Cured (25 page)

“
What’
s the matter?” I asked
her.

“It… it…it isn’t going… going to be okay.”
She sniffed.

“
What do you
mean Eva?” I asked stroking her back soothingly. “Of course it is.
I am going to keep you safe.”

She shook her
head sadly, and I gently wiped a tear from her cheek. “What’s going
on, darling?” I asked her. Her pale blue eyes lifted to meet mine,
sparkling with tears.

“
You’re not a
Prime,” s
he said with a sniffle. “I know
you’re not. I heard the Alphas talking. They said you tricked them.
Now they are trying to… to….to kill you. So that no one can ever
find out.”

“
It’s
okay,” I said, “We have a plan.”

She shook her head again.

“
It’s too
late.” A tear rolled down her cheek and I immediately caught it and
dried her eyes. She continued, “It’s coming. It’s already on its
way, and you can’t stop it because you don’t have powers. Only
powers can stop them. The Alphas said only Primes could stop the
missiles and even then the missiles will hurt them, but you won’t
be able to-”

“
The
missiles?
” I interrupted her.

She nodded. “They split you up so Theo would
stop helping you.”

“
Its
okay,
” I said again. “Theo is coming here
to help.”

“
Too late,”
s
he repeated. “The missile is already
coming. It is going to get me.”

“
Why is it
coming for you?” I asked. “Wouldn’t they direct it to
me?”

“
Because they
found out I gave you the note. That note that warned you that the
Alphas know. Now they put a tracker in my body and the missile is
chasing me. They said I should thank you for killing
me.”

I gasped. “How long do we have?” I asked
her.

She shrugged
as my GPS bleeped and a hologram countdown timer
appe
ared. The number thirty, rolled into
the number twenty nine. Under thirty seconds.

I jumped to
my feet, mind reeling. I was not going to let this little girl die.
I looked over to Meatloaf, realizing that I only had one option.
Bile rose in my throat and I moved over to the beast, taking his
reigns and leading him towards Eva.

“What’re you doing?” She hiccupped.

“This is Meatloaf.” I introduced as I
positioned the animal beside Eva. I blinked away tears as I
prepared to say goodbye to the beast. I really had grown fond of
him, but I would rather he take the hit than Eva. The countdown
struck twenty.

“I don’t want Meatloaf to die either!” Eva
exclaimed stroking his freshly cleaned fur.

“
Neither do I
Eva, but you’re more important.” I stroked her hair and watched the
countdown strike fifteen.

Eva moved from patting Meatloaf’s fur, to
stroking the lion mane saddle. “What is this?” She asked.

I was
fidgeting and nauseous, thinking about the pain I was about to
inflict on an innocent creature. I kept picturing Meatloaf being
hit. Blood. Meatloaf’s cry as he died.


“What?” I asked Eva distractedly, not having
heard her question. The timer struck ten.

“
I said, what
is this?” She pointed to the lion mane again. Suddenly an idea
struck.

“
Impenetrable
lion mane.” I murmured. Before grabbing at the saddle, fumblingly
untying the knots that I had fashioned moments ago. I finally freed
the mane.

“
LIE DOWN!” I
yelled at Eva and she quickly obeyed. I pushed on Meatloaf’s hind
until he lay down in front of Eva, and she snuggled underneath his
massive body. Then I threw the mane over Meatloaf’s figure, nearly
covering his entire body in the golden hair. The timer struck
five.

I made sure
the two were completely covered, kissed Meatloaf’s nose moved away
from the odd looking pile I had assembled in the grass. The
countdown hit one and I heard a strange sound. It started off soft,
like a mosquito’s buzzing, and became louder and louder. The
holographic image of a ‘one’ became a ‘zero’. The buzzing was now
almost deafening. Suddenly there was a loud CRACK!

The ground underneath me quaked and a
powerful force of air struck me from the direction the missile had
hit. I flew through the air and landed on my back. Then I jumped to
my feet immediately and ran over to the impact zone. A large crater
of dirt had appeared, and inside it lay a silver bullet-shaped
object, about the size of a loaf of bread.

At the edge of the crater lay the
mane-blanketed Meatloaf. The mane was entirely unscathed, but it
was also unmoving.

“EVA?!” I screamed.

Relief overwhelmed me as I heard a muffled
sound and the mane began to wriggle. Meatloaf stood, shaking off
the lion’s hair, to reveal a trembling Eva. I ran to her. “Are you
okay?” I asked, taking her into my arms and pressing my lips to her
forehead.

She nodded.
“It was loud,” s
he whispered.

“But did it hurt you?” I asked.

“Couldn’t feel it.”

I sighed in relief and collapsed onto the
ground next to her, not letting her go. We sat for a long while,
until Meatloaf came over a planted a huge, slobbery lick on my
cheek. Eva giggled as I wiped at my face, removing the strands of
thick saliva. I began to laugh too when Meatloaf licked her
arm.

“AVERY!” Came a shout that sounded miles
away, though by the time I turned in the direction it came from,
Theo’s super speed had carried him to only a few meters from were
we sat. I waved and pulled thumbs up at him.

“You play with Meatloaf,” I said to Eva,
kissing her head again and standing to meet Theo. He used his super
speed to skid to a stop right in front of me, almost bowling me
over, and grabbed my shoulders. He looked into my eyes for a long
time, and then pulled me into a hug.

I groaned.
“You’re hurting me, Theo,”

He laughed,
“Sorry.’ And let me go, holding me at arms length again. “I give
up, Avery Rose. How the hell are you and that little girl still
alive?”

It was only
then that
I noticed that his entire face
was swollen and coloured purple and blue. “What happened to you?” I
squeaked, laying a hand softly on his cheek.

“
Doesn’t
matter,” h
e replied, and hugged me
again.

I shook my
head and took Theo’s hand, leading him over to where Eva sat with
Meatloaf.

“Eva,” I said, “This is Theo.”

She gave a little wave.

“
It’
s very nice to meet you, Eva,”
he said politely, crouching down to her level and shaking her hand.
She blushed.

“
Would you
care to tell me how you are still alive?” he asked.

Eva nodded
vigorously. “Avery was brave!” she said excitedly. “She was so
brave. First she was going to get Meatloaf to stop the missile. She
put him in front of me and everything even though she loves
Meatloaf and I love Meatloaf too.”

“But Meatloaf is still alive…” Theo said.

I shrugged. “I wasn’t sure that Meatloaf
would stop the blow, and you might’ve been right, I have grown
quite attached to the big brute.” I said slapping Meatloaf on the
back fondly.

“
So
…?’” Theo asked.

“
Actually Eva
inspired me. Tell him, Eva.”

“I was patting Meatloaf and then patting the
pretty saddle, and then I asked Avery what the saddle was, since it
doesn’t look like a normal boring saddle.”

“
The mane,”
s
aid Theo, hitting himself in the head
with realization, and then wincing at the pain.

“
Why didn’t I
think of using the stupid lion mane..?”

“I wouldn’t have thought of it either, until
Eva reminded me.” I said. “I am guessing you stopped the missile
yourself.”

“
How do you
come to that conclusion?” asked Theo jokingly, rubbing his
bruises.

“
Because
you’re all hurt!” s
quealed Eva and Theo
laughed.

“
You’re right
Eva, it seems that even with powers I am not as smart as Avery,” he
whispered, ‘but don’t tell her that or she’ll get a big head.” Eva
nodded solemnly, holding out her little finger. Theo touched his
giant pinky to her tiny one, locking in the pinky
swears.

“
Eva!” I
gasped
, pretending to be hurt, “I thought
we were friends!”

Eva wrapped
her arms around my waist. “We
are
friends,” she said with a
smile.

I took Theo’s hand and led him away from Eva,
“Can we take her with us?”

Theo shook
his head. “That would be a bad idea. It would be one more person to
protect, one more to slow us down. And one more mouth to feed. They
won’t leave her here, Avery. They’ll come and pick her up. She’ll
be safe.”

“
They tried
to kill her
, Theo. They put a homing
device in her skin.” I all but spat the words.

“The task is done now. They can’t harm her
anymore without raising suspicion. She is safe for now.”

I nodded. I
knew
she was. Eva’s family would ask
about her, and the Alphas wouldn’t be able to answer them without
giving away my secret. I walked back over to Eva, and explained to
her that I had to leave. Tears welled up in her eyes but she nodded
bravely.

“
You do have
powers, Avery,” she whispered in my ear as I held her tight. “Not
Prime powers. Not like super strength. Other powers.”

I smiled at
her as I pulled away, “So do you my darling, you are very brave.
And very very smart.”

Theo crouched
and took Eva’s
hand, raising it to his
lips in a light kiss. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Miss Eva,” he
said with a bow.

She blushed
and we began to walk away from her. Her lip quivered and I gave her
a little wave. “See ya ‘round Eva.”

She waved back, and I mounted Meatloaf,
squeezing his sides and charging back towards the stream.

Theo arrived
back at our campsite before me, and was already standing with the
others. I breathed a sigh of relief to see Felix and Ellina alive.
But as I neared them, I saw that Felix was drenched in red. I
swore. That was a lot of blood. I dismounted Meatloaf and ran to
embrace Felix. “What happened?!” I gasped, “Where are you
hurt?”

He held me
and turned to kiss the side of my head, “It’s not my blood,” he
whispered against my hair.

I stepped
back, my eyes scanning Ellina, whose arm was now fully recovered.
She was as black and blue as Theo was, although didn’t appear to be
bleeding.

I frowned, “Then whose…”

“Ellina didn’t make it to me to stop the
attack,” Felix said, “I used the horse to block the missile. It was
disgusting.”

Ellina turned to me, “You have Meatloaf
still. Does that mean you let your hostage die? I wondered if that
would be the best option since they were criminals anyway.”

I stopped
still and faced Ellina, wondering what she meant.
“Criminals?” I asked. “What do you mean by
criminals?” I shook my head in surprise. Surely Eva wasn’t a
criminal.

“Wait, wasn’t your hostage a prisoner?”
Ellina asked.

“
No
!” I cried, “My hostage was
Eva! The little girl who showed me to my room back at
training.”

Felix and Ellina exchanged glances and Ellina
spoke again, “We both had criminals. I had that Norm from the
mining Field who tried to blow up Olympia. Felix had the guy who
killed his daughter rather than let her be Cured. What about you
Theo?”

Theo nodded. “I had a criminal too.”

I shook my
head in disbelief. Although I
wasn’t
really surprised. “It was a personal attack.” I muttered, “They
found out Eva gave me the note. It was a punishment. A
warning.”

“So how’d you save her?” asked Felix. I
recounted the story as we made our way to the river and Theo picked
up a handmade spear ready to stab some fish. By the time I finished
filling the others in, Theo had caught six fish. Ellina had already
started a fire, so we prepared the fish quickly, ravenous. Before
eating my own dinner, I took two raw fish over to Meatloaf and laid
them at his feet. Then I joined everyone as we devoured our
meals.

“
I guess the
Alphas
will come pick us up tomorrow,”
Theo said, once we had washed our hands of the meal
scraps.

“
They
will pick us up?” I asked. “For
what?”

“
Well we have
done six tasks. Normally they celebrate the halfway
point with a banquet. I’m sure your parents
would’ve told you about it. It is really famous.”

M
other had forced me to sit
through hours of photos of herself completing the tasks, and at a
handful of parties and banquets. I vaguely remembered her in a
floor length gold satin gown, which hugged her tiny figure, and had
a low scoop at the back, baring her flawless skin and taught back
muscles. It was when I had noticed that she was beautiful, not just
because of Aunt Tiana’s serums, but with a true natural beauty that
made her stand out in a room. People always told me I looked like
Mother, but I knew that was not true. Her features were sharp and
angular, whereas my face was soft, much like the rest of my body. I
would never be able to wear a gown like the golden one. It would
stick to all the wrong places and accentuate my lack of curves or
any figure whatsoever.