Marked

by Penelope Scott

  "You know, I've suddenly changed my mind..." Echo said nervously, stepping back from the tub. She'd never been a big fan of pain, and she'd already had enough of it that day. Unfortunately for her, Lys was too quick to grab her wrists and pull her arms under the water. Echo hissed in pain but Lys did not let her go.

  "Sorry Echo, but it's for your own good. Your pain will be a lot worse if you don't soak those burns."

  "It's your fault I have them anyway!" Echo glared, although she did relax her arms and let them dangle in the water. The water intensified the pain and made the wounds hiss with protest, but eventually the coldness numbed her limbs and she could forget the pain.

  "What do you mean? I was perfectly prepared to take that rain, you had to be all noble and try to protect me."

  "You had to be an idiot and go back for Shy and Bold!"

  "You'd rather I'd left them out there?" He questioned with a raise of his eyebrow.

  "Well...no, but they would have been fine on their own. And then you came back and didn't even try to get your own spot under the overhang!"

  "Oh this is pointless," Lys groaned, leaning back so he was submerged under the water up to his neck. "How about we call a truce and say we're both idiots?"

  "No," Echo said stubbornly.

  "No?"

  "I think I'd rather say we're both brave, noble and couragous heroes."

  "Aren't brave and courageous the same thing?"

  "That's not important. What do you say?"

  "Alright, I can handle being noble and brave/courageous."

  Echo smiled and swished her arms about in the water, feeling it rush around her throbbing limbs. As she was distracted, Lys got an evil idea and swiped his arm across the surface of the water, sending a wave straight at Echo's face.

  Echo screamed when the water hit her, and jumped to her feet, cursing wildly while Lys laughed. "Ro!" She called to the older girl, "Lys splashed me!"

  From the other room Echo could hear Ro groan in frustration, "You two are such children!"

  Echo stormed out and went to sit next to Athena and watch cartoons. Ro rolled her eyes and hastily re-wrapped Echos' bandages with clean ones, pausing only a moment to smear more cream on the tattered skin. The look of it reminded vaguely of the dream she had of the diseased people in the shelter, with the skin that was rotting and falling off their bones. The realization made her sick and she quickly looked away as Ro finished with the bandages. "I'm going to check on Lys," She announced, standing up again. "You should get some rest, Echo. You look beat."

  "Thanks Ro," She smiled. She heeded the girl's advice and lied down on her own bed and closed her eyes. She was asleep almost instantly, so she didn't even have time to notice that Ro had gone into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.

  The sleeping arrangements had never been sorted out, so Lys slept on the bed next to Echo, and Ro and Athena took the other one. Normally Echo would have protested that she had to share with a boy, but she was too tired and she didn't really care after sleeping is such close vicinity of the others for so long. Lys offered to sleep on the floor, being the gentleman that he is, but Ro and Echo both immediately protested fiercely since his back was all burnt up, as were parts of his shoulders and the backs of his calves. So Lys gave in and slept on his stomach at the edge of the bed and buried his face in his arms to fall asleep. He didn't want any blankets since even the slightest brush of fabric set his back aflame again. Echo too kept her arms above the covers and both had to get up several times in the night to soak their burnt bodies in cold water to relieve the stinging. It was a rough night, but thankfully Maddox allowed everyone to sleep in for a change.

  When it was finally time to leave, everyone groaned in protest, even Andrew screamed for most of the morning as they were organizing themselves and planning their next move. "It's obvious, isn't it?" Maddox shouted over Andrew's wailing. "We need to head on over to D.C. and check out these dreams Athena's been having. They seemed to be mildly prophetic, if you recall what she said about things falling from the sky and her skin burning just before the rain started."

  "But why would Athena be having these dreams and not the rest of us?" Ro asked, hugging her sister tightly against her. "Sure, we have dreams too, but Athena's are different. They're more cryptic and seem to be leading us to Washington."

  "Well then we'll have to follow them if we want to find out," Lys said simply. "I think I'm up for it if the rest of you are." There was a quiet murmur of agreement and Lys smiled. He glanced at Ro, who looked down at her feet sadly. She still didn't want to get her hopes up over what Thena had said about Loch.

  "Well, pile in kids," Maddox sighed, "Time to start moving again."

  "When was the last time we settled anywhere?" Irvine sighed.

  "A long time ago, with that old woman, I think." Shy said absently as she climbed into the van. Bold elbowed her sharply but it was too late. Andrew gurgled and Irvine frowned, "That was where…" He sighed and shook the memory of Lydia from his mind. "We've lost two since then," He mumbled, mostly to himself. "Dammit! Why the hell do we keep dying?" He slammed his fist into the side of the van, making Andrew cry.

  "Nice one, Shy," Bold grumbled.

  "Shut up!" She snapped back, "What's your problem lately? Are you still blocking me?" Bold pointedly fixed his stare on his feet and refused to respond. "Bold! Answer me! Why are you blocking me? We promised that we'd never block each other after mom died!"

  Bold's mouth twitched and Echo inched away from him. The argument between the twins was heating up and she was afraid they would start punching each other soon. "Maybe I'm blocking you because I'm sick of you knowing everything about me! I need some privacy sometimes, Shy!"

  Shy coiled back, stunned, "But…we're twins Bold, and we…"

  "I don't care!" He snapped back. "Just shut up already!"

  Frowning and looking hurt, Shy moved away from her brother and sat next to Ro, but refused to say anything about any of them. "What were they talking about?" Echo whispered to Lys. The older boy was studying the Asian teens carefully, and he shrugged. "I think…" He started, "They have some kind of weird psychic twin thing going on."

  "You think maybe they're telepathic or something?" Echo wondered, looking at Bold, who was glaring at the holes in his shoes.

  "Maybe, but this is the most information I've ever gotten about it. They don't like to talk about their weird abilities."

  Echo frowned and sat back, wondering about the twins and if she'd somehow caused the rift between them.

  Bold was aware that Shy was hurt and angry with him. Although he was effectively blocking her from reading him, her emotions flared about her with such intensity that it was beginning to give him a headache. It was times like this that he wished Shy were better at controlling herself, or even that they didn't have this link at all.

  Even when they were children they had an odd connection. They would blurt out things in unison, and finish each other's sentences. They always knew exactly what the other was thinking, and when one cried, so did the other, even if they didn't know why. Bold had figured it was some strange form of empathy and telepathy that worked only between the two of them.

  When they were in seventh grade, Shy suggested they try an experiment with their 'link'. Since bold was much better in school, she asked him to try and 'send' her the answers to tests through their link. By some miracle, it actually worked, and ever since then they'd worked on strengthening it, and soon they could practically communicate as easily telepathically as they could verbally. It wasn't words, exactly, more like feelings and impressions that they got from the other's mind that they could form into coherent thoughts or sentences. It freaked out some of their friends to witness their internal conversations, seeing them smile at unheard jokes or glare at each other as they argued.

  Eventually they tried blocking each other, although Shy saw it as more of a fun experiment than an actual useful skill. She couldn't understand why Bold would ever want to block her out of hi
s mind. But Bold got tired of her sometimes. Whenever he wanted to be alone Shy was there, a constant, lingering presence in the back of his mind. It was unfortunate that the twins had been born with such clashing personalities.

  Bold had grown used to Shy knowing all his secrets, it was too much effort to hide them from her, but for some reason he didn't want her knowing about Echo. She would blow everything out of proportion and make a big deal out of nothing. She might even try to play matchmaker, which was the last thing Bold wanted. So he kept all of his thoughts of Echo carefully guarded.

  He looked at the redhead sitting comfortably next to Lys, talking about something, and scowled. He would be lying if he said he wasn't infuriatingly jealous. His previously strong friendship with Lys was suffering a lot because of what he felt for Echo. He wondered if it would have been better if Echo had never come along at all.

  He dismissed the thought almost as son as it came to him. He cared for Echo a lot, and it was hard to imagine what he'd done with himself before he began spending his days obsessing over her. He wondered if Ro noticed it too. Curiously, he changed his gaze to look at the pretty blonde. She held her sister close to her, but her stare was indeed fixed on Echo and Lys. She frowned at them with something akin to guilt in her eyes. He groaned; this whole thing was getting far more complicated than it had to be. Hidden pasts, secret gifts, love triangles deaths and births; no one told him that such things would be involved in the apocalypse.

  Maddox sat in the driver's seat, unaware of the drama behind him, Irvine perched next to him rocking Andrew slowly. He reached forward and turned on the radio. When Maddox tried to turn it off again he smacked his hand away and turned it up. 'It's the End of the World' by REM was playing. After a moment Echo softly began to sing along with the song.

  It's the end of the world as we know it,

  It's the end of the world as we know it,

  It's the end of the world as we know it,

  And I feel fine.

  The irony was lost to Bold and he started to cackle bitterly. Irvine grinned and turned the radio up even more, waking Andrew from his restless sleep. But surprisingly the baby didn't cry, he just stared in wonder as the rest of them started to belt out the tune as well.

  By some miracle the entire van knew every single word to the song and they yelled it at the top of their lungs, somehow keeping up with the fast pace of the verses. The mood in the van lightened considerably and soon everyone had forgotten the twins' little argument. Everyone, that is, but the twins themselves. Shy glared at her brother and he gulped. He knew that look, he didn't even need telepathy to know that she would chew him out later.

  Chapter Eighteen

  A Kiss in the Moonlight

  "News, news, news, football…" Maddox frowned as he played with the dial on his radio, looking for something decent to listen to. Since Irvine was too busy driving to find a station, control of the radio had been relinquished and Maddox eagerly changed the channel from the 'classic rock' crap that Irvine liked. 'Kids these days and their big-haired bands' he thought irritably. "Dammit! Doesn't anyone listen to anything other than news and sports around here?" He shouted to no one. Lys chuckled in the back.

  "Just put the news on, old man." Lys yawned, "You're never going to find anything good."

  Maddox glared at the boy, but said nothing before stopping on a news station. "Protests have arisen in light of the President's draft, and already those drafted are refusing to take part in the war in the middle east." The woman on the radio said. "Prisons are filling up with draft-dodgers and-"

  "Dear God, change it!" Lys moaned, "I'm sick of hearing about this stupid war."

  Maddox changed to another news channel, this time a man was talking about the recent bizarre weather around the world. "Violent earthquakes in California have caused hundreds of deaths so far, and the bodies are still coming in. In addition, three consecutive tsunamis have struck countries bordering the Indian ocean, as well as another tsunami in Japan. Scientists blame the disasters on shifting tectonic plates, which cause massive earthquakes under water.

  "And in local news, a woman died on a plane traveling between Nigeria and Washington yesterday evening. The woman's name has not been released, however we do know that she suffered from an extremely rare disease previously isolated to parts of Africa. The disease has never been seen before in North America for the simple reason that no one has ever lived long enough to leave the country after being infected. All those on the plane and in the airport at the time have been quarantined. We'll bring you more news on that as we get it. Now onto Tom with sports! Tom?"

  "Holy shitfuck!" Lys cried.

  "Lys please, watch your language." Ro scolded.

  "I know, I'm sorry but…" Lys stammered, "Did you hear that?"

  "Doesn't sound good," Bold agreed, "If that woman had the flesh-eating virus we've all seen in the dreams…" He didn't finish his sentence; he didn't need to.

  "Sounds like things are really going to start picking up from here." Irvine muttered. Echo looked on in horror. She remembered seeing the people, crowded into a gymnasium, all affected by that terrible virus that ate away at their flesh. And now someone had brought it to North America. She shuddered, 'this is it,' she thought. From now on people who weren't Chosen would start to see the end of the world coming on. People would start to panic. Things would be plunged into chaos and everything would get a lot, lot worse. "How are we going to avoid this one?" She muttered, moving a bit closer to Ro and Athena.

  "We get ourselves some face masks and stay the hell away from the shelters they're going to set up once things start getting worse." Irvine laughed bitterly. "Once we check out Washington, I suggest we hightail it to the shelters. Maybe we can help them finish in time."

  "Yeah," Echo agreed, "The sooner we get over there, the better. I don't want to be stuck on the wrong side of the continent when it's time to go underground."

  "I agree," Said Maddox, "Irvine step on it!"

  "Will you relax, old man?" The young man groaned, "We'll be there by tonight, possibly tomorrow. Speaking of which, when do I get a break?"

  "You just started driving ten minutes ago!" Maddox roared. "Stop being so lazy and do as you're told!"

  "Guys please!" Shy whined, "You're bothering Andrew!" She bounced the baby in her arms a bit, trying to calm him down. "Maybe we should stop for food?" The Asian girl suggested. "Andrew's hungry and so am I." She looked over at her twin and glared, "Not to mention that Bold and I need to have a private chat."

  Bold gulped and looked away, when his sister got into an arguing mood, she could go on for hours. He'd hoped she'd forgotten about their argument earlier, but apparently she hadn't. Irvine chuckled at them and within twenty minutes they were pulling into a small diner on the outskirts of Washington D.C. and they crowded into three booths. Irvine sat with Maddox and Andrew in one, the younger Chosen sat together in another, and Bold and Shy took a third in a corner so Shy could yell at her brother while they waited to order. The sun was slowly setting and Maddox started to talk to Irvine about finding a place to sleep for the night.

  Lys slouched over their table and began to build a pyramid out of the little milk and cream cups on the table. "Lys could you at least try to act your age?" Ro scolded from across the table. "And sit up!"

  "But my back…" He whined, straightening out even as he did so. But still, he sat forward on the vinyl seat, keeping his back and other burnt parts of his body from pressing against the bench. Echo draped her hands over the table and began adding the packets of butter to the structure Lys had built.

  "Oh Echo, not you too!" Ro complained. Echo grinned and piled up the butter, making a little flag out of a toothpick and a piece of napkin and stuck it in the topmost butter packet.

  "Very nice," Lys said, nodding with approval.

  "I won first place in the milk-and-cream-packet-structure-building contest at my school." Echo said proudly. "I made a replica of the CN tower. It was twelve feet high."


  Lys' eyes widened in awe, "Whoa, really?"

  "No!" Echo giggled, "Don't be ridiculous, Lys. There's no so thing." She laughed outright, and soon Ro and Athena joined in. "You should have seen your face!" Ro chuckled. "You actually believed her!"

  Lys frowned and slumped back on the bench, pouting and momentarily forgetting about his burnt up back. "Ouch!" He hissed, jolting forward again. This caused the girls to dissolve into another fit of giggles and Lys glared at them until the waitress came to take their orders.

  They waited in relative silence for their meals. Echo looked across the dining area to Shy and Bold, who had stopped arguing but were glaring at each other and ignoring the young girl trying to take their orders. "Do you think they've resolved anything?" Echo wondered, staring at them.

  "Well," Lys answered, "Judging from the way they're glaring, and from how put out Shy looks, I'd guess neither one has apologized or even admitted that they've done anything wrong." Echo stared at them for a bit longer and decided that she agreed. From the look of things, Bold had said nothing of why he was blocking his twin, and Shy was being too stubborn to let him get away with it.

  "Oh, they'll get over themselves eventually." Ro said as their meals arrived. She picked up her fork and poked at the slab of meat the diner claimed was Salisbury steak. Athena had ordered chicken fingers and didn't seem to have a problem with hers, so she happily stuffed the food into her mouth.

  Even Irvine and Maddox stopped arguing once their meals arrived. Echo welcomed the silence, it gave her time to worry about her future, something she'd had a disturbing amount of time to do. The end of the world was coming, and no matter what she did, she couldn't seem to accept it. It was all like one long nightmare.

  "Ro, I have to go to the bathroom," Athena said suddenly, pulling on her sister's arm. Echo was startled out of her trance and saw that she had finished her hamburger already. "So go," Ro was saying. Athena just pouted at her older sister until Ro groaned and rolled her eyes. "Fine! I'll take you," She slid out of her seat and took Athena's hand and led her off to the bathroom.