The Apocalypse of Plants

Tally

"What do you think they're talking about?" I ask Morgan, referring to Laina and Preston who left five minutes ago.

"Laina said there was a note from Johanna," he says. I raise my eyebrows in surprise.

"A note?" I blurt out loudly. He shushes me quickly and peers over at the other three. "You don't trust them," I say.

He shrugs. "It's kind of sketchy how, out of nowhere, they just show up claiming that they're a safe place and one of them just happens to be Preston's cousin."

"You don't think that Nina is Preston's cousin," I say incredulously. "So do you think that this is some big joke and Preston's setting us up? That doesn't explain the memory sucker."

"Maybe Preston didn't actually lose his memories. Maybe whenever we tried to pull it off, he was just faking."

"What about the bloody nose? It's kind of hard to fake that," I say doubtfully.

"Coincidence? My point is, maybe we shouldn't trust everyone we meet. Maybe we need to ask them more questions. Like, what are the chances that we just happen to stumble upon the one person who can help Preston? And that person just happens to be his cousin? About point zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, one. As in, very, very slim. You might say it was luck. But when have we ever been lucky?"

He's got a point, as much as I hate to admit it. "When did you get all Nancy Drew on them? You seem to trust me and Laina pretty well."

"Yeah, well. I still don't trust you guys completely but I don't think you're going to try anything. Besides, you both ate my fox meat without questioning it and I could've been trying to poison you."

"So go over and offer them your fox meat," I say tiredly. "It's not a joke, Morgan. I believe that Nina is actually his cousin. It's kind of strange-okay, very strange-that we just so happened to stumble upon his cousin when she was the only person that was able to take it off, but maybe that's what Mother Nature wants. She wanted Preston to remember, wanted us to find Nina."

The look he sends me chills me to my bones. "Why would she want us to find Nina, the key to getting the little brain sucker off Preston?"

Before I can open my mouth to answer, Laina and Preston walk back, Laina looking pretty ticked off. I wonder what happened.

Someone yells. We all turn sharply toward Marley, Cullen, and Nina just in time to see a knife fly into Cullen's chest.

He falls, dead before he hits the ground.

A few yards away from them stands a boy. Patches of his hair has been ripped out and his clothes are torn to shreds.

But it's the haunted, wild look in his eyes that gets to me the most.

They're an icy blue, but they look like they've been shattered. He looks almost desperate for something, maybe blood.

His blood-curdling shriek pierces the air and he runs straight toward Marley. Nina throws a sharp, pointed stick at him and it impales his shoulder, but it does nothing to slow him down.

The boy lunges for Marley but she moves out of the way at the last second. I am paralysed. I've heard about people going insane but I never thought it would look like this. So....sad.

Morgan springs into motion, shoving the boy to the ground. The boy just snarls and pushes himself up. Morgan backs away, fear in his eyes.

I've never been so scared or helpless. I'm not scared for myself, though. I'm scared for the boy and what he's become. This is a fate I wouldn't wish on anyone. I know the others will kill him and I wish it didn't have to come to that. There has to be a way to help him.

The boy stops abruptly. Preston has grabbed the bloody knife from Cullen's chest and is creeping toward him. I want to yell, to warn the boy. Why does it always end like this? Why does it always have to end in death?

The boy turns and locks his eyes on mine. He starts walking toward me but I don't move. I can't move. Laina sees the look in my eyes and steps in front of me.

"No," I rasp when Preston raises his knife over the boy's back. I guess the boy senses something because he whips around, grabs Preston's wrist and, in a flash, disarms him and leaves Preston lying in the grass, moaning.

He then turns his gaze toward me and resumes stepping toward me. Laina makes a sound in her throat but doesn't move away. I roughly shove her out of the way. Shock crosses the both Laina's and the boy's face but his eyes don't leave mine.

He jumps on me and knocks me to the ground. Laina screams. I flip him over so I'm on top and put my forearm over his throat.

I'm so close that I can see his shattered blue eyes, but there's something else. Pleading and desperation. He wants me to kill him.

I move my arm away from my throat and take out my knife. I hold it over his heart. But I can't. Because I keep seeing Sawyer. Is this how he looked before he drove over the edge? All hopeless and desperate for death? But Sawyer wasn't insane, I tell myself. It's not the same.

But it is. I can't kill him. He's innocent, just another victim of Mother Nature's wrath. He just got caught in the crossfire and he shouldn't have to die for that.

The knife falls out of my hand and onto the ground. I get off him and brush off my jeans.

The boy's eyes have softened now. He stands up and a ghost of a smile graces his lips.

Then his eyes widen and his mouth falls open.

He falls forward and Marley stands behind him with a stick, now dripping blood. She has an enraged look on her face but I only care about the boy.

I kneel down beside him. He doesn't look insane now, just sad. I stroke his hair.

"I'm sorry," I whisper. "I should have saved you."

He laughs, which surprises me. "You couldn't have. Tell my family that I loved them," he says quietly. "Allison and Peter Reyes. Those are my parents."

A tear drips down my face. He has a family.

"What's your name?" I ask.

"Lucas," he says. I touch his cheek tenderly and his face lights up. Then it goes dark and he closes his eyes and exhales.

I stand up and look at Marley, who's watching me closely.

"How could you?" I seethe. "He was just a boy! A boy who had a family!"

"Are you kidding me? He killed Cullen! He was insane! He deserved to die."

Everything goes cold and I stare at her so intensely that she looks scared. "No one-no one-deserves to die, no matter who they are," I say, my voice deadly.

Then I turn around, pick up Scout, who was running around, and storm off.