"We have to get out of here." Blue said grabbing my wrist again. I pulled away from him as he returned to the courtroom. I picked up Hal off the floor of the stairwell and refused to follow Blue.

"For a second there, I thought you were going to forget about me." Hal's voice echoed in my mind. I imagined him crossing his arms and tapping his foot against the floor of my brain. I shook my head. I would never leave Hal behind. My tears stained the lime, green cover of the book as I traced the title with trembling fingers.

"So, this is what shock feels like." I found myself saying as Blue busted back into the stairwell.

"What are you still doing here? The others have already run off!" I looked up at Blue and his angry expression suddenly softened. "Come on," He said a lot calmer. He grabbed my arm and tried to pull me downstairs, but I couldn't budge. "Come on!" He repeated, this time with a lot more aggression. "We don't have time for this Wanda's minions will be here any second!"

"Pull yourself together! This is not how I would handle the situation, so why the hell should you!?" Hal's voice rang in my ears and I gripped my book tighter.

"We have to go upstairs," I said shaking my head and wiping my cheeks with the heel of my hand. "They will be expecting us to go down stairs because that's the only reasonable exit." I adjusted my arm so that Blue was holding my hand and not my wrist. His hand was callous and sweaty. It occurred to me then, that Blue was just as scared as I was. I only had to tug him a little before we're both running up the stairs.

*~*

"So, what's your plan of escape exactly?" Blue asked as if he hadn't just run up five flights of stairs, instead he looked like he came back from a leisurely stroll. I pressed my palms against my thighs as I tried to catch my breath.

"I said going down the stairs was the only reasonable escape," I looked up at Blue and grinned.

"We have to find one of those trash shoots. The same one the boy..." I couldn't finish my sentence, but I didn't have to because Blue caught on immediately.

"Good idea, we’ll slide down one of those, but we need to find a place to hide out first. I don’t want to be caught by one of those trash men. Blue said rubbing the crease between his eyes. “They’ll also be looking for us for hours. We need to make them think we already left."

"But where can we go? We can't obviously stay in the stairwell." I said gesturing to our surroundings.

"There has to be at least one area without any cameras." After a beat of pondering. Blue looks down at me wide eyed and my expression changed as well.

"The bathrooms!" We said in unison and I giggled. That was so, cool! "We're a good team." I said enjoying the brief distraction. Blue didn't say anything. He just peeked his head through the door in front of us and motioned me to follow with his hands when the hall was clear. "In another life, we would have been really good spies." I whispered, but Blue still didn't respond. I found myself getting agitated. Is this how others felt about me when I didn't feel like talking. My mother never seemed aggravated when I chose to keep my thoughts to myself rather than share them with her.

Blue was surprisingly good at dodging people. We hid behind an empty cubicle and waited for a woman wearing a pink blouse with black slacks to rush pass us before moving again. I briefly complimented him on his skills, but once again he said nothing.

Floor sixteen was a strange combination of a work office and a staff lounge. Half the room was filled with cubicles while, a large glass room with big red couches, a fridge and a T.V. took over the other section of the office. Almost all of the staff were distracted by something on screen. They spoke frantically, gasping and furrowing their brows at one another, which made it easy for Blue and me to go through the building unnoticed.

"It's not hard to avoid people," Blue whispered when nobody was around. "People are dumb and half the time they can't see what's right in front of them." I caught a glimpse of the screen and a picture of Blue and I were on it. They used an old, school photo of me, but I wasn’t sure what they used to identify Blue. He was wearing the same suit and his face looked distorted.

ESCAPED INFECTED blinked in red and white on the T.V. and I wondered what happened to the others. Did they all get captured? My vision blurred as I thought of the idea that all those people are now dead. I shook my head, Hal wouldn't want me getting down at a moment like this. I made it. I am alive... I am a disgrace.

"I'm the exception of course," Blue continued when he noticed I had been quiet for too long. He wiped his palms against his pants before placing my hand in his and moving on again.

"What about me? am I the exception too?" I asked as Blue entered a bathroom.

"No," Blue said when he opened the door and gestured for me to come in. He locked the door behind me.

“What!? Why not?” I inquired raising my voice when it was safe.

"Because you reek of perkiness." He scoffed.

"That's not true! Take right now for example!" I found myself giggling. "I'm angry in public!”

“No, you are alone in a bathroom getting giddy about being angry. That defeats the purpose of getting angry.” Blue said rolling his eyes.

"Shut up! Don't ruin this moment for me!" I pouted as Blue shrugged and leaned against the sink. His lips pressed together into a small frown as his brows furrowed. He seemed much older when he looked serious.

We didn’t say much for a while, but the silence didn't bother me. In fact, after all the chaos I had just went through, some peace and quiet was comforting. I walked over to the sink and seethed when I caught sight of my reflection in the mirror. I looked bad, really bad. Half dried blood ran down my nose, passed my lips and chin. A bruise began to form on my right temple where my head hit the table, and I almost dropped Hal when I took notice of my hair. Instead of taking a gingerly approach to washing my face, I decided that the sooner I looked healthy the better I’d feel. If that meant feeling some pain, then so be it.

I took one more glance at the sink and sighed. The bruises wouldn’t disappear anytime soon, but at least all the blood was gone. The last thing I checked was my neck. A large black ring surrounded the area where the needle punctured my skin. It was pretty obvious, but Blue was kind enough not to mention it.

I walked away from the sink and slid my back down one of the tiled walls of the bathroom until, my knees pressed against my chest. I clutched Hal with both hands and started to trace the letters of the title again. Part of me wanted to open the book and find out what had happened to the greatest hero ever, but I was held back by the thoughts of this morning’s events.

How was I alive?

I should have died. I should have done the honorable thing and accepted my fate with whatever pride I had. If only I were more mature... Phoebe probably never thought once about escaping appointment day. My father was undoubtedly the same way. Both of them took their appointment day like adults. I'm just a kid who still runs away from-

"So, what do I call you?" Blue asked pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Lux." I replied after a beat.

"Is that your real name or something you just came up with?" Blue smirked and I just shrugged.

"Guess you'll never know." I smiled, but it quickly faded when neither of us continued with the conversation. Darkness pooled inside my mind once more and I looked up at Blue who was still leaning against the sink. Maybe if I drowned myself I could still be worthy of dying with honor.

"Don't be an idiot." I blinked twice. It was Hal! I saw his reflection in the mirror behind Blue and my jaw dropped. "Stop pretending you want to die for 'honor.' If you really wanted to die you would have let that poison snuff out your soul." I tilted my head. Hal was right. I could have ignored his words and just let go, but I didn't. "So, pull your shit together and figure a way out of this mess." I nodded in agreement with Hal's words, but I was briefly distracted by Blue shaking his own head.

"You girls are all the same. No matter how dire the situation, you are always looking at mirrors to check if you still look good." Blue chuckled and I frowned.

"That's not what I was doing!" I said looking back the mirror. "I was-" I stopped. Hal was gone. In his absence were my olive colored eyes and blond hair.

"Sure..." Blue said arching his brows for a brief second. I opened my mouth to defend myself, but what could I say to him? Oh! I was just talking to the main character of my book. I am not crazy I promise! Now if you’ll excuse me, while I figure out yet another way to kill myself...

I gripped my book. No, not kill myself... Not yet anyways.

"So, what's the plan, wise guy..." I asked trying to hide the uncertainty of our lives with nonchalance. I bit my lip in order to control my body from shaking.

"I texted a guy earlier who might be able to get us out of here." He said in his cool, assertive demeanor. I internally groaned. How can he be so calm and composed? My eyes instinctively went to his hands as his palms rubbed against his blue trousers. I sighed. He's freaking out just as much as I am. He's just better at hiding it...Why?

"Well that’s a start but, do you know anyone who could take us in?"

"Plenty of people would be glad to see we are alive, but it's only a matter of avoiding the PPD and getting a boat." I tilted my head. Who would be glad to see a couple of infected?

"What do you mean?"

"Well now that they know infected are running around it will be a hell of a lot harder to get to the ruins."

"Wait, the ruins are real?" I shifted my position so that I was fully facing Blue. He furrowed his brows.

"Wow they did a really good job of brainwashing you." He brushed a hand through his unkempt hair.

"That's not true! I've read about the ruins. A place where the infected can live happily. I got scolded once for talking about it in school."

"Brainwashing the youth... How very clever of Them." Blue scrunched his face, as if he had eaten something too bitter for his liking.

"Who are you referring to? And for the last time I wasn't brainwashed!" I stood up to stretch my legs.

"I'm talking about Wanda and her band of goons." Blue watched me curiously as I stretched my arms.

"Oh yeah, you punched her during the appointment! Who is she to you?" I lifted one leg feeling a rush of relief. I repeated the same motion with my other leg. I suddenly felt constricted and all I really wanted to do, was yoga.

"She's my aunt." Blue said distracted.

"Probably not very supportive of your life choices." I joked. My body grew hotter with each passing second and my fingers began to stick together like, my sweat was a sort of disgusting glue. It became increasingly hard to concentrate on Blue’s words.

"I wouldn't know, that was the first time I met her." Blue voice sounded distant when he spoke.

"I don't think you understand the concept of family reunions." The room suddenly grew cold and the sweat rolling down my back now felt like ice cubes searing my skin.

"Are you okay?" Blue took his first step forward since we entered the bathroom.

"F-fine." I stuttered. "Just need a drink, I think." I walked toward the sink, but stumbled into Blue. "S-sorry," I tried to push away from him, but his hands gripped my shoulders.

"Shit, Lux!" Blue placed a hand on my forehead. "You’re burning up!" My vision didn't slowly fade out nor did Blue's voice continue to sound a mile away like I thought it would, when you’re about to faint.

It started with a ringing. It grew louder and louder and I had to cup my ears. Blue quickly put a hand over my mouth and dragged me into the farthest stall. Was I screaming? I blinked and the world turned black. I blinked again and Blue's eyes were looking back at me. His lips were moving, but I couldn't hear his voice. I couldn't hear anything. I blinked again, and I was surrounded by darkness. My body felt heavy and all I wanted to do was fade away. My breathing suddenly slowed down and I found it harder and harder to intake air. I'm sorry Hal. I guess you were wrong.

*~*~*~*~*~

 I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Fun Fact: Owls are one of the only birds who can see the color blue.