Hollow Veins

Chapter Fourty Two; The Hard Truth

There was a dead silence. Everyone stared at Jasper. Alice slowly turned to Ari. "How... how long?" Ari didn't answer. Everyone started to back up, except Prince and Alice. She started to panic. Her face was pale and her tear filled eyes were wide. Alice looked at the bite. "Maybe we... maybe we can... if there's enough time-" "Alice," Jasper sighed. "If we could... I don't... Jasper, we can't..." "Alice." There were tears running down her face. She shook her head. "No." "Alice!" "We are not killing you, Jasper." He sighed again and looked at the others. Then to their suprise he looked at Prince. Prince raised his eyebrows. Jasper nodded. "I'm not infected."

They stared at him. Ari spoke first, "What do you mean?" "He means he's immune." Prince got to his feet. Alice stared at both of them. "What...?" Jasper exhaled, "I'll explain, but we should start moving. And you can put away your gun, Ari, I'm not going to attack you guys." Ari lowered her gun but didn't put it away. Prince walked over to her and gently grabbed the end of the barrel. He raised his eyebrows. She sighed and stuck it in her belt. Everyone else was still looking at Jasper like he might blow up. He helped Alice to her feet. She looked stunned. Jasper started to lead. After a minute he spoke quietly, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I didn't want you to do something like sacrifice yourselves because I'm 'valuable.' I figured out a while ago. When... when I left," He glanced sideways at Alice, "I left for the reason I told you, but... I got... bit. Some kid was attacked and I helped him and... yeah. So I ran off. I didn't know how long it would take. For some people it's a couple days, weeks even. For others it's a matter of seconds." Jasper looked at Ari. "Right?" She nodded, still looking a little apprehensive. "So anyways after about a week I started to get some hope. After two weeks the bite was almost healed and my veins weren't going dark. There were no side effects. I could... think clearly. So when I finally realized that I wasn't infected, I came back. But I was too late." Alice frowned. "But the helicopter..." "What about it?" "I saw you running towards it. I..." Her voice broke, "I saw you leave." He stopped and looked at her. "Alice... I didn't..." "I saw you. I recognized that jacket you used to always wear." He ran a hand through his hair and inhaled. Alice stared at him. "What?" "The kid I helped... I... I gave him my jacket. I didn't need it anymore and... so you thought..." He looked at Aaron, then Alice. "You thought I just took my chance and ran?" Ren and Jaden shared a look. Ari was giving him a calculated look. Aaron stared down at the floor. Alice looked straight back at him. "I... I just... saw the jacket and dark hair and..." Her quaking voice echoed eerily through the concrete tunnel. Ari looked around at them all."Let's just keep going. We can talk about this later."

Jasper closed his eyes and leaned back. They'd settled down after a couple hours of walking. Some tunnels had branched off to the sides but they'd continued straight. Jasper couldn't quite get a hold of his feelings. He was relieved that it was finally out but if anything happened... He didn't want the others to risk getting hurt. Alice was curled up next to him. Ari had turned off the flashlight to save power, so he could barely see them. Jasper rested a hand on Alice's shoulder. To his suprise, he heard a sniff. Then another. "Hey, are you ok?" He whispered. In response there was a small sob. "Alice?" She shuddered. He helped her to a sitting position. "What's wrong?" She wiped her face. "I- I assumed... the worst... of- of you." "Stop that. You saw someone dressed like me, and you believed facts." Alice shook her head. "I should have trusted you. I on- only waited two... two weeks." He put an arm around her. "Hey, you waited for me. That's good enough. I was acting weird when I left. To be honest, I... I hoped you might leave on... on the helicopter." Alice looked at him, her eyes reflecting the dim light. "I wouldn't do that." "I know. I knew you wouldn't but... I couldn't help hoping. I regret leaving that day. It was a mistake, but the point is you gave me chances. You waited for me, asked for my side of the story and even when you thought I abandoned you, you tried to forgive me." "But-" "Stop. You didn't do anything wrong. Don't stress it. Get some sleep." Alice tried to sleep but it was too overwhelming. So much of her past had been shaken up. And she'd said so many things to him. So many harsh words. Jasper had risked his life for hers too many times to be counted. He'd even rather her think horribly of him and hate him if it meant she was safe. Alice tried not to cry. Her eyes hurt from rubbing them. She'd loved him. She still did. But she'd thought the worst of him. How could he ever forgive her for this. It didn't seem possible. She wondered how Aaron was feeling. Did he feel guilty or was he indifferent? Was Jasper hiding anger? "Alice, please sleep." Alice jerked at his voice. She just made out his eyes in the faint light. Gleaming green. Alice sighed and nodded. He let her lean against his shoulder. She finally started to drift off.

"So you knew?" Ari hissed Prince shrugged. "I wasn't allowed to tell. I promised Jasper." "So you lied?" Prince yawned. It was their third day walking through the tunnels. The last few days no one had been saying anything. Until now. "Not technically no. I just kept things back from you guys." Aaron glanced back at them. "How did you find out?" Prince looked ahead at Jasper. The latter called, "He's a snoop and noticed one of my scars!" The beam of light flashed in their direction. Prince laughed, "Hey at least I'm not the idoit who said it was from a dog! I," He lowered his voice again, "Was smart enough to figure it out." He winked. Ari rolled her eyes. "I hate you." "Mhm." Prince smirked at her. Ari huffed. "You're nitwit." "Ooh, that's a new one." She pushed him away. He laughed, "I'm sick of this darkness. When are we gonna get back to not underground." "Above ground." Prince shook his head. "You're so mean to me." Jasper glanced back at them. "We're not. It's too dangerous. Part of this runs under the mountains so that'll make it quicker anyway." Prince groaned, "And when we run out of batteries?" "Then we'll walk in the dark." "Oh joy." He leaned forward and used Ari's shoulder as an arm rest. Ari batted him away. Prince switched to her head. "Short stock." She knocked his arm down. "Alright, alright I get it. Now ztop." He laughed but did stop. The light flickered. Ari looked worriedly at Prince. He grabbed her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Despite the joking, Ari was pretty sure they all dreaded when it would run out.  Two of their flashlights had died and they were out of batteries. Their supplies were also almost out. They'd ran out of food yesterday. Ari didn't want to admit it but she was scared.

They sped up. About five minutes later the light went out. Yesterday they'd ran some miles without the flashlight but somehow this was worse. Knowing they couldn't turn it on, even in a emergency, was so much worse. And if they used another one, their last one out... "Ok, who wants to go first?" Ren joked, but her voice was shaky. Jasper inhaled. "I'll get out the last but I'll leave it off until absolutely necessary." They started forward again but more slowly. Prince tried to fill his mind with images of the tunnel when it was lit. It didn't help much. Hran his other hand against the wall. That calmed him a little. Having at least two of his senses working. Being scared of the dark was pointless. He knew that. If you were scared of something that doesn't hurt you what wouldn't be scared of? Still it making him uneasy. The only thing he depended more on than sight in a dangerous situation was words. And Prince seriously doubted he could talk his way out of being killed by an Infected. He swung his arm around Ari's shoulders and the tension in her shoulders eased. "Careful about sharp turns," He murmured. At least they knew what direction to go. After a couple yards, Prince's eyes began to adjust to the dark. He could make out the silhouettes of the others. He studied their surroundings, mentally making notes. Knowing more about where they were also helped calm him. He saw a few side passages and the occasional rat. Then a figure standing in a side tunnel.