Ben had me help him clear a bed for Gale to lay on so we could attempt to heal him. I told him to use my bed for it because I didn't want to mess up and bloody Beth's bed when she was already a bit down over my leaving soon and I wasn't going to be using it, especially now.
Anyhow, once the bed was cleared Ben told me to go downstairs to get some medical supplies, this way he knew I was being watched and could have someone tend to Gale as well. Smart kid, but what he doesn't know is I currently have no intentions of leaving or stirring the pot. Not with them.
After doing all this, I helped him wrap Gale's wound tightly with gauze and administer some minor pain meds. John and Hal also came up with us because Duane insisted that his brother be in the company of at least one family member, and Hal was ordered by Tom (the Mason family Patriarch) to go up with him. Beth, Todd, and Duane remain downstairs with Tom and the youngest brother, Matt. I've noticed they all look about two years older and rougher than the picture I got from Rebecca two years ago when the invasion began. This makes me two years younger then Ben who is now probably 18 but he looks even older than that.
Stress has a tendency to age people physically.
When Gale finally passes out from all the pain, and the air isn't thick with his whimpering and whining, John begins a conversation.
"So that stuff on your back isn't acne, huh?" He says, pointing to the spikes on his back that I've only now noticed.
Ben chuckles a little bit. "No, It's not."
"Then what is it?"
Ben sighs. "At the beginning of the invasion the aliens were collecting kids and 'harnessing' them with these parasite things that run all the way down the spine. I have these spikes on my back because we had to hacksaw the harness off for the strongest of the alien connection to be severed."
John's eyes widen, "You mean your still connected to them?"
"More or less. But I can think for myself and, for the most part, I can resist unwanted frequencies the bad ones send out."
"The bad ones." John scoffs "As far as I'm concerned all aliens are bad aliens. They're nasty."
"Everything about those ones are nasty but there are some that have become good allies and even friends. We have a colony in Charleston, we've allied with resisting Skitters and a newly discovered species called the Volm who are working hand in hand with us to push back the Espheni or "the bad ones."
Ben talks in a highly logical manner and I can't help but be intrigued by it. I like the way he explains things, I haven't heard smooth articulated sentences like that in a long time. It's just like what Rebecca said about her boys.
John takes a moment to process that then simply says "Good luck with that." Then he begins to tend to Gale who has begun to slip back into consciousness.
"So what about you?" Hal chimes in from the doorway, nodding at me.
"That's a pretty big scratch on your face." I touch a hand to my cheek and realized that I forgot that I still had a pretty sizeable scab. I don't know why but when I notice a second pair of eyes on it I feel the urge to cringe in embaressment.
Really Cecelia?
"Umm... I was in a car crash." Hal bursts into a small fit of laughter.
"You know there's not much in the way of other motorists, so you'd have to be a horrible driver to crash in this day and age." Hal laughs again. I guess he's right though, I hadn't ever had even a days worth of formal instruction in driving.
"That was rude Hal." Ben says in my defense. That's nice.
"Actually," John chimes in. "She told us that she was driving and one of those giant machines came out of nowhere and shot her tire and flipped the car into the ditch. We found her 6 days later limping up the road with some broken ribs and a bunch of scratches."
"Is that so?" Hal has his arms crossed in a curious kind of way. His eyebrow raised.
"Yeah, that's so."
"Why wouldn't you just stay put and try to heal up?"
"I was... looking for something."
"It must be important to you." Ben says gazing at me.
It is.
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Author Note: Hey Reader! I hope you liked this chapter! Thanks you so much for reading and if you would like to you can follow me on Tumblr at:
mshappyduckz.tumblr.com
Peace and Love!
-Haylee
