The Purge

Pt 15

Alissa had spent the rest of her night sitting in the back of Sam's old car, trying to ignore the aching pain throughout her shoulder and her leg.

When the sun shone through the broken windows Alissa felt as groggy as ever. She gingerly pulled Tyler's jumper off of her body, her teeth clenching together as a jolt of pain shot through her shoulder. She opened the door of the car and stepped into the cold warehouse.  

Max sat in the same spot Alissa had found her in last night, except now her flaming red hair was tied into a low and rather messy bun. Alissa offered a tentative wave which, much to Alissa's relief, Max returned.

Rubbing her eyes tiredly, Alissa limped towards the room Lucas was sleeping in. She decided she needed some sort of familiarity back in her life. With this current situation, talking to Lucas was the closest to normal as she could get.

Lucas lay onto of a blue sleeping bag. His hand was tucked underneath his head and his flop of brown hair was even messier than normal - which is saying something. All he had on was his shorts from the previous day and some socks.

"Put a shirt on," was the first thing Alissa said, pulling a disgusted face. 

"What, you don't like the view?" Lucas smirked, positioning his arm to flex off his muscles. "I work hard for this y'know."

Alissa tried (and failed) to bite back a scoff. "How are you not cold?" She asked, picking up a shirt that lay next to Lucas' sleeping bag and chucking it at his face. Alissa grimaced slightly as she felt her shoulder twinge.

"Socks." 

Alissa rolled her eyes and flicked her ponytail. "You're such a man-child."

Lucas' face split into a huge grin as he pulled on the shirt that Alissa threw. "You know you love me." 

"Sure," Alissa replied. "How'd you pull up last night?"

Lucas propped himself. "As well as you can after the announcement of a Nation-wide Purge, a school shooting and having to spend time with an alleged drug dealer. What about you?" 

Alissa laughed and shook her head. "Yeah I'm fine. My shoulder and leg hurts a bit, but they'll heal eventually. What a way to start the purge, right? Getting shot and stabbed, how useless can I be?"

"Hey, don't talk like that," Lucas said, his joking tone replaced with a soft one. "That could've happened to any one of us. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Alissa looked down at her shoes. "I guess..."

A smile returned to Lucas' face. "Besides, you didn't get stabbed; the dude kicked the knife and it skidded and cut your leg. There's a very big difference."

"Shut up."

"Didn't you also manage to trip and cut your forehead on an exposed tile?" He was teasing her now.

"Asshole," Alissa muttered as she went to leave.

"Hey, Liss?" Lucas called out, his tone softened again.

Alissa turned to face him. "Yeah?"

"You decided on a weapon yet?" His eyes were filled with concern. 

Alissa looked down at her shoes again, shaking her head subtly.

"Liss..." 

She look up slowly, avoiding Lucas' eyes. Instead, her eyes landed on the baseball bat lying next to Lucas' sleeping bag. Alissa knew Lucas could do some serious damage with the bat. Afterall, 'he worked hard for those muscles'.

"What if you use a knife, like you did in the bathroom?" Lucas suggested.

"That was a one-time thing," Alissa responded, her voice oddly cool. 

At the time, she was acting on instinct, and her instinct was to stab. Thinking about that scared her to death. Alissa had managed to convince herself that the adrenaline made her do it, that her brain wasn't clear. She doesn't want to think about the affect if she had a clear mind. If she had a clear mind that means she meant  to hurt the attacker - Tyler's dad.

She hadn't done anything fatal though, did she? She wasn't the one who killed Tyler's dad - it was Ava. That made her feel the tiniest bit better, the fact that she didn't deliver the final blow. Because that means that there's not any blood on her hands.

Right?

"Yoo-hoo, big summer blowout? You listening babes?" Lucas asked, clicking his fingers.

Alissa shook her head softly, as if it would erase her thoughts like an etch-a-sketch. "Yep, heard every word."

Lucas shot her an unbelieving look. "Sure. Anyway, I'm gonna go grab something to eat, I'm starving."

"Hi starving, I'm Alissa." Alissa stuck out a hand with a smile plastered on her face.

"You're seriously reverting to dad jokes? I thought I trained you better than this." Lucas tutted with disappointment as he left the room.