Fighting Extinction

I didn’t really think much with my next actions.
When Marlee finished her last sentence, Tony wasted no time. He jumped up from his chair, sending it flying backwards onto the floor, and he started running. I didn’t pause; I followed him.
I ran.
As fast as I could, I ran.
I kept up with Tony. We ran through the long hallway that leads outside; the one I’ve only been in once. The heat grew hotter and hotter as we descended through the earth. The sunlight was beginning to light up the long tunnel with its vast heat.
It didn’t take long to get to the shack that hides the secret door. The door was open, to my surprise, which let the sun come in. Obviously, I wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.
“Damn,” Tony muttered under his breath.
“What?” I asked, a little out of breath.
“He left, that’s what. And, of course, he took the Jeep…”
I looked around, looking for some sort of tracks; I found none.
“He’s too smart not to take the roads until he’s out of our range. He knew we’d follow.” Tony’s jaw was set straight with anger, or was it concern? “What a jerk.” Nope, just anger.
“What do we do?” I asked. “Follow? To where?”
“Um…” he was rubbing his temples. “I think… I think you should go inside.”
“And what about you?” I asked. He was my family; whether I just met him yesterday or not, I had a right to know.
“I’m going to find him.”
“Not alone you’re not,” I stated.
“Wanna bet?” his expression was cold and his eyes were dark.
“Tony, maybe he has a good reason to leave. Maybe this is what’s best…”
“Then why would Marlee look so scared when she saw the future? I’m not playing, Lucy. This isn’t some sit-com on TV. This is real life, and Chris is my family; our family,” he corrected himself. “I’m going to go find him and bring him back.”
“Not today,” Marlee had showed up in the doorway. Her expression had changed; she was now dead serious.
“I’m not gonna let him get further away than he already is.”
“Yes you will, because if you wait until tomorrow, you’ll have a better chance of finding him. He changed his mind, Tony. The future changed not long after you ran out of the room. It’s looking better, as long as you stay here until tomorrow…”
I shook my head, agreeing with Marlee. Anything to keep him around longer; plus I wasn’t going to doubt Marlee.
“Do you trust me?” Marlee asked him.
He shook his head. “Yes, I do. I’d be a fool not to.”
“Then please stay home. It’ll lead to something good…” she smirked.
“I hate when you know something and refuse to tell us.”
“It’s not right if everyone knows the future. Then it wouldn’t be as exciting!” she smiled, and my confidence was reassured. Everything was going to be okay. Chris was gone, yes, but she was happy. Happiness was a good thing, so things couldn’t be getting any worse, right?

Tony wasn’t very pleased about sitting around while Chris was out there alone. Marlee teased him about his pouting. “Stop whining,” she would say with a grin. Or, “Quit being a baby.”
But the tension between Marlee and me, as if there were any before, had slowly began to grow every time we were around each other. For some unknown reason, she just stared at me with her green eyes with a look that almost scared me. Like she was waiting for something; something I didn’t know. Maybe it was something in her vision. Maybe something Chris had said about his absence. Or something that I just couldn’t quite comprehend at the moment.
The day went on as normal, or that’s what Tony told me since I’ve never actually been here for an entire day. At one point Marlee ventured off on her own to ‘do some studying’ as she said. Tony told me that she would go to the mental-training room to meditate and look to the future for answers that she couldn’t just ‘receive.’ But Kat was no where to be seen. Possibly keeping her distance from Tony? Unlikely in my mind, but possible. I didn’t know her that well to begin with, so who was I to judge?
Tony and I lounged around for a while. We spoke of our lives; our families, our friends, our hobbies, and our dreams. I found out that Tony didn’t have much family when the world ended. His mother had died in a car accident when he was young, and his father was in jail for something he refused to speak of. He lived with his grandfather who treated him well and gave him a good education throughout his years.
But the most surprising information was given last.
“Throughout my kid life, I was alone most of the time. My grandfather worked a lot; so I found a girl who lived close by and we became pretty good friends. Her name was Katelyn, but she hated when I called her that,” he laughed, “so I nick-named her Kat.”
I gasped. “Whoa, wait a minute. So you’re saying that you… and Kat… friends?”
He chuckled again. “Yep, since I was six and she was nine. She was like my sister, but of course we turned into teenagers and we constantly fought; but we stayed close. I think it was our gifts that brought us together, even though we had no clue that they existed back then.”
“When did you two find out about them? When you survived, like me, or did they just appear, like Chris?” I figured giving examples would help clarify my question even if it made me sound a little dumb.
“I was like you; I didn’t know anything until the end. Kat claims that she knew about her gift for a while now, but she just wasn’t sure if she was crazy. A part of me believes her, but another just tells me that she wants an excuse to be praised by Chris.” He paused. “We’ve been family for a long time, and that’s why we fight so much. It’s in our blood, kind of.”
I understood, to an extent. Carter and I fought all the time, but we were blood related and not driven by extra gifts that would have only made us challenge each other more than usual.
It was easy to be around Tony; almost like he was filling in Carter’s place. It didn’t mend the wound that still bleed in my heart, but it made the pain manageable to have another brother-like figure around to talk to.