Chapter 23
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Cameo turned around. He and Infinity had just put on their black bodysuits again, and they were finally going to keep heading south, provided the troops were ready.
“Well,” he said, looking her up and down, “we aren’t getting any younger, or older, here. Let’s go.” He opened the door slowly. Rows of teenagers stood at attention on the asphalt highway. Ethaniel, Harley, and Tanner stood at the very front of the battalion.
“Are they all wearing the same thing we are? Where did they even get them?” Infinity asked, glancing down at her attire, then back at the army’s uniforms.
“Ahem,” Harley, cleared her throat. “While I was waiting for Ethaniel to get better, I was in constant communication with Cameo. When he told me we had an army, I began 3D printing the bodysuits with synthetic polymers, and I built the grapplers out of spare hospital tools.”
“Impressive!” Cameo replied. “They look exactly the same!”
“Oh,” she blushed, “it was nothing.”
“My question is,” Infinity broke in, “how did they have spare tools at a hospital?”
“The doctor told us that most of his patients were, like, teenagers who got shot or arrested for gang activity, stuff like that. Ethaniel and I were pretty much the only ones there.”
“Ah.”
Tanner cleared his throat. “Hi, apparently I’m your lieutenant. I’ve overseen the troops for the past few days, and I think they’re ready in all areas of combat. Each is equipped with a gun of some sort, knives, a sword, at least one taser, and, of course, their legendary martial arts.”
“At ease, um, Lieutenant Thorne. Harley, as Head of Gadgets and Gizmos, I command you to demonstrate how the suits work, unless you’ve already covered that?” Cameo asked.
“We actually have General. We told you they were ready.”
“Well then, pile in the buses, troops! Tanner, I want you and Ethaniel driving the other two; I’ll drive the lead.” He took a deep, shaky breath. “Remember, guys. We are going into actual war. If anyone is scared of getting killed, or seeing other people get killed, go home. Now. You can take the fourth bus. No hard feelings.”
Not a single person fell out of rank.
“Okay. We need to go get our sibs back.” He turned and walked to the bus door, pausing at their bunk to grab his backpack. Infinity followed close behind him.
“You know we’re all going to die, right?”
“Нет, если это зависит от меня. Кроме того, благодаря сделке, которую я заключил, я верну своего брата, и это будешь только ты.”
“Hey!” She grabbed him by the shoulders and spun him around to face her. “Shut up.” She pulled her lips across the corner of his mouth, threading her fingers through his dirty, matted hair. “I shouldn’t have said anything,” she whispered into his mouth. “We’ll be fine.”
“Да. Все, кроме тебя.”
“Cameo!”
He clutched his hair tightly in his fist. “Я в таком стрессе, я не могу этого сделать. Я не могу потерять тебя, даже если это означает потерю моего брата. Нет, мне нужно спасти Колтона. Я должен спасти его. Мне очень жаль, Фин.”
“Please, Cameo!” Infinity pleaded
“Я не могу остановиться! Мне так страшно, Инфинити, и я просто не могу остановиться!”
She pulled him in close, whispering things in his ear, trying to calm him down.
“Please,” she sighed.
His body shook, trembling with fear, cold, sadness, deceit. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled, this time in English.
“Oh, Cameo, you have nothing to apologize for. Come on.” She tugged him into the body of the bus and sat him down on the driver’s seat. “Let’s get moving. We gotta save the kids somehow.”
A hundred teenagers clambered into the bus and sat down on the seats, the floor, the storage rack, anywhere they could find open space.
“Are we all here?” Cameo asked, loudly enough for the clamoring kids to hear.
A hundred heads bobbed up and down. One voice spoke up from the back.
“Oh, yeah, we’re all here, buddy.” That voice. So foreign, and yet very familiar. The grating sound set his nerves on edge.
“Thomas,” he hissed through gritted teeth.
“At your service,” the boy said with a flippant mock bow.
Infinity placed a calming hand on the small of Cameo’s back. “Ignore him. He’s a jerk.”
He sighed. “Yeah, I know.” He sat down and turned the key in the ignition. “Welp, here goes nothing.” The bus began rolling down the southbound highway. Infinity typed in directions on her phone and propped it up in front of Cameo on the dashboard.
“Okay guys, get comfy. We’re on the road for at least two days, if you guys want breaks for sparring and stuff.”
A chorus of groans echoed throughout the small space.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” she whispered to Cameo
“No, but I- but we don’t have a choice.”
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