UPRISE

024

They stand by the gates. Even though it is beginning to get dark, none of them are quite ready to leave for a variety of reasons: they are scared of what's to come, they are nervous to spend another night outside their homes (this time with Clears roaming about), and Jasmine is not back yet.

Harper's eyes have become red. He watches as Viola passes out cigarettes to the others. Noah and Reagan, as per usual, refuse, but everyone else accepts. When Viola gets to Harper, she pauses. She has only one left.

When she holds it up for him, he takes it. He isn't being a good example but damned to being a good example.

"So, what's the plan?" Pluto asks, looking up to Corbin for an answer. Her lungs burn with pride as she looks at him, not feeling the need to flinch away despite their past disagreements. Maybe she's going crazy, or maybe nothing matters anymore.

Corbin coughs. He hasn't smoked in a long time, and he had been trying to quit. Still, the winter is cold and it began to snow. Corbin needed something to warm his frigid heart. "We send Noah in. Alone." He emphasizes the word and waits for Harper's challenge. Actually, he finds his lips parting into a frown when Harper doesn't speak up. "The rest of us hide in the trees. We are trying to establish trust with this guy. No need to go in guns blazing."

"What if his friends are there?" Rinn asks, her eyes shining. She thinks of Connery, and his small smile, and bright white teeth. Hers are yellowing since she didn't tap toothpaste before the disaster. Sometimes she has nightmares about all of her teeth falling out.

"Those Golds are a bunch of shitheads," Wren says. He thinks of Jasmine, petrified before them, and how much he wanted to protect her. God, why is everything here so confusing?

Noah can't pay attention. He has been scanning and scanning and scanning and he has yet to see Jasmine, but he has to, right? If he wasn't supposed to meet Edison, he would run through the town to go find her, or whatever is left of her.

Then, he sees her.

Noah dashes off. He shoves past Reagan, knocking the boy into Wren as he charges through the town.

The others are quick to follow suit.

When Noah gets to her, he leaps into her arms. She smells dirty, almost metallic, but she feels like home.

Jasmine relaxes into his grip for a second. He won't let go. She looks over his shoulder at the others.

"How?" Harper asks. His jaw slacks, his mouth agape.

Jasmine shrugs. She wrestles out of Noah's grip and leaps into Wren's arms. His fingers dig into her hair, pulling her into him. Something echoes in Reagan's chest. He doesn't like it, but he can't say anything. It's wrong to judge them.

"How did you get away?" Corbin asks. When Jasmine looks at him, he offers her a fist bump.

She gladly accepts. "Long story."

Harper won't look at her. At least, not at her face. His eyes remain fixated on the band around her wrist. "You've gone Clear."

Wren pulls back and lifts her hand up to his face to inspect her wrist. All of them crowd in to get a better look.

"What..." Rinn is the only one who steps back. When she sees the band, she thinks of the only other times she has seen the colour fade away. All destruction. All hurt and anguish. "What did you do?"

Jasmine swallows. She isn't keen to relive the moment where she stared down a man, a weapon in her fingertips. Before all of this went down, she had hurt people. Violence has always been an answer so accessible, so easy. This time, it was hard. Harder than she had ever imagined. "I helped the girls get away."