Mission 'Don't get killed'

Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

Several hours later, at about two the next morning, Matt finally enters the infirmary. He looks tired but satisfied. I jump up and all the sleep that was just sneaking up on me has immediately disappeared.

'And?' I ask him.

'We won.' He smiles. 'We won, Zoë!' He hugs me, taking me by surprise. 'It was hard though and we lost several people tonight, but if it hadn't been for you, we would have been dead. There's no way we could have beaten them if we hadn't known about what they had been planning.'

I'm feeling a little uncomfortable, though I don't know why. Matt has just said that I basically saved everyone, shouldn't I be happy?

Then Rachel rushes over, her hands are stained with blood but I don't think she's noticed that.

'We did it, Rachel!' I tell her and she wants to hug me as well, but I step back quickly and then she notices the blood that's covering her hands and smiles a little apologetically at me.

'Well, I just wanted to tell you it was over, I should get back now.' Matt says and before anyone can say anything, he's already gone. I leave Sara, Zac and Kelsey, who's still laying in the hospital bed, to Rachels care, and leave the infirmary to look around the rest of the compound. On the inside it's untouched, but several victims are being brought in and someone tells me that seven people have been killed and three have been attacked by destroyers.

I look for Karen, but I can't find her at first. I know that she had to go outside as well, she's a destroyer after all. A bad feeling creeps up on me. Is she one of the victims? Just when I want to ask someone whether they know where Karen is, I see her standing at one of the windows in the training area, a sad look on her face.

'Hey.' I say softly when I walk up to her. She turns around and I can see that her face is stained with tears. Without saying anything else I pull her into a hug and she cries while I hold her.

'Brandon, he... he...' She sobs but she can't speak the words and I pat her hair, hoping I'm not being too awkward right now.

'He got shot.' She sobs. 'And he, he didn't make it.'

I don't say anything, simply because there's nothing I can say right now.

She finally gives one last sniff and untangles herself from my embrace.

'Thank you.' She mutters.

'No need to thank me.' I tell her. 'If you ever want to talk to me-' I gesture at myself. 'I'm right here. I'm not leaving.'

'Thank you.' Karen says. 'I think I'm going upstairs now.'

I nod. 'Okay.' I say and I resume my walk around the building, though Brandon's death makes me feel loaded and weird. I didn't know Brandon very well- not as well as Karen- but we still lived in the same building. He was always very nice to me and he made the best jokes. I swallow and think about the others who have died. I haven't heard confirmation about any deaths, save Brandon's, but names are already going around and I notice some faces that are missing. I've seen death before, I've seen it up close, even, but it's never been this much. We have never been attacked like this ever before. But at least I know that we'll never be attacked like this again, even though it won't bring back the ones we have lost.

After about half an hour I return to the infirmary, hoping Sara and Zac might be awake. I also know that Matt will give a speech not too long from now and I don't want to miss it.

In the infirmary the chaos seems to be over. All the wounded have been brought in and are have been bandaged, after which a lot of them could be dismissed. Some are still laying in beds, asleep due to the medication Rachel, Morgan and Ellen have given them. I know that there are several destroyervictims among them, but there are also gunshot wounds and people who have been stabbed with knives. It's scary to think to how much length my fathers men went in order to get all of this done, to get to their goal, which they never reached.