The Departed

Ch. 5

 "A little help here?" I ask giving Peter the meanest glare I can muster. He shakes his head and grabs the soldier's arms. Together we lift the soldier and place him in a little crevice on the side of the sewer. I pant and wipe my forehead with the back of my hand.

"There was no way this guy was a Guardian, he probably couldn't run even if his life depended on it." I say without thinking. Peter glares at me and opens his mouth. I hold out my hand to stop him from speaking.

"I know, I know, I have to be considerate of other's backgrounds before I judge them-" Peter nods seeming to approve my words. "-but, it doesn't help that these assholes go around killing people, innocent people at that." As soon as the words leave my mouth Peter frowns.

"Language." He snaps. I roll my eyes but nod in response. Out of all the things wrong in this world my vocabulary seemed to be one of them. Peter was always worried about how I spoke to others, I had to treat my elders with 'respect'. In my book, I treated them with respect once they earned it. It was hard to trust people nowadays and I wasn't going to bow my head to any elder that crossed in my direction. Especially since the elders were the most corrupt, backstabbing type of human being on this planet.

"Hey!" Peter says snapping me out of the rant in my head. "-we need to get moving, before it gets any darker." He picks up the second Guardian's arms but then drops them abruptly. Peter bends down and places his hand on the Guardian's neck. I watch in silence as he moves his fingers around a bit before finally settling them right in the center. 

"What's-" He holds up a finger. I watch as Peter's eyes widen. He looks down at the Guardian before looking at me. Certainty fills his eyes and a tingle of fear courses through me. In one swift motion I have my cross-bow aimed straight at the Guardian's head.

"No!" Peter whispers. 

"Is he-?"

"No-" Peter replies. He hits my arm causing my aim to go off. "-he's alive." I pull back my cross-bow as his words register in my mind.

"How? I thought..." I struggle to come up with a rational sentence as a thousand possibilities crash into my brain at once. Was my aim off? Did the arrow not pierce him? Was he just pretending to be unconscious? How could he survive? Peter gives me a strange look before finally looking down at the soldier.

"We need to bring him with us." He says after a while. 

"No." Peter looks up at me. Emotions flicker through his eyes, too quick for me to register, his eyes finally focus. He gives me a hard stare, never breaking eye contact. I can see the gears working in his mind, processing thousands of thoughts at once.

"We're bringing him with us." He says solemnly. I shake my head again.

"No there's no way in he-"

"We didn't leave them behind-" He says. "-and I didn't leave you behind." I clench my jaw and ball my fist as he throws that in my face. I pretend not to notice Peter as he walks up to me.

"Hey-" He says gently. He places his hand under my chin but I jerk my head to the side. He cradles my face with his hands and pulls it in his direction. My eyes meet his. "-I'm not throwing it your face, I don't know why you see it that way, but everyone deserves a chance."

"Not him." I reply angrily. Guardians slaughtered people, people who were innocent, they were suppose to help us, but they had turned the tables instead.

"Even they deserve a chance-" He replies intently. "-if we never helped anyone but ourselves we would be just like them, but we're not, isn't that what we're trying to prove? That even in all this chaos there's still good people." I look away. No matter how hard I fight or how much I argue, he had a point. I didn't want to be like them, but I didn't want to be soft either, I had to be strong, for them, for the group.

"We'll get Laurie to check him, if she says he's fine then we'll move, I don't want to waste anymore time." Peter nods and pulls me in his arms.

"Thank you." He whispers. I nod. He holds me for a few seconds before he kisses my forehead and pulls away.