“Wade! Wade!” Quinn screamed. “Wait. Come back!”
He scrambled up and tried to run, but his ankle had been twisted in
the fall; there was no way he could catch up.
Colin was in the process of trying to separate Remmy from the enemy
when he heard Quinn scream. He looked up to see Wade slipping
away from view.
“Kelly, stay here. Maggie, help Quinn; and see if you and Tony
can corral these two. I am going after her.” Maggie almost
smiled at the way he commanded everyone like a general in charge of
his troops. She pulled Quinn to his feet and helped him to sit
against a tree. Kelly disobeyed the order and took off after Colin.
“Remmy! Remmy! You’re going to kill him,” Maggie
yelled as she tried to pull him away.
“That’s . . . the general . . . idea,” he answered between blows
to Kryoptus’s head.
“Tony!” she yelled. “Help me get him off.”
Tony obliged as they dragged the fighting man away. Kryoptus
pushed himself out of reach from the swinging arms, and collapsed at
Quinn’s feet. Before he could take a much-needed breath, he felt
himself being hauled up by the shirt. When he opened the only
eye that wasn’t swollen shut, he found himself staring at another fist.
Then everything went black.
“What the hell is that?” Tony asked as he went over to Quinn.
The ‘man’ on the ground had been beaten up, for sure, but Tony had never
seen a few right hooks and a couple of jabs do that kind of damage.
The man’s face was an atrocity even without the swollen lip and black
eye.
“That, my friend, is your worst enemy. Pray that he’s the first
and last one you’ll ever see,” Quinn said. “Remmy, are you
okay?”
“I’ll be just fine if you tell me he’s dead.” He worked to regain
his breath as he sat on the grass glaring at the half-human only a few
feet away.
“I’m afraid not, but it’s not for lack of trying on your part,”
Quinn answered. He grabbed his ankle, wincing in pain as it throbbed,
then sat back against the tree.
Tony looked at Maggie, impressed by the skills she had demonstrated
against the two fighting men. She had obviously had some defensive
tactics training. “That was good work just then.”
“I can hold my own. You did pretty good yourself. Thanks
for the help.”
“Sure. If you think you can hold down the fort, I’m going to
head out and see if I can help the other guy find Wade.” He was
just a little uncomfortable around the alien being lying at his feet,
and he was tremendously worried about Wade.
Quinn grabbed at Tony’s pants leg as he went by. “Please.
Please, bring her back.”
“Sure thing, man. Sure thing.” Tony felt a twinge.
The plea he heard said Wade meant as much to this man as she did to
him. He wondered what their past had been. He took off running
in the direction he had seen Colin take.
***
As Colin caught up with Wade, he had to tackle her to get her to stop.
His frantic cries had been ignored. They both fell to the ground
with a thud. Wade felt all the air rush from her lungs as she
hit the ground, then felt a heavy weight on top of her. Her sight
went fuzzy for a moment as if she might faint.
Colin used his body to pin her to the ground when she fought him.
He had rolled her over to her back to help her up when she started struggling
to get away again. He pulled her arms above her head, and held
them there with force.
“I am sorry to be this way, Wade, but I can not let you get away.
I know this is not how you wanted things to be, but it is a reality
now. The best thing to do is face it. My brother and your sister
are not going to be satisfied until they have talked with you. They
think you are being forced by Kryoptus and other Kromaggs.”
“You know that’s not true, Colin,” she said in heaving breaths.
The running and his weight upon her was making it very hard to breath.
And to top it off, she was about to become very emotional. She
felt tears slip from her lids and trail down the sides of her face.
“This is my decision.”
“I felt that was the case. But the others could not be convinced.”
She stopped struggling, but he didn’t let go. He wasn’t sure of
her intentions yet. “Wade, you know what torture you have been
through. Please, try to understand theirs. They have to
see you . . .to talk with you. It is the only way.”
“Wade! Wade!”
She heard her name being yelled and recognized the voice of her sister.
It was useless to try to run away now. Colin was right.
She had to face them. If the Kromaggs couldn’t kill her, this
wasn’t going to kill her either.
“Let me up, Colin. I’m not going to run.”
He hesitated, but as he heard the labored breathing of Kelly coming
up behind him, he felt she was telling the truth. He released
her arms, climbed off and helped her to her feet. Kelly stopped
suddenly in front of her sister. Colin stepped back out of the
way.
“Wade?” Kelly whispered. She wanted to run and wrap her
arms around the girl, but she couldn’t. Why? Was it the
hard look in Wade’s eyes?
Wade stood staring at the woman she thought never to see again.
Whether it was Kromaggs or just sliding, she thought her family was
lost to her forever. She was frozen in her spot, and used every
bit of Kromagg knowledge to keep the tears at bay.
Colin looked from one girl to the other. He knew they were both
dying inside to embrace the other. Why wouldn’t one of them make
the first move? He was about to intervene, when Kelly’s fear subsided
and she ran to Wade, nearly knocking her over.
“Oh, Wade. My baby sister. I can’t believe I have you
back.” she cried.
Wade hesitated only for a second before she put her arms around Kelly
and buried her head in her shoulder. The two stood, arm in arm,
not one bit ashamed of the tears that flowed. Colin lowered his
head, not wanting to stare and intrude on the reunion. He took
several steps back out of the way.
Tony came running up in the middle of the embrace and stopped next
to Colin. He watched the scene for only a moment before turning his
head and speaking with the man beside him.
“Thank goodness you caught her. Is she going to be all right?”
A lump formed in his throat. The touching scene was almost too
much for him.
“Yes. I think she will be. She just took the first step
of many. And you know, they always say the first step is the hardest.”