyone, but we can warn them. We'll get away, then send a message back to someone we trust, they'll have to handle it from there. Once the word is out, we can lay low for a while until we can regroup enough people to..." Ami didn't want to say it, but she knew she had to, "to start a war. No-one can hide forever, but we won't have to. And if that fails, and if we... have too many casualties, we'll hit the media hard. I don't know about you guys, but I am tired of hiding and being afraid. I'm ready for action." Inside, Ami was a Jell-O cube, wiggling and jiggling in fear, she wasn't even close to being ready to fight the labs, let alone deal with the idea of murdering people, as hazardous as they may be.