Expired

Chapter 44

Skylars P.O.V

"I don't know." Elspeth says. "Elspeth we need to find Dani it's not just something that you shrug about and walk away! We need to find her!" I yell. I run to the last truck and the driver is about to get out. "Wait!" I call out. "Stop." I say huffing and puffing. "Yes?" "I need to get back to Government Building and quick, so please step on it!" I yell and hop in the back seat. "Alright, fine." He says and Ben hurries and hops in and we drive away from town square. "Ben, I hope she's okay." I say. "Sky, this is Danielle we're talking about she's super tough I think she'll be fine. Maybe she just wasn't paying attention and everyone left without her." Ben says. "Well, I wasn't there, but still you should've set of a little siren letting everyone know that your leaving so no one gets left behind." I say worried.

About ten minutes later we arrive at the Government Building. "Wait here." I tell the driver and he nods. We hop out and start sprinting toward the building. I shove the doors open and we start to look. "Daniel?!" "Dani?!" We call to see if she's here. "DANIELLE?!" Ben yells but no answer. "Let's check all floors." I say and we walk to the elevator. Ben presses the "second floor" button and we wait, the elevator dings and the doors open. We walk out and call her name many more times. We repeat the process, we go to third floor and check, but no answer. We go to the fourth floor, and found something interesting.

"Danielle!" Ben calls. I walk along the hall way and peak in many rooms. Right as I was about to give up hope, I opened the last door to the last room in the entire building. I open it and Danielle's back is facing me, she's looking out of the "Exit" door as its wide open. "Dani?" I ask. She turns a little shocked and looks at me. "What are you doing here Skylar?" She asks a little stern. "Looking for you, what are you doing?" I ask and start to walk toward her. "NO! STOP!" She says and puts her hand in front of me almost like a stiff arm move. "What? What's behind you?" I ask and try to move around the see if there's a certain angle I could see behind her. I don't really see what it is, but I see a propeller circling around and around so I just assume it's a helicopter. "What are you doing with that helicopter?" I ask and Ben enters the room. We both look back at him but then turn back to our conversation.

"Skylar....I" she stops. "Danielle! Stop cutting off just answer my questions!" I yell and make her snap back to reality. She somehow just dazes off in the middle or our conversations. "Just tell us what's going on." Ben says. "I don't know." She says playing with her hair. "Hurry up!" Someone says from a megaphone. "Who's that?" I ask. "Skylar, I need to go!" She says and starts to walk away. "No! Who are those people?" Ben yells. "That's the government." "And what are you doing with them?" Ben asks. "I....." "SPIT IT OUT!" "I'm joining them."

"You're joining them?" "Yes." "Why?" "Because I'm sick of this." "Sick of what?" "Sick of running, and fighting, and hiding! Grow up Skylar you think your going to end this?! They have much more power than you! They have the entire U.S while you just have a little town fighting for you! Skylar, I've been through this story before! Your not going to change it, your just killing more!" She says. "DANIELLE COMMON!" The voice from the megaphone says. "I've got to go, take care, please end your dreams." She says. I look back at Ben and he shakes his head. "No." "No?" She asks facing me. "I don't know when to quit." I say to her. "Alright." She says and jumps out of the door.

Ben and I run to the door. She just jumped to her death, well we thought until we see her being carried by a ladder hanging from the helicopter. Ben puts his arms around me and I put my arms around him as the air from the helicopter almost pushes us back. I let go and Ben let's go and he reaches for his side. He pulls out a gun and aims at the ladder. "Should I?" He asks. I pause for a second. The lady I thought of as a second mother just betray me. She's been there for me for so long. I've taken care of her in the hospital for six months plus an additional three being with her since the hospital caught fire, and my mother died. She took care of me and comforted me and helped me to collect these troops. She's helped me find the lost "Expired" and she helped me most of all by becoming an Expired. My heart replied to him saying "no" but my head is telling me "yes." "Should I?" He repeats. "Go ahead." I say sternly and back away behind him. He aims and cocks the gun. He lowers his flunked slowly and softly to the trigger and pulls it. I watch as the bullet flies toward Danielle, watching as its going to hit her in the stomach and pull her to death. I hold my breath and the bullet finally does its magic. It misses.

I breathe out and Ben slowly lowers the gun and drops it to the floor. "I missed." He says. "I saw." I say. He bends over and picks up the gun and puts it back in his holster. "Let's go." I say and he nods. He puts his arm around me and we walk out of this place together. Once we get to the first floor we walk out the doors and I see the truck and the man who picked us up is still waiting. He's about two hundred feet away though. About halfway to the truck I drop my arm from around him and pause. "What is it Sky?" He asks. "I'm just done." I say. "Done with what?" "Done with betrayal done with getting hurt. I kind of thought about what Danielle said back there, and I actually thought of considering it." I say. "You considered what?" "Quitting. Quitting with this plan. Just leaving the dates for our generations and making it "fair" but when I thought about it, it just made me angry, because I'm a Peterson. Almost the last one left, and I'm not going to give up. So I said "I don't know when to quit."

"Don't ever quit Skylar. That's part of the reason why I love you is you never quit. You keep trying when it's hard. You never give up. You look for the brightest in all situations and you never stop. So no Skylar, you don't know when to quit." He says. I hug him tightly and think of how grateful I am for him. "Let's blow this place." "What?" He asks. "You need hearing aids!" I yell and laugh. "Let's blow this place to bits. They'll never return. They won't need another government building, and they sure won't have time to build another one of we're marching through fighting." I say. "Alright let's blow it." He says. He pulls out some bombs they gave him in case a huge emergency. He pulls out his bow and I pull out mine. I put it over an arrow and he does the same. We pull the string back and aim. "Should I?" I ask. "Let's go ahead." He says. "One three." "One...." I say. "Two...." He says. "Three" we say together and release the arrows. The place blows up as soon as the arrows touch it and fire starts everywhere. "We never know when to quit!" Ben screams into the burning building, and I smile.

Authors note: I loved writing this chapter. Hope you guys liked it just as much. Question of the day, why do you think Danielle betray Skylar and the troops? Comment what you think. Don't forget to vote, read, comment, and share. I don't know if I'm still running for the thirty day writing challenge because it hasn't notified me but I still need the votes and comments. Also don't forget to send me pics for the top of future chapters! Thanks readers!