The Dying Generation

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Alton, where did Parker go?" I asked without looking at him. I stared down at the table beneath me. I haven't seen Parker since this morning but I was much too tired to really care in that moment, what was going on and ended up rolling back over and drifting back off to sleep.

"School." Alton blankly responded back while playing on his phone.

"Don't you have to go to school?" I looked up to him curiously.

"No."

"You didn't graduate already, did you?" I tried to think back to if I ever saw him leaving for school or if anything about it was mentioned around me. The memory of Cedric mentioning taking him to school came to mind and when I had first woken up in the lab, Cedric was saying he got in trouble at school.

"No."

I stared at him, longer responses would be nice..
"Okay.."
I thought about it. Whenever he talks, sometimes his favorite lines are the shorter lines. He doesn't seem to like much detail. But then again, at least he technically does answer my questions.
I was sure he still went or suppose to still go to school. He's like what? Seventeen? Eighteen years old? Right at the age for graduation but since he didn't, there was only one other option.
"So I take it that you just dropped out of school?"

"Yup."

I groaned, throwing my head back.
"Alton.."

He turned his eyes to me.

"You don't have to put your life on hold on my account."

"Yes I do." He returned his attention to his phone.

"No, you don't. I don't want to mess up your life. Any plans you have." I shifted in my spot a little.

He huffed, a slight smile on his face like he heard something amusing.
"What plans? I wasn't gonna do anything special with my life."

I stared at him, lost for words. Unsure, really of what to say.

"Look," he tossed his phone down, he propped himself up onto his elbow, laying onto his side.
"I can't leave you alone long. Especially with what's going on, that's not safe. With the police practically hunting us down, I'm just trying to stay here as long as I can. Being our best place to live without requiring money. Who knows how long it'll be until they track us down here. It's not a big deal if they get me, you're the top priority here. In a way, you're in a life or death situation. Me, the most they'll do is throw me behind bars." He flipped back over, laying back down.

I suppose he was right. My life didn't seem to matter to this kind of beings. Or... at least to the ones that are after me. I wasn't too sure how Novians really are. Are they all crazy like the ones I'm hiding from, are they kind?
For a safety measure, I will just allow myself to believe it only depends who you run into. But it's best to try to stay away from all of them, especially if they're new.

I pushed myself back onto my feet, taking some steps closer to the edge of the table and looking over it. The bed that sat very close next to the stand had the blankets all made. Some of the fluffy blankets reaching next to the nightstand I stood on.

I took a breath, and leaped across to the bed. Thought I was in the clear until I slipped. I yelped, slipping in between the bed and the nightstand. I gripped fist fills of the blankets in my hands, that was the only thing that prevented me from falling anymore and breaking my other ankle.
I came to a sudden halt, breathing heavily, too scared to even move anymore.

"Geez, Clay!"

I could feel the bed shaking, my back hitting against the nightstand from the sudden motions.
I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling my fingers growing sore and the blankets beginning to slip away from them. I could feel a strong presents. I knew who it was, but I couldn't bring myself to open my eyes. I felt something touch the back of my neck, digging into my jacket. My jacket grew tighter on me when I felt him get a hold of the back of it.

I could feel the warmth radiating off of him. I was pulled up, I inhaled quickly through my nose from being pulled away from the blankets. Having the feeling that I was going to fall.

I was worried that the jacket was going to rip or something. I gripped onto the jacket tightly, keeping my eyes shut. I pulled my knees up the best I could, bending my legs beneath me.

"Can I even trust you to be walking around on your own?"

I cracked an eye open to see Alton's face. His eyes scanned me like to be sure he didn't see anything wrong or out of place. Then he easily brought me down to the bed, laying me down onto my side. My jacket becoming loose on me once again, finding the feeling weird since I had gotten use to the feeling of it being snug.

I sighed in relief, pushing myself up to a sitting position.
"I just misjudged was all." I stretched out my fingers, cracking some of them.

"Yeah but how many 'misjudging' does it take until you legit get yourself hurt or killed?"
He shot back.

I took my eyes away from him, thinking those words over.
Being in this world, it is way more dangerous.
There being millions more horrible outcomes that could take place.
Falling off the nightstand isn't the only thing I would have to worry about.

I could feel the bed shift a bit, feeling something touching my head.
My hair being lightly grabbed and gently pulled back to make me look in a certain direction.
Didn't really hurt, but wasn't comfortable either.

Alton made me look him in the face. His features didn't really say too much, but it did have a serious tone to it.
"Don't do something that risky again."

"But I-"

"Don't, do anything risky like that again." He interrupted me sternly. Putting more emphasis on 'don't.'

I bit my tongue to stop myself from saying anything else to argue. He obviously wasn't in the mood for it and most likely wouldn't even give me the chance to say it.
I breathed.
"Okay." I tried to nod but he still had a small grip on my hair.

He stared at me for a second until finally removing his hand away from my head.