The Elite | The Unnamed Duology

10: Explanation

10: Explanation

Pain erupts across his chest and his back hits the ground hard. Above him stands the new Unnamed Leader, the new One. Her eyes are almost on fire as she glares down at him, a machete in her left hand. Daniel's blood begins to run over his bare chest as he attempts to back away from her.

"I should never have let you leave Blaise's mansion alive," she hisses. "I knew something wasn't right with you."

"At least you knew," the Runner hears. Rose the Runner steps out from behind her, her arms crossed as she peers down the length of her slender nose at him. "I suspected, but he got the best of me. And no matter how much I tell him I'm over it, I'm not."

The blood begins to seep out faster and faster, making a large puddle around Daniel. One smirks and takes a in a sharp breath.

"Runner Rose," she says, her voice slithering out like a snakes' tongue. "Will you do the honors."

Rose smiles. "I thought you'd never ask."

She reaches forward to take the machete and twirls it in one hand easily. Daniel loses all the feeling in his arms and legs and flops down into his own blood like a fish out of water.

"Go ahead," Daniel spits, blood spraying from his mouth now. "Just kill me."

Rose chuckles and lifts the blade up above her own head, holding it with both hands and ready to slice through his heart. She shakes her head just before bringing it down at full speed.

The blade nicks his ear and he hears himself whimper once as he spits out blood. Rose the Runner leans in close to his face, her breath shaking from rage.

"You're too good for death," she whispers.

Daniel startles awake. Someone's shaking his shoulder.

He wrenches away, his breathing rapid as his eyes focus on a face. Rose looks at him, confused.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," she says quietly. "Myra sent up food for us. I thought you'd be hungry."

The Runner grumbles something under his breath, touching his chest. He can still feel the sting from the dream. Smells of food hit his nose as the dream comes back to him, and his stomach growls. Rose the Runner stands up and walks over to the door they had entered through and picks up two trays as Daniel picks himself up. What had the dream meant, if it even meant anything?

Runner Rose brings one over and hands it to him. It's a tray with some kind of meat and five different kinds of vegetables. He picks up the fork placed on the right side of the food and begins to poke at it.

"Relax," Rose says as she stuffs a mouth full of green beans past her lips. "It's safe. I know this woman."

Daniel pokes at it some more and decides that Rose hasn't died yet, so he might as well eat it as well. And he's glad he does. The food is amazing--the woman is a fantastic gardener. He'd have to tell her thank you if they made it out of here alive.

They wordlessly scarf down the food, sitting down somewhere during the process. Once finished, Rose places her tray on the ground and looks around for a moment.

"Jim would have loved this place," she says quietly, staring at a distant apple tree.

Daniel swallows his food wrong and chokes on it.

"You all right there?" She chuckles, her eyes wide with concern. Does she maybe suspect the woman isn't what she says she is? Is that why she's looking at Daniel like that?

He nods. "I'm sorry," he tells her softly after clearing his throat. "I really am."

She sighs. "It's okay."

She tucks her knees under her chin and watches Daniel carefully. "How could you do something like that?"

Her whispers feel like shouts to Daniel as he finds her eyes with his. He watches as they fill with tears, something that hasn't happened since the fire took Jim the Runner. Daniel has the urge to wrap his arms around her and make her feel okay. He hates seeing her this way.

"Do what...?" He whispers back.

"Betray us." A sniffle breaks through the quietness. "I thought we were all friends..."

Daniel sighs and puts his own nearly empty tray down, no longer hungry.

"I told you."

She shakes her head, wiping a tear away. "No. You gave me excuses for why you didn't want to do it and excuses for why you needed to do it. But you never told me why you decided to do it. You destroyed my home, Daniel, not to mention countless of other people's. You destroyed our hopes and dreams, and out of that came revenge and hatred. It's almost impossible to revert back to our old ways. How could you make the choice to destroy something like that?"

"Rose." His voice is soft as he reaches forward and touches her hand. Her eyes find his as he tries to organize the thoughts in his head. He had never thought about it that way.

Suddenly Rose's head snaps in the direction of the door, all pieces of sadness she had just presented disappearing, and she pulls her hand from his.

"What?" He asks, confused.

"I smell it," she says quietly, growing stiff. "I smell the tea. They're here."

***

This is the end of the sample! Find the Unnamed Duology on Amazon and Radish!