Up ahead I spotted the town line, the place where the small town ended, and the endless road began. It wasn't much but it felt like the line between life and death. If I could just get us across, maybe we'd live to see another day.
But these days, that seemed like a little more of a punishment than a reward for our survival.
I felt the motor strain and the damage got closer and closer to us, creeping up in the rearview mirror. The crack in the road was growing and it was growing fast.
"We're not going to make it, we're fucked. And not in the fun way either." Max's voice was laced with panic.
Even looking in the face of death he couldn't stop joking. The back tires started to rattle, and I knew that we were done for. The road was caving in. It had caught up to us, and now in my fucked-up attempt to save everyone I loved I just shoved them into a huge death bus, all in one place for the killing.
Up ahead I spotted a vehicle parked in the street just past the town line. A figure stood beside it, waving their arms and my heart jumped a beat, reigniting the fire to live.
It was Xander. He must have just been on his way back into town from his scouting mission. He wasn't dead, and I was going to do my best to make sure we weren't either.
I held my foot heavily on the gas and didn't let the wheels vibrating shake me.
"Everybody, hang on to something!" I screamed as I spotted a chunk of the road just before the line had cracked and now slanted upward like a ramp.
We hit the ramp and the bus sailed through the air a few feet off the ground, landing solidly over the town line. Someone's high-pitched scream pierced the air, and I winced at the sound.
Instinct told me to keep going, not to stop, but something else stirred told me we didn't have to go any further.
My heart shook inside my chest as I turned to make sure all the passengers had arrived in one piece.
"Who the hell screamed?"
Max's face turned a bright shade of red.
"It must have been your mom."
"Mhm." I rolled my eyes before opening the door and shuffling down the small steps that lead outside.
I barely had one foot on the pavement when Xander rushed to me, grabbed me by the shoulders, and pressed his lips against mine, completely catching me off guard.
My cheeks sizzled, but it felt good to actually be wanted by someone. Especially with all the hate Finn had been throwing my way.
Xander and I were still settling into whatever the hell we were— settling into not wanting to punch each other in the face every time we walked into a room. Unfortunately I only had room for one guy like that in the group, and Finn was occupying the seat.
"Holy shit, I didn't know if you were going to make it." Xander straightened himself, brushing out the wrinkles in his clothes, embarrassed by his own spontaneous show of affection.
"Thanks for the belief in me." I scoffed, before turning to survey the destruction.
I couldn't find any words to describe the amount of chaos that lay in front of me. Where there was once a town now sat a crater full of rubble.
"Who the hell did that? I leave you guys alone for two days and this is what happens." Xander pulled a backpack from the back seat of the beat-up car he'd stolen and slung it over his shoulder.
I didn't have the energy to explain. The race out of the city had taken more out of me than I'd expected, not to mention arguing with Finn. Exhaustion creeped up on me in an instant, hitting me hard.
"Let's just go."
"Where?"
"Anywhere but here."
I tiredly climbed the stairs back into the bus and made my way to its rear. Xander got the hint and slid into the driver's seat.
I plopped into the last seat and slouched down. I closed my eyes, with a sudden urge to nap, but they jarred back open when something hit me in the stomach.
I looked up to see Draydon staring at me, broodingly as always.
"What's this?" I glanced down at the wallet in my lap.
"The man you almost killed." Draydon said the words so flat before turning back around in his seat and going about his business.
I shrugged, and I was about to toss it across the aisle when it fell open, and the first thing I saw was a worn picture he held in the pocket of the wallet.
I tugged at it until it slipped out.
Two smiling faces looked back at me, one of the farmer and the other was one of a little girl with two blonde pigtails and the brightest smile I'd ever seen. I had gotten pretty good at killing and not giving a shit about it, especially if they were trying to kill me, but the photo broke me. It reached into my chest and yanked out a part of me that I thought I'd left behind to a pre-trials time, what little shreds of humanity I had left.
He was right, I was about to take the man's life without a second thought. I went to the extreme defense, ready to kill and move on with my life.
What the hell was wrong with me? Why was my soul so black now?
I stared down at the photo and a tear dropped from my eye, landing on the man's face and smearing some of the photo’s ink.
I was disturbed by the darkness I held inside, but when I looked up and saw Draydon's face I was more perplexed by him.
Who the hell was he, really? And why did he care about guilt-tripping the humanity back into me?
For all I knew he could have been a double agent. He could have had an alternate agenda, especially with his bizarre attachment to my mother.
I wanted to know who he was and what he wanted, and when I set out on a mission, I finished it.
Chapter 5
I didn't remember falling asleep. One minute I was glaring holes into the black of Draydon's suspicious head, and the next minute I was waking up with a trail of drool sliding down my cheek.
The bus' breaks sent a loud squeal through the air, and I gritted my teeth at the sound— like nails against a chalkboard. It crept underneath my skin and made it crawl.
I rubbed at my eyes tiredly and looked out the window. The sun hung high in the sky. It had to be around noon, which meant I was passed out for hours.
I couldn't explain the kind of exhaustion I felt, it was on another level. I had never been as tired as I'd been in the last few days. Not even when I was in the trials, fighting for my life.
I just felt different after I'd touched the dagger, and even more so since I'd pulled Draydon from the cave.
I returned my glaring eyes back to his head and convinced myself that I wasn't just blaming him because I thought he was suspicious.
There was something about him that didn't sit well with me. Something that I didn't understand.
Outside of the window I realized we were in the parking lot of a hotel, one presumably in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by sand on all sides. I glanced back at the road that stretched through the desert patch further than the eye could see.
I had no idea where we were, but wherever it was I guessed that it didn't get much rain.
"We need to stop and regroup." Xander got up from the driver's seat and pulled a pistol out of his backpack. "But first I need to go make sure that this hotel is really empty. We don't want episode two of what happened to the first town, whatever the hell that was."
His eyes darted to me and I rolled my eyes again. No matter how many times I told him that I had no idea what'd happened there, I knew he'd still think I was involved. Xander was stubborn like that, but for once he wasn't the person I wanted to be around least.