"The exodus is now."
My jaw dropped. "Now? Like now now?"
The Washington nodded stressfully. "Yeah, now now. Get your things. Just things that you need to survive, okay? Tell Lionel that too. But I'd hurry up. I think that some of Them are on the way."
I felt a lump in my throat the size of a tuba mouthpiece as he walked away. If I thought I was scared before, I was definitely even more scared now.
I was stiffer than a frozen board when I turned around to the bathroom door. Oh God. Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God!
The funniest thing was that "I Bet My Life" had started playing. The irony of it calmed me down a little as I walked over to the bathroom door and knocked.
"He's gone," I muttered, a slight tremor in my voice. "But come out quietly, okay?"
The door opened slightly, showing part of a paler-than-usual Lionel. "Come in? Please?"
I would've laughed if not given the situation. I squeezed my way through the door as Lionel sat down on the tiled floor, motioning at me to sit next to him.
"P-please tell me I didn't just hear w-what I thought I heard," he stammered, his ice blue eyes staring straight into my own coffee brown with more intensity than a prison riot. "Please, M-Michael. Please."
I sighed and leaned my head on my knees, which I'd just pulled up to my chest. "I'll tell you that if it helps you feel better, but then I'd be lying."
Lionel buried his face in his hands. "No. No way. Absolutely no way!"
"Lionel," I said as calmly as I could, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We're going to have to go. We made a promise to them, you know."
"I know, but-"
"Lionel!" I said, but with more intensity this time. My stress must be leaking out. "Please. We have to go. For what we know, if we stay, we could be next. We could get taken. We could be forced to become one of Them. If we leave now, we'd be safe."
"But what if something happens?" he asked.
"I'll be there."
There was that smile that could calm a storm. There was the smile that could save a life. There was that warm, confident smile that made my heart melt.
God bless that smile.
"Here, grab a ton of food and whatever disposable drinks out of the fridge and put it in a bag," I said, walking over to my closet. "I'll grab some extra crap."
Lionel voiced his agreement as I opened the closet door.
Okay, Michael. Only the essentials. Okay. My Chemical Romance, Imagine Dragons...
"Michael!" Lionel scolded. "Are you filling your 'important' bag with collectibles?"
"What?" I sarcastically asked as I shoved more CDs into my backpack. "No, of course not! Why would I do that?"
"Michael!"
I sighed. "No. I'm not putting this back."
He crossed his arms over his chest. "Michael!"
"No way!" I retorted. "I am not!"
That look. That angry mother look. That angry mother look like when you've taken a cookie without her permission.
Why does he have to give me that look?
YOU ARE READING
The Company
Science Fiction(The cover art is mine) Things aren't what they seem when a scientific research company comes to the Fitzgerald Academy For The Gifted and asks for volunteers to "join" them. They're especially strange when it begins to change some of the students...
