Who We Really are

Chapter 14

"One must live the way one thinks or end up thinking the way one has lived." -Paul Bourget

Chapter 14

Ollie let go of my shirt and I turned around. Ryan was climbing up the rope that I was on. I guess they had made the rope like a pulley so when Katy had fallen that's why I shot up and was able to get up so fast.

I didn't move when I saw Jessica. I knew that they had helped with my escape but I thought that they would stay at the Cloud HQ.

Jessica walked over to me, didn't stop but grabbed my hand and forced me to walk with her. I couldn't see her face but I could just tell she was angry. I didn't know if with me, or Ollie or Ryan. But she was mad.

She walked me over to Kennan and gently put my hand in his. Jessica looked at him and raised an eyebrow. I didn't know what for but I guess it was an unspoken order from her to him.

Ryan had finally climbed all the way up and out as Jessica had started walking away.

"Come on Rheyn, let's go." Kennan said. I wanted to stay. If they were going to have a conversation about me I wanted to hear it. It's not like I'm a little girl anymore. I know things and I've heard things that I shouldn't know so why are they acting like I haven't.

I stayed in my position. My face was still burning from Ollie's punch. Great. "Rehyn. Let's go." Kennan said tugging on my sleeve. I gave in and we both started to walk. I felt like a dog on a leash though. It was not a good feeling to have. I followed Ken and he led me the same direction the other Survivors went.

We walked for a few minutes then something came into my vision. It looked like a lot of houses. Then it got clearer and I realized that it was a lot of tent houses. There wasn't any wood to make wood houses, but there was game. And with game you can make tents out of the animals hide.

I made Kennan stop, I wanted to get a good look at this masterpiece before I explored it.

I took it in. There looked to be about fifty white around what looked like a town square. Granted it wasn't big. But it could be where they would celebrate. I don't know what they'd celebrate, but that's the best I can come up with.

Then there were people moving about like little ants. It was an ecosystem here. There were the men that go hunting and bring back the food and the women who cool it and make the animals hide into tents.

It was just like people would do in Egypt or Greece in ancient times. "This is amazing." I said, well amazed. I didn't think that this was possible.

"Come on. We are going to this one over here." He pointed to a yellow tent away from the civilization. "we do not want the Survivors to see your face all bruised. It will make them believe something's wrong and take away there hope."

"Is it better to have false hope or no hope?" I asked glancing at him but he didn't look back at me.

***

The tent was small but roomy. All it had was a table and two chairs. It looked like an office without anything on the table. A very bland and boring office. I sat down in a chair and following me was Kennan.

We sat there in silence for along time. There was nothing to talk about.

But there was something I've been wanting to ask him for a long time and now's the time to ask him. "Does it pain you to think about things?"

"What things? There are a lot of things."

"Everything. The little things like the people our age that died. Or the big things like why we survived out of the seven billion people in the world. I don't know, it bothers me to think about it. It kind of freaks me out a bit. Like we were the chosen ones for some reason. "

"Hey, your the savior." He said smirking. I laughed. I wasn't a savior. I wasn't even special so I don't know why everyone thinks I am.

"I'm serious though. Do you remember that one girl. She was really short, and had brown hair. She was in the fourth grade with us. Ugh. What was her name?"

"Sierra?"

"Yea! that's it. Or what about Andrew, or Mikayla. Or Ally or Brenna. What about Jared or Michael or Casey who were a grade above us. Do you remember all of those people? And now they are all gone. Does that pain you or freak you out? That we used to be a world. We used to take so many things for granite. And so many people for granite. it's just... what's the word I'm looking for?" we were both sitting at an angle in out chairs. Kennan was just staring at the wall but I was looking at him.

"Crazy, sad, horrendous. There are so many words that can fit into that sentence Rehyn it's hard to narrow it done to one."

"Yea..." We both trailed off. Kennan was tapping his fingers on the table and since there was no other noise it sounded way louder than it actually was. "Do you think it's weird that we haven't gone to school in five years. I guess when it happened we were in fifth grade..." I started doing the math five plus five is ten. "We would be in tenth grade. We would be halfway done with high school. But we haven't even ever been in a high school. It's crazy."

"It awesome! No studying or stress like older people would say there was."

"I don't know. I think I would like high school. I'd probably take Spanish." When I said that it made me wonder if there were other people alive on the other continents. That be kind of cool if there was though. "I'd also want to be a library assistant."

"Remind me why I like you? your such a nerd." He said finally looking at me. We both smiled at each other and laughed.

"I don't know why I like you. Your a jerk." We both started to laugh. But that wasn't funny for long. All of the sudden Ken got really serious and stern faced.

"What happened to Jessica?"

"What happened to her? She became a traitor."

" No, I mean the scars. Did she tell you?"

I nodded. I did not want to explain this to him. But I did. I told him how the hybrid potion didn't work with girls so she was trapped in a room with two strong, new hybrids and is 3/4 deaf and how she was shackled for two weeks and made a pledge to stay faithful to the Cloud on accident. Then how Torrent came out one night while we were sleeping and almost killed her. Kennan was speechless for a few seconds then he said, "So why do you hate her."

Now it was my turn to be speechless. I don't know why I hated her. She risked her life for me, but then risked my life for her. And I guess now she is on our side. She can't keep changing sides like this. That's not how it works.

"Do you miss your parents?" I asked changing the subject.

"Don't change the subject, I'm serious."

I acted like I was thinking. I didn't really want to answer his question. "I don't hate her." I unconvincingly stated.

"Rehyn, I know you do so just say it. It won't hurt my feelings."

"Well she keeps changing her mind about who's side she wants to be on. And apparently there is a lot of money that I'm worth."

"Did you ever stop and think that you being captured by the Cloud was the plan all along?"