à la folie (To Insanity)

Chapter 29- Jackson

"Are you okay?"

"Wh...what did I just do?"

Raven is staring in shock at my brother, as if surprised to see his shallow breathing and quickly paling skin.

"Relax, he should survive. Let me finish getting your mum fixed up then we can leave."

"Yeah. Thanks."

She goes silent again, turning away from Evan.

"Hey..ummm... We need to make an extra stop on the way out."

"What happened?"

"I ummm...its your sister."

I look at Raven in confusion, wincing when I see that she is missing a canister of gas.

"When did you use it?"

"That's the thing, I sort of knocked her out. It was the only way to get out to find you."

"You what?"

"Hey, dont argue right now. Help me up, we need to leave before someone else finds us."

Samantha sits up, sliding her arm around my waist and standing with me.

"Can you get Elizabeth or do I need to?"

"Mum, come over here. Ill get my mum, you get your sister. Can we wake her up or do we need to wait for it to wear off on its own?"

"I can pull her back, it'll take a few minutes."

"Do we have that long?"

"We need to get out of here as soon as possible."

"Shes just down here, not too far off."

Raven stops, gesturing at a slightly open door just as the power cuts off.

"Damn it."

"Is the door still open?"

"Yeah, it is. Go grab her, dont let the door close though. Bring her out here and then wake her up. Then she can tell us which way to go. All communications signals are jammed right now."

"Okay. You two stay here, ill be right back."

I slip into the room, spotting Elizabeth within seconds. She is lying against the wall, breathing steady.

"Elizabeth?"

The gas still hangs heavily in the air, already making me drowsy as I slip my mask on. I clip Elizabeths in place, hoping to filter out some of the gas so she will wake up faster.  She doesn't move when I pick her up, walking into the hallway and lying her down beside Raven.

"No time to wake her up, we need to go now."

We run down the halls, finding ourselves back in the storage room where we came in.

"Need...we need to stop."

Raven ducks behind a stack of storage boxes, helping Samantha back with her. They sit down, motioning for me to set Elizabeth down.

"How do we wake her up?"

"Give me a second. Pass me the bag at your hip, I need it."

Raven passes me the bag, pulling her knife out as well.

"Do you hear someone?"

"Yeah. Not sure who it is though. Stay here, ill go look around."

She slips away before I can call her back, ducking low as she moves out of cover. Elizabeth inhales sharply when she wakes up, grabbing my arm tightly.

"Relax, its me."

"Where the hell did she go?"

"Who?"

"Raven. She drugged me."

"I know. She'll be right back, we heard something."

Just then, Raven runs back around the corner and ducks down beside us.

"Anything?"

"No. But we need to leave."

Everyone stands slowly, helping each other up. Raven leads us out, heading over to where the cars are parked.

"Managed to snag a set of keys, anyone I passed I told to do the same. You gave them a location?"

"Yeah, we have a pre designated location for something like this."

"I umm... I cant drive."

"Its fine, I can. Get in."

Angie and Dan are already sitting in a car, back doors open for us to climb in.

"Did anyone grab extra med kits? I need as much as I can get right now. Any pain releivers?"

Dan hops back here with us, showing me what each of the floor panels contain.

"Us ewhat you need to. We have at least a two day drive. Angie and I can take turns driving and sleeping, shes driving first."

"Thanks. Can you help me get everyone situated?"

"Yeah, sure. What do you need?"

We finish getting everyone settled in and fixed up, passing out rations as Angie starts driving away.