He stared at her through the bottom of the glass, willing himself to swallow the cold liquid that sloshed around inside. Her face was blurred and muddled, swirls of color tinted a slight orange-brown by the ice tea. The ice clinked around, a kaleidoscope of her in the midst of his drink. He closed his eyes and put the glass down onto the table.
She watched him. His movements were slowed and strained, she could see the muscles in his jaw clenching and unclenching even as he sipped from the drink he had been nursing for more than a hour. Their food had arrived awhile ago and though she had eaten, easily polishing off her plate, his sat, growing cold. She continued to watch him, the glass making a soft thud noise as he set it down, as if he had misjudged the table distance and hit it too hard, though she knew it was mostly his nervousness that was causing his abnormal behavior.
“Well?” He opened one eye to her. Maybe, just maybe, he was dreaming. This could all be some elaborate dream, one he concocted to make himself seem more important than he really was. “Hunter, I can understand you being nervous but you need to tell me what you know.”
“I don't know anything.”
“It's overly clear you are lying. So why don't you just tell me?”
“I don't know where to start.”
“The beginning, it's the very best place to start.”
“Hardy har har Julia.”
“At least I didn't break into song.” her small smile pulled at him, made him want to reach out and tell her everything was going to be okay but even he didn't know for sure. Not anymore.
“Julia, do you remember when we first came here?”
“As in the first time ten years ago? Or as in this last trip?”
“The very first time.”
“Of course I do Hunter. We were 15 and this place was beyond magical.”
“Sort of lost its magic, hasn't it.” He looked down at his food and pushed it around with his fork, the mere thought of eating making his stomach turn slightly.
Julia watched him, her expression turning quizzical as he played with the food on his plate. “we are just older, wiser, less inspired than before.”
“Craig wasn't.”
“Craig is a dreamer.”
“Was a dreamer.” he looked up at her, his eyes steadfast and yet saddened. Her eyes widened and she sat back, the tears slowly sliding down her cheeks.
“When?”
“This morning.”
“How?”
“They came for him.”
“How did they even find him?”
“I don't know.” She looked around slowly and then back at him
“Are we even safe here?” he continued to watch her and shook his head
“I'm not sure.”
“Then shouldn't we leave?”
“And go where?” he slammed his hand down on the table, his voice filled with rage. Julia was taken aback, he very rarely got so worked up. Hunter always had a calm head. Their group had worked so well because they each contributed to the group in different ways. Craig was the dreamer, Hunter the reasoner, Julia the planner. Between the three of them nothing was impossible. “They're rooting us out Julia, they want every last one of us gone and they are using any means necessary to do it. I don't know where to go or what to do anymore. I don't think we can win this, specially not without Craig, specially not when we are stuck in this world. We needed him to get back, and now we are one man short and we don't know how to find the others.”
Julia reached across the table. His hand was shaking almost imperceptible but she had known this man for most of her life, she knew his small intricacies, everything about him was plain as day and she could see his fear, even as he held most of it in. To anyone else he looked angry, upset maybe, his behavior was more of one annoyed than scared beyond reasoning but for him to claim not to know what to do, took more out of him than anything else he could have said. His hand was cold, even though she could clearly begin to see the sweat beginning to form on his forehead, he was beyond scared, something in him had snapped, he had been broken by them somehow. It seemed odd to her that he should be so scared though, while in the presence of friendly company. She looked him over, noticing his odd glances to the side, his slight shifting, the jitteriness of his mannerisms and squinted, her look becoming hard.
“Why are you so nervous?”
“Why aren't you nervous at all?”
“I am but you are freaking out, as if there is more, or you have done something. You didn't become this agitated until you started talking about all this. We've been here a hour, your food is cold and you haven't touched it. The ice in your glass is all but dissolved and leaving a layer of water over the denser ice tea. What gives?” His eyes reddened and the tears he had been holding back poured down his face, even as he struggled to keep his composure, as he wiped at them and gritted his teeth willing them to stop. “Hunter. Hunter stop crying and tell me.”
“I'm sorry Julia. I should have done something. I should have...” his voice broke as his sobs overcame him, his body shaking as he covered his face. She watched him, this man who had always- been the shoulder in the group, always the one with the wisdom, sitting before her sobbing uncontrollably, this, above all else said, made her realize the gravity of the situation.
The front door to the restaurant banging open startled her out of her thoughts. The four men standing by the hostess, dressed as if ready for war, threw her brain into high gear. She grabbed his hand and dragged him from the chair, pulling him along as he stumbled after her, his disorientation slowing them down. She frantically looked around the room, the crashing and yelling behind her pushing her on. She knew better than to look back, it only took a glance to be transfixed, only one look and then all would be lost. She yanked as his hand, urging him with her movement to watch her, to look forward and keep up, to not turn around, she knew better than to speak, to use names, to give them any sort of advantage. She spotted a doorway turned towards it, ducking into it just as the table behind her splintered and cracked, the noise of screams and the heat making her head swirl slightly.
He gasped and went still, his side exploding with pain. Each breath causing pain to shoot through his body, his lungs aching from his inability to take in a full breath. HE climbed up the steps after her, his body feeling weighted and heavy. He slammed his foot into the stair above him and fell forward, pulling her backwards. His knee hit the stair above as he grunted, her body falling back into his. He gritted his teeth and the air making a soft hiss as he sucked in, the air catching in his throat.
Julia looked at him, his side covered in blood, a large splinter jaunting out from just below his ribs on his right hand side. They needed to get outside, materializing inside a building was risky at best, though mostly just seen as suicidal. They looked each other in the eye and he nodded to her slightly and the grabbed his hand again, now wet with blood and pulled him up after her, ignoring each groan and gasp of his pains. She pushed at the door at the top, the noises of men climbing up the stairs after them growing louder, she knew she only had a couple seconds more, there had only been a thirty second difference to begin with. The door stuck and she stepped back and kicked at it, the door shuddering with the force. She looked at Hunter and then down the stairwell, meeting the eyes of the man below. His eyes looked gentle and understanding, she couldn't imagine him being the force that was out to get her.
Hunter pulled on her arm slightly and nodded to the door once she looked back at him.
“One, two..” They kicked together on three, the door jam giving way, the door flying backwards and banging the wall. They moved through the opening, the door slamming back into place behind them. They pulled the necklaces out from under their shirts and touched them together. The door opening and the four men running out, one of the men firing in their direction as they dematerialized.
-
“Shit. Sector Two Commander we lost them. Coming back to base.”
“Roger that.”
Jonathan stood there staring at the spot where the two had once been. There hadn't seemed anything wrong about the two, who wouldn't run if being chased. His instincts told him there was something more to this but he knew better than to question the motives of those in authority.
“They do more harm than good.” The large hand on his shoulder was heavy, weighing on him just as his thoughts did.
“That's what they say, yeah.” Jonathan nodded to his NCO and turned around, making his way down the steps he had just come up. He had looked her in the eyes, she was frightened but there had been something else there, that sort of pleading he had seen in his mothers eyes before he was marched off to do his compulsory duty. The same look. His mother's had haunted him for years without him fully able to grasp why. Her death hit him hard, she had been killed by rebels in the area, without remorse, without compassion, tortured and beaten to death. He had never been able to ask her what those eyes meant and they had haunted him, show up in his dreams, bore into his soul and made him question even those around him and now, here was another, different situation, same eyes, like those of his mother, questioning him, pleading with him, filled with fear and anger and sadness. He clenched his jaw and looked around at the mess the restaurant had become and the owners would be paid for their trouble but he felt guilty none the less.
-
Her head felt muddled and the voices around her seemed far off, as if she was trapped under a heavy blanket. The darkness engulfed her as she struggled to regain a sense of clarity, nothing was making sense. She felt as if her consciousness was slowly clawing its way to the surface, the words were becoming more distinct, she could make out a male, no, two, and a female. They were close to her, standing nearby or right next to her. The cold hand on her forehead frightened her, she was trapped inside her own mind and had no way to defend herself, this was not how she had imagined her last moments might be, barely able to grasp her own situation, at the mercy of whoever was now leaning over her.
“I think she is coming to.” The rustling noise overpowered all the others in the background. She struggled to make sense of it, to open her eyes, to move her limbs. She had to get up, she needed to force herself awake, she wouldn't be taken down like this, helpless.
“Julia I know you are scare but you need to stop struggling with them, you are making it hard for them to operate. Julia, listen, you wont be hurt. Julia, try to understand. I'm right here.” The voice was muffled but she knew it, his smooth deep voice could calm even the most fearful of people, and she relaxed into the darkness that was still around her.
