Ordinary (Exceptional Book 3) (12 page)

Ally nodded and stood up.

“And Ally,” he leaned across the desk. “I don’t distrust Exceptionals.”

Ally and Evan exited the General’s office.

The woman situated at a desk outside the office handed her a thin stack of papers that were attached in the corner by a small, metal rod. She thanked her and let Evan lead her back to the living quarters.

She had been discouraged to learn of the state the Southern City was in. She was hoping to find a city living in peace, not a city divided, like the one she left behind. But Zone D had a leader with an open mind. Ally knew that if she could just find a solution, one that would help more towns and cities than just the ones she had visited, having the General to back her would prove influential.

[ ally ]

Luke was waiting in her room when she got back. She had been sharing it with Sabine, but Ally imagined she had moved her stuff into the guys’ room with Stosh, which left Marnie, Max, and Evan to share another.

He was propped up on one of the beds, his legs crossed at the ankles. Ally took a deep breath and walked further into the room. She dared to meet his gaze and held his eyes until she was seated at the end of the bed, by his feet. Her body angle felt awkward and she fiddled with her hands before sitting on them.

“So…” she started.

Luke rolled his eyes and sat up. “Don’t
so
me. Let’s hash this out here and now.”

Ally eyed him cautiously. The eye roll and his demeanor reminded her of Max. Just another way he had changed since their time together when they first met. “Are you going to try and talk me into going with you?”

The more she thought about his reaction during her admission this afternoon, she realized he had been waiting to speak to her in private. She should have stayed in the main room, or brought a buddy. Luke was much easier to refute and deny in a group setting.

Luke shook his head. “A month ago, I may have tried. Now, I’m going to let it go. I can’t risk anything that will push you further away from me, even if that means risking losing you. Which is what I’m doing here, and I want you to know how hard that is for me. I’ve lost you once already, and I’m not sure I even have you fully back.”

Ally turned toward him and crossed her legs underneath her. He scooted closer on the bed and she reached for one of his hands. “You won’t lose me. I don’t have any doubts about what I am doing or where I am going. I can feel that it’s right, and I have the backing of the General and good information for where I’m going. I don’t plan on throwing myself into danger.”

“Most people don’t plan on danger, it just finds them.” Luke pointed out.

Ally nodded. “We ran into plenty of danger, together, while we were traveling down here. We live in a chaotic world, Luke, with some crazy people, but we are all that’s left. There isn’t another group of humans waiting to descend on the Earth in case we fail at rebuilding. We are it. If we don’t do this, and do it right, it’s over. We’ve had over a century, almost two, and we are getting nowhere. We are killing each other, enslaving each other, and spreading disease. I truly believe that if we aren’t the generation to make the change, the next generation doesn’t stand a chance at survival.
We
are barely surviving. Enough is enough.”

He nodded. “I know. I know that things need to change, I just wish it was someone else leading the charge.” He brought his free hand up to her face and rubbed her cheek for just a moment. “I just need you to be careful.”

Ally gave him a small smile. “I plan on it. My mission isn’t going to go well if I’m not. I’ll have Stosh and Sabine with me, and Marnie is going to see if she can recruit some friends from her home.”

Luke’s eyebrows furrowed. “If they can be trusted.”

“Look at the way Marnie has been treated. I think, or at least hope, they’ll be willing to get away.”

“You are too trusting,” Luke responded.

“You aren’t trusting enough,” Ally retorted.

Luke laughed. “A perfect balance then.”

He leaned back on the bed and laid his head on the pillow. “Lie with me. Just tonight.”

Ally scooted up on the bed and tucked herself into Luke’s body. His arm naturally came around her back and pulled her close. She closed her eyes and listened to the beat of his heart, felt the rise and fall of his chest. How long had it been since they had laid together like this? Recently they had fallen asleep in the woods holding hands, but nothing as intimate as this. Others had been around.

“What are we, you and I? Right now, at this moment in time,” Luke asked.

It was as though he had heard her thoughts.

Ally didn’t move. She could hear Luke’s heart beating faster below her head.

“I’m not sure,” Ally responded in a whisper. “I don’t think it would be fair to call it anything before tomorrow, or during.”

Luke’s body shifted and she thought he might be nodding.

“But after? When this is all hopefully over,” he said.

His words vibrated across his chest.

Ally thought about the possible implications of being with Luke after this was all over. What would even happen when this was all over? It could be months, it could be years. If the past few months changed them so much, what would the future bring. And what about Max? She knew that he would be with her given the chance, but how fair was that to him? She couldn’t let him wait for her. It wasn’t something she could let either of them do. But tonight wasn’t the night to hash this out.

With a whispered “maybe” she let the rise and fall of Luke’s chest put her to sleep.

The following morning started off slow. A soldier had taken Ally to see the General, where she confirmed the plans for her personal travels, and came up with ideas for ways they could start to unite the towns and cities. When she returned to the room, everyone was awake.

They all seemed sluggish as they moved around the main room, nibbling on pieces of bread and crackers. The mood shifted to anxious and Ally knew she needed to start speaking to her friends before they all fell apart. Even though she barely knew her, she figured it was a good time to bring up their trip to Marnie’s settlement. Or Sector as the General called it. Out of all of them, Marnie seemed the least nervous about their journey.

“Do you have any ideas about who could join us from your Sector?” Ally sat down at the table, where Marnie was back to shuffling paper.

Marnie shrugged, a closed book as usual. Ally’s first impression of Marnie had been that she was straightforward and talkative, but perhaps she was wrong.

“What are you doing with that paper?”

Marnie looked up at Ally and let out a small laugh. “Paper?” She looked at her hands. “These are playing cards.”

She dropped the stack of paper on the table and lifted one up. “Here.”

Ally took it from her. It was stiff and had a bumpy texture to it, nothing like the paper she had seen in the settlement or the northern City.

“Playing cards?”

Marnie nodded. “There are some games you can play with these, either by yourself or with someone. It’s how I’ve been passing the time here in Zone D.”

Ally handed the card back. “Well, maybe you can teach me some of these games one day.”

Marnie smiled. “Sure.”

Ally stood, thinking she should go over their packs one last time.

“Ally,” Marnie spoke up. “I actually think that I may have some ideas of who could go with you on your trip.”

“Oh, good! Thank you,” Ally said with a smile.

There was a knock on the door and it pushed open. A small group of soldiers entered, their backs straight and a serious look on their face. Evan stood at attention. Max rolled his eyes in Ally’s direction and she held back a giggle.

The soldier in the front of the group spoke for the rest. “We are here to escort you to your transports and lead you to Sector 4.”

“At ease,” Luke said as he picked up his pack.

Everyone in the room looked at him. The soldiers seemed perturbed, and everyone else but Ally confused. Ally laughed out loud.

“What?” Luke said to her. “It worked in the movies.”

They all grabbed their individual packs. Luke, Max, and Evan carried the packs for the additional Exceptionals that would be joining them. Stosh offered to help but no one wanted him to overdo it. Ally was already worried about him coming along on this journey with them but this was all their new normal.

Ally didn’t even give their temporary home a second glance on the way out the door. They followed the soldiers down the hall and down a few flights of stairs. They wouldn’t have all fit in an elevator and for some reason the soldiers seemed against splitting up for that short period. They walked out into the courtyard and to the main gate, where two other soldiers let them out. Three transports were waiting for them.

“We should split into our groups now, just so we can leave our packs in the correct place,” Ally offered.

Luke headed toward the last transport, Max, Marnie, and Evan going with them. They dropped the extra packs by the middle transport, and Stosh and Sabine loaded them onto the back while Ally approached the soldier in charge.

He looked down at her. “We’ll lead the way in the first transport. Stay close as we leave Zone D. We have to travel through the Outer Sector to get to Sector 4, and there may be rebels.”

Ally thought of the rebels that had fired at them when they arrived, nearly killing her and Luke. The soldier must have read the look on her face.

“Don’t worry, the transports are bullet proof, but that won’t keep them from jumping on top. There are some tight roads to navigate but if we spot rebels, we will start to move quick, so keep up and be careful.”

Ally nodded and turned back to the transport. She really wasn’t the best driver but they would have to manage. She ran to the back transport, where Luke was already climbing in to the drivers seat, and relayed the message. He seemed uneasy.

“Maybe I should drive your transport to the Sector,” Max offered.

“Don’t be silly,” she responded. “I’ll have to learn how to drive it well anyway.”

Max didn’t look happy but he didn’t say another word. She hurried back and jumped up in the driver’s seat of her transport. Her new home for who knew how long. Sabine and Stosh were both in the back so she was alone in the front. Maybe she should have let Max come and drive.

That thought was lost when the transport in front of her started. She started hers up and put her foot on the gas, trying to concentrate on the driving in front of her. She wished the soldiers hadn’t mentioned the rebels at all. They drove through the streets outside of Zone D. The homes were modest and uniform, all the same shape and color. When they had entered the city, they had been in the back of a transport and were not able to see their surroundings. This was still part of Zone D, and therefore was occupied by Ordinarys, confirmed by the lack of bracelets on their wrists.

They were only driving for five minutes when they came upon another gate, this one larger and seemingly thicker than the last one. Ally figured they had arrived at the Outer Sector and the nerves started to eat away at her belly. She wished she had someone to talk to, someone that would listen to her nervous babble.

A soldier approached the transport in front of her and spoke to the driver through the window. After a few nods, he headed back to the gate and in a few seconds it was opening. Two guards stood on either side of the gate, their guns trained out toward the outer sector. If a band of rebels decided to attack, would they really be able to stop them? It wasn’t for Ally to worry about. She was sure that they had it all figured out.

She followed the soldiers through the gate and looked through her side mirror to watch Luke do the same. Ally could almost make him out in the mirror, his dark hair growing in thick and his violet eyes bright in the daylight. The sun was halfway up the horizon as they approached mid-morning. She pulled her focus back to the transport in front of her and focused on its rear tires, following its moves precisely while trying to observe her surroundings as well. The Outer Sector started as ruined homes and skeletons of smaller transports. It reminded her a lot of the abandoned section of Champaign, the part that Max wanted to rebuild someday. She wondered if he was thinking the same thing.

Ally could see the larger buildings in the distance, their cracked surfaces reaching toward the sky. They were not going closer to them, but driving parallel to them. Hopefully the rebels chose to stay in that part of the city rather than closer to Zone D.

Suddenly the transport in front of her swerved and then picked up speed. Ally sat up straight, on full alert. She pressed her foot on the gas pedal, paying close attention to the road in front of her. A group of men stood in the street, waving guns and long brown sticks in the air. One of them fired at her transport and the bullet bounce off the front window. Ally screamed and then covered her mouth. Her heart raced wildly. The soldiers’ transport was swerving back and forth to keep the rebels from jumping onto the side and it seemed to be working. Ally did the same. She didn’t have enough time to look in her mirror to see how Luke was doing, she had to focus. Hopefully Sabine and Stosh would find something to hold on to.

A hatch on the roof of the transport in front of her popped open and two soldiers climbed onto the roof. They aimed their guns and began to fire at the rebels on the ground, taking four of them out in as many seconds.

A shadow caught Ally’s eye and on the building to the right she noticed several rebels pop up. She honked the horn of the transport, hoping to alert the soldiers. They swung their guns around but not quickly enough. The rebels opened fire. Thankfully the soldiers were in full bulletproof gear and the bullets were more of an annoyance than anything else. One of the rebels fell from the roof, clutching his chest, and Ally wasn’t sure where the bullet that hit him had come from. The soldiers in front of her were trying to regain their footing. Friendly fire? Max?

Ally didn’t know how the soldiers even managed to stay on top of the transports. She was having trouble not sliding around and she was in a seat. She continued to swerve like the transport in front of her and soon they were past the group of rebels in the street, and there didn’t seem to be any more on the roofs of the buildings.

Ally breathed a sigh of relief when the transport in front of her slowed. She could see a large, metal gate a few streets ahead. They were almost to the Sectors that housed the Exceptionals.

A horn sounded behind her.

Ally instinctively looked out her driver’s side window. A small vehicle was barreling down an alley beside her, and it wasn’t slowing down. She tried to speed up but it was too late. She closed her eyes and held on tight as the vehicle slammed into the side of her transport.