"What? I'm stronger than I look." I say and scoop him up, I pretend I'm fine but I'm struggling, he's a lot heavier than he was when we were kids.
I heave him up the stairs and plonk him in the shower on a plastic chair, fully clothed.
"Wait," he stops me.
"I heard you. Yesterday." He says looking pale.
"I figured. Who punched Victor by the way?" I say, remembering the last thing before I blacked out.
"Oh, that was Alec. We managed to handcuff him to the bed, but his goonies were only knocked out." He explains, I nod and leave. I wait outside the door, and slide to the ground, I rest my head on my knees and curl my arms round me.
"Hey," says I voice, I snap up.
"Jace?" I gawp, he smirks.
"Hey, I'm a friend of Doug's I normally visit him a couple times a week. He told me what happened." He explains and sits beside me.
"oh, yeah." Is all I can say.
"You know, the boys downstairs are very… protective over you." He smirks, I raise one eyebrow at him.
"They basically interrogated me before letting me see you."
I grin.
"Probably cause of Dez." I say, but secretly my heart melts. I sigh.
"What is it?" he asks.
"Nothing. Just that we'll have to leave soon, go on the run. There's gonna be a war, isn't there?" I ask.
He nods sadly. I rest my head on his shoulder and we stay like that until Dezzie calls me.
Thankfully, he's fully clothed when I walk in, still on the chair but on a towel. I scoop him up and carry him out, he stops me once we get onto the landing, making me nearly buckle at the knees.
"Who are you?" he demands,
"Jace. It's ok, your friends already gave me the interrogation." He says and I laugh.
Once we get downstairs, Doug has a map spread across the table, I recognise it as the area we're in.
"The red sections are the bits where the government has control over," he explains, I look at the map and a sea of red covers it.
"Right, where's our bit?" I say, squinting.
"Here." He says and points to a tiny section I recognise as the underground subway.
A cold stone of ice drops in my stomach as I make the realisation;
"Victor is going to find them, isn't he?" I say quietly, Doug nods slowly.
"Let's go then." I say to the others, who look determined and nods. We take a backpack full of food from Doug and we each wear big cloaks to hide us.
"Hey, I like your hair," mutters Alec, I smirk. We reach an ally way and slide down the grate to underground. We easily find the subway and race towards them.
"Guys! It's me Mercury!" I shout, all the little ones and adults rush towards us, we're engulfed in a giant group hug. Once we break apart, I can see the grime and worry on each face. There's only about 500 standing in front of me, I look around for the rest. Then I realise, this is it.
"Where are the others?" Dezzie asks my old teacher, she goes pale.
"We're the only ones left, we thought you died." She says and gapes at me,
"Nearly, we were kidnapped by the scientists." I say and they gape at me more. I hand around the food and sit with everyone.
"We need to move everyone; it's not going to be long before they find us." I say to the group, they stare at me. I clear my throat awkwardly.
"Who's in charge now anyways?" I ask. They look around for a minute before an old man stands up,
"Well, we were hoping you would." Now it's my turn to gape.
"Me?" one of my old teachers, Max stands up.
"Let's take a vote, all those in favour of having Mercury raise your hand." They say. One by one each hand raises. Oh sh-.
I leap to my feet.
"I can't! I'm sixteen and-" I start off panicked.
"No, you should. You helped us get out and knew exactly what to do." Mutters Casper, only not to quietly.
"Um, ok then." I say after a few minutes, realising I can't get out of this.
"Ok. We need a plan. Victor and the government aren���t going to stop hunting us until we're all dead." I say flatly. The others exchange nervous glances.
"So, we need to fight back. There's going to be a war, whether we like it or not, we need to focus on getting as many allies to join us. but first, we need to get the kids somewhere safe, I have one safe house, but we need more, we can't have them all in the same house." I decide, the others look more hopeful.
"I have three I know about," offers a small elderly woman.
"That's great. Thank you. Anymore?" I say,
"I got one." Says Dezzie quietly.
The day consists of me splitting the kids into five groups and making a map of how to and when to go.
"Ok, the kids are all sorted, now we need to decide who's taking them." I say to the adults.
"How many should go?" Alec asks. I think for a second but finally I make up my mind.
"Two. I know it's small, but it's too risky otherwise."
After over an hour of debate, I finally win and get to go, along with Casper.
We load the kids into the van and set off, all the kids quickly fall asleep.
"Wanna hear a joke?" says Casper, unable to keep still.
"No-" I start,
"Knock knock?" he says anyways. I sigh.
"Who's there?"
"Boo," I already know where this is going…
"Boo who?"
"No need to cry about it, it's only a joke!" he says and cracks up, I roll my eyes. After he had finally finished laughing, he turns to me, looking more serious.
"Why do you never smile?" I blink taken aback.
"What? I do smile!" I protest.
"Nope, you don't." Crap, maybe he's right. Nah, I do smile when I want to. Don't I?
I pull up at Doug's house, I had asked him before coming using a pay phone.
I take a load of kids ages 4-15, including Venus, and sneak around to the back. I knock eight times and the door swings open. The kids rush in and Doug hangs back.
"Good luck kid. I'll get as many allies together as I can." He says before I flee to the van.
The next three houses are random people, then we get to the last house. I knock eight times again and an old couple opens the door, the striking similarities between them and Dezzie startle me.
"You're Dezzie's parents?!" I gape before I can stop myself, I go to apologise but they're faces light up.
"Desmond! Yes, we are we got back in contact in secret months ago. You must be Mercury?" the woman says, I nod and smile but have to run back out, so I'm not seen.
We drive away, my mind whirling. Dez's parents? Alive? Could my mother be? No, I can't think about that right now. Casper is still chattering away when we reach the train station again, I quickly walk away from him to get some peace. Suddenly, on the tv screens on the station light up, the other people stop talking and stare at the screen. Victor is sat on a desk making a broadcast.
"People of Earth. We have a crisis. The rebels that call themselves LGBTQ have gone rouge, they have been living under us for years, continuing their lifestyle as if it were right. We must put a stop to this, five runaways have escaped and are now on the loose, they are highly dangerous and there is a reward for their capture, £50000, dead or alive. These five criminals are;" he pauses and pictures of Casper, Flynn, Dezzie, Alec and I appear. Double shit. I gulp, this isn't good.
"Furthermore, if by the end of the day, subject number 1301, you know who you are, does not come to the lab by midnight tomorrow, we will bomb one of your safe houses. Don't believe me? I saw you knock eight times." He says and grins. Oh god. My heart pounds, he can't be lying. And I know he won't hesitate to bomb them. The tv's flicker off.
"You can't." says Alec, looking horrified.
"Who says I am?" I retort, trying not to give it away. He raises his eyebrows and I look down.
"You're not going." Says Dezzie, folding his arms. I don't reply, I know I can't lie to him.
The other adults disappear so the five of us can talk.
"You're not going!" Dezzie shouts at my silence.
"Fine!" I yell. But it's not fine. Countless kids and a couple adults will die if I don't go. Maybe more.
The others are silent for a moment. Suddenly I realise Casper isn't hopping around like normal.
"Casper?" I say and walk over to him, he's pale and shaking.