The Eden Projects (FINAL EDITING)

Chapter 36. Blood Money.

- Zak -

Zak was angry.

He took the stairs two at a time, putting as much distance between himself and the others as he could. 

Of course he'd go down.

It was always down with him.

Of freaking course he'd pull something like this.

His sweaty palm slid along the rusted railing as they climbed the cracked, crumbling stairwell. The rustle of oversized wings and the faint clink of straps against metal buckles filled the silence between their ragged breaths. For once, Zak welcomed the noise. He didn't want to be there.

He didn't want to be with any of them.

The climb through A1 to 5 wasn't so bad.

By the time they reached C3, though, his legs were trembling. He'd fallen well behind the group, and Rook kept glancing over his shoulder to make sure Zak was still there, dragging himself along like an asthmatic weasel. Their pace was nearly twice his.

"You gonna make it?" Topher stopped without sounding the least bit winded. "Or should I carry you?"

Zak dropped onto the landing with an exhausted huff. "Shut it, Tweety Bird." His boots squeaked across the tile as he stretched his legs out.

Caleb stood quietly, awkwardly wedged between Rook and the wall.

Zak snorted. "I guess I should've quit smoking when I was his age, huh?"

He nodded toward Caleb, who looked more bored than tired.

"Why're we bringing kids into this anyway? Seems a little risky." He cracked open his flask and took a swig. "Makes me feel old."

"There are no kids anymore." Caleb's voice was so quiet it almost disappeared into the stairwell.

Zak's eyes drifted to the Avian's clawed feet. Bandages wrapped around scaled ankles before disappearing beneath skin that slowly became almost human higher up his legs. "And somehow those weird-ass feet make that even worse." He frowned at the floor. "God."

"Zak..." Rook tried to sit, though his wings folded awkwardly against the concrete wall. There wasn't much grace to be found when you had two massive appendages strapped to your back. "How old are you?"

Zak looked up. "Are you trying to be funny?" He paused. Almost shocked at the question. "'Cause it's not."

"No." Rook shrugged. "I'm just curious."

Zak leaned his shoulder against the wall. "I don't know." He stared down the stairwell they'd already climbed. "How long's it been since all this started?" He cleared his throat. 

"Six years and counting, roughly." Topher took a bite of a snack he had packed discreetly. 

"It's been that long?" Zak's tone pitched. "That makes me, what, Twenty five ish? Wow, do you know what month it is right now?" 

"No, but it's Fall." 

"Fall... Oh. Well-" Zak took another sip. "Guess we missed our birthdays then." 

Rook raised an eyebrow as he shifted, making enough room for Caleb to squeeze onto the landing. "You and Kasper have been together this whole time?"

"Since day one." Zak idly flipped the latch on his holster. "I've been with him since he was about twelve." He glanced at Caleb. "He was a lot smaller than you."

"By choice?"

Zak laughed, only for it to dissolve into a wheezing cough. He pressed a hand to his chest until it passed. "Something like that."