The Apostate Trials

Chapter 13

Noah blinked frantically, tried his best to make sense of their current situation. Glass shattered in almost deafening cracks. Objects were thrown, a few fists were slugged. He heard brief whimpers of pain and cries.

His ears attuned to Miles roaming about in the near distance. "Everyone, calm down!" But the poor guy was clearly just as spooked, if not more. Noah could even hear it in his voice. He was cracking.

At the sound of the last fist thrown, the whimper of a girl filling in the gaps of everything that came afterwards, followed by North's shouting─Noah began to lose it too; he brought his pistol to the air and popped off a few shots, his eyes narrow, his rage profound.

"Can't you see," His eyes met the gaze of each and every one of them. "We're doing exactly what they want; turning against one another in a time of crisis!" Noah could only hope the tenor of his voice wasn't affecting the truthfulness behind his words; he too was beginning to lose his cool.

"How do we know listening to you isn't doing what they want," Someone from the back questioned.

"That message said you requested something of them," Another shouted. "How do we know you're not one of them? That you're not in league with NEST?"

"Maybe we should just kill him to find out!"

     Noah took a few steps opposite of the angry horde until his back was pressed to a wall, literally and metaphorically. He couldn't deny their doubts. Every obstacle thrown at them, no matter how dire, has seemingly been of the utmost ease. It has always worked out in their favor, be it ambush or otherwise. And NEST truly did seem to favor him─although maybe he wasn't the only one. Maybe there were other people who, just like he, decided to keep those secondary messages a secret. They could avoid all misunderstandings that way.

     That feeling of having been manipulated returned with a vengeance. Once more, everything that they were presented─the exhaustion, the weather, the fear─NEST seemingly had a way of presenting the worst of information at the best of times. It was almost too ideal.

Lilly was the first to rush to Noah's side. "You idiots!" she yelled. "None of us would be standing here if it weren't for Noah!"

Considering that glance she gave him earlier, he was surprised to see her standing there beside him with such confidence in her voice; the crowd wasn't as easily amazed.

"I'm willing to bet she's in league with them too!" The roars started back up.

But Lilly wasn't willing to so easily give up either. She continued while Miles, North, Karen, and Nikki made their way to the front, "Just a few minutes ago we were all obediently following him out the storm? Does that mean nothing?" Silence was the response she got. "And what about yesterday when North's class were threatening to hunt us? Or a few hours ago back at the mansion? Noah has been at the center of it all."

Someone in the crowd shook their head. "That's only because Rylan─"

"Tried to get us all killed back at the mansion," Noah cut the girl's statement short; he'd grown tired of all the Rylan worshipers. "I'd just love to sit here and discuss morals and philosophies with you all, about how we should deal with our current orders, but it's clear that no one's in a decent enough mood to do so. You haven't eaten a thing since yesterday. You're tired. Cold. And afraid. We'll pick this topic back up after everyone's had enough time to clear their heads."

His dismissal of the crowd was met with skepticism at first, then everyone, too tired to continue the discussion any further, eventually went about their affairs, each smartly huddled in groups so that no one wondered the hospital alone.