Chapter XVI

     1

Taylor

WALKING THROUGH THE FOREST, Taylor glanced around but she wasn't looking for some plant, or water, or whatever it was that the others thought could be the cause of the outbreak. Instead, she looked up at the darkening sky at the clouds that drifted by.

The rustling of some bushes pierced her ears and she jerked her head in that direction. As the stirring continued, she threw her hand behind her back and fingered for the knife nestled between her belt and pants. She waited to draw the blade but grasped the handle tight. Even if she didn't believe any of this junk that she proclaimed, there was one thing that she was right about. Agcorp could easily slip through Paradise's alarm. "I know you're there!" she announced. "Show yourself before I lung this dagger through the bushes!"

A twig cracked under a heavy boot, and a young man emerged from the brush surrounding the base of a tree. He held his hands at chest level indicating his surrender, but his smirk was clear despite the dying daylight. "You and I both know you won't do that."

Taylor let out the breath she had been holding as she lowered her hand to her side, but it quickly became a fist. "What are you doing out here? Someone will see you!"

The man shrugged and he, too, let his hands drop. "Come on, you can't keep me hidden in some cave. I want to see my work!"

Taylor let out a single, soft chuckle as she crossed her arms. "Yeah, that's not gonna happen. If Bailey sees you—"

"Relax," he interrupted, waving off her comment with a roll of his eyes. "No one's gonna see me. Besides, I only have that speedster girl, and she's so puny I'll have her gone in no time."

Taylor furrowed her brow at his statement. "Ella? She has an ability?"

His brow arched as he leaned through the brush against the tree. "You didn't know?"

"She's never used it before," Taylor replied. "Or at least not around me." She placed her finger and thumb on her chin and looked at the ground to think. "If she's so puny ..." She trailed off and looked back at the young man who swooped some blond curls out of his eyes. "Then why hasn't she been dealt with?"

He waved a hand through the air dismissively. "I'll get to it. Sometimes you gotta have a little fun first."

She snorted. "Your fun will get you killed, Caleb, but be my guest. You probably would've been dead by now if I had been one of the others." Her eyes narrowed and she turned to leave when Caleb reached out and gripped her arm.

"Wait!" He sighed before letting go. "You're right. I'll stop messing around."

She turned back around to face him. "If you had killed them like you were supposed to instead of dragging it out we could've already been on a chopper out of her." She squinted as she stared into his ocean-blue eyes, and questioned his motives. "You said Claire told you to make it a quick and sudden death. Don't tell me you're backing out of our deal."

"Pfft, oh please. I want out of here just as much as you do."

"Then why aren't they dead?" she exploded.

His hands balled into fists and he screamed, "Maybe because I'm not ready!" He paused and there was a stillness between them.

"You know the only way to go home is to—"

"I can't kill Bailey!" Caleb continued to shout. Even in the sunset, she could see the tears glistening in his eyes. He shrugged dramatically, allowing his hands to slap his thighs. "How can I?"

"She's a liability!" Taylor argued through gritted teeth.

He shook his head and released a snort. "How could you say that about your own sister? How could you be okay with this?" She stared at him, feeling no emotions for what Claire had told them to do. Caleb glanced off to the side with a sniff before back at her. "Claire really messed you up, didn't she?"

Taylor's anger boiled her blood, and she took a step closer pointing at her chest. "Claire gave me orders to kill Joey. Me! Not you! I won't go home until I've accomplished just that."

"How could you have so much hatred for someone you just met?" Caleb asked softly, his voice thick with confusion.

Taylor felt her throat tighten as she tried to hold herself together. "She killed our parents, Caleb!"

"She was just a baby!" he barked. "Our parents made their choice!"

Tears pricked the corners of her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. Looking skyward, she said in a low voice, "I know you can sense her, and I know you have her under your control." She took a few more steps until she met his chest and looked up into his eyes. She poked him with her bony pointer finger. "She's mine to kill. Hear me? You kill Joey, I kill you."

Caleb took a step back, staring compassionately at her the entire time. "You would let someone like her destroy your life over something like this?"

A tear unexpectedly made its escape, and she felt the familiar squeeze of her throat. "She destroyed my life first," she choked out. She whipped around, and began her march back towards the shack, but Caleb's voice stopped her. "You know, Bailey's gonna have to know I'm alive at some point."

Her eyes averted to the ground, but she didn't turn to face him. "Take her out with your ability like the others. Neither one of you should have to bear that pain."

"I can't," Caleb admitted, and Taylor raised her eyes from her boots. "Without you and Bailey connected, I haven't been able to fully take someone out unless I touch them."

Taylor's knuckles turned white as she clenched them. "You're just now telling me this, why?" She swirled around to face him and forced a smile. "There's always a catch with you, isn't there?"

"Look, I want to get out of here too. So if you'd just let me in the shack, I can—"

"No," Taylor snapped. "Do as I said. Take Bailey down first and then you can come inside to finish the job."

"You don't want her to know it's me," Caleb said gently.

"No," she replied again, this time softer. Her shoulders sagged a few inches as she said, "I don't want her to know it's me." An unexpected sadness filled her chest as she turned away from Caleb, but instead of succumbing to the thought of losing her sister, she puffed out her chest and stood tall.

Before she could begin walking, a twig broke in the distance, and she turned towards the trees squinting to see past the overhanging shadows cast by the trees. Even though she couldn't see anyone, she knew they were there. A grin pulled at one corner of her mouth as she said, "I believe we have a guest. Give them a welcome, would you, Caleb?"

She eyed him, and the only reply she got was a wink along with a smile spreading from ear to ear. He lifted his hands—each covered by a glove with the fabric cut off from the middle knuckle—towards his curly bangs and placed his pointer and middle fingers on his temples. Gazing into the forest, his entire eyes glowed a deep red that illuminated the surrounding darkness. He extended his right hand, palm facing the sky, balled his hand, and yanked it back to his side.

Ella crumbled to her knees in the grass a few feet in front of Taylor and grasped at her stomach; her face twisting in agony.

"Ella!" Taylor said with a smile before placing her hands on her hips. "Were you standing there that whole time?"

Ella slowly twisted her head upward. "You've been ... causing this?" Her words were hard to make out through her gritted teeth.

Taylor shrugged. "Well, not really. He is." She thrust her right pointer finger to her side and aimed it at Caleb who remained smiling. "I'm just the one following orders."

"Does everyone ... in here ... work for Claire?" Ella shouted, toppling over onto her side and curling into a ball.

Taylor bent over placing her hands on her knees. "What's wrong, Ella? Your insides going a little too fast for you? Feels like jello? Or maybe like your organs will burst if they go any faster? That's what he does. Turns your ability against you." She smirked. "Who'd a thought that little Ella had an ability all along?"

Ella released another blood-curdling scream.

"Shh, shh, shh," Taylor hushed, kneeling and clamping her hand over the little girl's mouth. "We don't want big brother running out here just yet." She watched with glee as Ella's body went limp and she lay there still.

"Wait."

Taylor twisted her neck to find Caleb's red eyes fading away.

"David? He's still awake?"

Taylor snorted. "Lose track of your victims?" She stood up and eyed him. "Last I saw, he was with Bailey "helping" them."

Caleb's expression instantly went grim. "Man, no!" he shouted, swinging his fist through the air.

Taylor gave him a puzzled look. "What are you so upset about? Why does it matter? Kill them both!"

"Thomas was never part of this deal," Caleb defended, angrily.

"What'd you think was gonna happen?" Taylor cried. "That we'd kill the others, go home, and, oh! Right! Guess we get to bring your best friend too?" Her voice lowered to her normal tone. "Thomas has been out to find "the girl from his dreams" for years. Do you really think he'll forgive you for killing her?"

"But I'm not going to kill her," he corrected.

"To Thomas, it won't matter." Taylor crossed her arms. His frown deepened, and she went on. "If you don't wipe him from the board, then Claire will." Her words seemed to peak Caleb's attention. Fingering for the knife behind her back, she tugged it free and showed it to Caleb. From her angle, the knife glistened beautifully in the setting sun. "Look, if you can't take him out I understand." She twirled the knife in her hand. "But Claire will never come for us as long as he's still alive."

"I got it!" Caleb stated aggravated. He threw his head to the side, looking down at the grass, and shoved his gloved hands in his pockets.

"Good!" She turned around with her back facing him and slid her knife back between her belt and pants. "Now, get out of here. Take down David and Bailey so we can finish the job."

"What are you going to do?" she heard his soft voice drift through the wind to her ears.

She craned her neck to meet his gaze, and with a smirk, she drew in a deep breath before releasing a shout, "David! It's Ella!" Without watching him further, he heard a set of boots smash the ground and they died away as they became distant. A moment of peace and silence filled the still, dark air before she heard a new, much lighter, pair of boots advancing towards her. Her lips instantly dipped from a smirk to a frown, and she knelt beside the small girl as David neared them.

David skidded on his knees in the dirt, coming to a stop beside Ella's body. "What happened?" he asked, scooping his little sister into his arm.

She shrugged. "I just found her here."

He cradled Ella in his arms and cupped her cheek, blood slowly rolling down her cheek from her nose. "Not you too," he whispered.

"Come on." Taylor placed a hand on his shoulder, grasping it firmly. "Let's get her back to the house with the others."

David maneuvered his hands under his sister's back and legs and lifted her off the ground. "Oh, uh ..." He turned towards her, tears filling his bottom eyelids. "Joey's okay. Whatever you and Bailey gave her must've worked. Bailey's giving more to the others."

She forced an awkward smile. "That's great news," she said with low enthusiasm. "Let's get Ella there so we can give her the same things."

He nodded and took off in a sprint back towards the shack.

     2

David

David burst open the door to the shack, careful not to bang his sister's head against the doorpost as he stepped through. "Bailey!" He found her kneeling beside Thomas, once again filling his mouth with another liquid while Joey draped a cloth over his forehead.

Bailey's head swung his way, and her eyes widened. "Her too?" She jumped up and jogged to his side.

Unable to find the words, he simply nodded in reply.

Bailey pushed on his shoulder, guiding him over to the blue chair. He placed Ella down gently with her head resting on the right armrest, and her legs hanging over the other. He watched as bent over and Bailey rummaged through the drawer on the side table directly in-between the chair and couch and listened to the sound of glass bottles banging against each other. "Taylor found her like this," he felt the need to say.

For a second, Bailey froze, her fingertips touching the edge of the drawer. Her head twisted his way and a small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. "Well, lucky for Ella then." She held up a vial with a light green liquid and popped the cork.

David's brow drew together. "You sound like that's a bad thing."

She stared straight ahead at the wall, the vial close to her chest, before giving it a good swirl and pouring it down Ella's throat. "How exactly did Taylor find her?"

David shrugged. "I don't know. Why don't you ask—" He swung his head to the door, but found it remained open with no sign of Taylor. "Oh, I could've sworn she was behind me. Anyway, I heard Taylor calling for me so I went to find her and she was kneeling next to Ella."

"Hmm," Bailey mumbled.

"Why? Is something wrong?" David asked, suspicion creeping its way in.

She finally eyed him and her cheery smile returned. "No! Nothing! Come on! Let's help the others. If Joey woke up, they can't be too far behind."

David looked down at Ella's pale form. He hated the thought of leaving her, but Bailey was right. The others had been infected longer and needed more attention. Bailey pushed past the blue chair and tilted Bellamy's head, who remained in his wooden seat, towards her.

David stepped around the chair with Ella and squatted beside Joey. He placed a hand on Thomas's forehead, and the cold from his skin fizzled as it created water droplets from the heat.

"He's getting better, right?" He glanced over at Joey, whose brow was knitted with concern. "I mean, I understand that he's not better, but he's getting there ... yeah?"

He gave her a small grin along with a single nod. Staring at the worry on her face, he couldn't keep his words from spilling. He lowered his hand from Thomas and sat beside her in a crisscross. "Is there ... a reason you're clinging to him?" She shot him a puzzled glance, and he averted his gaze regretting ever opening his mouth. "I'm just saying, like, isn't it a bit weird? You barely know the guy, and he tried to kill you."

"Maybe you should consider being best friends," she stated blankly, surprising him. "Since you both have trying to kill me in common."

He opened his mouth to rebuke her but decided now wasn't the time. And maybe it never would be. She was still recovering, physically and mentally. He flashed a small grin before standing and walking towards the cracked quartz counter. He leaned forward, placing his knuckles on the table, and clenched his jaw. Staring out the open window, he could see nothing in the darkness, and oddly enough, it was the first time he had noticed the rundown shack had electricity—which must have been on earlier in the day and he never realized it.

His jaw slowly loosened as he felt an unwelcome presence of grief. Venturing further into his feelings, he found the source. He didn't know how to make Joey understand. He was her friend. He had given up so much for her and had no way of making her see that. He gave up his secret to make her feel understood. He nearly gave up his life trying to save her from the Nokida all those nights ago, and he held off Nathan long enough for her to get away from him. He jumped from a cliff to try and save her life, not knowing if he would lose his own in the process, and he used what resources he had to stitch her together to keep her from bleeding out. Truth is, if David wasn't there then neither would Joey be. That incident in the palace would never have had a chance to play out because she would've died in the first Dome along with Jenny and Chase. He gave up so much for the girl sitting behind him just for her to never realize how much she meant to him.

He stood up straight, sucked in a deep breath, and wiped at the tears cascading down his cheeks that he hadn't realized had even been falling. HIs heart spike when he pulled his hand away as his gaze met his fingers. There, smeared across his three tallest fingers was a line of blood. Without thinking, he lightly touched under his nose, and when he pulled his hand away he found a decent-sized circle of blood on his middle finger. "No," he whispered and his hand shook. He quickly wiped the blood on his black pants and gripped his short sleeve with his opposite hand before rubbing it under his nose in hopes of clearing the blood.

"David!"

His head, along with Joey's, swung towards the bedroom where Bailey's voice cried for help. He took a step forward, and Joey lifted herself from her knees. He threw a hand to the side, ordering Joey to stay put, before jogging to the bedroom. There, he was met by Bailey's face gawking at Kathleen, and when he turned his attention to the redhead, he noticed several spots on Kathleen's arms and cheeks rip open creating gashes that oozed blood. He was surprised to see the calm on Kathleen's face instead of hearing her scream out from the pain this should've caused.

His heart raced against his chest as panic rose. "What do we do?"

"Uhh." She shook her head rapidly, her eyes tracing Kathleen's body before she sputtered, "B-bandages! I need bandages, and lots of them."

"Got it," he replied, twisting away from the bed.

"No!" Bailey shouted, halting him. "I'll get them. I want you to create as much healing gel as possible and layer her body in it. With any luck, you can encourage these wounds to close."

He stared down at Kathleen as the blood dribbled from the gashes on her body and painted the white sheets underneath her in splotches of red. He placed a hand on his churning stomach as nausea began to stir from the sight of the exposed raw skin.

"David!" He jumped as Bailey gripped his arm. "Are you with me?"

He forced a swallow through his tightened throat and nodded. "Yeah," he said, though he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep down the bile in his stomach. He cleared his throat and said, "I'm with you."

As Bailey ran out of the room, he walked over to Kathleen and reached out hovering both hands over her left arm. His eyes narrowed and his nose scrunched as his hands began to glow with a soft light. His hands started to shake unexpectedly as pellets of ice trickled from his palms to Kathleen's body. He watched a thin patch of his healing gel cover her bicep, but as he moved his hands down toward her forearm, he found his ice becoming harder to summon. He closed his eyes and gave it his all. He lifted his eyelid an inch to peak through at his hands and was shocked to see them fade in and out of their glow.

His head jerked towards the door as Bailey marched in with numerous rolls of bandages in hand. Looking at the rolls, she speedily unwrapped one as she walked across to the other side of Kathleen. "This is all we have. I hope it's eno—David, what's wrong?"

Unaware that Bailey was talking to him, he watched the rolls of bandages hit the bed beside Kathleen's arm. He squinted, feeling his ice form melt away as his body became overwhelmed with a strange wave of heat.

"David?"

David slowly lifted his heavy head and stared at the swirling form of Bailey. Despite how hard he was trying to focus, he couldn't make out her facial expression or hear her voice. Instead, he felt something wet hit him under the nose, and the distinct taste of iron coated his tongue as the flavor passed through his lips.

He reached up and felt the warm liquid against his fingertips. Pulling his hand away from his face, it was clear to see the blood on his pale complexion, and several more drops appeared in his palm.

His hand continued to shake and his eyes drifted up to Bailey as she started a slow dash around the bed. His body quickly became weak, and his legs struggled to keep him upright as they wobbled beneath him. His swimming vision instantly darkened as his knees hit the floor.