For The Many

Chapter 19

I felt horrible. I had done nothing but what Jonah had said, following him around like some puppy who needed to be lead at all times, and in that time, I had ignored Evan almost completely. It was as if I had forgotten everything we had been through, everything he'd been through... I couldn't afford to let that happen any longer. I needed to get him back and apologize for how I treated him at least.

- Marta Pennyworth, August 15th.

It took them all day and all night to catch up to Evan, barrelling as fast as they dared across the scarred landscape in what they could only guess was the right direction. Click had told her he knew where they were going, and he had put what he remembered into the console on the dash board of the vehicle, but he couldn't be certain. He didn't doubt his memory, but he didn't trust it either.

"Do you think we'll find him?" Marta had asked, her voice cracking and breaking.

"We have to," Click replied. "If he gets there and they see that tag... He's done for." She had almost forgotten about that. Apart from his habits, that tag was the only physical proof that he wasn't a Shifter. When he was with someone else, they could back him up, explain it away, but alone... Alone, they would assume the worst.

As her panic has risen to the highest point she felt she could deal with it, she saw a shape, not far off their course, that could be a car. "There!" She whispered, with the same intensity as a shout. Click nodded, turning the wheel to cruise from the direction that the console told him and towards the vehicle.

No sooner had their car stopped than Marta leaped from the passenger side and raced towards the other car. It was the pickup truck that Evan had stolen, and also been rescued in. "Evan!" She shouted, with no answer.

She reached the cage-like part of the truck, seeing a form asleep in the back. She had barely stopped in time to stop herself from slamming, full speed, into the bars. "Evan!" She shouted again.

The form woke with a start, sitting up and scrambling to it's feet. Blue eyes met hers, and immediately the form relaxed. "Marta," he breathed, crawling to the cage's entrance and unlocking it.

She waited only for it to be removed from the space between them, her hands balling into fists, nails cutting into her palm, before throwing herself through and pulling him into her arms. "Evan, I'm so sorry!" She sobbed, cheek to cheek with the boy she had almost lost.

"Marta, what are you-"

"You know what I'm talking about!" She wailed, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt in a desperate attempt to make their physical bond stronger. "I treated you so horribly..."

He embraced her just as tightly, burying his face in her hair and holding her to his chest.

They stayed like that for what felt like years, but was actually no longer than a minute, before Click approached the pair cautiously. "We need to keep moving," he said, having clambered from his own seat only seconds after Marta. They both looked at him, then back to each other. "Yeah, you're right."

He began untangling himself from Marta, reluctantly loosening his grip, but Click shook his head. "I'll drive."

"What about the other car-"

"We'll collect it on the way back."

He swung into the driver's seat just as Evan pulled Marta into the back of the truck. They were off as soon as the cage door was closed again, and the pair inside it were asleep not long afterwards, holding each other closely.

They were jolted awake as Click stopped the car, both as shocked as the other at the proximity they were in. They hadn't realized, in the darkness of the night, that their noses had almost been touching. They quickly parted, straightening their clothes and disembarking from the vehicle, so that when they reached the complex, they would not look as if they were the prisoners.