The City of Alium (Friendfic)

Breaking Apart and Coming Together

Jabyn's Pov

I yawned to wake up from a short nap, which we all had taken to regain our energy from earlier that night. The sun had just begun to rise between the darkened city skyline.

My eyes blinked sleepily, and I stretched out my arms, getting up from the blanket we had put down in an empty building. 

"Good morning Jabyn" Hunter greeted me with a smile. 

"Morning!" I chirped back happily, glad see him awake so early. 

I reached into my duffel bag and pulled out a granola bar, peeling it open carefully. 

"Got any more of those?" I recognized Alia's voice, and turned around to see her sitting on a foldout table. 

I looked down at the snack, then back at Alia. "No, I only have the one. Here" I took it all the way out of the wrapper and broke it into 5 pieces, "Now everyone can have some" I handed Alia a piece. 

Alia smiled and popped it into her mouth, "Thanks, Jabyn. That's really nice of you"

"You're welcome" I replied, before going around and giving everyone else some, except Sarah, who wasn't awake. 

"Should we wake her up?" Hunter asked, pointing at a steady breathing Sarah. 

Alia nodded her head, "We need to get moving."

***

Brittly's Pov

"I'm tired of this crap. Me and Shelby are the only one here who sees what he's trying to do!" I shouted, tired of Chloe and Rose constantly defending Michael. 

I had just about enough of his threatening comments and snarky attitude.

"Yeah well maybe I'm tired of you treating me like some kind of predator! I'm a mutant just like you, you aren't any better than me so stop pretending you are" he shot back. 

"Girls girls you're both pret-" Rose started.

"STAY OUT OF IT" Michael and I interrupted at the same time, then shot each other a glance.

I took a deep breath, "You wanted to leave anyway, just pack your bags and go." 

Michael's face changed from angry to surprised. It'd been almost a week of me not saying anything but I was done keeping his secret. 

"Why don't you tell Chloe all about how you were just gonna take Rose and leave her. Huh?" I looked at Shelby and Chloe, who were looking at Michael.

"What?" Chloe asked him.

Michael shook his head, "She's lying, she... she um.." he was trying desperately to come up with a lie. 

"Don't bother. She's right, Michael. Why don't you just go" Chloe didn't even give him a chance, and with good reason. 

He made a pathetic face, "Rose.. Come on, talk some sense into them.." 

Rose shook her head, "Maybe it would just.. Be better off Michael.." she said with hesitation. 

"This is bull. Who needs you anyway" he spit at the ground and walked away, flipping us off on his way out. 

"I'm sorry" I whispered, I didn't feel bad for making him leave, but I told Rose I wouldn't tell they were going to leave. 

That, I felt bad for. 

"It's fine. How far away is everyone else?" Rose asked. 

All the groups had been talking over the phone and we decided to all meet up in a bunker. Once all together, we would find the best way possible to combine our powers and fight the humans.  

I knew in my mind that it wouldn't work, but I had a different plan. A trick up my sleeve, if you will, but my sleeve was still ripped from making a bandage for Shelby's old wound.

"Well only Hunter's group answered the phone, and they said they were just a little bit away from the water tower, so by this time they should be there already. " Shelby knew Alium really well, her and Lydia took a lot of walks around our little city. "We're about 5 minutes away. Just coming from the opposite direction"

I nodded, satisfied with how close we were. It felt like we had been walking for years. 

I couldn't wait to be around other people. I mean, I loved Shelb, Chloe, and Rose but I just missed being around the whole gang. 

Shelby's phone rang and she quickly answered it. 

"Hello. Yes, it's Shelby. Slow down, Hailey. Where is everyone else? What do you mean? Okay okay, just bring her the bunker. Oh you're already there? Okay um, we'll be there soon. Yeah. Bye" 

We were all listening. 

"What happened?" Chloe spoke up. 

"It's Lydia... We have to get down there fast" 

***

We rushed to the bunker and watched Shelby fall to her knees in front of a frozen, lifeless Lydia. 

"What happened to her..." Rose asked quietly. 

"Sarah White. She went crazy..." Hailey paused and bit her lip. 

"She didn't even have a reason? Sarah wouldn't have done something like that..." Chloe defended her friend. 

Hailey sighed, "She.. Lydia... Killed Anna" she whispered solemnly.

"Oh my god.. Oh my god" Rose shook her head, "No. No no no..." 

I pulled Rose into my side and rubbed her shoulder, "People shouldn't be dying. This isn't okay. Where's the rest of your group, Hailey?" 

Hailey shrugged, "Eli and Sarah ran off on some assassination spree, and I haven't seen Ethan." 

I nodded, "Gotcha. Well, we probably won't be seeing them any time soon. We honestly should-" I was interrupted by the other group coming into the bunker. 

"Woah" Hunter said, seeing the scene of upset girls and Lydia frozen on the ground. 

"Yeah." Chloe sighed. "Shelby, do you think you can help her?" 

A tear slid down Shelby's cheek, "I hope so.." she lifted Lydia onto her lap and slid her thumb down her icy jawline. 

"Don't you just put your magic hand on her and she's better?" Sarah Leschorn asked from behind Hunter. 

Shelby shook her head, "I wish it were that simple. Healing myself isn't that big of a deal, the energy I'm releasing is going back into my body so I'm fine. But when I'm healing someone else.. I'm just losing energy with no intake. And this is gonna take a lot of energy..." she trailed off. 

I put my hand on Shelby's shoulder, "You don't have to do this Shelby... I don't want you to get hurt". 

"Yeah me neither" Chloe added, and everyone echoed around the room. 

"It's fine guys. I wanna do my best to help her.." she took a deep breath and placed her hand on Lydia's cheek, the yellow glow beaming softly as she worked. 

"Anything else we missed?" Alia asked, sitting down by the rest of us. 

"Quite a bit..." Rose sniffled, reasonably as we had lost a lot of people. 

So we sat in a circle talking about what had happened to all of us. Talking about who we lost and what we missed about them. Talking about how we needed a plan for something to do when the humans arrived. 

They had no chance. The humans would stamp them out like bugs, and I wasn't going to let that happen. 

I couldn't. 

I knew what I needed to do. But God, I was so terrified to do it.