"Are we allowed in here?"
"Who cares?"
"We might get into trouble, Evest."
"It's Everest, you know like the mountain?"
I thought hard.
"The mountain?" Evest face palmed himself in response. "Maybe I should just call you Ev."
"How old are you, Emerald?"
"Umm," I counted on my fingers. "Three. I think. No, wait, five!"
An innocent smile tugged on his lips.
"What about you?" I asked.
"Seven. Come on." Grabbing my hand he ran along the isolated hallways, me working hard to keep up behind him. No, not so isolated. There were inside the labs. People in blue overalls who offered amused smiles if they saw us.
Unfortunately, we had to come to a sudden stop. The woman at the end of the hallway looked at me disappointedly.
Oops.
"I've been looking for you everywhere, missy. I even had to leave the lab early."
I stared at the ground guiltily. "Sorry, mum."
She approached me, her footsteps were soft like feathers on very hard rock. "How many times have I told you that you're not allowed in here, Emmy? It could be dangerous."
I continued staring at the ground and muttered, "Fourteen times."
My eyes flickered up sheepishly. She looked like she wasn't really expecting an answer. Why had she asked me the question, then?
"Come here," she said and lifted me. I hated it when she did that! It made me look like a baby in front of Evest.
Mum looked over her shoulder and extended her other hand out. "Come on, sweetie," she said to Evest.
Evest fitted his hand into hers. Mum's hand looked huge against his – and his hands were already bigger than mine!
Mum's hand then turned into a bunch of flowers. In fact everything turned to flowers. The floor, the walls, the labs, the scientists in the labs, Everest...
The ceiling turned into a vast clear sky and I was standing in a flower field. I was in Amsterdam. I didn't know how I knew this, I just did.
And then everything went blank.
When I woke up from that dream, we had magically crossed an entire ocean and landed at London Gatwick Airport.
***
We went to Jay and Amanda's house. I'd been in here more times than the moon has orbited the earth, but the size of it never ceased to astound me. It was big. Monstrously colossal. You'd have to walk a couple of minutes until you finally passed it, to give you a general idea. That's what happens when you have a prestigious position at a multi-billionaire company.
"Emerald, you can have this room," Jay said, pointing to a bedroom room at the end of the vast hallway. "And Everest, you can have this room." He pointed to a door on the other side of the vast hallway. "And, Arya, that room's yours."
Suddenly curious, I asked Everest a question. "If you lived at the Front, how did I never see you?" It was weird that I hadn't thought about this since meeting him. How stupid of me.
"I was in the west wing of the compound and you were in the east," he explained. "That, and I was allowed to leave the building. You weren't."
It was true, I was rarely ever allowed to go out unless accompanied by Amanda or Director himself. That meant I was hardly able to go out at night because neither director nor Amanda would be working, so I had to suck it up and go to bed. Yeah, I was really living life to the fully, woo blimming hoo.
"How come they let you go out?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Maybe because they knew that I'm more responsible than you."
Or, because you were the miracle child.
I went into my room and saw that there were masses of boxes in one corner. I peered inside one of them. They looked like clothing, wrapped in were individual plastic covers. I attempted to lift one, but the surprising weight of it caused it to slip out my hand.
"Amanda! What are these things in–" But then I worked it out myself; they were bulleproof vests.
"What?" Amanda came into the room "Em, you're not supposed to touch those, they're not for you! Well, actually, they're not for anyone anymore, I guess."
"Why do you have these ugly bulletproof vests in here?"
"They're not bullet proof vests, they're Safety Laboratory Vests. They're supposed to protect the chemists at the Front. But," she knocked on one of the vests with her knuckles and there was a dull metal thudding sound, "I guess you're correct to an extent. They are kind of like bulletproof vests."
I took one out of its package. They were actually an impressive white. It turned out that only the plastic covering was black.
"Why are they so heavy?"
"Because they're supposed to protect your torso as well as your back. What if the mad scientist on the laboratory table behind you causes an explosion?"
"Ah, clever." I nodded, impressed with the thought that went into the design of these strange jackets.
"Making sure these went to the right people was one of the last things I did for the Front before the launch evening," Amanda said. "But these were just the prototypes and are pretty futile."
"I take back what I said, they're actually quite cute," I remarked, examining the one in my hands and opening it up.
"But I'll move these away into the other room," Amanda said, busily closing the boxes, not really listening to me.
I put the vest over my head. It made a sound and the straps automatically strapped themselves in place. Cool!
"Hey, who's Christa?" I asked, reading the name on the tag of the vest.
Amanda looked at me frowning as if confused, and then her eyes widened. "Em! You're not meant to wear these! They were specifically designed for individual candidates, you know, size and all."
"Relax, I'll just take it off." I rolled my eyes. Typical Amanda, always so dramatic.
But the straps didn't budge.
"Uh, Amanda?" I chuckled nervously, shaking the vest. "How do I get this off?"
"You can't. That was what I was trying to tell you. The reason why these aren't being used at the Front was that there was a flaw in the design. The automated locks lock automatically, but the hitch is that they don't unlock immediately."
"W-what do you mean they don't unlock immediately?" I asked Amanda, the vest felt rather tight now. "When will they unlock?"
Everest showed up at the doorstep. Oh good, now I looked like an idiot in front of the person whose views on me I cared a lot about.
"Amanda, the door to my room is locked," he said. Then his eyes landed on me. He eyed me down, then up. And certainly not in a teen romance way. "Why are you wearing a Safety Lab Vest?"
"Amanda!" I hissed, ignoring him. "When will it unlock?
"In about... 23 hours."
I audibly gasped. "Twenty–twenty—?"
"Three," Amanda finished mockingly.
"You mean I have to go to sleep in this? This is ridiculous! I can barely move in this!"
"Well, it's your own fault. Ev, help me with these boxes."
"Amanda!" I whined. "It's so tight, my thoracic cavity is about to collapse inwards!"
"Stop being so dramatic, Emerald. Everest, the boxes."
"Isn't there any way—"
My eyes followed Everest's arms as he picked up the heavy box. Oh. Nice.
I snapped my eyes away and tried again. "Isn't there any way to take it off? Any tool, or...?"
"No," Amanda deadpanned. "I'm sorry, Em, but if it feels uncomfortable you just have to put up with it.
I scowled. "Not much different to that wretched Madame Bouder's dress you made me wear, then," I muttered sourly.
But Amanda heard me. "I've been meaning to ask," she said quite ominously, "what ever happened to that masterpiece of a dress?"
"I have it safely folded up," I lied effortlessly. Years of practice. Lying to Amanda was a gesture that I had mastered following years of hard practice.
"At a wasteland," Everest, the traitor, added.
I shot daggers at him.
"What?" Amanda shrieked. "Emerald! That dress cost a fortune. I can't believe the only level of respect you showed it was a trash can!"
"Especially if the trash can was at a murky old train station," Everest added at the same time I told him to shut up.
"You are unbelievable," Amanda complained, glaring at me.
I flipped Everest off when Amanda wasn't looking. "It was dirty and gross anyway," I commented. "Why would you want to keep a dress which was worn by someone for an entire week, in the middle of a forest of all places?"
Amanda sighed. A sound which signified that she finally gave in. "Alright, fine."
I smirked at Everest. He gave me an emotionless stare in return.
"Okay, off to bed you two," Amanda said to me and Everest, as though we were five-year-old children staying up past our curfew. She exited my room, saying something along the lines of, "Try not to lie on your stomach, Em." And, "Remember, big day tomorrow."
"Goodnight," I sang to Everest.
As I'd expected, there was no response and he walked to his room. He pushed through the door but lingered at the doorway.
"Goodnight."
***
The next day was certainly eventful.
Around midday, Amanda, Everest and I sat parked inside Amanda's car. Jay had gone to his boring work at some engineering firm (quite rich coming from the girl who grew up in a building full of labs, I know), and Arya was still in Amanda's home, none but sleeping due to the time zone difference.
We sat and observed what stood before us. The Front.
I peaked through my tinted window from the black seat. For the first ten minutes, Amanda was driving. But Everest grew impatient from Amanda's speed limit obedience and took over the wheel, hence we got here in half the time.
"This is ridiculous!" I exclaimed. "How are we supposed to get in there?"
There were Front guards everywhere. I mean everywhere. It was almost as if they knew we'd come.
"We can't. That's the answer," Everest responded. "They'd recognise us immediately."
"I don't get it," Amanda said, touching her temples, seeming stressed. "Director's not even in charge anymore, why are they still here?"
"Knowing Director," for the evil genius he is, "he has either extended their payroll so that they're on duty whenever his highness wills it or has threatened them with their children," I said.
"It's like something straight out of a Hollywood movie," Amanda commented.
"Or a sci-fi novel."
There was a very important and highly secured room called the Inference room. This room was found in the west wing of the Front's building and held information on a scale from anything to everything.
The sole reason why we were back here was to get the three sets of evidence: the one on the Reynolds attack, the one on 202 and the evidence on the Original Cure, from this Inference room.
The first set was for the sole reason of blackmailing, the second set was to put Director behind bars, and the third set was to prevent the government from discovering the truth about Everest or my powers.
In other words, the last the evidence we had on the Original Cure were a series of documents on Everest's life, carefully condensed into a single hardware. At the back of my mind, I smiled wickedly at the prosperity of getting my talented hands on that hard drive.
Getting the hard drives was supposed to be easier once we'd gotten into the actual building. However, for that, we'd have to get past the pack of guards on the outside, first.
"There are multiple entrances," Everest said, which there were, "and the guards'll have to go on break at some point, right?"
"Yeah but they're not all going to go to have a feast together," I said.
"Obviously," he bit. "But when they do, at least one of those entrances will be left unguarded for at least half an hour."
Ah. So, he was smart, after all. "Right. So all we need to do is choose an entrance," I said, mentally applauding him.
"Right."
We left the car parked near the edge of the forest and surveyed the circumference of the Front at a safe distance. It took longer than I thought it would; the building was colossal for one thing – as if 15 different buildings were merged into one – and there were numerous guards so we had to be extra cautious not to be seen.
Everest bumped into me once during this observation, and I tried my hardest to ignore those wretched tingles that ran down my spine.
"We'll do that one," I said, choosing a door at the west wing of the building. "It's on the side of the building. Security usually puts extra effort in guarding the front and the back, right, who bothers with the sides?"
"Good thinking. Okay so we'll just wait here and see what time they go on break," Amanda said.
"It could be a long wait," Everest said.
It was.
At last, when I was practically finished mowing the forest's grass with my hands, the guards that stood in front of the west wing door finally walked back into the building.
I got up from my cross-legged position, and that was when I got a glimpse of the inside of the Front. My heart dropped to my stomach. If we had thought the outside was heavily guarded, it was nothing compared to the inside.
What the..." Amanda finished the rest of her sentence in a deep exhalation.
There were men in blue everywhere. What we saw until on the outside were only a few bees pollinating some flowers. The inside, however, gave us a taste of what the nest looks like.
"Oh my god," I gasped. "It totally makes sense. It's like immunology. The outside security team was like the physical defense against pathogens. But the inside security is like the humoral immune response – they are the white blood cells, the B, T and TH lymphocytes, the antibodies. And we are the bacteria, the virus, the pathogens. How poetic and punny for a pharmaceutical company."
"Stop waffling," stupid-but-I-admired-him-Everest unkindly commanded.
I kissed my teeth. "You're just sore that your genius plan backfired."
He stared back at me, as if to rebuke, but surprisingly remained silent, and a wave of victory washed over me.
"Let's leave," he simply stated instead.
"What?" Amanda exclaimed, a deep creased in between her eyebrows.
"I said we're leaving," Everest said.
The crease deepened. "Who put you in charge?"
"Did you not see the inside of that building? I'm sorry to break it to you, but invisibility doesn't come as part of mine or 202's abilities."
"I don't care," Amanda retaliated, without realising the crescendo playing on her voice. "We'll find a way! We came here for a reason, and we're not leaving until we get what we came here for!"
Everest gave her a cool look. "I told 202 the same thing before we entered that frat house. But that didn't happen."
"Hey! You said you'd forgiven me for that."
"I think 'forgiven' is a little bit of an overstatement."
"I think you're being ridiculous," I said. "You're the one who came begging for—"
"Hello? We're drifting off topic!" Amanda shouted. "There's no time for your little flirtations, Everest, and your stupid arguments, Emerald."
"What?" I belted.
"Yeah, it's definitely the other way around," Everest remarked.
"Don't flatter yourself," I told him, even though he was partially correct.
"Again! People! We're drifting off-topic," Amanda hollered. "Look, the entrance is right there. We need to decide our next line of action."
"'Next line of action'," Everest mocked, "We're not in the military, Amanda."
"Everest, don't temper with me."
"Yeah, asshole. Don't temper with the woman," I interjected, determined to tick him off for telling Amanda the true fate of that Madame Bouder's next spring dress.
"Emerald Reese!" Amanda growled. "Watch your mouth!"
"Yeah?" Everest closed in on me, ignoring Amanda. "Say that again."
My stomach clenched; he was standing so painfully close to me.
Stop being hot.
"You're doing it again!" Amanda screeched. "Stop. Drifting. Off. Topic!"
"What is the topic, exactly?" Everest inquired Amanda, regarding my face for a moment, before peeling away from me as if nothing had happened.
"Seriously?" I heard Amanda say from somewhere behind me. "Should I even bother—"
I turned away. Even though it was the middle of winter, my face was hot and my hands were clammy. Surely I didn't blush in front of him. Of course, I didn't! What a stupid notion. Why would I ever display it? It was–
And then I saw it.
Maybe it was the sheer volume of Amanda's voice that had attracted them or just the mere presence of three individuals. Whatever it was, I only had a moment to react, because I only saw it a moment before it happened.
Whilst Amanda was too busy scolding Everest, and Everest was too busy winding her up, I saw a figure in light blue overalls standing about twenty metres away. He held a black long black object at arm's length. It looked like an AR 15. Okay, I couldn't make out exactly what type of gun it was because, in my moment's notation, I only made out that the object was pointed, not in my direction, but in—
I moved. The next second, my body collided with Everest's, and Everest's with Amanda's, and all three of us plummeted to the ground.
But I realised that we hadn't hit the ground fast enough, when a second later, something small and sharp dug into the small of my back. It felt like the force of ten punches into one; the full force of the bullet caused to me press further down onto Everest's body. But that wasn't all, that lone bullet was then followed by two more of it identical copies. There was barely an inch between our heads as I lay on top of him.
There was ringing in my ears, and maybe it was just the spoke of my hyperactive imagination, but suddenly all the sounds stopped. Everything seemed frozen for a moment.
I lifted my head up slowly, and I saw his face. His eyes were wide (yes, wide) and portrayed something between shock (yes, shock), and alarm (yes, alarm).
The only reason why I didn't panic was because I was aware of the four-kilogram bulletproof-like vest compactly wrapped around my torso and back, under Amanda's huge winter coat. But Everest must have forgotten this detail, because suddenly, his hands were under my jacket, on my back. They were caressing– no, not caressing. Roaming, searching my body. He brought his hand out and stared his fingertips. There was no blood on them.
For a moment, he just laid his head down onto the grass and ran his hands over his face. I was still on top of him but didn't dare move.
Even through the white-hot pain that soared through my back, I was amused by his reaction. Had this happened in the forest during our early days, he probably would have walked on even if the bullets had actually found their way into my flesh. But now, his reaction was more humane, I'd say even gentle—
He threw me off of him. I got a mouthful of cold, almost dead grass before I felt his hand shove at my back, which sent me sprawling into the woods, down a detritus coated slope. I groaned as twigs and rocks and bark cut me on my troubled journey down the slope, and after a couple more tumbles, I collided with another body – it was Amanda. She seemed to be taking the route as me, except at a higher velocity, for Everest was right behind her.
The steepness of the sloped decreased and I came to a stop deep into the forest ground. Amanda had landed on my legs, and Everest fell elsewhere. Amanda groaned as he lifted herself off my legs. I was pretty sure I was bleeding from about twelve minor cuts, but none of them hurt as much as the part of my body where the bullets were aimed at.
Amanda surprisingly looked unharmed, except her hair was a mess. Dirt and debris hung from almost every strand. I thought Everest looked rather unharmed, too, but when he turned, I saw through my dizzy vision that there was a cut near his jaw, and impulsively gasped. Not the face!
I moved to get up, but Amanda's hand pushed me down.
"Stay down," she whispered.
So we stayed that way for I didn't know how long until my cuts began to sting, and I knew that if we stayed like this for much longer, all that bacteria from the forest floor would lead to twelve different infections. For the first few minutes, there were many hard voices heard from above and a lot more feet shuffling. When those finally died out, we silently decided that it was safe enough to get up.
"They're most likely going to search the forest," I whispered, "so the sooner we get out of here, the better chance we have of getting out, you know... alive."
And so, we navigated our way back, half crouched, to Amanda's car.
After that grand failure, the three of us reentered Amanda's house, looking sorrowful. Okay, Amanda and I looked sorrowful. Everest didn't wear any expression, just carelessly wiped away the blood from his jaw.
"I'm going to take a shower to get all this... stuff out of my hair," Amanda announced. "Em, disinfect your wounds. There's a first aid kit on the left wall of the kitchen. Everest, stop getting blood on your sleeve."
She left, and I looked at Everest. Whatever got him must have cut deep, because the gash was still bleeding.
"Are you okay?" We asked each other at the same time.
Without thinking, I reached towards his wound but didn't touch it. "Does it hurt?"
He shook his head no. "You're the one with eleven wounds."
"It's actually twelve," I remarked, as though it was some sort of competition who got hurt the most. I pulled my hand back. "Yours is bleeding bad. Let's cover it up." I led him into the kitchen and grabbed the first aid kit off a giant wall. I walked back to the dining table and pulled back a chair. "Sit."
Surprisingly, he obeyed and I crouched opposite him, taking out a cotton wad. I immediately regretted signing up for this, when I realised what I had to do next.
Suck it up, Em. Just do it.
I held his face lightly and dabbed at the wound. He flinched, a tiny bit, so small it almost went unnoticed. The distance between us was so close that I heard his pulse. I took out another cotton wad and poured rubbing alcohol into it.
"Your heart is beating fast," I mentioned, although I don't know why. It sounded a pretty dumb thing to mention.
"The alcohol stings."
Liar.
"Sorry. It will heal quickly, though, right?" I asked. Rapid healing was another advantage we shared.
He nodded. "I can do it myself, you know."
"I know," I replied and continued dabbing at the gash, and he let me.
We lapsed into silence for a while. I concentrated more than I needed to on cleaning the blood away and placing a plaster over the wound. He, having nothing else to do, watched me.
Just then, there was a shuffling sound. Peculiarly, it came from under Amanda's winter jacket. I set aside the first aid equipment, got up, and took the jacket off as if stripping off the fur of a bear.
I gasped in absolute relief. Christa's Safety Lab Vest hung loosely on my shoulders. The straps were unlocked. I didn't wait a second before throwing that wretched thing off, although, to an extent, I had to thank it. I saw that those evil three bullets were embedded into the back of the vest like metal eyeballs in their respective sockets.
Everest stood up and regarded me. "Disinfect your wounds," he ordered shallowly in his old Everest tone. "I'd help, but..." he eyed certain areas where the damned twigs had gotten me, causing heat to rise rapidly up my neck.
"Yeah, I get it," I said, grabbing the first aid kit and leaving for a bathroom.
He grabbed my wrist. "Thank you. For– taking a bullet for me.
"I saved you from bullets on two occasions," I said, smiling smugly. "I caught that bullet they shot at you that first day in the forest. You owe me."
He regarded me for a moment, lacking a substantial amount of cold in his eyes, and headed out of the colossal kitchen. "Don't drink the alcohol, 202."
Later, Amanda had come out of her quick shower, I had come out of my quick shower, and Everest was still in his long shower, leaving the two of us waiting for him – I visualised an iceberg melting under hot water. Arya was still sleeping. The girl slept like a koala.
When the iceberg was finally out, face as granite as ever, we sat down ready to what Amanda unceasingly called "our next line of action."
Our "next line of action" proved to be the next line of piss-take, due to the sheer number of disagreements, arguments, and roadblocks that followed.
"The problem is," Amanda belted frustratedly, "we can't go anywhere near there! Especially now that we blew our one shot, they'll practically be expecting us!"
Everest's eyes froze over for a second, and I could just about see his brain wiring up like an ellipsometer, the tiny bulb of an operating theatre lamp lighting up in it.
"What about someone they wouldn't recognise?" The clever bastard said. "Someone who hasn't been anywhere near the Front before?"593Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlPXNlrLdTW
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Author's note:
Longass chapter for taking a longass break.
ns 18.68.41.146da2
