Radioactive

"What if I say i'm not like the others? What if I say i'm not just another one of your plays?"

---

A nauseous feeling woke Harper up, and she let out a groan. At this, Matts arm tightened around her. They were sleeping on a small couch. They had the options of beds, but at night it tended to be colder, and they had no source of heat other than each other. A thick comforter was wrapped tightly around them. The group--her, Matt, Taniss, and Amaryllis—had chosen a small semicircle of couches and claimed it to themselves. Taniss and Amaryllis both had their own, but her and Matt had chosen to share. It was comfortable now, the way they fit together, but the baby was growing, and it was getting increasingly uncomfortable for them to sleep too close together. The darkness pressed against her from all sides. She could feel Matts warm breath on the back of her neck, but she couldn’t really see him when she turned towards him, laying on her back. His arm was now draped across her stomach. In his sleep, his slid his arm away from her until only his hand was splayed across her stomach. She didn’t like when anyone did that except for him, and occasionally Amaryllis and even Taniss had displayed some interest, although the baby had yet to kick, so she didn’t understand it. Laying here, thinking about the baby, only made her feel anxious. In only a few shorts months, she would be a mother. She wasn’t ready for that. Matt certainly wasn’t ready to be a father. She could see it in the way he would look at her. His expression would change the moment she would look at him, though, as if he didn’t want her to notice. But she did anyways.

She pushed all of that aside. All it did was make her feel awful. Like the baby was the only reason that they were together. Before she could dwell on the thought any longer, she swept his hand to the side and threw her legs over the side of the couch, slowly standing up. She didn’t like the idea of walking around in the darkness, but she didn’t want to wake Matt and ask him to come with her. In the dark, she could barely make out his dark form. The only light was coming from a lamp that they had left on far across the store, marking the way towards the entrance, but it didn’t help anything being way over there. He reached out for her, although she could tell by his sleepy sigh that he wasn’t awake. Although she couldn’t make out his features, she could easily imagine the face he was making. The way his thick eyebrows would furrow together, and his sleepy expression would change to one of confusion. She almost laughed out loud. Even in his sleep he appeared to be confused. She felt his hand brush against her as she tried to prepare herself to wander through the dark room, and it gave her the courage to move away from the couch. If he woke up, he’d probably act worried about her, and she didn’t feel like having him sit up with her until she felt good enough to go back to bed.

She held her hands out in front of her as she walked, so that she wouldn’t run into anything. Her knees rammed into the soft cushions of another couch, and she was pitched forward with a gasp.

“Harper—“ Taniss murmured into the darkness. Her knee had just so happening to find his chest. He let out a pained groan, fidgeting on the couch.

She straightened up, “sorry Taniss,” she answered quietly, glancing in the direction that the others were sleeping. “I’m just trying to get to the bathroom.”

“Want me to go with you?” He asked in a tired, gruff voice. It seemed to be an automated response. He was always worried about her. ‘Worried about Harper’ had become a part of his personality, it seemed. She wondered if all of that would disappear once the baby was born.

“No, it’s okay. I’m not a baby. I’ll be right back.” She expected him to come with her anyways, but he only grumbled a quick okay and rolled over.

Harper slipped on her shoes that she had left at the end of Taniss’ couch, and made her way through the store. Somehow she managed to only run into about a bazillion pieces of furniture.

Light filtered in through the store entrance, illuminating the front part of the store. She could see Amaryllis sitting in an armchair, her legs thrown over one arm, Taniss’ gun in her hand. She assumed she was keeping watch, although she wasn’t sure why that was necessary. None of the others had acted hostile towards them, even after what had happened a few days before. No one seemed to mind that she had assaulted Amy. In fact, she was sure most of them were jealous that she had gotten to throw the first punch.

It was obvious Amaryllis was deep in thought when she reached the chair and tapped her on the shoulder. Amaryllis jumped, sliding off of the chair and getting clumsily to her feet, flicking the safety off of the gun as she pointed it at Harpers chest.

Harper automatically crossed her arms over her stomach, although she felt no real threat. “Chill, Scotty. It’s me.”

“Oh.” She sighed, setting the gun down in the chair. “What are you doing awake?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” Harper told her carefully. Amaryllis appeared exhausted. But she only waved her question away.

“I asked first.”

“I don’t feel that well.” Harper answered honestly, self-consciously rubbing a hand over her belly. “I’ll be right back.” She wandered out of the store and down the hall in the direction of the bathroom. She didn’t notice she was being followed until she was halfway there. She glanced over her shoulder. “Can I even use the bathroom by myself? Sheesh.”

Amaryllis shrugged, her hands now empty since she had left the gun behind. “You can’t blame us for being over protective. It’s dangerous.”

“It’s not dangerous inside the mall.”

“Better safe than sorry,” Amaryllis said with a sigh. Harper didn’t argue.

She stopped outside of the bathroom door. She felt like she could throw up at any moment, but instead of going inside, she chose to lean against the wall beside the door frame. Amaryllis stood beside her, pressing her back against the door. “So, how are you feeling?”

Harper shrugged, “At the moment? Not well. But it’ll pass. It always does.”

“The baby hasn’t kicked or anything?”

“No. Is that bad?” She shot her a worried glance.

“No, she’ll move when she wants to.”

Harper chuckled, “you want it to be a girl?”

“Heck yes. Then I can get her girly dresses, and put her hair up in ribbons and bows. I’ll spoil her rotten.”

“I’d rather it be a boy.” Harper said thoughtfully. “I think a boy could handle himself out here much better than a girl can.”

Amaryllis was quiet for a long moment. “We’ll take care of him or her. They won’t even have to worry about it.”

Harper didn’t answer. They both knew that was unlikely, but it was nice to think about. The silence stretched on for a while. Amaryllis wondered what she could say to break the tense silence. She knew Harper didn’t like talking about the baby. She was just considering telling her about the scene on the roof when Harper put a hand over her mouth, threw open the bathroom door, and disappeared inside. With a sigh, Amaryllis leaned against the wall, closing her eyes to wait.

It was awful hearing her best friend on the other side of the wall, bringing back up what she had eaten for dinner. Unable to stand it any longer, she wandered down the small hallway, back out into the main one. It was eerily silent. She paced back and forth while she waited, her eyes glued to the floor. With her mind occupied, she wasn’t aware of the soft footsteps behind her until it was too late. Her head snapped up in surprise, but before she could whip around, a piece of cloth had been thrown across her face and shoved into her mouth, gagging her. She made to twist around, to find out who her attacker was, but there was a soft clinking of metal, and then handcuffs had her arms frozen behind her back.

“Go get Harper.” A gruff voice said, right into her ear, although it obviously wasn’t directed at her. The voice sounded familiar but she couldn’t place who it was. She continued thrashing even as she heard footsteps down the other hallway, and a door thrown open. Harper let out a short, sharp scream, and then her voice was muffled.

There was shuffling as the man—or atleast that’s what Amaryllis assumed—dragged Harper towards them. “Be careful, or you’re going to hurt yourself.”

“Who cares if she hurts herself?” Said the man tightly holding onto Amaryllis.

“Shut up, Philip. We came for the blond, anyways. She just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Amaryllis breath caught in her throat. Philip. This meant their other attacked was probably Andy. Her suspicions were confirmed when he appeared beside her, clasping a pair of handcuffs around Harpers wrists. She was thrashing around just as violently as Amaryllis was.

Andy shoved his hand into his pocket, pulling out a small vial. He held it up, close to Harpers nose. She held her breath to void catching a whiff of whatever was inside, but she eventually had to breathe. Andy passed it to Philip. She took a deep breath, trying the same tactic that Harper had failed with. Even as she watched, Harpers movements became sluggish and slow. Obviously whatever they had used wasn’t enough to knock them out, just enough to dull their senses and slow them down. “Do you think it’s dangerous to give her this stuff?” Andy wondered out loud as Harper slumped a bit in his arms, her expression suddenly dull as she fought to keep her eyes open.

“Eh, who cares?”

Andy blinked at Philip in surprise. “Come on, man. We’re not bad people.”

Philip didn’t answer. Amaryllis couldn’t hold her breath any longer, and she couldn’t avoid breathing in the sickly sweet scent. As soon as he heard her sharp intake of breath, Philip yanked the vial away. Andy capped it and shoved it into his pocket again.

Now that they were both unable to continue their violent thrashing, the two men grabbed a hold of them, harshly yanking them towards the set of escalators. “Can we get them up the stairs while they’re like this?” Andy asked.

Philip only looked annoyed. “Stop questioning every little detail.” He snapped.

Harpers head was fuzzy. She couldn’t think straight anymore, but she was able to put things together and figure out what was happening. They had been kidnapped, it seemed. Again. She almost wanted to laugh at the irony of it all. Couldn’t they go just a few months without being kidnapped? This was what, the third time? She wanted to call for Matt and Taniss. Surely they would save them, just like they had before. But then she remembered that they were soundly asleep, tucked safely away in the back of the furniture store. They were on their own.

She’d been handcuffed once before. It was her first month at the college, and she had gone to one of the fraternity parties. Someone had called the cops when they found out about the drugs being passed around, and she had been one of the ones to get caught. But luckily she had been dubbed as the driver that night, so she wasn’t intoxicated and they uncuffed her and sent her home. But she remembered that they were impossible to get out of. The boys would have to be the ones to help them. She tried to pay attention to where they were going. Up the stairs? How were the boys supposed to find them up there? By the time they checked all the stores, something bad could’ve happened to them. They reached the bottom of the stairs, and Philip dragged Amaryllis ahead of them.

While Andy was focusing on dragging her up after him, she slipped off her shoe, leaving it at the bottom of the stairs. Surely Matt and Taniss would see it and know that they had gone upstairs.

The boys turned away at the top of the stairs, leading them far down the hallway into a Victorias Secret. In the doorway, Harper slid off her other shoe. That was the only clue she could give them, but she hoped it’d be enough. Her head felt foggy, and she found it impossible to think of another way.

They were dragged to the back of the store. At the very end of it, the racks had been wheeled out of the way, leaving a cleared space that was now occupied with a mattress. Harpers eyes widened and a sense of fear settled itself in her chest at the sight of it. Her and Amaryllis shared a frightened look. This couldn’t be happening.