Outcasts

Chapter Twelve

It broke my heart. As I studied Kile, there was a broken side to him that I could see.

I didn't know what else to do. I hugged him.

He felt like he wanted to hug me too, but he pushed me away.

I didn't want to have to sedate him, but... I couldn't stand seeing him killed. He had to come with us.

"Cassie?" I said.

She nodded, holding her leaf-sedidave concoction in one palm.

"Kile, I'm sorry we have to do this." I said. "I love you." Then I grabbed his wrists and Cassie shoved the leaves into his mouth. He struggled for a good ten seconds, then his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed.

I sighed. "I was hoping we wouldn't have to do that."

Cassie sighed too. "Yeah. Let's go. We'll take the garden exit. Ryan, you turn into a mouse again and get in here. They hopefully won't be able to tell the difference between you and Kile."

Ryan reluctantly turned into a mouse and climbed into her pocket.

"Okay, I'll tell the guards that Ryan," She guestered to Kile, "Passed out out of shock at seeing the king in the flesh. Hopefully they won't tell the difference."

I was doubtfull it would work, but didn't protest.

Cassie led us through twisted corridors, and it was so fancy I was uncomfortable walking, like I was doing something wrong. I didn't know how to act polite!

We reached a back door with two guards stationed outside. When we opened the door, they held stick-like staffs in our path.

"What happened here?" The first one asked.

"Ryan was so shocked at seeing the king in the flesh, he passed out. We need to get him to the hospital." Cassie sounded so convincing I started to believe her.

"I can revive him," Said the second guard. "We are trained in emergency situations like this."

"UUh, no, that's okay," Cassie said. "We've got it." She kinda maneuvered under the guard's sticks while holding onto Kile's stomach. She was strong.

I smiled uncomfortably at the guards and followed her.

When we got past the palace boundaries, everyone let out a breath of relief.

We hauled Kile into our race hover, and I wondered what we would be doing.

"Where are we going now?" I asked them.

Cassie shrugged.

Ryan frowned.

"We did what we need to. But they know where we live! We can't go back home. Where will we go?"

Ryan felt his chin. "Maybe we can rent an appartment until it's safe to travel again?"

"I guess that's a good idea," Cassie said.

I nodded. Hotel it is.

Cassie pulled up some wires. "And guys, I can't hot-wire this hover forever. We need to go to a key place and have one made."

I nodded. So far we had had good enough luck. I hoped it would last. But we had no such fortune.

As soon as we entered Issinoa, the city we'd decided to stay in, a big boom reverberated off of all the giant billboards on the buildings.

"WARNING!" It called. "GET IN INDIVIDUAL SAFES IMMEDIATELY! WE HAVE PROOF THAT A NUCLEAR MISSTLE IS TRAINED ON OUR PREMESIS! IF THERE ARE ANY TOURISTS OR TRAVELERS, WE HAVE SEPERATE BUNKERS TO STAY IN. GO TO THE POLICE STATION ON CENTRAL SQUARE. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! LOCKDOWN IN: T-MINUS TWENTY MINUTES."

Cassie swore under her breath. I kind of felt like doing the same.

"Okay guys," Cassie said. "We have to get into a safe. The hover can't take us anywhere in twenty minutes that would stop the radiation, and that's not counting the time it would take to get there."

"But," Ryan cut in. "Won't the recognize us?"

Cassie sighed. "We'll have to stay covered. Okay, let's find Central Square."

Ryan hoisted Kile onto his back. Cassie started arguing that she could do it perfectly fine, but he didn't hear it. Instead he shifted into a hawk and started flying. I followed him.

Cassie rolled her eyes but followed too.

We dropped down in an alleyway on the edge of the square. Everyone took their original forms, and Kile started regaining conciousness.

I took his hand. "Okay Ryan, I've got him."

Kile looked at me with confusion. Then he said, "You think he's cute, don't y-"

"SSSHH!" I hissed, frusterated at the sededave's tendancy to make people speak anything that comes into their mind.

Luckily, Ryan was watching the crowd and didn't hear him.

"You're embarassed," He responded, still loopy.

"Be quiet, Kile," I urged. "We have to get to a safe in, like, fifteen minutes!"

Kyle giggled and slumped down.

"Okay, I think we can jump into that group right there," Kile said. "On the count of three, hurry."

I heaved Kile up to his feet, and when Ryan said three, We stumbled into the crowds of people.

There was pushing and shoving and bustling everywhere. I was hoping things wouldn't get to the nuclear-misstle-stage until we were in another city. But of course, luck was not on our side. We'd just have to wait it out then get to somewhere more secluded. Until we could buy an apartment and try to live normal again.

I wanted a normal life again so badly. A life that I'd only had for the two days I'd stayed in the treehouse with Cassie and Ryan. I wanted things to go back to normal. Or... Whatever normal was. I didn't know anymore.

"Bree!" I caught my name.

"Yes?" I responded.

"Over here!" Cassie pulled me through the masses and into one of the smaller circular openings in the ground. A police man was guarding it.

We hid our faces and began the long descent into the safe. They were further down than I expected, and we still had a loopy Kile, so my legs began to hurt right about when Ryan estimated we were half-way down. Geez, these things were deep. But they had to be really protected to not have the radiation cause damage, a technological advance people had only come up with a couple of years ago. But so far it worked.

We finally got to the bottom, and the room was about the size of an average bedroom.

There was about ten other people down there, but they all mostly kept to themselves.

I sat down and Cassie and Ryan sat on oppsitte sides of me. 

What were we going to do?