Unmatchable

Chapter 12

I've heard many sorts of noises in my lifetime. Some were beautiful, like the melody my mother would sing while she did the dishes. Others made me want to go jump off a cliff, like when Lillian would scrape her fork against her plate. Ugh, I shiver at the thought of it. But out of all the sounds I've heard, I've never felt afraid.

That is, until now.

"What the hell was that?!" I whisper (quite loudly) to Thomas. He and I are already grabbing our things and bolting to the cave.
"A gun, you idiot!" He scoffs, while whispering. Adrenaline runs through my veins, and for the first time in my life, I fear for my life.
Well technically speaking, it's my second time. I remember the first day outside of the wall. I think of how far I've come, and I wonder how far I have yet to go. All these thoughts race through my mind as Thomas and I are racing towards the cave.
Once we're inside, Thomas wakes up Lily and explains what we heard.
"Oh no... could it... could it be them Tom?" Lily's eyes widen. Oh god... I think to myself. What does she mean by could it be them? Who the hell is them? Why the hell does it have to be so extremely dark in this damn cave? All very great questions.
"What do you mean by 'them'" I look at Lily. I can tell that she's making an attempt to soften her expression to calm me down. She probably sees the horror I feel plastered on my face.
"Well..." Lily starts, and Thomas interrupts her. "There's this group out here. We always called them the 'crazies'. I personally never talked to one. They used to sneak into the compound and steal random weapons. I don't even know how they got past security. Anyway we caught a crazy and Natalia questioned him. She didn't get anything out of him so she secretly put a tracker on him and sent him away. The tracker stopped around three miles north of here."
I take all that in...
"Why'd you call them 'crazies'?" I ask Thomas.
"Cause they're 'crazy' good at breaking in." Thomas looks at the ground. Lily rolls her eyes, and I make a giant attempt to not snort. Yeah, attempt. I start half-snorting-half-laughing.
"That's the dumbest name I've ever heard!"
"Now why is that!" Thomas says, trying to act serious while holding back a smile.
"Nevermind. Anyway, we have to be serious now." I start pacing back and forth. "Ok...so there's a group... they're good at breaking into places... they needed weapons..." I start stating the key facts from what Thomas just said. "Do you know why they took what they did?" I question Thomas. I crouch on the ground beside Lily, and her warmth burns me with delight as I realize how cold I am.
"Well I don't know what he said but Natalia said something about them wanting to 'rise up'. Something like that." In the dim light I can make out Thomas sitting down on a rock. He starts digging through his backpack. "I don't know what she meant. Or should I say, what they meant." Rise up. I think for a moment. I've heard that somewhere before. I strain my mind attempting to remember something that could lead us to something. But nothing comes to mind, so my head remains empty of thought.
"Do you think they're close, Tom?" Lily shivers next to me.
"It sounded pretty far away. Not too far, but not too close either."
"That sounds good enough for me." Lily says.
"Yeah, I bet Thomas is the expert in determining the closeness of gunshots." I roll my eyes.
"You know, I wouldn't have thought that a computer would know sarcasm." Thomas folds his arms and crosses his ankles.
"Computer?"
"Yeah, that's what we call you guys from the wall. You know cause you all do what you're told and stuff."
"What is it with you and making up names?" I huddle closer to Lily, who has barely said anything during the past ten minutes. "And anyway, we don't do everything we're told. And it doesn't kill to have some rules."
"Geez" He puts his arms up in defense. Then everything becomes silent. The chill night air is starting to make me cold, so I scoot closer to Lily.
"Guys what if they're coming right now." Lily pipes up in the silence.
"Yeah, why are we sitting here." I say.
"You wanna leave, Lily? We can leave." Thomas looks lovingly at Lily
"I just think that we should get away while we can." Lily says.
"Well it's gonna be hard to run away when we don't know which way is away." Thomas stares at Lily, Lily looks at the ground.
"I heard where it came from" I stand up "I was actually paying attention!" I wink jokingly at Thomas. He smiles faintly and rolls his eyes.
"Well then what are we waiting for?" Lily stands with me. "Lets bounce."
Thomas holds his gun in his right hand, and pulls Lily into him with his left. Geez. I think. Why am I always the third wheel? My mind wanders back to when I was 16. Hazel would always go hang out with this one guy. Of course, being the matchmaker she is, she would always drag me along. And then she'd have me take photos of the two of them together. I always told her it was pointless being with him because it wasn't her match. If it was, their clocks would've stopped. Nevertheless she persisted.
Such glory days. I think while walking out of the cave with my two new friends.

One minute we're on the ground making conversation.

The next, we're 10 feet in the air dangling in a net.

"Caught ya!" A young man walks out from behind a tree along with a girl around my age.

"Xavier, don't talk like that, try to sound a little more....."

"A little more what?

"Professional."

"Shut up, Fri"