The Insiders

Chapter 41

Chapter 41- Coren

It's nice to be outside for one last time before Liane puts the chips in us. Only Shar and I are outside. We're sitting on the rock wall by the cliff. Her head is resting on my right shoulder. Our arms are intertwined. The only sound around us is the sound of the waves crashing against the bottom of the cliff. The mid-day sun is bright and warm, but the breeze is cool enough for sweaters. Everything seems normal except for one thing. Across from us, on the other side of headquarters, ten instructors are throwing the fallen off the cliff and into the ocean. The only instructor I recognize is Steve. The fallen range from full grown Outsiders to the young Insiders. I was surprised when I woke up to find out I had been out for a week, but the most shocking was there wasn't a ceremony for the fallen. I guess maybe it was because Liane and the other instructors have been so busy trying to prevent another attack from happening, that they can't even think about the fallen. It's sad really. The children who were attacked and killed without choice are being thrown away just like those who chose to kill them. Shar and I sit here in silence watching bodies fall through the air and into the water, one after another. It's tragic really. At least they're all wearing black.

Suddenly, I hear Shar gasp, but she doesn't move. I glance down at her, being sure not to move my head. Her eyes are screwed shut and her head is slightly tilted away from the cliff. I look over toward the instructors to see three of them lifting a very skinny, full grown man, with hardly any hair and a grey suit. An Outsider. As the instructors begin to walk toward the edge of the cliff, I see the blood covered side of his face. That's when it hits me. That is the Outsider who came into our room those many days ago. I hear Shar sniff. I glance down at her to see a single tear slide down her face.

"Did you know him?" I ask her gently. She nods her head. I decide to not ask her anything else. I want to ask who he was and how she knew him, but instead I wrap my arm around her and pull her closer to my body. She helps me by scooting closer to me and bending her legs to the side. Together we watch as the instructors toss the Outsider's body over the cliff. We watch it fall until we can see it no longer. I think I hear Shar let out a small sob, but a wave crashing stifles the sound. We watch a few more bodies fall to the depths of the ocean, all of which are Insiders.

"We need to talk." I tell her. She looks up at me with nervousness masked by confusion.

"About?"

"About what happened that night." I say referring to the attack.

"What about it?" She asks as she pulls away from my body. She backs up about a ruler length away and sits, straddling the wall facing me.

"Everything." I whisper. I stare across at the falling bodies. They hit the water with a plop, but never come back up.

"I can show you." Shar says. I sharply twist my upper body to face her.

"How can you-"

"It's a new skill I've developed while you were in the infirmary," She begins to explain. "I can place people in scenes, but so far I've only gotten to place people in memories. I can also recreate memories of other peoples, and experience them myself."

"It doesn't hurt," She continues. "It almost feels like being a ghost."

"Okay, I guess we can try it." I shift uncomfortably.

"What? Don't trust me?" She laughs. I'm thinking it's a nervous reaction, but that could just be my paranoia.

"No, I trust you with my life." I tell her, putting as much emotion in my voice as I can. I shift toward her getting as close as I can. I straddle the wall while she crosses her legs. She takes her hand, places it in mine and rests it on her knee.

"Alright you ready?" She asks me. I nod. She takes a moment then flips our locking hands so hers in on top.

"Coren!" I hear Sharlene scream my name. I look around my surroundings to see I'm back in the training room. The room is dark except for the light coming from Amy's ball of light. The bullets have stopped firing, but the cries of pain remain. It's the night of the attack.

"Coren wake up." I look over to Sharlene. She's crying over me. I walk toward myself and her. I'm lying on the ground with blood pouring out of my leg. My eyes are closed. I've already blacked out. The Outsider behind us has his gun pointed at Shar, but she doesn't seem to notice, or care. His body language tells me that he's enjoying this. He's enjoying seeing Sharlene suffer over my unconscious body.

"Coren, I love you. I love you. Wake up. Please, wake up." Shar sobs. Her words make me stop. She loves me. She loves me. Her eyes go wide as she glances up at Steve, who has made a loud cry of pain. If this was the present, I would look over to Steve too, but right now all I can do is stare at the girl who loves me. She turns back around toward the Outsider. Her body is leaning over mine, as if protecting me. She takes a quick glance toward the closet, then her eyes shift back to the Outsider. She looks back at Steve again. This time I look with her. Steve's eyes are staring back at her without any hope to be found. When Shar looks back at the Outsider with the gun pointed at her, her eyes slowly close. She's given up. She's stopped fighting back. The anger inside begins to boil. I hate this. Seeing her give up on her life like this. I know it's not over, but at the moment, she thinks it is.

For some reason, Shar's eyes snap open. She looks around, but nobody is talking. I look over toward the other Outsiders, they haven't shot Steve either.

"But sir," The Outsider closest to Shar says. I whip back around to see he has his hand on his ear. A walkie-talkie earpiece!

"Sir, we have them, three of them. We'll never get a chance like this again." The Outsider tells whoever is on the other end.

"You're sure?" The Outsider questions. After he receives a response, he lowers his gun while taking one hand off it. The others do the same. Steve moans in pain as he's dropped to the ground. The Outsiders rip the tape off of his lips. He screams and chokes on the blood that begins to pour into his mouth. I turn back around to Shar, just in time to see the Outsider's fist connect with her lower jaw. The punch is so hard, it knocks her to the ground with a cry. She doesn't move. She doesn't even flinch when the Outsider leans down and pushes her straight brown hair away from her ear. The Outsider leans down and whispers something into her ear. I feel the anger boil in me. I wish I was awake. If I was, that Outsider wouldn't be leaving this room in one piece. After the Outsider stands back up, he and his buddies laugh as they leave the training room.

I stand there and look around at the mess they've made. Steve is closest to the door. The tiles surrounding him are covered in the blood coming from his mouth. Then there's Shar and I toward the back of the room. I'm on my back, colourless except for the blood coming from my leg. Shar's head is by my feet. Her jaw is already bruising and her left arm has started to bleed through the shirt I tied on her. Her eyes are open and panicked. As I stand, I wonder why I'm still here. Shouldn't Shar bring me back to reality? Answering my question, Sharlene begins to move. She begins to army crawl toward my face. The pain and desperation is displayed clearly on her face. When she's right up tight to my body, she drops to the ground causing her to wince. With that, Shar begins to bring me out of this memory.

I gasp as the sound of the waves crashing and the bright sun come back to me. I look around to see the instructors are almost done putting the bodies in the ocean. I feel Shar's hand still in mine.

"Are you okay?" She asks me. That's when I look up at her. The beautiful Sharlene Fraser. I place my free hand behind her head and bring her closer to me. I then kiss her. Right away she kisses me back. We kiss for a while then I break our lips apart.

"I love you too." I tell her. She backs away from me, biting her lips in a smile.

"I did say that, didn't I?" She grins with embarrassment. I nod as I smile back at her. A strong gust of wind breaks us from our stare. We both look over to the instructors to see Steve all alone on the cliff. He motions us to go back into the building.

"It's time?" I check with Shar. She nods as her smile disappears from her face. We both stand up from the rock. As we walk back to the building our hands lock for support. The attacks have changed our lives, but today will change how we've acted upon it.