𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐌𝐄 | gabriel ✓

12. generate

Never in her life had Josie scrambled to her feet so quickly. The steely voice echoed around the empty voice as the misfit group of friends gathered breathlessly around the screen.

"Hello! Hello! We're here" Alex slammed his hands on the counter as if expecting it to help the other man understand better, "We're here, over!"

"Citadel, identify yourself. What is your name ma'am? Over." Alex staunched at the question from the military man on the screen.

"I'm Alex" He simply replied.

"How old are you?" The man asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm thirteen," Alex told him.

"You're only thirteen?" Josie whispered, looking at the red-haired boy with surprise in her eyes. Gabriel on her left and Dariush also looked at him with a bit of shock. Josie had forgotten that the camp was for ages 12 to 18 and had simply assumed the boy was the same age as her. Alex simply ignored her, turning back to the task at hand and asking the man who he was.

"How old are you?" Josie quickly nudged Gabriel.

"Almost fifteen" Gabriel shrugged. Dariush gave a confirming nod that he was also fifteen or at least near fifteen.

"Me too" Josie gave a confirming nod, only half listening when the man introduced himself as 'General George Khoury at Cheyenne Mountain'. Zhenzhen moved to glare at her sternly, giving a sharp nod back to the screen. Josie winced bashfully before giving her a questioning look. Zhenzhen held up a one and a three with her fingers, quickly confirming that she was also 13. With that odd conundrum solved, Josie was able to put her full attention on the General speaking to them.

"-JPL? Is Dr. Fielding there?" General Khoury asked with persistence.

"There are five of us," Alex informed him, "Everyone else is dead. The astronaut sent us before she died"

Dariush began grunting in pain and Gabriel was quick to check his bandages and pull up a chair for him to sit in.

"You were sent by Major Collins?" Khoury asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, that's why we came" Gabriel spoke up.

"She gave us the key and said something about Excalibur" Alex held up the metal around his neck.

"What, you have the crypto-key in your possession?" The general asked.

"That's right. What do we need to do to get it to work?" Alex pressed.

"Nothing. You need to get out of there. I'm sorry, it's over" Khoury sighed, Josie felt the weight of defeat sink onto her shoulders once again, "There's nothing you kids can do against this thing. Now get out of there immediately, we're sending two units to pick you-"

"No."

"What did you say, son?" General Khoury asked incredulously.

"I said no." Alex scowled with determination, "I made a promise I wouldn't let anything stop me. So I'm going to keep trying and it will be a lot easier if you would help me. We didn't come all this way to give up now. We're done being told what we can and can't do. We made it across half of southern California. Past aliens and soldiers."

"A diddler!" Dariush piped up with sweat accumulating on his brow as his body attempted to heal itself, "Don't forget about the diddler"

"All the way here. Nobody helped us get here! All we had was eachother. So you're going to listen to me because we're not kids anymore, and we're the best chance you've got. I'm going to ask you one more time, General. What do we need to do to get this thing working?"