Other Angels (1/4)

Chapter Eighteen: Leader

Hey guys.  I know it's an early update, but I guess I owe you for not updating for almost two months.  Wrote this in two days.  My fingers are cramping.  Hope it's worth it.  Enjoy.

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An hour later, we finish patching ourselves up with the medspray and the first-aid kit. We set everything up a ten minutes' walk away from the fence, just in case any Drones lingering around the fence tries to attack us. No one was in danger of inmenent death, but Lucien did get a long slash down his side that required twenty stitches and half a bottle of the four extra medsprays Mercedes brought with her in her backpack. 

"How did you get those?" I ask, amazed. I know the medsprays came from the locked battle armory that soldiers have absolutely no access to. I know Trainers and the people who run this camp are the only ones who can enter the armory. It's heavily guarded and I highly doubt Mercedes broke in. 

Mercedes shrugs. "I have connections." 

"Who?" I ask, because I am curious and a little leery. I never thought Mercedes to be the one who goes out and befriends everyone she meets, even though her attitude is better than mine. Mercedes is independent and won't speak unless spoken to. She's always in the back, by herself. I know and I see almost every boy eye her with want and lust, but Mercedes never seems to notice. When I pointed this out to her, she just shrugged and told me she doesn't care. But there's a haunted, hating look in her eyes when I bring it up. I guess it's got something to do with her past, which I have know next to nothing about. 

Mercedes gets this faraway look in her eyes. She gets that sometimes when I ask her things about her past. I never get straight answers, though. I wonder why. Unlike many others, she didn't cry when she was first thrown here, but she doesn't seem entirely wanting to answer my polite (or what passes as polite for me) questions. Even if it's not about her past, Mercedes takes an awful lot of time before she says, "A girl. Golden hair." 

Wang snorts from her corner. I glare at her. She's fidgeting with her latest version of the Beta 9, or B9 for short. It's the most recent techno knife. She's flicking and swiping the hilt at random. My throat gets crammed up with rage. Things were going just fine without her. Well, not really. She did save my life, which is something that horrifies me more than facing armies of Drones en masse.  

Her lips perk up in a smirk and a knowing look shadows in her fiery eyes. It would have been a smirk, but the scar on her face makes it seem as if she's grimacing in pain. "I bet your little friend would like to know more, Mercedes. I would certainly like to know more." 

My fists tighten and I bite my lip so hard it draws blood. Anger rises to my face, and I nearly get to my feet to scream at Wang when Mercedes surprises me. 

She whirls around and fixes Hallie with a deadly glare, and snarls, "Shut up, Halcyon." 

Halcyon's eyes widen fractionally, and I can hear her draw in a sharp breath, as if she's socked hard in the stomach, and in that moment I know that she's caught off guard. And the strangest thing is-- though it might be my imagination-- is that some of the crimson color seems to have retreated from her pupil, retracting to the outer rim of her iris. But after that she just pulls on an excellent poker face a few seconds after and turns around to help Nikolas, Ryan and Lucien without another word. 

I'm just as surprised as Hallie Wang-- Or Halcyon Wang, whichever-- is. I sit back down, a million questions whirling through my head, and stare at Mercedes, who takes her assault rifle and begins to clean it with a dirty rag. 

I clear my throat. "Mercedes, there's something you're not telling me." 

She doesn't even look up. "You bet," she says in a sharp voice.