Wretchedly Divine (Gasping for Air)

We reached the border safely and I sent in Abriga to check the coast. She scaled the fence in seconds, only to hop right back over.
“It’s an open field between here and the main, there’s no way she escaped this way.” She told me, and I sighed.
“How else could she get out?”
“I don’t know, Ashley, I’ve never lived in The Box.” She said frustrated.
“Maybe she’ll still try and go this way.” CC offered.
“Yeah, and maybe she’ll risk getting caught, she isn’t stupid, CC.”
“It wouldn’t necessarily be a stupid thing to do, Ashley, this is the quickest way, she’d just have to make a dash for it.” Evan spoke up without actually speaking loudly, as was common for Evan. He was soft spoke, but what he said always registered clearly.
“A dash through and uncovered empty field, yes, that wouldn’t be stupid at all, and if memory serves it’s about two hundred yards of open space, yes, nothing could go wrong then.” Darren interjected with his usual un-agreeable and inhospitable tone. He thought that because he was oldest he had some right to look down on everyone. If anything it gave people a reason to look down on him.
“I’m not saying it wouldn’t be stupid.” Evan countered, not even registering as slightly irritated. “I’m just saying that it would be the quickest way, and she might still do it if the conditions were right.”
Darren didn’t say anything after that and Ebe cut in. “Do you think she went the long way, through the slums? There are lots of holes in the wall there, she wouldn’t have to risk climbing, and there are no guards ever in the slums. Ever.” She seemed sort of bitter towards the end, but no one commented. Anytime the slums were brought up Ebe got bitter, and she probably had every right to, but no one besides her knew exactly what that right was.
“She might have, but she would probably get mugged, I mean, a girl from the Main in the slums, she won’t really get along well with them.”
“If she’s really the great Deceiver she should’ve been able to blend in with them, and make them think she wasn’t from The Main.” Evan said with no emotion, but you still got the feeling that he was saying it with a “duh” tone.
“Ashley just call Andy and have him ask here where she is. It’s a hell of a lot safer than us guessing about where she went.” Caleb finally spoke, having had enough of the antics.
“Oh, that’s actually a good idea.” Darren told Caleb, and Caleb rolled his eyes, annoyed at the insinuation, but knowing better than to start a conflict while we were in such a vulnerable position.
I pulled out the satellite phone and dialed Andy.
“Meditating.” He said when he answered, which meant “Make it quick,”
“Dude, put your meditation to good use and go ask her where the hell she is.”
“Yes, because she’ll respond well to the voice in her head she’s convinced isn’t mine asking her where she is so I can send a group of people to find her. I’m telling you, this is going to end up being more like a kidnap than a retrieval, she won’t come easily. If I know her she’s hell bent on surviving outside on her own. The last thing she wants is to be drug around by people she doesn’t know to an undisclosed location.”
“Well would you try and contact her.”
“If I do anything she tells me will be a lie, she doesn’t want to be found, so you have to find her.”
“Ashley quite.” Ebe said suddenly, pressing her ear to the ground. “Someone’s coming.”
“Shit.” I muttered, turning the phone off so it wouldn’t ring if Andy called back, and we all pressed ourselves against the wall as spaced apart as possible. I heard the footsteps now, and panting. This wasn’t a guard, it was someone running, and doing a bad job at it based on the amount of gasping. I could see Abriga shaking her head and I smirked at her for a moment before getting back to the problem at hand. Someone was coming, and maybe it was her, but maybe it wasn’t.
There was some scrambling and after a minute the uncoordinated idiot managed to get himself to the top of the wall and throw himself over. He landed with a hard thud that made me wince in pain, and then got up, shaking himself off. He was completely oblivious to our presence.
I glanced at CC who was on my other side, about ten feet from me and five from the new guy, asking him the silent question whether we should reveal our presence to him and take him back to base, or leave him to either starve or be discovered by those damn rebels.
CC Shrugged, giving me the signal that it was my call.
“Don’t freak out.” I finally said, and he jumped, looking around and finally noticing us. I moved away from the wall and moved towards him. “I’m The Deviant, a member of the Legion of the Black. Are you trying to run away from F.E.A.R.?”
He looked at me warily, and then nodded slightly. I smiled reassuringly. “Then you’ve bumped into the right people. We have a camp established a few miles away. Luckily for you today we had an appointment with another escapee.” I turned to Abriga who was eyeing the new comer warily.
“Take him back, we can handle it.”
She looked at me with malice in her eyes before walking off. She hated when I purposefully gave her jobs that took her out of harm’s way, but I preferred for her not to be in the thick of things.
“Follow her,” I told him, and he nodded, trailing behind her like an uncertain little puppy.
“He seems weak.” Ebe observed, her eyes tracing his outline, attempting to detect any pride or muscle.
“He might just be scared, E, not everyone is as cold hearted as you are.” Caleb told her and she shot a glare at him.
“I just don’t want to have to feed another useless mouth.” She groaned and then turned back to the wall.
“I’m going in, I’ll check her room for any signs of her.”
“And how are you going to know which one her room is?” Darren condemned.
“Andy told me which one it is.” She said haughtily before scaling the wall. She loved to flaunt how her relationship with Andy was better than everyone else’s. I smirked knowing that was going to change soon, and wondered whether she knew that or not. I doubted he told her, but you’d think if he’d talked about her at all common sense would show you how Andy felt about the girl.
She disappeared over the wall and I motioned for Darren and CC to start fanning out left. I told Evan and Caleb to stay put, and I motioned for Andre to come with me, knowing he’d be able to match my speed. The little fucker was quite, and pretty much never spoke, but he was fast.
“Slums?” He questioned, and I nodded. He pulled his hood tighter around his head and on my count we dashed. It was safer to go around The Box, rather than through it, but it was longer, and since the slums were nearly opposite the spot where we were now standing, I figured it would be best for us to go. I basically sent Darren and CC off on a wild goose chase, because unless they got to the slums they were just wandering around until it was time to return to base, and I doubted they’d get to the base. Darren was strong, but he wasn’t fast by any means, CC could hold his own, but wasn’t fast.
By the time we reached the slums it was 2 am, and I could hear a commotion going on just inside. I laughed internally at the language used by a slum girl, “Mother fucking ca-pet munchers.” Andrew was not so amused, he just rolled his eyes as we continued past a small opening in the wall closer to the heart of the slums.
We could hear other people’s footsteps and we paused momentarily, they were walking away from us, moving slowly and methodically, like they were searching for something. We continued carefully past the person, and to a large hole in the wall that led straight into the slums.
“Ready?” I asked, pulling my gloves into place.
Andrew put his hood down and moved his hair out of his eyes. “Yeah, let’s go.”

Notes

So, it's still short, but it's longer than the last one, so that's a plus, right? I just wanted to do this now so I wasn't going back in time later to explain what the heck happened with Ashley and CC and their rescue attempt. I'm going to skip over them going into the slums, because, *spoiler alert* they aren't going to find here there.
So if it isn't them then who the heck is looking for her? Good question.
Let's see.
Are all of the character introductions so suddenly freaking you guys out? I had sme trouble keeping them straight while I was writing, but there are so many characters, so I'm not sure if I want to do each of them on the front page. I think I'm just going to do the important ones, like The Legion members and Ebe, that bitch. I don't know why she suddenly became a bitch. Originally she was just going to be a badass and then she became that one bitch who is going to get in Ashtins way, without giving away too much of the future plot XD
Will definately be updating again today, so stay tuned. ^-^ There are six whole subscribers now. WOO!!!
O.O
Who had that random outburst?
It wasn't me.
No sir
(Yeah it was ^-^)

Anyway, thanks for reading :)

- ♥ Ashtin