Trust

"Yale. Calm down and tell me what happened first." I said, getting to my feet, slightly stumbling but I am fine otherwise.

"Wendy … it seems their hospital is used as a hostage point and … well, I think she is getting very close to go into labour," Yale said, chewing at her index finger. "What do we do? I'm not sure what we should do."

"Ok. Let's think logically." I said, not able to think logically at all as my head swam like a marsh lake. "Maybe, if we go back now, we might make it in time."

"Not possible," Maya said, hands crossed. "You both remember that we can only leave when we take care of everything."

"Otherwise," Mia moved her hand in a straight line on her neck, "execution. And that won't be on you two only but also us."

I frowned looking at the others. They are right, though I won't admit it out loud. Once the mission is given to you, you can't do or say anything to stop it unless you complete it.

What do we do then? Waiting another three hours, which is how long it usually takes to clear everything, might be too late for Wendy. Not to mention the other patients.

We need to all finish first and then declare that we are done. That is when Jack will scan the entire area and tell us if we got every one of them.

Every time we use our abilities, we leave a trace that they can follow and use that to divide up the pay we were promised.

For people that seem to know so much about us, our weaknesses, what we can or can't do, they seem to really enjoy putting us in impossible, difficult situations while they just watch.

That is one reason why I cannot say that I like Jack entirely. He may be very fair, but he still has the same mentality as those people.

There is no escape either. They can kill us all at the drop of a button.

So what do we do then?

"I have an idea." Mia suddenly spoke up as everyone turned to her.

"What is it, Mia?" Maya asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "You're not talking about what I think you're talking about, are you?"

"I am." She said, determination written all over her face. "Besides, we don't want to owe them one, do we?"

"Fine." Maya shrugged. "I guess you are right."

"What are you two even talking about?" Leonel asked, shaking his head in annoyance. "Either tell us quickly or don't speak at all."

Everyone looked at the two intently as Mia pulled out a test tube from her pocket with brownish liquid inside. "I still have this."

We took a second to understand what she was saying. But the colour already gave everything away.

"How do you still have that??" Cameron asked, staring at the liquid.

"Why is more of the question," Hudson said, glaring at the liquid. "I hate that thing."

Well, that is understandable. Even I don't like it.

That liquid was given to us in our first mission ever. We were fairly new to everything so we followed everything they instructed, which included drinking the brown liquid.

They said that liquid helps to keep the creatures away from you. But we found out, the hard way, that they meant the complete opposite.

Once you consume it, it gives off a smell that instantly attracts those creatures to you in two seconds flat.

The smell wears off in an hour, but with the creatures appearing two seconds after you drank it. It became hard to keep them off you. Some tried to climb buildings and others locked themselves in rooms but it was almost like something awoken in those toxins.

I was able to kill all those that were after me but I suffered major injuries, not to mention the exhaustion I suffered from using too much of my abilities.

After that, I fell asleep for a week straight. A miracle that I didn't die then and there.

But for Mia to still have this … that means she didn't drink it. Did she know what it would do or was it a coincidence?

"On that day, Mia and I didn't trust them when they gave this to us. So we came to a conclusion. I drank the liquid while she didn't." Maya explained, seeing all-out cautious faces.

"I kept it aside and have not touched it, until now." Mia said, "We were about to get rid of it but decided that it might come in handy in the future. Yale. Do you want it?"

"Give it here." She said, taking the tube in her hands, about to drink the liquid when Leonel stopped her.

"Wait. Why are you even trying to drink that? You remember that you will not be able to use your abilities without causing major damage to your body when you consume it, right?" He asked, looking at me. "Hey, knock some sense into her."

I walked to Yale and looked right into her eyes, there was not a hint that she would back down even if I asked her to. "Don't transform or use your abilities. Just stay put, behind me."

"I've always wanted to play the damsel in distress." She said, beaming at me.

"Wait, you're letting her use herself as bait??" Leonel asked, glaring at me. "What kind of boyfriend are you? Aren't you worried she might get hurt?"

"She's not weak," I said, tilting my head at him. "Neither am I. So you don't have to worry about us."

"The trust you both have is impressive," Cameron said, smiling. "Well, we are also going to be here. We aren't going to let them touch Yale, right, Leonel?"

"You two are so stupid," Leonel said, turning from us.

"So I guess it is settled," Maya said, clapping her hands together. "We will make a circle, Yale will be in the middle and drink the liquid. Is that right everyone?"

"Yup," Hudson said, nodding his head vigorously.

"Yes."

"Whatever."

"Ready when you are, Yale," Mia said, as we all surrounded Yale, our backs to her.

I couldn't help worry a little bit. My stance is slightly wobbly and my vision faded now and then. Making me annoyed.

Why am I so weak sometimes?

"Zion. Have this first." Lucille said, handing me a potion of deep green liquid.

"Isn't this your share though?" I asked, looking at the liquid. "You should save it for yourself."

She shook her head, "We are all competing to see who will get the most number of toxins. But we aren't enemies. We help each other when we need to. Take it. You will need it."

"Thank you," I said, gulping down the liquid as I felt my strength return almost immediately.

The green liquid is what you would call as a healing potion. This is the only good thing they gave us. But we have to look carefully at the colour of green the potion is in.

It is either healing or rots you from the inside out. They really like using us as test subjects without our knowledge or consent.

"It's alright." She said as I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Yale?"

"I'll leave this to you, Zion." She whispered into my ears as she drowned the liquid down.

"Sure."

______________________

The entire town fell quiet immediately and we braced ourselves as the ground underneath us started to rumble.

"Here they come!" Lucille shouted as Hudson turned into a Halberd; a weapon combined with the body of a spear and the head of an axe.

Maya turned into a sniper gun in Mia's hands as the girl ran up the building behind us, taking her position. Looking through the optics, she shouted the directions they were rushing to us from.

Creating a sword out of ice in my hands, I gripped my only weapon tightly. Hopefully, I will be able to produce these quicker than they can break.

"You can do this," Yale said, tightening her arms around my waist.

She will be feeling the effects of the potion right about now. Drinking that makes one feels like they were having a high fever.

I can only say that we who survived that first day were fortunate the creatures were not as many as the ones we have to deal with these days.

Otherwise, we would have been in a hell of a lot more trouble.

"Rest up," I said as Yale sat down on the ground, the building behind us, resting her body against the wall, breathing heavily.

"Stay alert!" Mia shouted as we spotted, what looked like, a wave of raccoons, black goo dripping from their mouth and their bodies having extra limbs, heads and ears sticking out from everywhere.

Their eyes glowed red as they approached us in hordes and hordes. Mia had already begun shooting and taking many down but they still drew closer.

"Ready?" Cameron asked, looking at me from the corner of his eyes.

"Of course," I said as we started our attack.