No Time To Bleed

The next day they released us at exactly 8:15 am on Wednesday.

We had all showered, scrubbed down, and the wraps on my arm had been freshly placed again. We all said bye to Bethany, although she seemed a bit weird around Alex who just seemed to smile at her lacking advances.

He walked beside me as we were lead in blindfolds.

“I think these blindfolds are kind of kinky.” Ashton muttered.

“Ashley, what does kinky mean?” Anna asked.

“Uhhh, it means that you can’t see anything.”

“I thought that’s what blind meant?”

Jesse laughed. “No, kinky and blind are synonyms.”

A long silence came. “I thought cinnamon was what you put on bagels.”

That got the most of us to laugh although I didn’t hear Cece who was to my left. She seemed unusually silent.

After a long, long walk, we finally resurfaced in a desolate area of the airport. The blindfolds were whipped from our eyes and were alone.

“I hate these procedures.” Ashley said.

“Does anyone have a piece of paper?” Cece urged.

All of us shook our heads and she went scrambling away.

“What’s her deal?” Ashton asked.

I shrugged. “No idea. I’m going to get some food.”

Ashton and Anna followed. I gave them the rundown of the place, much like Antoinette had been kind enough to give to me. We made it to the eating area, nibbling away at food since we’d packed out stomach with Level A’s breakfast.

I eventually found the table that Kyle usually sat at. His friends looked up at me fearfully.

“Have any of you guys seen Kyle since yesterday?” I asked.

One girl who had been reading a book looked up. “Well, he’s been acting pretty weird, wouldn’t stop talking about his sister and stuff…”

“So, you guys haven’t seen him since yesterday?”

All of them shook their heads. “He’s been pent up in his room, talking about some weird plan of his.”

My eyes went wide.

Kyle and a plan? That didn’t sound good.

I thanked them(although they’d actually done nothing to help) and felt everyone’s stares on me as I departed the eating area.

I turned a long corner and began the long hallway walk to the hotel area of the airport.

“Jasmine!”

I turned to see Jesse scrambling his way over.

“Yeah?” I said.

He smiled dashingly. “You’re actually talking to me? Wow, I must be forgiven.”

I rolled my eyes and he kept us his gait to stay next to me. “Well, I guess your forgiven. I’m going to see Kyle, you wanna come?”

He nodded, pressing his hands further into his pockets. “Sure, you’ll probably be able to protect me more than I can protect you.”

I laughed. “And why’s that?”

“Because you went psycho on those zombies yesterday! It was sick! Did you see the looks on everyone’s faces? None of the mothers are going to let their kids near you.”

“Well, you have to pick up mad fighting skills when you’re fighting for your life all times of the day.” We cleared the hotel’s lobby and made our way to the elevators. I pressed the button for Kyle’s floor.

“Yeah. Things have been crazy.” He said.

The doors closed before us and the slow music filled the air.

“So, Cece told me your with Alex now?” he raised.

I shrugged. “It’s nothing official. Just feel like I have to wait til all of this craziness is over.”

“So, you seriously think we’ll get out of all of this?”

I looked to him. “Why not?”

Jesse seemed to think the answer was obvious. “Because I don’t think it’ll be over if we get out of here. I mean, there had to be at least one of those infected things that got out of the city. At least one that made it to another state.”

I hated that he was bringing up these thoughts. They seemed like a trap.

We walked the rest of the way to Kyle’s door. I knocked first and he stood steadily beside me.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Jasmine.”

The door swung open and Kyle appeared. His dirty blonde hair was mashed around messily and I could see from his room that all sorts of papers were on the floor.

“I have a plan! I know you guys found her and I talked to some people and I have a plan!” His hand yanked me into the room and Jesse followed. The door slammed behind us.

Kyle dropped down to his knees, looking through all the papers.

“I was making notes of all the things I noticed and what some of my friends said! They said that if someone goes missing then they’re probably sick or just trying to stay hidden! What if Antoinette knew something that the guards were doing? What if they didn’t want her to tell us?”

Kyle snatched a few papers from the ground and stood up before me.

“I know what we can do. We can get my friends and we can fight the guards! We can-“

“Kyle, if you try to make a plan and tell people, the guards will stop you. Kyle, your sister’s…”

He backed away just a small bit, head shaking from side to side. “No.”

I stepped forward, feet crunching against papers on the floor. “I went to Level A and I asked about your sister. No one there heard of her.”

“No.” His cheeks were fluttered, throat swallowing lumps until the back of legs touched the bed and he sank to it.

“Your sister’s dead, Kyle. They killed her.”

Complete emptiness filled the room for a while, hitting everything like a ton of bricks. I just stood there and watched Kyle breath as he stared to the floor.

“Mom told me to protect her right before my dad put the bullet through her brain and I couldn’t even do that.”

I kneeled before Kyle. I took hold of his hands and forced my gaze up into his eyes.

“Kyle, I think Antoinette was hiding a secret and they didn’t want anyone finding out. That’s why she died.”

I clutched my fingers tighter around his hands. His hands were trembling.

“Then, I want to kill them. I wanna kill all of them.” Even with his voice weak and dry, I knew it was a statement we intended to keep.

I stayed with him until he didn’t need me there. Then, Jesse and I left out as Kyle went to picking up and throwing away his papers.

The door closed behind us as we stepped out the door.

“How’d you know his sister was dead?”

I looked up to Jesse and tried to will all my secrets to his hazel eyes. “I can’t tell you, but I’ve gotta go.”

His hands latched onto my arm, stopping me. “Wait…”

I didn’t even look back at him. “Just tell Alex and Cece that we’re having a meeting later. They’ll know what I mean. Bring Ashton and Ashley.”

“Jasmine…” His voice begged me.

All I could manage to do was pull myself away and make the journey up to my room.

My entire way there all I could feel in my soul was ice.

I had a mission ahead and a lot of reading to do.