“I wanted to ask you,” she paused, giving me the faintest of smiles, “what it's like to be different.”
“Different?” I didn't understand her question. I took another bite of breakfast and glanced up at her.
“Yeah, you know,” she laughed. “Everyone knows you're special. I mean, of course you're like the rest of us here with the abilities from the Mindonsiphan—but the fact you could get pregnant—doesn't that make you feel different?”
“I don't feel any different,” I offered as best as I could in way of an explanation. “Though every day I wake up and I'm not in Genesis, I remember that I am. All my life I never suspected anything, and then in an instant, it all changed. It wasn't a good day either.”
“Being matched with Joshua wasn't good?” Hazel asked, misunderstanding me.
I laughed. “No, that was nice. It was what came after that frightened me,” I sighed. “Why are you asking about this?” I didn't know where this newfound curiosity came from.
Hazel smiled, her cheeks turning a shade of pink. “I'm jealous. I don't mean to be,” she quickly explained. “But the fact you could have a baby if you wanted to, it seems so unfair.”
I sighed, letting out a heavy breath. It was unfair. Everything about it. It wasn't even a burden I wanted. “Elsa's working hard on a cure.” It was all I could say, all I could offer. My eyes widened, suddenly hearing the loud soaring of a plane overhead. I froze at the table and Hazel's eyes also widened in horror.
“The fire!” She rushed towards the fireplace, closing the damper, directing the smoke back into the house.
“What are you doing?” I asked, appalled, as the town shook with the vibrations of the drones flying low above us.
“They'll see the smoke and know we're alive down here.” She hid beneath the kitchen table. I coughed as the room filled with smoke. I hoped the planes would leave soon or we'd likely die of smoke inhalation. I walked towards the bedroom, opening the door to allow the smoke to penetrate the entire house, not only the kitchen. It was our only option to buy us time. Coughing, I walked towards the window, seeing a fleet of drones circling the town.
“This isn't good,” I muttered, grabbing Hazel's arm as I dragged her from under the table.
“We can't go outside!” She cried and her body shook. I'd been through this before in Haven. It terrified me but I wasn't going to die, not today. I forcefully led her into the bathroom and turned on the water, hoping it would protect us. I shut the bathroom door tight behind us, wet several towels, and shoved them at the bottom of the door, hoping to block the smoke.
Hazel coughed violently and I felt my own lungs grow heavy as I wheezed, doing my best to catch my breath. It felt as though a tank crushed my lungs and I lost the ability to breathe.
I wanted to look outside but the bathroom window was frosted and didn't grant me the opportunity. I couldn't leave the bathroom and I refused to abandon Hazel. I had witnessed Jacqueline die: I wasn't going to allow that to happen again.
The planes circled overhead for several minutes. I didn't know how much time had passed before I felt the ground shake violently and heard a loud sound erupt, once, twice, and again until after the fifth time it stopped. I hoped they weren't bombing the town. I didn't move from the bathroom, sitting down with Hazel on the floor. I held her tight, feeling her body tremble in my arms.
“It'll be okay,” I whispered, trying to reassure her. “You did well,” I reminded her. “You probably saved our lives.” If she hadn't been quick to react with the damper, they would have sensed the smoke from the chimney and destroyed our home if not the entire town. Hazel shook with tears as I held her tight. “It's going to be okay,” I told her once again, realizing I no longer heard the planes overhead. I loosened my grasp. “Stay here, okay?” I told her. “I need to make sure everything is safe before we go outside.”
“Don't leave me in here,” Hazel pleaded with me.
“Fine,” I sighed, grabbing two additional towels and dousing them in water. I held one up to my face, hoping the smoke wouldn't penetrate.
Removing the towels from the bottom of the bathroom door, I slowly pulled it open. A wave of smoke hit us hard. I coughed into the towel, dropping lower to the floor, pulling Hazel down with me. “Crawl!” I commanded. The smoke was thicker at the ceiling and I hoped we had done right as we inched through the bedroom for the kitchen.
My eyes burned and blurred from the smoke. I felt Hazel tugging at the bottom of my shirt as she held me, following close behind me. Could she see anything or was that why she held on? My throat was raw as I struggled to breathe.
I crawled over the small bump in the room between the doors, feeling my way across the wood floor in the kitchen. It was too dark and thick with smoke to see anything. I gasped for air and struggled to breathe as I dropped the towel. It hadn't helped, not enough. My hands shook as I slowly moved closer to the door. I didn't know how much further I had to go. Even with the wide panel windows to my right, not an ounce of light could be seen.
I felt Hazel's grip loosen and I reached around, grabbing her hand. I wanted to tell her to keep going, not to give up. The words never found my lips. As I collapsed onto the floor, Josh! was my last conscious thought before I drifted into oblivion.
CHAPTER 4
I awoke with a start, my eyes blurred and my body twitching as I tried to remember where I was and instead felt the freezing cold grass against my back. The last thing I remembered was crawling out of the house with Hazel. I didn’t remember making it to the front door. Someone had found us. I breathed in, taking the oxygen into my lungs from a mask around my mouth.
“You're okay now.” I heard Cate's voice. She normally would have been the last person I wanted to see. My head turned slightly to see her staring back at me. “Lucky for you I came outside and saw all the smoke. What were you thinking?” I didn't answer. I tried to but my throat was parched. “Don't bother.” Cate held up a hand. “I know you were trying to be the hero but you could have gotten yourself killed. You and Hazel.” I glanced around, looking for her. “Don't worry, she'll be okay too,” Cate assured me.
I shifted on the grass, looking for Joshua. He ran towards me. “Olivia? What happened?” He knelt down, his hand stroking my cheek as I attempted to lift the mask from my lips.
“Don't,” Cate warned me. “You need it a little longer.” She turned towards Joshua, gesturing for him to follow her. My eyes still blurred, an effect intensified by distance as I tried to make out what they were saying. Were they talking about me?
Another minute later I felt his warm hand in mine. “You're going to be fine,” he assured me, giving it a squeeze. What happened in there? We didn't often share the telepathic bond anymore. It wasn't that we couldn't, it was more that we hadn't needed to. We were often together and if there had been anything that needed to be said aloud, we both felt comfortable doing so.
The drones, I answered. Even mentally it took a lot out of me. They were flying overhead and Hazel closed the damper. She thought it would keep them from seeing the smoke coming out the chimney. Except it had to back up into the house.
“You could have been killed.” He stared at me, his thumb stroking my cheek covered in dirt. I must have looked a mess.
Is Hazel okay? I asked, still not ready to sit up yet.
Joshua nodded. “Sydney is looking at her right now but she's about in the same condition you're in,” he told me. “I think they're going to transport you to the medical clinic for a few hours. Just to make sure you're okay.”