until the very end

part 26

“Oh, you can’t be shucking serious.” Calum sighed when I marched towards him, Brend and Ellie following a couple meters behind. “This is supposed to be a secret mission, not a shucking field trip.”
I stopped right in front of him, raising a contemptuous eyebrow. “I caught this bitch in an half-assed attempt to kill my brother yesterday, so obviously, there’s no way I can leave the two of them behind here.”
“So then you decide to drag the both of them into this as if to prevent her from killing him? Makes perfect sense.” Calum twisted his face in an ugly grimace, glancing over to Aria. “You know, I already had my doubts about the chairlady of the ‘All-Hail-The-Gaiaphage’ fanclub coming with us, but I tried to keep my mouth shut because I know she’s your best friend. But we haven’t even left and she’s literally already getting on my nerves.”
I snorted, skeptically eyening him up and down. “Yesterday, I said I appreciated you manning up and being upfront to Aria about your feelings for her. Do not make me withdraw your permission to waste her time.”
“Both of you, shut the fuck up.” Aria rolled her eyes. “Are you going to be like this the whole time?”
“That entirely depends on how well your toyboy manages to behave himself,” I said.

“Aight, let’s just go.” Calum lifted the backpack over his shoulder. “No time to waste. The battle is in two days, we need to be back before then.”
“Do you even know what you’re doing?” I chuckled, adjusting the knives in my belt and zipping my bag shut after a final check. “Do you even have a plan that goes further than ‘walking around until we find something’?”
Calum gritted his teeth as if it was taking him all his self-control to stay polite. “In fact, I do. According to Edilio, Brianna has been running around the entire scope of the FAYZ, scanning the area. And apparently, during one of her trips, she has encountered something that looked like a huge lake with trucks full of food and other useful supplies. Sam and Edilio have been planning to explore the place for a long time, but you know the way things are around this town. Plenty of initiatives, zero time, or motivation, to actually take action.” He raised an eyebrow. “And are you seriously taking only a designer bag? You do realise we’ll be walking through the forest and the desert for days, right?”
“I figured if I’m going to waste four days of my precious time on some dull mission, I might as well do it in style.” I shrugged. We started to walk in the direction of the Coates fence.
Aria sighed impatiently. “Gwen, how many more times do I have to tell you. You don’t need to protect me. Ben, or whoever threatens me, is no match for me.”
She tried to sound fierce, but I noticed the shiver in her voice. Her eyes were flickering from the left to the right, restlessly.

“Exactly. And plus, she has me to protect her.” Calum winked, flipping his knives purely to show off.
“Yeah, very reassuring.” I rolled my eyes, glancing over my shoulder. Brend and Ellie were walking a couple meters behind us, staring at the ground. Neither of them were talking. I was pretty sure Ellie wouldn’t dare make another move towards him, but I was going to keep an eye on her just to be sure.

“Nuts! I don’t need either of you to protect me!” Aria yelled out. “Why does everyone think I can’t take care of myself?”
“Ofcourse I believe you can take care of yourself,” Calum said after a short hesitation. “You’re a big girl.”
“Gee, thanks,” Aria said, sarcasm dripping off her voice.

“It’s just… Shee, I don’t even know this guy, but I can tell you’re scared of him from the way the color leaves your face the moment someone mentions him,” Calum continued. “That just makes me want to protect you, whether you want it or not.” He flashed a flirtatious grin. “I can’t help it. It’s my heroic instincts.”
I didn’t pay attention to their little quarrel anymore. I narrowed my eyes, trying to distinguish the tall, broad-shouldered figure lounging about at the fence. When we got closer, I suddenly recognized Jax: Edilio’s second-in-command, one of the two little shits that had helped tie me to a chair in one of the empty classrooms, so that Becky could use her freaky tricks on me. Before he allegedly accidentally harmed a member of the Human Crew by using his powers.