Revolution (17 page)

             
Marissa, who'd been standing back giving them space, rushed to Sherry's side.
She gasped at the dog, calling Sherry's attention to it. She balked at it, but shook it away and focused.
Sherry grasped Laura's arm and said, "Laura, go with Marissa."

             
Laura shook her head, but Sherry stood her ground. "Laura, I know, ok? I know. But you don't need to be here right now. What they have
to do him, you won't want to see, trust me."

             
She looked at her funny. "Why?"

             
"I had this done to me," Sherry whispered. "He'll be ok, I promise, but we need to help him now and you need to go so as soon as we're done, you can be there for him."

             
Laura looked at Eli and he shrugged, wiping his face to remove the look of anguish. He failed though. Marissa took Eli and Laura to the back. There was no way to remove them from the room, but they didn't need to see it at least. I took Sherry's hand. She jolted at my touch and I realized how worried and focused she was.

             
The girl who had taken Mrs. Trudy's place
,
and then in the past few days had lost her way a little
,
was back. She was back big time. I squeezed her hand and we pushed everyone aside. "Miguel, Jeff, Ryan, come on. Let's take him to the makeshift bathroom."
             
"I'm coming!" Calvin yelled and fought against Ryan's back. "I'm coming, too!"

             
"No, you're not," Ryan told him harshly. "This isn't your fault, Cal, no matter how much you want to believe it is. I'm not letting you come and torture yourself. We'll be done in a little bit and then you can sit with him."

             
"It was my fault. He wanted to come along because you let me help last time and I bragged about how cool it was. He didn't want to be left behind again."

             
The dog barked and yelped at Calvin's screaming.

             
Ryan sighed and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know, Cal, but you can't come. I'm sorry."

             
Calvin huffed and sat down right there in the middle of the floor,
his stake laid across his lap. The dog licking at his ear and arm.

             
We all gathered around Franklin, who had yet to wake up, and knelt at his side. Ryan pulled the sheets together so we'd have visual privacy, but no one was safe from the screams that were about to come from the kid.

             
"Where's Jeff?" Sherry asked.

             
"Right here," he answered and pushed the sheet away with his back as he came in. He had a knife in his hand and he was gettin
g the blade red with a Zippo.
             
Sherry grunted as she put her hand on Franklin's forehead. "It's going to be ok, big guy. Hopefully he stays asleep."

             
"No one can sleep through this, love," Miguel said and looked her in the eyes. "Right?"

             
She nodded, her tears begging to be released, but she refused them. Miguel reached over and took her hand. "His
scratch
is so small. It'll hurt
,
but there's not much are
a
to cover.
It'll be quick for him.
" He leaned back. "He's a big boy. Let's get
on with it
, Jeff."

             
Jeff took steps of a man that wanted no part in what he was about to do. I agreed with him. Sherry held Franklin's head. I took his shoulders to stay near Sherry. Though I was worried about Franklin, I hoped this wouldn't cause problems for Sherry, flashbacks or whatever.

             
"All right," Jeff said and leaned close and he pulled the Zippo off the blade. "Here we go."

What's This Life For?

Sherry

             
I
cleaned the wound and maneuvered around Laura as she gripped his hand and sat there in the chair. It creaked every time she moved, making me want to sigh with the bleakness of it all.

             
Franklin had woken up doing our…procedure. Oh, yes, he had. And it had been agonizing and ugly.
I hadn't thought about using Lily's gift until that moment. But she told us that she couldn't 'fix' that kind of wound. That she only fixed human inflicted wounds, not supernatural ones. I thought back and realized that was true.

             
I could hear Marissa trying to stop
Franklin's parents from coming in. I could
hear Calvin saying, "Ah, man, a
h, man," o
ver and over and over again.

             
As soon as we were done, I left to tell Frank's parents to come in and then went straight to Calvin. He was huddled against a wall with Lana
and that dog
. She had her arm around his shoulders and his head was resting on his dirty jeaned knees. I sat on his other side and took his hand. He lifted his head. "He ok?"

             
"Yep. He'll be just fine."

             
"He was screaming," he whispered.

             
"It hurts
to fix what happened
."

             
"They did that to you, didn't they? When you were scratched. I remember hearing you scream like that."

             
I turned to see his dirty face, his fingernails caked with grime underneath, his neck lined with sweat and dust.
The dog was asleep on his lap.
"Yeah, they did that to me, too. I'd have had them do it
to me
again if I could have kept Frank from having to have it done to him."

             
"I know you would. I would, too. I feel really guilty."

             
"Don't. Frank can make his own decisions."

             
He
twisted his lips. "Can I see him now?"

             
"You can, but he's asleep. Miguel is using the last of our medicine
that we stole from the hospital
on him
,
so he'll be asleep for a few days." I sighed and said more to myself than him, "We're going to have to make another run for medicine, too."

             
"Can I come?"

             
"Not this
time, Calvin," I told him, a bit harshly. "It's too soon. We need to all make a few hard decisions and figure out what we're going to do, but we need to be smart about it. We need to use strategy, not revenge, if we want to keep surviving and beat them one day."

             
He nodded, "Yeah, ok. I'm gonna go see him now."

             
"Ok."
He laid the dog on the floor and
I watched him go, before turning to Lana and signing, '
Poor guy. I wish things were different, Lana. I wish he could be safe.'

             
She signed back and smiled, '
No one's safe anymore. Even if the Lighters left tomorrow, we still wouldn't be safe. The world will never be the same. All those desperate people will have to try to get their
lives back together, like they
are trying to do now. Desperation
brings out many emotions in people
.'
             

             
I nodded remembering
those people who tried to rob us on the road.

             
I told her I needed to see about making som
e dinner and went to do so. There
had been no schedules made yet or lists. We really didn't even know how some things were going to be done yet. Like laundry. I guess we were hand washing them in tubs now.

             
And the food. There was no kitchen, no stove, no sink. We had to cook everything over a fire in
a
brick pit the guys had made of debris and leftover building supplies. We had a few things to burn, but soon enough, we'd have to start going out to get firewood. And with it being so hot at the moment, i
t made it pretty toasty in there
when I cranked the fire up.

             
It was an endless cycle of suck.

             
But we'd get through it. We always did and I had no inclinations to start giving up now. I even managed to snag Mrs. Trudy's apron in the getaway. Wistful was one word to describe my mood as
I
s
lipped it on and looked at the five
large cans of beans I was about to open and cook. We were all going to turn into beans if
we kept this up. Why had Piper gotten rid of the good stuff? Of all the things to leave behind, beans?

             
I gripped the old metal handheld can opener and went to cranking.
Beans and beans and people dying and kids being attacked and beans…
Merrick came up behind me and took it from me. "I've got it.
"

             
I refused to let go.
"No, I've got it."

             
He put both arms around me from behind. "Baby, let go."

             
I did and he set it on the counter. I knew what he was doing. I didn't want to be consoled right now. I wanted to stew and be mad. I wanted to throw the can opener across the room and curse and yell.

             
His arms went around my stomach and he rested his chin on my shoulder. We just sat there for a minute like that, not saying anything. My anger began to melt away and it turned
int
o something else
as his skin pulsed electricity through mine. It became calm. Not peace by any means, but calm.

             
I turned and let him e
ngulf me in his warmth that was warmer
than normal, but comforting to me. I let my sigh escape against his chest and his arms tightened. "Better?"