Cured (28 page)

So while I
sought refuge from my irritatingly composed mother, Felix came to
my house to hide from his intimidating father. The only male role
mod
el that Felix had in his life was my
father. Although largely absent, when he was home my Dad made up
the best memories of my life. He was fun, interesting and above
all, he adored my mother and me to no end. He also treated Felix
like a son, inviting him to see our home as his own, and even
dedicating him one of our guest bedrooms to use whenever he wished.
It was no surprise to come home to Felix and my father in a play
fight, or deep conversation about sporting results. Thinking back
on it, my father probably saved Felix from becoming the mirror
image of his own father.

Instead of
running away again, I walked over to Felix, stood behind his chair,
and wrapped my arms around his neck, planting a kiss on the crown
of his head. He looked up towards me, with a sad smile, “Man, I
should do this upset act more often if it is going to win me kisses
from you.”

I laughed, but even though Felix joked, his
eyes had lost their sparkle, so I didn’t let him go.

Ellina broke
the silence that fell, “Are you hitting on another woman, Felix?”
she mocked. “I am so hurt! I thought I was the only one for
you!”


T
heo smirked, “I am pretty sure
anything with boobs is on Felix’s radar.”

We laughed, and talked for a long time,
eventually migrating to the Lounge Room across the hall to have a
nap on the lushest red couches I had ever seen. I laid my head in
Felix’s lap, and he ran his fingers through my hair soothingly
until I fell asleep.

“We will be landing in fifteen minutes,
please prepare yourselves to disembark the aircraft.”

I sat up, woken by the robotic voice. “Why
does this stupid spaceship insist on waking me up all the time.” I
grumbled, rubbing my eyes.

Felix stretched out his arms, “Tell me about
it.”

Ellina
giggled, “You two are so grumpy when you wake up! It’s cute, I
remember when I used to be tired all the time.”

“
Shut it,
Prime,” snapped Felix, and Ellina laughed again.

Theo was
already on his feet. “I reckon we should follow Avery’s example,
and stash some food from the kitchen for our next challenges. I’ll
go fill my pack now. You guys wait a bit. It’ll be obvious if we
all go at once.”

I couldn’t help laughing at him.

“
What is so
funny?” h
e demanded.

“
Nothing…
sorry,” I said, “It’s
just… they know
that Felix and I haven’t been Cured, and that we are lying to
everyone. I don’t think taking a bagful of food is going to make a
lot of difference to their anger towards us.”

Theo sighed,
“You’re right. Let’s all go.”

We squashed the contents of our packs down
until they took up as little space as possible, and filled them to
the brim with substantial but lightweight foods. My pack was jammed
full of bread, Ellina had opted for a range of cakes and pastries,
deciding that we deserved a treat every now and again. Theo filled
his with dried fruit from the fondue station, and Felix chose to
top his bag up with nuts and seeds. By the time we had finished
packing, our bags were very heavy and fifteen minutes was up.

The aircraft thumped to the ground and the
robot voice told us to exit the ship in the same way we had entered
hours before.

“
Where do you
think we are?” Ellina asked and we all entered the seventh door to
retrieve Meatloaf. I swung the door open, and the garden was eerily
silent. Too silent. I scanned the room, my eyes falling on the pond
and the tree to which Meatloaf’s rope was tied. My knot was still
in tact, but the rope had been torn, and Meatloaf was nowhere to be
seen. My heart began to pound as I charged around the garden,
swiping at leaves as I went. I screamed for Meatloaf, calling his
name over and over, even though I knew it was hopeless. He was
gone. The others stood by the door, watching me as I
panicked.

“
He’s
gone, Avery.” Felix laid a hand on my shoulder
and I threw it off angrily.

“
I am going
to KILL them,
” I seethed through gritted
teeth. How could Axil have done this? Was it some kind of sick
revenge, to get me back for the tracker wolf thing?

“I don’t think it was Axil and Cecilia,
sweetie,” said Ellina softly.

“How would you know?” I demanded.

She pointed behind her into the hallway. “I
saw them leave, they were empty-handed.”

I groaned.
That meant the Alphas had taken him. Which was even worse. Felix
tried hugging me, but I stepped back.

“
It’
s fine, I am fine,” I tried to
assure them, but my lip was quivering and blowing my cover. “He was
just an animal. No big deal. Come on let’s go.”

They hesitated, and I stormed past them,
through the door of the garden and into the hallway.

Chapter 27

As soon as I
stepped outside of the aircraft my tantrum came to an abrupt end.
Upon seeing my surroundings, my stomach sunk and I gulped for air.
Needing consoling, I spun back around, smacking into whichever
broad chest had exited the ship behind me. I hugged whomever the
chest belonged to, trying to calm my nerves.

“
What’s
the matter?” Theo’s deep
voice asked, his arms encircling me comfortingly.

The others caught up to us, and Ellina
gasped, “This place is so… eerie…”

Then she saw
me hunched against Theo and laid a
hand
on my back lightly, “What’s the matter Ave?” she asked.

I turned to look her in the eye, “Don’t you
know where we are?”

When she
shook her head I looked to Felix. “Do you know where we are,
Fe?”

He shrugged, and I took a step back, asking
Theo the same question with my eyes.

“
No idea.”
h
e replied.

I looked
around me. The aircraft had landed on a rocky surface, a jagged
cliff stretched high above us on either side, but other than that
single feature, we were in the middle of nowhere. The rocky plane
stretched in either direction as far as we could see. No water or
vegetation interrupted the dull rockiness. Ellina had been right
when she said the atmosphere was eerie, with no wind or sound, the
air was completely still. The sun beat down on us, its rays
sweltering hot, causing a bead of sweat to roll down my forehead. I
wiped it away, and reached for my water canister. I had filled it
in the ship, so it was still icy cold, and I resisted the urge to
tip the entire contents over my body. I took only a sip, because I
had no idea how long we would be stuck in this rocky
isolation.

“
So…” started
Ellina hesitantly, “Where are we Avery? Do you recognize this
place?”

I cleared my
throat, “My father travels a lot. For work. Patrolling the Fields
and training new Alphas. On the day of my Cure he was away on
business. Or, he told my mother and I that he was going to a
conference for business, anyway…”

My voice
failed me and I sniffed, swatting at my eyes, which were welling
with tears all over again. Theo gathered me back into a hug and we
stood in silence for a while. Finally the lump in my throat
disintegrated and I continued, “When Dad called me to wish me luck
a few hours before the Cure, I noticed something weird in the
background. His conferences are usually in boardrooms with long
tables and WallScreens. This time I saw… Well… I saw this.” I
gestured around me. “And when I asked my father why he was in the
desert he looked all scared for a second. Then he ignored my
question and told me to think about the Cure instead.”

Ellina frowned, “Are you sure it was the same
place.”

I nodded, “I saw the cliff and
everything.”

“
But we still
don’t know where exactly we are…” said Theo, “I mean clearly it’s
some sort of ditch. The cliffs are too high to assume that if we
walk along the bottom of the ditch, the sides will eventually level
out or become low enough to climb.”

“We have to try though,” said Ellina, “We
have to try to climb it. Right, Theo?”

“
Well,
you
guys have fun climbing that…” said
Felix. “I am going to set up camp down here, eat my seeds and nuts
until they run out, and hopefully by then I have figured out the
least painful way to off myself.”

“
Shut it Fe,
that’s not funny,
” I said.

“There is no way we can get up there, Avery.
It’ll be tricky for the Primes, but it’ll be impossible for
us.”

“
Don’t, man.”
s
napped Theo. “Not helping.”

“
No
seriously, Avery and I could stay down here. Hey, we could even
have a little bit of fun, raise some babies, and start a family in
the ditch. Hell, it could become a village of our own! We could
call it… The Crater Clan!”

Theo clenched his fist and moved towards
Felix threateningly. I stepped in between the two, and planted both
hands on Theo’s chest, pushing him in the other direction as hard
as I could. It was no good, he continued towards Felix as if I
wasn’t there. I could feel his heart thudding heavily, and quickly
against his ribcage, and his breathing had quickened.

“
Ell a little
help here?” I squeaked, expecting Ellina to jump in and reprimand
Theo immediately. But she stayed standing, stock still, staring at
Felix intently.

“ELLINA!” I yelled again. Still no
reaction.

“
Shut up and
move out of my way, Avery,” Theo’s voice was a low growl, and he
was nearly in arm’s length of Felix.

“
For god’s
sake Ellina, why are you just standing there staring at Felix like
that?! Testosterone overload! I need your help!” I shoved Theo’s
chest in a last ditch attempt at preventing the fight, before
giving up and diving out of the way.

Suddenly Ellina appeared in my place, between
the two boys. I was never going to get used to those two having
super speed. She took Felix’s hands in hers.

“OUCH WOMAN!” Felix cried. “Super strength,
remember?!”

He wrenched his hands from her grasp and
flexed his knuckles, causing them to crack loudly.

“You are a genius, Felix!” She leaned in and
kissed him right on the lips. I stumbled on a crevice underfoot and
fell to the ground. I felt as though my breath had been knocked
from me, even though I hadn’t fallen very hard at all. Theo’s arms
scooped under mine and lifted me back to my feet.

“
Are you
okay?” h
e whispered in my ear and I
nodded in reply, trying to catch my breath.

Felix was standing, open mouthed, blinking
rapidly, and for once in his life not saying anything at all.
Ellina blushed and took a step away from Felix, covering her mouth
with one hand, eyes wide.

“
S..Sorry,”
s
he stuttered. “I was just… You… Crater.”
She had clearly gone into a state of shock instigated by her own
frivolous actions.

“
Breathe,
Ellina,” s
aid Theo, letting go of me and
going over to rub her back. She finally slowed her breathing and
composed herself.

“
Um…”
s
he murmured. “F.. Fel… He,” she pointed
at Felix to indicate that she was talking about him, but clearly
couldn’t choke out his name, “He said crater.”

She looked at me apologetically, but I
couldn’t meet her eye.

Felix finally
gathered himself together enough to quip, “I should definitely say
‘crater’ more often.”

Ellina
cringed, her eyes still on me and filled with apology. She
continued, “A crater. That is where we are, right?”

I tried to
wind my mind back to history lessons, wracking my memory for any
mention of a crater in Hercules’ tasks. I couldn’t recall
any.

“
There is no
crater in Hercules’ tasks Ell,” said Theo, who was now looking at
her as though she might be entirely mad.

“
No. There
isn’t. But think about it. We were on that aircraft for too long.
The country isn’t that big.”

“
I was
thinking the same thing,” added Theo, “we
could’ve circled the whole of the nation in the time we
spent on that flight.”

“
Exactly
,” continued Ellina. “In
fact, I would say it would take almost exactly ten hours to circle
the country and get right back to where we started.”

“
Ell,” Felix
looked at her as though she might be losing her mind, “Did my kiss
blow your mind? I mean, literally, did it explode your brain and
destroy all your brain cells? Because you’re not thinking
straight.” He laid a hand on Ellina’s shoulder. “In case you’ve
forgotten, we boarded the aircraft at the bottom of Olympia.” She
nodded impatiently and opened her mouth to interject. “Have a look
around Ell,” Felix gestured around himself. “Does this look like
Olympia to you?”

“
We’re not on
Olympia, mate,” Theo said.

“No duh,” agreed Felix.

“We’re past it.”

“There is nothing past Olympia.” Felix was
getting frustrated now. “Olympia is at the end of the land.”

Now it hit me, “Except it’s not!” I
exclaimed, “Because past Olympia is…”

“The Crater,” finished Felix, a look of
realization dawning on his face.

Ellina
nodded
smugly, “Do you reckon these cliff
walls might be about eight thousand feet high?”