Not The Last {Rough Draft}

Chapter 46: Game Of CIA

  I snuck down the stairs slowly, afraid to wake anyone. Then I remembered that I was quieter than usual. I rolled my eyes at my foolishness and almost ran down the stairs.

  As soon as I hit the bottom step I stopped and listened. Kyle was snoring lightly and mumbling in his sleep. I continued down the hall and grabbed the key to the basement. I stuck it in the door and opened the door slowly.

  "Finally," Cory said. He was sitting right by the door and he stood up as soon as I opened the door.

  I shushed him and then led him to the front door. I opened the door slowly and slipped out of it and into the faint moonlight. The chill of November air tickled my exposed skin and I shivered slightly.

  "Astrix, thank you," Cory said and before I knew what was happening, Cory had me in a tight hug. After a moment of hesitation I hugged him back.

  "Okay, get out of here. Survive," I said quickly. There was a faint glow on the horizon.

  Cory didn't say anything he just turned and walked away. Then he stopped and turned towards me.

  "Don't do everything all at once. Build it up. The CIA expects the giant attacks. They don't expect anyone to surround them then attack," Cory said. He winked and then turned and bolted. The last I saw was his curly hair bobbing as he disappeared over a fence.

  I pondered what Cory had said to me and then walked back inside. Next step was to make it seem like Cory had escaped himself, but all thoughts of that evaporated like fog in sunlight when I closed the door, and there was Miranda.

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  "I had to!"

  "No, you had to kill a zombie to prevent it from eating you. You had to find food to prevent yourself from dying. I wouldn't put this in one of those 'had to' categories," Miranda said. She was doing what she always did when she was mad. She was practically silent, but when she did talk, she made amazing points.

  "So you wanted Cory to be like an animal for the rest of his life?" I shot back and Miranda sighed heavily.

  "Of course not. But I'd rather not die in my sleep tonight either," Miranda said and I rolled my eyes.

  "Yeah, well you could always get the zombie virus and die that way too, so I don't think you have any higher of a threat of dying as you already had," I said sarcastically and Miranda narrowed her eyes at me like I was a math problem that she couldn't figure out.

  "What exactly are you going to tell Kyle? Now all he has are you and me. How are you going to explain his best friend disappearing?" Miranda asked.

  "We shut the door and lock it, then let someone find out for themselves. Trust me," I said, almost pleading, but from the look on Miranda's face, I knew she was doing more than just trusting me.

  "Kyle doesn't deserved to be lied to," Miranda said, and a knot of guilt formed in my stomach.

  "I know," I said, but Miranda was already stalking off into the kitchen. I sighed and then a hand smacked the back of my head.

  "Nile?!" I asked with surprised and embraced him in a hug. He was still quite pail and obviously wobbly on his feet, but hey, he was on his feet.

  "Hey X. It was getting awfully stuffy upstairs so I said to screw it," Nile said and I smiled. Nile had been down for two weeks and it had obviously had an effect on him. He had lost some weight and shook slightly. He leaned slightly on his left foot and there was a blue black bruise from his ankle to the middle of his lower leg.

  "Yeah, I don't doubt that," I said and he smiled at me. "But it can only be smooth sailing from here. Ashley got a deer! That's got to be the beginning of something!"

  "Yeah, and might I add that it was quite delicious," Nile said. He winked at me and then walked to the kitchen/living room.

  As soon as Nile was gone I let out a breath I hadn't realized I had been holding. I was just waiting for somebody to start screaming about how Cory was gone and then ask everyone if they knew anything.

  I was an excellent liar, but I wasn't sure if I could lie to Ashley, Nile, Kyle, Darwin, Van, or Trent about something as serious as this.

  "'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,'" I mumbled, quoting Harry Potter. I sighed and walked to the living room, where voices were sounding. Then another issue hit me. The note to the CIA.

  "Hey Astrix, nice of you to join us," Van said. Trent and Ashley were sitting by him on the couch and Kyle and Miranda were sitting in the two recliners.

  "Yeah. Where's Darwin?" I asked, noticing that he and Nile were gone, even though I could hear Nile cussing in the kitchen.

  "He's-,"

  "Right here, Astrix I need to talk to you," Darwin said. He had popped his head around the corner just long enough to interrupt Trent before swinging around and disappearing again. I ran up the stairs and followed Darwin's shadow to his room.

  "Okay, first of all, why are you luring the CIA into a trap?" Darwin asked. He was pinched the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb.

  "You have no proof that that was me," I said defensively. Darwin looked at me with the 'oh really?' look and leaned against the desk.

  "Who else in this house can hack into the CIA database? I can't even do that," Darwin said and I felt color go into my cheeks.

  "Miranda, Ashley, and I have been planning this for exactly twelve hours, so don't worry," I said and waved him off. Darwin's mouth fell open just a tad bit but he shut it again.

  "This isn't a game! Messing with the CIA is not a game!" Darwin said quite loudly. I glared into his eyes and eventually he turned his head.

  "I know it's not a game. If it were, it would have been done by now," I said, but realized I was enforcing how much I thought it was a game.

  "You are using strategies like a game of Battleship. Purely on guess until you hit something," Darwin said, but little did he know I had another reference.

  "No, I'm playing this out like a game of Clue. I'm piecing together information that different people are giving me and then I make my move when I know I'm correct," I said with venom in my voice.

  "The CIA make up they're own game! It's nothing you can guess at and it's nothing you can gather information from! If you make guesses, they're more than likely going to be wrong!" Darwin said angrily. His hands were clenched into fists.

  "So in other words it's like a game of War? You just have to match them play by play, whether that be wrong or right. Whether you win or lose. See who ends up with the most amount of cards to play at the end," I said quietly. Darwin nodded.

  "Just in this game, the cards weren't shuffled after you finished playing a game of BS."

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A/N

Haha! I thought this chapter was pretty clever myself :). If anyone doesn't know what one of these references are for, do an inline comment and I will try to explain it.

Merry Christmas everyone!!! I hope everyone had an amazing day with friends and family and I hope you guys remember the true meaning of Christmas. Being with friends and family. :).