My stunned silence spoke more volumes than any words I could ever say.
If I hadn't been frozen in the moment, I was sure that my jaw would have been hanging open, for the world to see.
Around us the quaking of the streets only grew more and more violent, pulling me back to reality.
Draydon and Finn both gave me an ugly look, but there wasn't enough time in my schedule at the moment to wallow in self-pity so I shook it off and bolted into the street to retrieve my mother. Her eyes were closed, and her chin still hung to her chest as she napped soundly.
How the hell is she still sleeping right now?
I pushed her back onto the sidewalk, and the moment my feet hit the cement the blacktop of the road caved in, creating a huge crack that was so deep I was sure that it reached the center of the earth.
We were running out of time, and if we wanted to make it out of the bum fuck small town we were in, we had to move fast. I pushed my mother to the end of the sidewalk and turned the corner. A sigh of relief escaped my lips at the rainbow painted bus parked on the street.
"This? THIS is our getaway car? Real inconspicuous." Finn groaned.
I knew he was upset. I understood that his brother died, but he wasn't the only one who lost him. And the adrenaline mixed with the simmering anger I held at the world was too much for me to handle. I knew at some point I was going to blow up, but it was just my luck that I lost it at the worst time ever.
"Do you have a fucking better idea Finn? Please! Enlighten me! Because we're all sitting here, waiting. Oh wait, we're going to fucking die if we wait long enough for you to come up with one of your perfectly flawless plans. So why don't you shut the hell up and help me find the keys."
I let all of the anger out and aimed it all directly at him.
The words left my mouth and I knew if I didn't keep moving, I would immediately regret them, and I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of seeing the look on my face when I did. So I bolted to the driver’s door and prayed that it was unlocked. I pulled it open and dug in the glove box— nothing. Cupholder? Empty. Visor? Voila! The keys .
Chapter 4
I turned the key and sent a silent cheer into the sky when the engine purred on like a kitten. I searched the console riddled with buttons in a panic until my eyes landed on the one labeled door and I hurriedly flipped it on. There was a faint screech of the metal gears grinding against each other, and the double doors slowly lurched open. I didn't even need to say a word and the guys jumped into action. Draydon scooped my mother up in his arms. I was surprised at his strength as he carted up the stairs with her in his arms like a doll. I knew she didn't weigh very much, but it still would have taken me a lot longer to accomplish the same feat that he conquered in ten seconds. Drax folded up the wheelchair and Max drug it aboard, leaving only Finn to sulk menacingly up the stairs.
The look in his eyes could have lit my clothes on fire as it was so red with anger. I could feel his stare beating against my skin, but I refused to let my mind wander. I refused to let the guilt set in, in his presence. There were bigger things at hand, like the street behind us caving in.
I closed the double doors and threw on my seatbelt.
"Are you in any way qualified to drive this thing?" Max's uneasy voice came from behind me.
"Absolutely not, so you're going to want to put on your seatbelts. Now." I demanded.
With little time for them to even comply with my demand I threw the bus into drive and it jerked forward wildly.
I overcorrected and slammed on the breaks, sending my chest forward to collide with the rubber of the steering wheel.
"The road's caving in behind us! We need to go, now!" Max half screamed.
I could feel a rumble pulsate through the floor and into my shoes. He was right, there was no time to be timid. The world was freaking ending for all I knew, it was either die in a pit in the ground or die in a fiery crash. The latter sounded the tiniest bit more appealing, so I floored it.
The big bus shot forward and we made our way down the road. The scenery around us started to speed past faster and faster until it was just a blur of bricks and buildings.
I tried to turn a sharp corner, but the bus was too big to maneuver like any other car that I'd driven, and the wheel smashed into the curb sending half the bus a few inches off the ground. In that moment I couldn't even feel my heart beating anymore, I didn't know if that meant it had slowed down or it had sped up, but I knew that it was scared shitless.
I was too, but again that's not the type of thing you let on to a busload of people when you're trying to escape certain death.
The side of the bus plopped back down to the pavement and I managed to get the bus monster around the corner without completely tipping over, which was something that I adamantly thanked the heavens for.
There was a loud crash behind us, and my eyes immediately bolted to the side mirror to see the crack in the pavement that had just reached the street we just turned in.
"If you keep going straight, this bus will take us right out of town." Max yelled.
My eyes darted to the rearview mirror to see him with a wrinkled map scrunched between both hands blocking his face.
I nodded, because I wasn't sure if my voice would have shaken when I spoke. Even if it didn't, I was positive that I had been holding my breath for longer than I realized.
Around us small buildings crumbled to the ground, leaving nothing but a pile of rubble and brick in their place.
An entire town gone just like this? My heart hurt at the thought of the destruction done by the governors at the expense of people who had nothing to do with their vendetta.
The people of a town this small surely had nothing to do with the revolution miles and miles away in New York. Part of me doubted if they'd ever even seen the trials— towns that minuscule usually kept to themselves.
But in a few moments, there wouldn't even be much of the town left, and I couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt.
I panicked at the emotion because I knew once I let a little bit in, the rest was soon to flood in like moths to a light that is my depression.
But this time it was justified. After all, we were the ones who basically assembled the weapon that created all the chaos. And I was the most guilty of them all because I let it fall into the hands of the evil bastards.
My mind traveled back to Colt. It hurt to even imagine him, to even see his face in my memories was a pain so great that I almost thought that I couldn't bear it.
What would he say?
Probably something along the lines of, ‘You worry too much about the wrong people and what they think of you, Scarlett.’
I envisioned him turning a page on one of his books while sipping tea, the words falling effortlessly from his lips.
The truth was, I missed Colt as much as Finn did. I felt selfish for even daring to think that maybe I missed him more. Colt was the friend that I never knew I needed, and the lover I never knew I wanted.
Everything he said was as perfect as everything he did. He looked out for everybody, even before looking out for himself.
And I'd failed him.
He wouldn't want me to fail myself too by falling into the death trap that was self-pity.
The bus jerked and lurched forward while the earth beneath us shook violently. I would have sped up even faster, but the petal was already all the way to the floor, and I had serious doubts about how much more the motor could take before it blew.