Chapter Four
Rowan Kline Zorida
ONE DAY BEFORE
She is laughing. Of course, she laughs; she always laughs.
“What was that?” she is looking around curiously, trying to get a sense of what the sound was.
“Not good.” I grab her hand, carefully pulling her to the ground. I hold her closer to me, and we slide under the table of the booth.
For a moment, I question whether it was just paranoia —a moment of misjudgment. But a piercing sound breaks through the air—a scream. What happens next is chaos. We are blinded to it, only able to hear it from our hiding spot.
Oakley's face is quickly drained of color. She grabs my arm, digging into my skin. I cover her hands with mine. It looks like you can see her heartbeat through her neck. Her eyes are open wide, searching my face for answers. For a solution she doesn’t find.
We were in the middle of a raid. They were becoming more common by the day, but I had never witnessed one firsthand. From what I heard, they were just local looters, traveling from town to town, but I never would have thought they'd come _here._
I don’t know what to do. I want to stop it, but common sense talks me out of it. I want to help Kiki, but I dont know how. I’m useless.
She is panicked, and her breathing becomes irregular and rushed. I pry her hands from my arm, looking her in the eyes, and leaning in close, “Hey, listen to me.” A tear falls from her bright eyes, and I wish I could stop her from ever shedding another, to keep her away from all the dark and the bad.
I talk over the thought, “We need to stay calm. Calm and quiet, easy right?”
I didn’t think my heart could become more deformed, more dysfunctional, but when both of her hands fly to her mouth, trying to stifle the harsh breathing, it did.
I pull her hands down, pinning them at her side.
“No, no, you can still breathe. Can you just look at me for a second, just until you can calm down? You can do that for me, right?” Her focus locks on me, whereas before her eyes were glued to the underside of the table, as if she could see the sounds of the raid.
“Breathe, in… and out. You're not doing anything wrong. We’re going to be fine. There are some scary people out there, but I won’t let them hurt you; you're safe. Just breathe with me.”
I can’t tell if I’m making empty promises, and that’s almost as scary as the situation itself. I keep my voice low, hoping Oakley is the only person to hear it. She matches my breathing pattern, and as soon as she is in control of her body again, I slowly begin to move.
I motion for her to follow me, but before we can make any progress, she finally says something. It’s so innocent, it breaks my heart.
“Can I hold your hand? Please?” She looks like a baby deer caught in a trap.
The world is a cruel place.
“You don’t even have to ask.” With her hand now in mine, I gently tug her forward, out from under the table. I doubt we can be seen, but I pull her just a little closer, just in case.
I stop in my tracks when a slight sound catches my attention, and I find myself crouching lower.
_Psst._
I hear it again. I turn to the voice, shielding Oakley's body with my own.
“It’s okay, kid, I want to help. Come here, I’ll protect the two of you.” A large man with dark hair tied in a loose knot motions for us to come closer. I hesitate, but Oakley immediately walks towards the man. I don’t let her.
“Oakley, I’ve never seen this man before.” I don’t bother hiding my suspicions.
“We don’t have a choice, and you can’t memorize every face you come by,” she rushes the sentence. She looks as if all words have been stolen from her lips, and she is still fighting to get them back.
“No, that's not right. We always have a choice.”
I feel like I’m holding her back, and while I feel like I should let her go, I can’t force myself to.
The man cuts in, “You guys are kids, I’m getting you out of here. They could kill us if they wanted, it's their call.”
I ignore him, resentment building inside when I see Oakley start to act up again at his words.
“Is this the choice you want to make?” I hum the words, trying not to stress her out more than she already is, “You know my opinion.”
The chaos never slowed behind us, and it is putting even more pressure on her. While I act calm and collected, I’m terrified. But even above that, there is anger. An emotion I try to hide from her to the best of my ability.
She gulps, “I think so. I don't know, Rowan. I’m scared, I don’t see any reason not to trust him.” Her eyes dart around, and I watch her control slip from her fingers.
I force her to look at me, cupping her face with my palm so she can’t see the distraction.
“I trust you. I’m going to follow him. I want you to follow me.”
“_Finally. _We _have _to go.” The man is getting on my nerves now, but I choose to trust Oakley's judgment over mine.
I blink away the images flashing through my head, but I can't stop the shaking in my hands. I silently beg them to stop, for her sake. If I crumble now, she will too.
I can’t let that happen.
I pretend I’m focused as my vision starts to falter.
The man breaks into a run, and we follow close on his heels. I think of Oakley as my heart, and if she were to die, so would I. I have to protect it.
I’m glad I’ve been training Oakley, just in case. I made sure she knew how to get away from anything that could hurt her. I turned it into a game, one that she could play and get better at. She never knew what it truly was. My overthinking seemed to win this time. What seemed like a game to her was my anxiety getting the best of me.
We are fully submerged in trees when the man comes to a sudden stop. I do too.
Oakley does not.
I realize the man's intentions only by the look he gives me when he turns. He’s not as innocent as he pretends to be.
_He was with them. _
I lunge at him as soon as he turns on her. He can hurt me, he can kill me for all I care—I’m already broken—but he can’t hurt the one good thing in this world.
My arm wraps around the man’s neck, and in the same breath, he flips me over his shoulder.
Pain explodes through my chest. Whoever this man was, he is skilled—undoubtedly trained.
I stagger to my feet, but he is faster than I am, and he has already clamped some sort of glass contraption over Oakley's face before dropping her.
She is trying to rip it off, kicking and fighting with such a little thing. She goes limp in seconds.
All rational thought evacuates. My blood is boiling, hot under my skin. I see red.
He's dead. I’m going to kill him.
I charge him, slamming him backwards as hard as I can; he staggers for only a second before engaging in the fight.
I draw back to land a punch on the right side of his face, only for him to counter.
It’s the same back and forth, I fight, he fights back. I gain the upper hand for only a moment, and I use that second to get his legs out from under him.
He hits the ground, and I run. Not away, but towards the unconscious Oakley. I wrap her up in my arms, and I’m on my feet running. The weight of two bodies slows me, and every second drags on. Adrenaline and anger are the fuel that keeps me going. The exhaustion racking my body is slowly breaking down my defenses. And blades, _I hate it. _
Something heavy slams into my back, and I'm sent sprawling to the ground. We hit the floor. She slips from my arms just enough to get a series of scratches on her skin, blood trickling slowly.
_It's my fault. I hurt her. _
My hands feel like intruders, and I’m tempted to cut them off, just to stop the shaking.
She is still out cold.
_What the hell did he do to her?_
I flip onto my back and see some sort of sphere lying by my side, which was used as a projectile a moment earlier, the source of my now bruised ribs.
A small hole opens from the side, and gas spills out onto the floor beside me. I have no idea what to do. I kick it away, but not far enough. My thoughts trail away as I see the man unpack the same sort of mask he has clasped over Oakley's face.
I’m suddenly weak, unable to stand, to fight. He fastens the gadget to my face. It looks almost like a glass bubble, stealing the oxygen from my lungs. I see now why Kiki struggled.
_It burned._
My eyes water, and I try to get to Oakley, but every movement I make is wrong and lopsided.
_Why isn’t he trying to stop me?_
I reach her as the world around me starts melting.
_Melting…_
_I’m dizzy. My head is spinning… spinning… spinning…_
I wrap myself around Oakley, my last feeble attempt at protecting her.
_It burns. _
_It burns, it burns, it burns._
_Deep in my chest. _
The world finishes falling, the colors bleeding into a dark black, stealing my sight.
And then, I feel nothing.