4522 {The Number Series}

40

Archer and Macallister started dinner without me while I received treatment for my chin. It stung as the middle aged man in front of me wiped up the blood and disinfected the wounds there. They were not bad enough to need stitches but he did warn me about scaring. I was not worried about the possibility of marks when Archer and I had walked away with our lives. With a bandage tapped tightly to my chin I was dismissed for dinner after he checked out my eyes. 

I met up with Archer after collecting my meal at a table. 

"How are you feeling?" He asked as he shoveled a spoon full of potato in his mouth. WE had not eaten since that morning. 

"Starving, just like you." I joked as best I could. 

"I was referring to your chin," he shook his head at me. 

"Better now that I am sure I do not have to get it sewn back together again."

He laughed. "I'm sure."

"How about you?" I asked. He glanced across the room at Jericho who was sitting at a table alone with Aaron. My stomach knotted with jealousy at the fact that was his first thought to the question I had asked. 

"Confused. Really tired." He admitted before turning back to his food. 

"Hey, you two." Sage, the young boy who we had accidentally had to kidnap sat down with us with a large smile spread across his face. 

"Hello, Sage." Archer greeted him. 

"What's wrong with your face?" The thirteen year old asked me. I narrowed my eyes at him with annoyance. 

"Battle wounds." I said simply. 

"Cool." He said with wide eyes. He looked around the room before his eyes settle on Jericho with surprise. He turned his gaze between the two of us before pointing. "When did she get back? And who is that weird guy?"

"Don't point," I hissed. He dropped his hand.

"Secret business," Archer then changed the topic. "What kind of trouble have you been finding yourself in here?"

"No trouble. Just computer work and building some awesome stuff."

Sage then when to tell us about how he was helping build different devices by hand and how to fix ones that would break. It turned out that he was significantly more creative than those who had been given the opportunity before. He had even brought new ideas to those in the tech department. Sometimes Harold or Macallister would come and visit him just to check in on new creations. It appeared that they also found him impressive. Had he still been at the school he would have never reached the ability he had in such a short amount of time already. Though I found his accomplishments interesting I could not help the drifting thoughts about Jericho and Aaron popping back into my head. 

Jericho had not been the friendliest with me since the moment we had met. Of course, it was because of Archer despite us being so young. Aaron had always been creepy and secretive to me. Macallister and him had never gotten along, even back in the presence of Marie. It was as if both of them had been competing against Macallister and myself in some way. At this point it was two leaders and the two they had chosen to work with and trust. Jericho and Aaron as a duo made me nervous and less trusting than I had been before of either of them when they were separate. I could not help but thinking they were a deathly pair. 

I finished my dinner as Sage filled our ears with conversation. Archer asked him questions and I barely listened but continued to nod with interest past my distracting thoughts. 

After eating Macallister held a meeting with a small group he trusted about the paper work we had stolen but Archer and I were too exhausted to attend. Instead, we went to his room to lay down. I almost never was in my own room anymore, which we both seemed to be fine with, and most of my belongings I had been giving now resided in his. I laid down next to him as he let out a sigh or relief as his body folded into the mattress. 

"I'm worried." Archer said as he wrapped his arm around me. 

"Me too." I agreed. "Why are you worried?"

"Jericho hates Aaron," his brows knitted together. "I don't understand why she would willing come back with him. I mean, she didn't want to be in the City in the first place."

"I feel the same way but maybe she really is worried about the Forest being overrun that she is putting the differences aside for the greater good."

He shook his head. "She's my friend but I am not going to lie and say she is someone who puts other above herself. She would have wanted someone else to take this trip if she could have helped it."

"I guess you're right," I sighed. 

"And why would she sit with him at dinner if there wasn't something more to it? She had the choice to move."

While I could not answer his question, it did leave me the opportunity to talk about the events of the day, which meant reliving Herald's death. Archer was affected by Gina's crimes as much as I had been but he held himself together. I, on the other hand, could not help but cry. The older man had been kind to us and understanding. I trusted him with my life, and while I was close to Macallister, there was a chance that things would not be as organized as before which worried me. Now with Aaron and Jericho thrown in with us I was not sure who to trust. 

Archer held me while I cried and talked, leaving tear droplets on his shirt. He rubbed my back in an attempt to help me sleep but it caused him to fall into bliss before I could. 

There was no telling how long it took me before my eyes shut permanently for the night, but it was much too long for my liking as my thoughts kept being tossed around in my head.