Eugenia part 42

Read part 41 here!

As Luke drove us away from the facility -Decklan was still too much in shock to drive- images flipped through my mind like a sporadic slideshow. A raven-haired thirteen year old girl, curvier than Julie and I put together. Bluff’s naked and hairy chest. An archaic four poster bed.

I hadn’t said a word after I got exactly three pictures. We’d exited the building in complete silence. But I couldn’t take it any more, and finally I let out the scream I’d been holding in. I felt the vibrations of the sound rumble up my chest and erupt through my mouth, tearing at my vocal chords. I heard the sound bounce off the inside of the car and reverberate back into my skull, where it stayed and fit into the soundless mouth of the girl in the room. The room may have been soundproof, but it didn’t take a scientist to watch someone scream.

Luke and Decklan didn’t try to stop me, didn’t tell me to tone it down. They just sat in silence, watching the road gravely.

Finally, my throat gave out and I gasped for air soundlessly. My fingers trailed up the outside of my neck, feeling it throb painfully. I wouldn’t be talking for several days, which was fine with me. It wouldn’t have been able to say anything anyways.

We met Jon at the decided location, a hotel, only an hour and a half later. Our eyes were rimmed with red.

Luke and Decklan took turns describing what we’d seen, unable to finish the story on their own. When words finally failed, they just handed the camera over. Julie crawled over to me and buried her head in my chest. I wrapped my arms tightly around her and we both sobbed silently.

Jon left the hotel room for a moment to report to Outties.

“They offered me a job.” He announced when he finally returned.

“What do you mean, a job?” Andy asked, having pulled me and Julie onto his lap. I couldn’t bear to take my face out of Julie’s soft hair, so I didn’t.

“Outties. They want to fly me to New York, where they’ve been broadcasting from, to take over the DJ position. I was nationally syndicated before they fired me, and Meg, your parents have been giving out the station at a crazy pace. They think that if I were the main DJ, they’d get more support.”

“Dude.” Luke said. I could practically hear his eyes bulge. “You should do it.”

“You think?” I felt the bed underneath my human knot depress, guessing that Jon had sat down.

“Absolutely.” Decklan added. “You’ve been itching to get back in a booth for ages.”

“Besides, we’ve got plenty of people now. We can afford to lose you.” Andy said, not unkindly. I didn’t think it was possible for Andy to be unkind.

“They’re sending a private plane to the airport down the road tomorrow morning. Once I get to New York, I’ll take over the main DJ post.”

“That’s really awesome, man. Seriously. You’ll be great.” One of Andy’s arms left being wrapped around me for a moment to slap Jon on the back.

“What about the other kids?” Julie asked from inside the Meg and Andy sandwich. “The ones they just got. It’s not too late to rescue them, is it?”

I finally looked up, watching the people around me carefully. Laurie was thinking hard. “We should be able to get them out. They probably won’t start experimenting right away. You guys said every room you saw was full, right?” Decklan, Luke, and I nodded in unison. “That means that these new kids are just waiting to replace the kids that… don’t make it.”

“But we don’t know where they’re keeping them.” Luke said.

“Doesn’t matter. Decklan, you said that you think it’s built near a Reg community, right?”

“Well, that’s what I assume. But we didn’t see one- they’re probably a lot further in.”

“How much further, do you think?”

Decklan shrugged. “Several miles.”

I started catching on to what Laurie was planning, but my throat was too ravaged to help her out.

“Do you think we could find it tonight?”

“If it exists. We’ve still got a few hours of daylight.”

“Perfect. Meg, Luke, I’m going to need you guys to come with us. And Julie, if you want.” She looked at me, as if asking my permission. I shrugged. “Ok, who wants to drive us?”

“Drive you?” Asked Decklan. “Why”

Laurie winked at me, knowing that I’d caught on. “Because there’s a possibility that we can rescue a lot more people that we expected- and pull the rug out from under Senator Bluff.”

<THIS IS WHERE A CHAPTER BREAK WOULD USUALLY BE BUT I’M MAKING UP FOR LAST WEEKEND YOU’RE WELCOME>

In the end, everyone went. The community, of about 150 people, was ten miles or so past the facility. The residents hid in their little houses until the four of us Outliers held our naked forearms up in the air and Andy started yelling “We come in peace! We come in peace!”

We let Laurie describe her plan. What she hoped was that if enough people wanted to help, we could storm the facility from all sides, using some people for search and rescue and others for demolition. The idea was that if we overwhelmed them thoroughly enough, they’d tell us who was able to be rescued safely and who wasn’t, for fear that we’d lock them inside as we destroyed the building.

A surprising number of people signed on, although none of them would even consider it without seeing the four Outliers for themselves. Many even rubbed at the area where the tattoo should have been, as if we were trying to con them. Others demanded to see proof of the travesties being committed within the mysterious metal box they’d learned to steer clear from. But in the end, we’d managed to recruit a good majority of the little town.

We started in right as the sun was emerging, and it was clear Laurie’s plan was going to work. The security was seriously lack, probably because it was so unlikely that someone would come across it, let alone want to attack it.

The biggest men, Andy included, went in first, breaking back doors and hunting down the security force. The next wave included the agile but smaller people like Decklan, Luke, and me. We went to capture a few of the scientists to ascertain which children were still in a state to be rescued and nursed back to health. I was already in the building before the third wave went in, but I knew they would be going to find the children who had been brought in the previous day. There was a final group of people, with which Laurie stayed, to keep watch and make sure no one escaped that wasn’t supposed to.

With the aid of two of the townspeople, Luke and I captured two scientists. The first was uncooperative, so Luke shot him. I didn’t like that very much; the entire purpose of our revolution was to stop the unnecessary killing, but immediately the other scientist began to tell us what we needed to know.

Decklan and a few other men had found another cooperative scientist, so we compared our scientist’s respective stories. They matched, so the next task would be finding the children. Not wanting to take any chances, I had my scientist go in first to the rooms unprotected to make sure this wasn’t a last ditch effort to inflict some damage.

The rescuing aspect took a bit longer than I had expected. Even these children, the ones who would be able to recover, were much too weak to walk. I grabbed a few of the bigger men that were still running around to help us carry them out. Decklan got word to me that Andy had found several large busses, probably waiting for their next batches of victims, and was starting to make trips back to the little town’s local hospital. It would be completely overwhelmed, but there wasn’t any other choice. We couldn’t exactly take them into town. Not yet.

Someone nearby swore loudly, running through the halls to find me. I was half-dragging a small girl from her room, trying to get her outside. “Laurie.” Decklan gasped, “They’ve got Laurie.”

“Who’s got Laurie?” I asked, handing off the little girl to a bigger man.

Decklan sucked in his breath. “The first wave missed a couple of the guards who were taking naps in the garage with the vans. They grabbed Laurie and a few of the other people standing guard and drove off.”

“Is anyone following them?” Even if they didn’t have hostages, we couldn’t afford Bluff getting alerted about our involvement here. The townspeople would be punished, likely in a painful way.

“I’m waiting for Andy to get back, and I’m going to follow them. Do you want to come along?”

I ignored the look from Luke as I accepted. I wasn’t big enough to be much help here. Decklan handed over a gun he’d lifted from one of the ambushed guards and ushered me outside. We’d need to leave as soon as one of the vans got back. The situation was under better control now, with no other guards around. It was less important to move quickly.

“What are we going to do about the children?” I asked Decklan as I weighed the gun in my hand, feeling odd about holding one. “You know we can’t leave them in this town, or at least, not all of them.”

“I was thinking about that.” Decklan waved down the next van, and we climbed in. He started driving even before I was all the way in. “I’m thinking that once we get the kids more stabilized, we could use these vans to start driving them back to New Diego. Maybe your parents could get a couple more cars out here.”

I nodded. “I’m sure my mom has friends at the hospital that would help out once we’re back in town.”

We stayed silent for a moment as Decklan scanned the highway in front of us for the car the guards had taken. “There. I see them.” he sped up slightly.

“Decklan…” Thinking about the rescued children brought another, worse thought to my mind. “What about the children that don’t escape? The ones who are past a cure?”

He glanced at me. “Since this is your revolution, I thought I’d leave the decision up to you, but Andy and I think it’s best if, when we destroy the facility, we make sure to destroy them too. The scientist I captured said that most of them aren’t even lucid anymore. They wouldn’t feel it.”

I shuddered at the thought, swallowing hard to keep my breakfast down. Unable to speak, I just nodded. Decklan took out his phone and briefly talked to Andy while speeding up a little more. Now I could see what car we were following, a small blue town car. They turned off soon after Decklan hung up the phone somberly, and we silently followed. Now that we were closer, I could see the guard in the passenger seat was turned around, seemingly yelling at the three people they had taken.

The back of Laurie’s head was shaking, clearly not answering the question. The guard lashed out at her, and when the man next to her tried to comfort her, the guard lashed at him as well.

That was when our luck ran out. The driver glanced in his rearview mirror and had spotted us, recognizing the van. They sped up, and the guard in passenger seat was yelling with more vigor. I watched his face turn red, then purple, before he reached for his gun.

“No-” I managed to get out, but there was nothing we could do. The guard in the passenger seat had decided that since Laurie and the other two weren’t talking, they couldn’t risk keeping them alive, not with Decklan and I on their tails. I watched him pull the trigger, and then watched Laurie’s body slump forward.

With a strangled yell- it had been a stressful couple of days- I pulled out my gun. Decklan shouted something at me, but I couldn’t hear him over my rage. Taking aim, I shot and managed to hit the man in the shoulder. The car swerved, and I shot again, this time at one of the tires. The back left blew out and caused the car to skid into a fence.

I didn’t wait for Decklan to continue slowing down. Leaping from the car, I took aim and finished off both the guards who had been getting out of the car. The blood was pumping so loudly in my ears that I didn’t hear Decklan come up from behind me to take my gun. I did, however, feel his hands linger on my shoulders before going to see if the other two townspeople were alright.

My feet felt heavy and I found that I couldn’t move, let alone help Decklan get the shaken townspeople out of the car. So I just stood there uselessly, my hand still curled as if I was holding a gun, staring at the two men I’d just killed.

“Meg.” Decklan said into my ear. The car was empty of the living now. Had time passed? I blinked. “Meg, there’s nothing else we can do. We have to get out of here before someone comes and finds us.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but I couldn’t find the words. I felt my tongue in my mouth, moving around my teeth, and briefly forgot it’s use. “Ungh” was all I managed to get out before Decklan gave up. Gently, he took my shoulders again and led me back to the car, and when it was obvious I was in no state to buckle my own seatbelt, he did it for me.

No one talked on the way back, but time had stopped registering with me.

I stayed in this haze for several more hours, or so they told me. I wasn’t conscious for most of it. And if I was, nothing made sense. The world had become a series of shapes and blurs. The one thing I did register, though, was the color red.

Luke was wearing a red shirt that day. Part of my mind remembers screaming and pushing him away, seeing the gun wounds I’d inflicted on the two guards, seeing Laurie. The other part of my mind reasons that I may have made that up. But it acknowledges that red had become anger and pain instead of warmth in a very short amount of time.

The cars that had comfortably fit three or four people on the way out were packed down with twelve or fifteen, mostly children under the age of fifteen. I was in a car with Julie, Luke, and nine of the rescued children. We were about a day’s journey away from New Diego, and I hadn’t spoken yet. Julie, normally so pushy, just sat with me quietly, clutching my hand and burrowing her head into my shoulder. It was such a natural position that I couldn’t help but feel comforted. Every once in a while Luke would pat my knee or arm, but other than that he kept to himself. Didn’t want me to start screaming again, probably.

Upon arriving back at my parent’s house, I was surprised to find how much had changed. The previously barren monstrosity that they called a home was filled to the brim with people, each claiming a small area to practice whatever craft they wished. One man had the far side of the dining room, his paintings covering every square inch of the wall. Emma had opened her room up to her fellow musicians, where they were hard at work composing and writing. There was so much beauty in the house, with the art and the music and the words scrawled onto the demure wallpaper, that it overwhelmed me.

My room was the only one that had been untouched. My mother explained this to me when I looked at her questioningly, still unable to talk.

“Well, sweetheart, you’re the leader of this little rebellion! You at least deserve a little privacy for that feat!” With a wink and a smile that was still unfamiliar to me, she left me to my dark thoughts.

I’d been crying for a good fifteen minutes when Luke came in to see me.

“Meg?” His voice was alarmed. Probably used to my catatonic silence. “Meg, what’s wrong?”

“I… can’t… do it.” I finally managed to get out.

“Do what?” He sat down on the bed next to me.

“Be the leader! I can’t! I won’t! I’m not… strong enough! I’m not calm enough! I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS.”

Luke tried to wrap an arm around me, for comfort I guessed, but the sobs were wracking at my chest from the inside and I pushed him away, curling up into the fetal position. He stayed with me for a little while longer, but it was clear that I didn’t want anything to do with him at that moment. He who could kill so easily. He whose eyes went red with bloodlust every time a Bluff conspirer walked nearby.

They left me alone for the next few days. My father would sometimes come in with a plate of food, but I couldn’t even look at it without my stomach retching. Emma and Julie made an attempt sometime after the first night home, but I couldn’t even stabilize my shaking long enough to give them a hug. The pain and worry on their faces was too much for me, and I buried my head in a pillow.

Finally, at the end of the second day, through which I had not stopped crying longer than a couple of minutes, Decklan let himself in. I’d seen him the two times I’d gotten up to use the toilet, but he’d never said a word.

“Luke says you yelled at him and made him leave.” Was that amusement that I caught in his voice?

I said nothing in return, still shaking.

The bed bent when Decklan’s weight came down next to where I lay, curled up. “Meg, talk to me.” The gentle edge of his voice only made me cry harder. My body was so tightly curled now that I couldn’t move at all.

Decklan, emboldened by my not kicking him out, lay down next to me, draping one arm protectively over my clenched form. He put his face in my dirty hair, making no comment about its abundant greasiness. “It’s going to be ok.” He whispered.

That was night, and by the time the sun rose and I had woken up again, Decklan was still there. At some point I must have rolled over and relaxed my position, because I’d woken up with my head in his chest and both of his arms cradling me. My appetite seemed to have returned at full force, but I didn’t want to move, so I didn’t.

We stayed that way for a while, not talking, not moving, but listening to each other breath. My incessant crying had slowed, then stopped completely. Something about the warmth of his heartbeat in my ear had calmed me down.

Finally, Decklan broke the silence with an exaggerated sniff and a gagging sound. “Someone needs a shower.”

I couldn’t help it. I laughed. Then I hiccuped. Then Decklan laughed, and I joined him. The past week had been so surreal, and it felt good to let myself breath easily again.

I started to stand up, having gotten a whiff of myself, but Decklan caught my hand and pulled me back down to the bed, wrapping his arms around me once more. “You’ve been brilliant, Meg. Absolutely awe inspiring. You can absolutely, without a doubt, do anything. You are beautiful and strong and amazing, and none of this would have been possible without you.”

I let myself relax against his strong yet gangly form. “I love you too, Decklan.”

Continued in part 43

(awwwww happy cheesy ending of a chapter)