After Fate Fell

8 • SIX

1 year, 3 months, and 12 days after it all
•SIX•

"We have to leave the mountain," I repeat. "We can't just stay here forever. Yes, we won the war, but what are we gonna do next? Why the hell are we still up here John? Hiding, wallowing in our own feelings, what good is this doing us?"

He looks up at me, sadness in his eyes. I was hoping he felt the same way, but the look in his eyes tells me that he was hoping this day would never come.

"I agree," he tells me.

My mouth almost drops open, because I definitely wasn't expecting that reaction, only hoping for it.

"You do?" I ask, trying not to fully show my surprise.

"Yes...Six, things need to change. We need to do something with our lives, I feel guilty hiding away for so long already...people need us. I mean, Ella is off in Mexico right now, she's trying to figure out what we should do now that the war is over."

I slow down my pace a bit. And what if what she finds out is too much for us? What do we do then? I wish Sam was here with me, he would know how to make me feel better about this whole situation. I don't even know where he is, after the war, I came up here, and either he's giving us space or...I don't know. I just wish he was here.

"So should we go to Mexico and meet with Ella?" I ask, unsure.

"No. I think that her telepathy is actually stronger than she thinks it is. Plus, she'll be with Legacy, so her legacies will all become stronger. She'll be able to communicate to us from there. We can just wait to hear from her," John explains.

"And if we don't?" I ask him, stepping over a rock.

"Six," he says. "The war is over. The Mogs are gone and we don't have any real threats anymore," he tells me, sureness in his tone.

"That's not what I mean," I tell him. "Do you think there's a chance that she would...run away? That she's come to a point where she doesn't want to be with us anymore?" I ask him, and he turns toward me, confusion is his face.

"What do you mean?" He asks, slowing the pace even more. "Why would she want to do that?"

"John, don't act like you don't know why. Every one of us has been acting so...differently lately. We don't even fucking talk to each other anymore for god's sake! And maybe Ella just snapped, you know?" I wheeze, I'm getting out of breath because of the thin air up here. "Maybe she realized that if she's actually gonna do something other than sit on this damned mountain, she has to do it on her own."

He looks up at me, he really looks like he's considering this. The sun is about to set and it's getting darker fast. He trips over a rock, and shifts his feet to catch his fall. Instead of looking back up, he just keeps his eyes on the ground, carefully watching every step.

"I don't know. I honestly don't know if she would do something like that. Before it all, I would be sure that she would never leave us all alone to go do something on her own. But now, after it all, things have changed. And I agree, we've changed. All of us have changed drastically except for Ella. So maybe because she felt like she was the only one who cared about anything anymore, she realized she had to keep going like she's always been doing, even if it meant leaving us behind. But I also think she will come back. I hope she will. I could see anything happening honestly." He looks really worried. I'm worried too. Ella is determined and strong, but strength comes in numbers, and I just want us to all stick together.

I didn't mean to cause all of this worry, but I just wanted to know if John has felt the same thing as me about Ella. And now we're both wondering the same thing: Will she come back?

I'm just about to ask John this, when I see a person walking up the mountain straight ahead of us. Some bushes are obscuring my view of the figure. I nudge John, and he looks over where I'm pointing.

"Who is that?"

I can see John is on edge by this, but I know that there aren't any more real threats to us, the Mogadorians are all gone. So who could this possibly be?

"Hello Six, John," a familiar voice says. Just as the wheels start to turn in my head and I realize that it's Agent Walker, the chopping sound of a helicopter comes into earshot.

Agent Walker looks up into the sky. She seems confused. What the hell is going on?
The helicopter comes into view, and it starts to descend, not even bothering to look for a flatter place to land.

A voice over a megaphone cuts through the air, and we can hear it, even through the incessant chopping of the helicopter.

"Hello Karen, thought you could run away from us? John, Six, you're all coming with us. And where are the rest of your friends?"