CRASH

CHAPTER 12

I followed her inside to the kitchen where she was pouring water from a jug into a glass.

"How are you feeling today?"

"Great" she replied blandly.

"You had a fever last night"

"I look better don't I" she was searching the kitchen cupboard and I kept staring at her, following her every move. She retrieved a box from the cupboard and placed it on the counter. She was about to open it when she stopped and looked at me.

"Why are you looking at me?"

"You had a fever last night"

"I got that the first time. Why the f**k are you looking at me?"

"No thanks? I was the one who looked after you last night"

"Thanks now can you leave me right now?"

I should have walked out but I spoke before my brain could have processed what was leaving my mouth.

"Yesterday we made out"

"So?"

"So..." I was confused. She must have liked it or hated it. Why was her expression bland.

"Whatever happened last night was a mistake. I was clearly not using my head and you should have used yours and stopped me because I would never have done any of that if I was in control of myself" she grabbed the box and marched past me bumping my shoulder in the process.

Oddly, I wasn't that hurt from her words. I had heard meaner things and I guess I had high hopes. She clearly wouldn't kiss me if she wasn't semi conscious.

I went back outside and we continued practicing until a bullet whizzed past my face.

"Down" she shouted. She covered me and fired some shots as we ran into the house. A couple of gunshots were heard outside before everything went silent.

I looked around. Adam was not inside with us. I tapped her and she turned to look at me.

"Adam. He is not here"

"I noticed" she said dryly.

"I am going out to look for him"

"You can barely protect yourself. How will you find him?"

"Well we can't just sit here. Something could have happened. I am going after him" I told her.

She grabbed my arms and stopped me. "Stay here" I'll go find him. She opened the door and went outside. I itched to go out but I held myself back.

If I went out now, I will certainly be a liability. I still did not have the balls to pull the trigger if I saw an enemy.

I sat down in the cabin and waited until Violet returned. Alone. There was no sign of Adam behind her.

"Where is he?"

"I checked every area close to the cabin. I did not see him" I wanted to question her and ask her if she checked carefully but I held myself back. She looked tired and she had spent quite a while out there searching for him. If he was there, he would have returned and if he was dead, she would have seen his body.

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It has been a week and there was no sign of Adam yet. The first two days, Violet went outside to look for him but she returned empty handed. There was still no sign of him around.

"Have you contacted your bosses" I asked for the hundredth time today but she gave me no reply. And I was starting to feel angry.

She must have sensed it because she looked up at me. Keeping her stoic face, she answered.

"The instruction is to stay put"

"How can they keep telling us that" I shouted angrily pushing my hands through my hair and for a second, I thought I saw her flinch.

"This place is clearly unsafe. The henchmen from ODE keep finding us every damn time and they keep telling us to stay put"

"This is the safest place you can ever find"

"Safest?" I chuckled.

"There is nothing safe about this damn place"

"Then do you have a better place we can stay? Somewhere safer?" She asked annoyed.

I stayed silent. There were places we could go to but it was not safe in the least. ODE will find us easily. But then what was the difference, they could still find us here.

"I thought as much" she said and continued doing what she was doing. I slumped defeated in the couch. She dropped a satchel at my feet. I picked it up and looked inside. It held knives.

"Continue practicing your knife skills. I'll check the perimeter" she walked out as soon as she delivered her command. I sighed and picked up the satchel.

I have been practicing knife throwing since mid week and I was fairly good at it. I selected a knife and threw it. I continued like this until a the knives in the satchel were on the target board.

I went to the target to inspect my performance. One knife had landed at the centre. The others were close but they did not make it. I pulled out all the knives from the board, cleaned them, and placed them back into the satchel. Violet was not back from her check yet.

I returned it to to the cabin and warmed up some leftover rice from the day before. There was still no sign of Violet as I retired to my bedroom.

As I was about to fall asleep, I heard the sound of the front door and the sound of her room door opening and closing. I allowed the sleep to draw me in.

The sound of the floor board creaking, woke me up. Someone was clearly sneaking around. I grabbed the nearest weapon closer to me. It was the leg of a broken chair. It wouldn't do much, but it could buy me some time.

I opened the door of my room carefully and stood in the corridor. I eyes the both ends, there was no sign of any intruder there. I walked carefully to the living area. The figure of whoever snuck in, was backing me. I lifted my weapon, ready to strike when light flooded the room.

I paused and looked in the direction of the light switch. Violet stood there with her hands in her hips. I remembered the intruder and turned to see a familiar face.

"Adam?"