The Third War

Chapter Sixty Six: Zoe

We walked out of the building, with Kris holding my arm to help support me. I limped along wishing if anything that my ankle would just magically heal by itself. As we finally made it inside, we heard a boy loudly complaining.

Haley yelled, "Max, shut it or I will throw you into the snow!"

Kris face palmed.

She turned to us, "Well, what happened to you too?"

"I'll tell you later," Kris trailed off not wanting to tell the story. The boy named Max gave a small smirk in our direction but wisely chose not to speak.

Haley put down a towel she had been holding, "Okay, I was wondering why she wasn't down here quacking at Chip. What do you need?"

Kris took a minute to reply as she sent Max a wipe-that-smirk-of-your-face look. Max threw his head under the blanket after sticking his tongue out. She sighed, "Um, her ankle is bothering her."

"Running on it?" Haley asked while sending me a disappointed look.

"Basically..." Kris left off the part about jumping from table to table.

"It seems to do that when she runs on it." For whatever reason, Haley's comment irked me.

The annoyed feeling at my dad, myself, and yes, my ankle which refused to heal broke again spilling out of my mouth as I retorted, "Really? What made you think that?"

The lump of blanket began laughing, "The freak has spoken and it wasn't preeeety."

I ignored him trying to simultaneously ignore the whispers which had been awoken by my anger. I glared at the floor while Kris glared at Max. I could feel Haley's eyes on me before she spoke, "I'll get something for that."

She disappeared behind the wall of curtains that separated the warehouse. Kris guided me over to an empty bed and I reluctantly sat down on it after trying to send a back-off look.

Haley beckoned for Kris to meet her so after sending me a worried glance my sister walked away. That left me with boy wonder, Max. I heard him take the sheet of his head, "Is it alive?"

I slowly looked up at him hearing voices telling me different ways I could attack him. His eyes widened, "Dang, it's worse then the other one," his voice took a whiny tone, "Haaaaley, it's watching me!"

"Because it knows an idiot when she sees one," I growled tired of listening to his jeering comments.

Kris and Haley emerged with Kris holding a small bag with my medicine. Haley smiled with fake sweetness, "She's not wrong dear."

"Truly," Kris added.

She walked over to me while Haley went to aid another patient. Max sang mockingly, "I know something you doooon't."

Kris rolled her eyes, "Ready to go Zoe?"

I hopped off the bed careful not to land with much weight on my bad ankle. As we left, Kris called over her shoulder, "Bye surfer Dave!"

"Hey Zoe, what was it like? Killing that man?" His voice made me freeze.

Kris clenched her fists, "Ignore him Zoe. He only wants to upset us. Don't let him have it."

He challenged her, "Was it...fun?"

I could feel my body trembling as I turned to face him, "Fun? Was, it, fun, when I had my body attacked by things only in my head? The feeling of needles pricking my entire body, the terrifying sense of slowly losing feeling in your arms and legs from a cold that isn't there, or how about your entire body being thrown into a fire which doesn't exist? Ants crawling your bloodstream? The only person who could help, a doctor stands by commenting on how well 'patient 1' is performing. Someone who could have saved you from being a cripple your entire life uses you as a test subject."

I began walking toward him. "He makes you forget what he's done, but the trauma is still there. He implants voices in your head that whisper to you terrible things about others and yourself. Every time you close your eyes, you see people you love die."

My voice rose to a shriek, "EVERY TIME!" I kept moving closer to him faintly registering when Kris called my name. "EVERYONE THINKS YOU'RE CRAZY. YOU HAVE A FEAR THAT CAME FROM SEEMINGLY NOWHERE YOU CAN'T CONTROL."

"ZOE!" Kris's yell was drowned out.

Tears began streaming down my checks I imagined the scenes in my head. Everything that had happened and no one even realized. "You see the life of him drain out of a bullet wound you out there. Yes, I killed the man responsible for ruining my life, but it, was, not, fun."

My vision cleared to see Max's terrified eyes a few inches away from mine. Subconsciously, I had grabbed the collar of his shirt.

"Zoe," I felt her tense hands on my shoulders. She was ready to pull me off him if I made a more violent attack.

I closed my eyes letting a last tear slip past. "Until you feel that, until you understand, don't ever try to make a fool of me again."

I suddenly let go causing him to slam down the bed. I shrugged Kris off of me and heading to the door. His voice rang out, "They say the first time is rarely the last."

"You know, I think you're right," I heard the sound of Kris punching him and his cry of agony.

Haley shouted, "Okay, goodbye!"

She shoved Kris out the door behind me. "He deserved it!" She protested as she stumbled to avoid crashing into me.

I only managed to get a few feet forward before almost falling. Chip had luckily been close enough to run over and grab my arm before I hit the ground. I grunted in annoyance at being helped even though I secretly felt thankful.

Chip chuckled, "I like this version better."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kris asked as she caught up.

"The quacking one is annoying, this one is amusing," at her comment, I yanked my arm away and promptly fell on my rump.

I glared up at her but she just shrugged, "Your fault."

"Well glad you think so. Maybe you should show my dad your point of view. After having his daughter and a bunch of numb skulls wreak havoc on his building, I'm sure he could use a laugh."

I guilty realized how much stress this had put on Kris. Chip snorted, "It won't be coming from me, as I am too busy trying to figure out how to scrounge up enough money to buy for a broken hospital bed. By the way, where's the parrot?"

"Probably cleaning the mess hall with his soon to be out of a job or worse friends." Kris's words were curt suggesting she was ready to explode into a rant.

"I don't want to know," Chip said suddenly sounding tired.

Phoebe yelled from far away, "CHIP, DON'T THINK I FORGOT ABOUT YOUR HAIR, THAT WAS DIRTY!"

Chip took off her hat that had a British flag on it to reveal a new choppy hair cut, "I guess it didn't work. Now, I really need to go, but just so you know, Dustin is now grounded."

I know the feeling, I thought bitterly.

Kris sighed, "That makes two of them."

The We began our trek back to the building in silence since neither of us had anything left to say.