After Fate Fell

14 • MARINA

1 year, 3 months, and 13 days after it all
•MARINA•

It's been hours since the helicopter left the mountain with John and Six, and it's the dead of night on the mountainside. With John and Six gone, it's just me and Nine, freezing-cold, Nine holding on to me as I guide us, making the trek down the mountainside.

I wish there could be a "what we do know is" after all that, but there isn't much. Agent Walker was with them and that's our only lead. We're almost completely clueless as to who would want to apprehend, or more honestly, kidnap, John and Six now that the war is over, and why they would want to do it anyway. The only thing that we can say "what we do know is" about is that we're completely baffled. So in other words, we know nothing. It's a fantastic time being left in the dark, literally and figuratively.

"How are we even supposed to find them?" Nine asks me.

He's been asking me all kinds of questions since the helicopter flew off with our friends. It's weird, him asking for help. He normally just has anger issues, not anxiety issues.

"Agent Walker was with them. That means this probably has something to do with the F.B.I., soooooo," I say, dragging out the last word, "we go to D.C."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Nine snaps all of a sudden. "That bitch is with them? What does she want?" He asks, almost accusing me.

"As if I know! Last time I checked, she was on our side. I don't know what is going on, but what I do know is that we need to get John and Six back. So whatever it takes, we're gonna do it." I tell him, looking at what I think are his eyes but honestly I don't know. It's unnaturally dark here, but I guess that's what a lack of city lights does.

"Whatever I'm in. What do we do when we find the F.B.I. pricks?" He asks me. Again with the questions.

"We slit their goddamn throats."

The hike down the hillside is almost impossible with the lack of lights, and it's not like the sun is going to be rising anytime soon. We need to keep pushing though, whatever it takes to find our friends. This whole situation is shit, but I know, I know that we will find them. Whatever excuse the bastards have to kidnap them, the ones who saved their asses and their whole planet, I don't care. I will slit their throats. I've stabbed an eye out before, I think I can manage with another body part, and this time, I won't be as gracious.

Silence carries throughout the walk. Nine and I may be friends, we're basically siblings, but these past months have taken a toll on our mentality, even tough-guy Nine. He's become a bit more mellow than he'd like to admit. Which, by the way, I honestly won't complain. But I do know that the old, hard-hitter, shit-talking guy I remember him as still lies beneath the surface. He just needs a situation like this to help pull it back out. I've seen some flickers of it.
This all seems completely hopeless, but I'm just going to try to follow what I know. Agent Walker means F.B.I., and F.B.I. means D.C. So that's where we're going. Once we get there, I can figure it out from there. We saved this whole planet from destruction, I think we can free a couple detainees from a crappy government organization. I'm willing to bet on our odds at anything. We may have blew trying to save them before the helicopter took off, but that caught us way off guard. Now we're ready for anything.

All of a sudden, I feel a slight buzzing in the back of my skull. It almost makes me want to reach to the back of my head and itch it because it feels so weird, but it also seems so familiar. I notice Nine is getting the same feeling. What is going on?

It takes a second but then I remember. This is the feeling I always got when Ella would talk to me telepathically. It just feels rusty because I haven't communicated telepathically in forever.

"Ella?" I ask her, aloud by accident, but also in my head.

The feeling stays the same, and I still don't hear her communicating back. All I have is this telepathic "static" coming from the other side.

"Nine, are you getting anything?" I ask, looking over to my side, where he is.

"Nothing but this buzzing shit. Can she cut that out?"

The buzzing continues, and after trying a couple more times to communicate with her, I give up. I look over at Nine, he looks confused somehow, even though I can't see his facial expressions.

He sees me looking, and brings his face closer to mine, and I can see his expressions.

I see a flash in his eyes. A literal flash of light. An explosion reflecting off of his glassy irises. I look behind me, up the hillside. And I see fire, ripping across our home. I see explosions. I hear static. From Ella and from my ears ringing from the explosions. And I turn to Nine, and I see fear in his eyes. An emotion that when I see it, especially in his eyes, I know that we are in grave danger. Scar-on-the-leg danger.
I open my mouth, my ears ringing and my eyes blinded, and I utter seven inaudible words.

"We need to get out of here."