Rogue (Exceptional) (32 page)

       Butterflies took flight in Ally's stomach, for more reason than one. Her skin tingled where he touched her, and she closed her eyes. For a moment she could pretend that things were okay, that they weren't in danger or at the end of the Rogue attacks. There was so much to do.

CHAPTER

       Luke took her hand and laced his fingers between hers. They left the courtyard and caught a transport ride back to Luke's house. Ally was glad they didn't walk. Her legs were sore and she was exhausted.

       "Stay here," Luke said to her when they stepped out of the vehicle.

       He was a blur as he ran inside, and returned less than a minute later. Ally wasn't sure why she had to wait. She followed him inside and they made the familiar climb up the stairs, and then walked down the hall to his bedroom. It has been so long since Ally has been inside and she immediately took it all in. Things were still disheveled just like she remembered. It even smelled the same.

       "Luke, about Heath..." she spoke the words quickly as she turned toward him.

       She was cut off when he grabbed her and pushed her against the wall, his lips smashing against hers. It felt forceful at first, his Exceptional strength showing, but soon his kisses grew gentle and slow. Ally knew she should push him away so that they could talk, but instead her arms wrapped around his neck and pulled him closer. Her upper body molded to his and her lips parted. Luke lifted her and carried her into the bed, pushing her back onto the soft comforter and falling on top of her. She was vaguely aware that they were filthy and most likely ruining the white material, but neither of them stopped. He held his weight above her and kissed a line from her mouth, down her jaw line, and up to her ear.

       Ally knew she was breathing heavily, and she didn't care. All her doubts about her relationship with Luke dissolved and all that was left was the two of them.

       "I missed you so much," Luke paused his lips against hers, his warm breath sliding across her skin. "I wanted to follow you out of the City so bad, and then Aden took my memories. All this time I've known something was missing, some part of me, and now I remember. My heart ached while you were away, even Aden couldn't erase that."

       Ally responded by pulling him back to her. She ran her hands along Luke's back, and his hands traveled to her stomach, lifting the delicate fabric and grazing the skin above her belly button.

       "Lukin?" a tiny voice said from the doorway.

       Luke stiffened
above Ally and pulled back from her, his eyes growing wide. Ally turned her head to the door, and was met with a disapproving glare from a petite blonde Ordinary. Her hair hung in a long braid over her shoulder, and she was wearing a white sundress. A sundress that protruded out near her abdomen ever so slightly. Had the girl not been so tiny to begin with, Ally was sure it wouldn’t have been noticeable. But in these circumstances, she could easily tell the girl was with child, especially with the way she was cradling her mid-section. Slowly pieces fell into place before her. The blonde hair in the helmet, Luke running inside, an Ordinary in his home not dressed in work clothes...

       "Oh my gosh," Ally's hand flew up to her mouth and she sat up quickly, pulling her shirt back down and over her own, flat stomach.

       Luke was kneeling on the bed now, leaning back toward Ally. "I can explain...”

       Ally jumped off the bed and put her hands up. "No.  No no no. You don't have to explain for this, we weren't together." At least, he hadn't known that they might be. "But the last ten minutes...”

       She looked at the girl standing in the doorway and back at Luke. "You should have told me. You should have told me before I came here with you, and before we came upstairs."

       "I know," he said. "But if you'll just listen."

       "Stop!" Ally said loudly. "I'll arrange a meeting between you and Heath. Exactly three days from now, at the place where we first met." She backed toward the door.

       "Ally..." he said her named urgently this time.

       "I can't, Luke," she responded. "I should have known things would change, and that they could never be like they were before all this. I don't expect anything from you, especially not now."

       "Lukin," the girl in the doorway said in a whiny voice.  The girl walked over to Luke and wrapped her pale arms around him, her braid slipping behind her and falling against her back.

       Ally turned and did the only thing she could think of doing in that moment, she ran.

Ally thought she would have to make the entire trek back to Champaign on foot, and that it would take her over a week. She had promised Luke a meeting with Heath, and she had no idea how to get word to him. She hadn't been thinking clearly in his room, and she wasn't thinking clearly now. She had managed to traipse through the back alleys to get to the main entrance, and was peering around a nearby building. Although a part of her felt delight at the fact that Luke had come after her, she wasn't thrilled to see him standing near the entrance. He was talking to some Guards, showing them something on his mini-port.

       "You know he is looking all over for you, right?" a male voice said behind her.

       She jumped and turned around. "Pax?"

       Pax stood behind her, his hands shoved into the pockets of his white pants. He had changed and showered recently, little droplets of water still hung from the tips of his crooked hair.

       "Are you going to tell him?" she asked in a whisper. She hoped they were far enough away from Luke that he couldn't hear them.

       Pax shook his head. "I personally think it is better if you just go."

       Ally should have felt offended, but instead she just nodded. "I couldn't agree more."

       Pax motioned to the wall. "I'll give you a lift. Chunny is waiting in a transport by the boundary bridge. He'll take you back to Champaign."

       "Thank you," Ally said before stepping toward the wall.

       "It's what needs to be done," was the last thing Pax said before he lifted her up and over the wall.

       Ally had to use a tree to lower herself to the other side, since Pax couldn't see that side, but this one was skill she excelled at, Exceptional or not. She hit the ground running and navigating through the woods as quick as her Ordinary body would allow her. She missed zipping through the trees at Exceptional speed, and missed the extra senses that came with it.

       Chunny was right where Pax said he would be, and Ally jumped up into the right side of the truck. He grinned at her and put the vehicle into drive.

       "I was hoping we'd meet again," he said. "The others set off on foot so we'll have to pick them up along the way."

       Ally leaned back against the headrest on the seat and closed her eyes. "Chunny?"

       "Yes?"

       "Why aren't you like the other Guards?" she asked.

       When he didn't answer she opened her eyes and found him smirking. He glanced at her quickly before turning his eyes back on the road. "The less time I spend in the City, the less I feel like an Exceptional. There is something in the air there. Maybe it's pride, or maybe it is something else, but my harsh demeanor started to fade when I moved to outpost duty. The physical and mental modification the Guards go through are not permanent, and I guess they got sloppy in making sure I kept up with mine."

       That made sense to Ally.

       "What happened in there?" Chunny asked her a question in turn.

       Ally told him about what had transpired since he dropped her off a week prior. The story had enough details to fill a year, yet the memories blurred in her mind. Just this morning the City had been as it had always been; Exceptional-run and full of procedure. Then the figurative walls came crashing down and chaos swept through the City. People had been evacuated, the settlements would be empty, friends and family were lost, Rogues were captured, she and Max escaped from the training center, and Heath had attempted an attack. It seemed unlikely that all of that could span out over one day, but just now the last of the daylight was fading.

       Thirty minutes into their drive, their headlights caught a glimpse of the small group moving ahead of them. Max was sauntering behind and when the headlights shone over them, he turned around and put his hands over his eyes to help him see better. It was then that Ally realized how much of a friend he had tried to be to her these past several weeks, and how wholeheartedly he cared for her. Max knew her for who she was right now. Not who she was in the settlement, not who she was in the City, but as the girl she had recently become. She opened the door and jumped out of the transport, breaking into a run on the road. When Max realized it was Ally running toward him, he met her midway and enveloped her in a hug.

       "I was hoping you would come," he said into her ear.

       "I once hoped someone would do the same for me," she responded. "I can't promise you anything more than friendship."

       "Right now, that can be enough." He let her down and took her hand in his. Together they led the group back to the waiting transport.

       Ally wasn't sure what would become of the City in the following days, or what would even become of Luke, Pax, Aden, and the others. She was wiping her conscience clean of those thoughts and choosing to move forward, from this moment. What Heath and Luke decided wouldn't be on her. They could chose to quarrel over their problems for years to come, or to find a compromise that suited both of their needs, but Ally wouldn't be around to see it. She was going to find the Southern City. She was going to meet up with Kemp, and Po, and the others from the settlement. They would start their own town like Champaign down there, one where they didn't have to live in fear of the Exceptionals or bow to their every need. And somehow, she knew that she would have Max by her side.

EPILOGUE

       Luke paced back and forth in his office, stepping around the furniture that was strewn about the room. When Pax admitted what he had done, allowing Ally to leave the City, he was furious. He had come back here and all but brought the room to pieces. The couches and chairs were on their sides and upside down, tables were broken in half, pictures were shattered on the floor, and even his desk laid in pieces by the wall of windows.

       Pax stood with his back flat against the wall. "I had to do it," was all Pax was saying over and over.

       "WHY?" Luke stopped his pacing and shouted out the question, hoping it hit Pax with all the aggression he was currently feeling.

       "We need a leader," he said. "Aden will be arrested for what he has done, and the City is in shambles. We need someone to hold us together, and to bring back a sense of normalcy. Plus, in case you've forgotten, we have this whole Champaign issue to deal with."

       "No, I haven't forgotten," Luke spat. "But maybe I don't want to deal with all of this. Maybe it would be easier to let Heath set off those cure bombs. Then he could step in and lead. I've barely done it a month and I'm already tired of it. I remember everything, Pax ... everything. And I know that I never wanted this. I never wanted to be my father."

       "Don't throw this away for some girl," Pax pushed off the wall and stepped toward Luke.

       "She isn't just some girl," Luke responded, pointing his finger at Pax. "It's Ally."

       "Well, she is gone now. She's probably run back into the arms of that Ordinary boy. Did you see her with him? You may have forgotten about her, but she didn't forget about you. All this time she has known you were in the City, and she has been 100 miles to the south, resting in the arms of someone else."

       A guttural sound left Luke's throat as he threw his arm out. Pax flew backwards into the wall. “Don’t.ever.say.anything.like.that.again.”

              He didn’t recognize his own voice.

              Pax stood up, brushing his pants off. “I sacrificed so much to get you here.”

              “What are you talking about?” Luke asked, keeping his arms raised.

              “I was the one who suggested Aden use the memory wipe. It wasn’t even programmed to erase my memory, it was all for show. I got that stupid Ordinary girl pregnant so Ally would think you were over her, but you thought I was doing
you
a favor. I thought we could move to the top together. It is time to forget Ally, for good.”

              Luke worked his jaw back and forth, trying to contain his anger. “Then you obviously don’t know me very well, because I could never forget her. I think I’ve proven that already.”

              “Next time I’ll make sure the memory erase is permanent,” Pax said through gritted teeth. He pulled a familiar, metal cylinder from his pocket.

              “Do you think I’m just going to willingly allow you to erase my memory?” Luke said with a laugh.

              Pax reached behind him and pulled a small gun from the belt of his pants. “You will when I tell you that there is a cure dart in this gun.  If you resist me, I will shoot you.”

              “Go ahead,” Luke said as he dropped his hands to his side. “I’m over this, all of it. Go ahead…. SHOOT!”

              Pax raised the gun in front of him, but Luke could read his anxious expression. He could see the sweat beading on Pax’s forehead, and the way his finger shook as it touched the trigger. He would either bail at the last moment or misfire from his nerves. Pax licked his lips and looked toward the door to the office, anticipating the next round of Guards that would come through to speak with Luke.

              Luke took advantage of the moment and flicked his wrist, causing the gun to fly into the air and into his own hands.

              “I’m still stronger than you,” Luke said.

              “Are you going to shoot me, now?” Pax spat, his hand clenched into fists by his side.

              “No,” Luke said, pocketing the gun. He stepped forward and reached toward Pax. “I’m going to kill you.”