by Petosa, Jess
Heath nodded. "This is not a gun to kill, Ally. It can fire up to three rounds of darts that, when they come in contact with flesh, will inject a dosage of the vaccine you gave us."
Ally reached forward and ran her hand along the gun. "Where did you get these?"
"We've had boxes of them for a long while. They used to carry darts that injected a sleep serum into both humans and animals. When you gave us the formula for the vaccine, we realized how much new purpose these guns had." Heath watched her while he spoke.
"These are... amazing," Ally said, watching relief fall on Heath's face. "We can take these to the Guards at the outposts, and to the Guards in the City. How many do you have?"
"Hundreds," Heath responded. "There is a team of men working on assembling these as fast as possible. But we aren't going to give these to the Guards just yet. They are valuable for trade. Once you arrive in the City and meet with Luke and the others, you can present these weapons and show their value."
"You want me to bargain with them when their lives are in danger?" Ally placed her hands on the desk, gripping the wood. When she felt it start to crack under her grasp, she loosened her grip. "When all our lives are in danger?"
"They would do the same to us," Heath responded. "And we would be foolish not to do the same. It sets a precedent. Besides, do you really think they'll refuse the cure? It will be minutes before there is a deal made."
Heath clearly didn't know Aden as well as he claimed to.
"They will take what they want," Max spoke up. "They don't need to bargain or trade, they have power."
"We will only send you with two dozen of these weapons, in case they take them from you with force. The rest will be protected in one of our warehouses, rigged with explosives. If they make an attack on you, and make a move to come here, we will blow the weapons sky high. Then no one will have them."
Ally shook her head. "You seem so disgusted with the Exceptionals in the City, yet you are willing to sink to their level?"
Heath peered down at her, looking over his long nose. "I'll do whatever it takes to survive, Ally."
Ally had nothing to say to that. Stosh came to stand directly behind her now, placing his hand on her shoulder. "When will we leave?" he asked.
Heath leaned back in his chair, clasping his hands together behind his head. "One week from tonight, at dusk. The City will do a Guard change, and our allies at the Outpost will make sure we have no interruptions in our journey."
"One week?" Ally stood up quickly. "They might not have one week."
"We can't rush to the City," Heath said calmly from his desk. The smooth tone of his voice irritated Ally. "We all need to prepare for what will happen when we get there. We need a plan of where to enter, and where to go. We need to prepare what we will say and do, so as not to appear weak."
"He's right, Ally," Stosh said from her side. "We can't rush into this. We don't want to risk messing up and getting thrown in jail, or killed."
“What do you want that they have? What are we bargaining for?” she finally posed the question.
“Jed here will handle that, it is one less thing you need to worry about,” Heath responded vaguely.
Ally ran her fingers over her eyes, rubbing at the bags she was sure were there. "What do you need to know? I thought you had allies in the City, people who passed you information."
"We do," Heath said slowly. "But you are the only one who has actually escaped."
Ally just nodded. "I'll help however I can, but we do this my way first. We don't go in there waving guns. I'll talk to Luke first."
Heath seemed to think on her words. "Very well."
Even after they shook hands Ally couldn't help but feel uneasy. Something about the way Heath spoke, and the gleam in his eyes, reminded her of Aden. He was up to something, and she hoped that when she found out, it wasn't too late to prevent the damages.
For the next three days, the group heading into the City met in Max's basement meeting room. Their group included Ally, Stosh, Max, and three Ordinary men Ally hadn't met until a few days prior in Heath's office. She gathered that their names were Tilt, Hank, and Jed.
On the third day, Ally was tired of drawing maps, writing plans, and running them through in circles.
"Now explain to me again how we are getting over this wall," Jed stared at one of the maps.
Ally let out a loud, over exaggerated sigh. The three men were having trouble grasping the concept of Ally's abilities. She narrowed her eyes and stretched her arm across the table. It was time for some show and tell.
Jed's chair lifted slowly off the ground. Ally laughed as the man scrambled to get off it but was then caught in the sphere of her abilities. He floated next to the chair, his arms waving frantically by his side.
"Ally..." Max raised an eyebrow at her and she lowered Jed to the ground.
"What?" she asked. "He was having trouble believing me."
"I believe you now," Jed said from the floor.
She shot Max a see how easy that was look and started to gather the charts on the table.
“I still think we should just march up to the front gate and request a meeting,” Ally said. She had been entertaining the idea of sneaking in only for Max, but she knew it was a bad idea. If they were caught, they would look like they were up to no good. If they approached the main entrance on the west side, they could come in peace.
"I think we know this plan inside and out," Stosh said from a chair at the edge of the table. His feet were propped on a stack of blank paper, one ankle crossed over the other. His eyes were closed and, up until he had spoken, Ally had thought that he had been asleep.
"We know four plans inside and out," Max held a stack of papers out. Plan 3 maybe? "But we need to pick one, tell my Uncle, and stick to it."
Ally laughed quickly. "Tell me, do all your plans work out perfectly?"
Max frowned. "No, why?"
She leaned against the table. "We don't pick a plan and go with it. We make a plan A, B, C, and D. If plan A fails, we move to plan B. If part of plan A falls through, we improvise with another plan. We need options."
"We may not have the chance for options," he replied.
"We may not have a choice," she pointed out.
"I'm going to go find Sabine," Stosh said as he stood from his chair. "Let me know what you two decide, and try not to burn down any buildings in the meantime."
Ally glared at her brother. Yesterday she and Max had gotten into a heated argument over a plan, and it had resulted in imprints of her hands burned into the wooden table they worked on. Thankfully Jed, Tilt, and Hank had been out of the room at the time, otherwise they may have blabbed to Heath. The last thing Ally needed was him thinking she was unfit for this trip.
Speaking of....
"Where did Tilt and Hank go?"
"Lunch," Max shrugged.
"Figures," she muttered. Grabbing her pack, she slung it over her shoulder and made her way through the now familiar halls that led the way through Max's house. The sun was shining brightly but there was a chill in the air, one that came with the changing leaves and the threat of winter.
Ally had been walking five minutes before Alexis and Andrea popped out in front of her. They had a habit of doing that at the worst times, like now, when she just wanted to be alone. At first she had found these two girls to be intimidating, but now she just found them annoying.
"It's Friday!" Alexis said in a sing-songy voice.
"Yay?" Ally responded cautiously.
"Well, tonight is club night, silly."
Ally raised one eyebrow. "Your point?"
She hadn't been to the club since that night she found the Rogue in the woods. She had been too busy planning and training. Originally for their trip south, and now for their trip back to the City. Besides, she didn’t want to look at the charred piece of ground where the tree she incinerated once stood.
"We think you should come," Andrea butted in. "Tonight is a costume night, which is the best. We
could all match our outfits together. Sabine already said she is going, which means your brother will go, too! Even Willow seemed interested."
Willow had continued to live in the second floor of the processing center during her time in the Champaign. She had been helping the doctor care for sick patients all while getting the rest and food she needed to grow a healthy baby. Ally didn't want to admit it out loud, but she was starting to sense Willow's growing attachment to Champaign. She was thriving here. In fact, she was starting to sense it in Sabine, as well.
"I'll be there," she said as she pushed past Alexis and Andrea.
Alexis squealed and Ally could imagine her jumping up and down on the path. "We'll have your outfit ready for you!" she yelled from behind Ally.
Ally made it back home a little while later and immediately jumped into the shower. The hot water always helped clear her mind, and she could use a heavy dose of it at the moment. When they had left the City, the plan had felt clear. Head south and find the Ordinarys living down there. Now? Now the plans felt jumbled, and lost. First they met Max, and he changed all she had thought about the people living in the Wilderness. Then they came to Champaign and experienced how life on the outside really could be. And now they had plans to head back to the City, rather than south. Doing so was a risk they couldn't seem to avoid. If they left for the south now, she wasn’t sure that she could even convince the others to come. In fact, she wasn’t even sure that she could convince herself to leave.
By the time she had showered and dried off, she found an outfit strewn across her bed. It consisted of red pants and red shirt, both of which looked too small for her body. A pair of red heels sat on the floor, and Ally moaned. She didn't understand heels. They weren't available in the settlements, and she had rarely seen them in the City. She understood why the first time she had tried on a pair of Brooke’s. They were horribly uncomfortable and impractical. Her toes had been squished together and she had a blister on the back of her ankle for days afterward. Plus, they made her taller, which her Exceptional body did not need help with.
She pulled the clothes on slowly, and as usual, the clothes were skintight. She had just buttoned the pants when Brooke walked into the room. "I knew that color would look fabulous on you!"
"What exactly am I supposed to be?" Ally wasn't a stranger to costumes at this point, and she had gathered the idea was to dress up like something fun.
Brooke pointed to her own outfit, which Ally noticed was identical to her own, except blue. "We are going as crayons!"
"Crayons?" Ally looked back down at her outfits and then at Brooke. "Seriously?"
Brooke nodded. "Come into my bathroom when you are ready and I'll do your makeup. I have some red lipstick you can borrow."
Ally flashed Brooke a mock smile and bent over to grab the heels. She was already starting to regret agreeing to go to the club. Sabine bounced into the room, her red hair curled and bouncing on her shoulders. She was dressed head to toe in green, and had apparently already visited Brooke's make-up station in the bathroom. Her eyelids were a bright shade of green, as were her lips. She had even gone as far as to paint her fingernails green.
"This is going to be fun," Sabine said as she plopped down on Ally's bed. "Don't you think?"
"Sure," Ally said as she wedged her right foot into a heel.
"What's wrong, Ally?"
Ally sighed. "Nothing." For a split second she thought about spilling her worries to Sabine. Before they arrived in Champaign, she wouldn't have thought twice. But now she couldn't bring herself to do it. "I'm just thinking about how bad my feet are going to hurt at the end of the night."
Sabine laughed. "I hear you. I don't see how anyone actually wore these in the Old World. Andrea told me that some women only wore heels."
Ally's mouth hung open. "Only? I cannot imagine. I think I would have worn my boots all year round."
"Me too," Sabine responded. "They are so comfortable." She lay back on the bed and sighed. "I've missed this."
"Missed what?" Ally asked.
"Us. Talking to you. You have been so busy lately, I feel like I barely see you." Sabine pushed a lock of red hair out of her eyes.
Ally frowned. "Soon enough, all this will be over and we'll have all the time in the world together."
Sabine propped herself up on her elbows. "Will we, though? What if something with your trip to the City goes wrong?"
"Ssssh," Ally said, hopping up to shut the door to her room. Heath wanted them to keep their trip to the City quiet from the townspeople, but Ally and Stosh had of course told Sabine. She made her way back to the bed. "Everything will go just fine. Luke won't let the Guards hurt us, and they will definitely be willing to work with us once they see what we have to offer."
She stepped over to the window and looked out the blinds. Several kids were running to their houses, most likely starting to get ready for the club tonight. It would open at dark, which was coming up quickly.
"Ally?"
Ally turned around and found Sabine sitting up on the bed.
"Yeah?"
"What if when you get back to the City, Luke isn't the same guy you left behind?"
Ally paused. "What do you mean?"
Sabine shrugged. "A lot of time has passed. I don't want you going up there and thinking that you will be walking into the arms of the same Luke you knew months ago."
Ally swallowed at the lump in her throat. The possibility had crossed her mind once or twice, but she was always quick to push it away.
"I guess that even if he isn't the Luke who loves me anymore, he'll at least be part of the same Luke I know. He'll still help us."
Sabine stood and nodded. "I'm sure he will. I just don't want you to come back hurt, and changed."
"I've already changed," Ally said. "We all have."
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The club was just the same as it was the last time Ally came, except for the Ordinarys all dressed up in costumes. Some mimicked animals, some mimicked objects, and a few mimicked people she thought she remembered seeing either in movies or on the cover of books in Luke's library. Andrea, their group's shade of purple, was currently dragging Ally in a straight line across the packed dance floor, which took skill. They finally arrived in front of a group of girls that had been over to the house to see Brooke, Alexis, and Andrea, but that Ally didn't really know at all.
Now she saw that they were the completion to their set of crayons. There was a girl in orange, a girl in yellow, a girl in white, a girl in gray, and a girl in black. She didn't know their names, and at this point, she didn't care. She smiled and said hello and played the part of social girl for the moment. Sabine had already run off into the arms of Stosh, who was dressed up as something that resembled a bear.
The girls around her chatted at quick speeds, talking about things Ally couldn't allow herself to be interested in. She needed to be focused on her trip to the City. She shouldn't have come. Being in the same space as Stosh and Sabine wasn't going to change their outlook on anything, and Willow probably wouldn't even come. She barely left Carla’s house these days.
"Want to dance?" She felt warm breath on her ear and spun around.
Max stood behind her, smirking. He wore a black mask over his eyes but she recognized the hard lines of his face and the set of his jaw. He wore an odd hat with a feather sticking out the back, a white long sleeved shirt with a black vest over it, and black pants that were bunched at the knee.
Ally couldn't help but laugh. "What are you?"
Max smiled. "I'm a prince."
"A prince?"
"Yes," he said with a bow. "A real, live prince."
Ally laughed again. "Someone should have taught princes how to dress better.”
"Are you offering?" Max dipped his head toward her.
"Definitely not," she pushed his head to the side, toward the rest of the crayon clan. "But I know a few girls who would be willing."
Brooke and girl-in-purple were already eyeing Ally and Max
with narrowed eyes.
"I think I'll take my chances with the hideous outfit," Max grasped her arm lightly. "So, will you?"
"Dance with you, again?" Ally eyed the dance floor. The music wasn't as fast as usual, but the space was still crowded with bodies. "Um, sure."
They squeezed toward the middle, where Ally felt less exposed. The outside of the dance group made her self conscious, as if all the people standing around talking were silently critiquing her. She faced Max and moved back and forth with the music, falling into an easy rhythm. Max was a good dancer, but she had discovered that she was as well. She at least looked more put together than some of the other girls on the dance floor.
"Relax, Ally," Max leaned close to her ear to talk over the music.
It was the same word he had used the last time they danced, but the addition of her name sent chills up her spine. When she was around Max it was easy to forget about Luke. His presence helped her forget the serious moments, and to enjoy the good ones. He was teaching her to be carefree again.
"I am relaxed," she responded quickly. But thinking about dancing in Brooke’s heels brought on new stress. "Okay, maybe not."
Max cocked his head at her. "Why is that?"
Ally closed her eyes for a moment and shrugged, even though she knew the reason. When she opened them again Max was still staring at her, his head cocked and a crooked smile on his face.
She sighed and leaned forward. "I can’t do this.”
“Do what?” Max’s expression grew nervous.
“Dance in these heels,” she whispered in his ear. Her cheek grazed his as she spoke.
He pulled away from her and laughed, checking out the torture chambers Brooke had adorned Ally’s feet with. His eyes glided back up to meet hers, and his laugh faded into something more serious.
Ally knew what he was going to do way before he did it, but she didn’t stop him.
His right hand took hers, and his left hand found the back of her neck. He pulled her closer and his lips pressed against hers. They were warm, and soft, and for a moment she forgot about where they were, and just how public this kiss was.
