YP – B2: UtGoaFN – Chapter 50 (Chapter 96)

Resistance (Part 2)

Zeydar’s head rolled on Evester’s shoulder as the bus bounced a bit along the dirt road away from the Tower. He was finally asleep, after having Dreamed awake for a few hours. Evester could care less that a potentially dangerous weapon had fallen asleep on him. Evester was probably the only one he truly knew out of all of them. He didn’t care how easy it had been for them to get out of the encirclement without being caught. He didn’t care that at the moment he had an exponentially larger team than expected. No, what bothered him at that moment was what Zeydar had said, that he had been on Dreams since he was a kid because of the Stars. It hadn’t hit Evester before, but in that moment Evester understood what Kim and Uly had felt when they’d brought Crass, Rayda, Lynx, and Onyx into the team. Evester wanted nothing more than to help Zeydar and he didn’t know why.

“Where do we go?” Kim asked walking to the back as they drove through the night. She spoke so loudly it startled Evester. Evester looked to her, then to Heia who sat in the seat across from Evester. She glanced over to him, fully awake, and then up to Kim herself. Evester looked back to Kim seeing her looking at Zeydar before returning her focus to Evester.

“Safe house.” Evester whispered not wanting to wake the others.

“Yes, but where. You keep saying that but where.” Kim sat on the seat with Heia. Heia shot Kim a look and then moved over a bit, letting Kim sit comfortably. Kim smiled back at her before glaring at Evester.

Where? Evester didn’t want to think about it, nor did he want this conversation to keep going. Zeydar had just gotten to sleep and Evester did not want him waking up. “Its in the documents.”

“Which we lost.” Kim was not going to leave until she had the information.

“Right.” Closing his eyes he thought of the exact details and recited the coordinates to her. Opening his eyes he looked to Kim who nodded before going towards the front to relay the noise. Another bump of the bus and Zeydar who had begun to cling to Evester. For a second Evester wondered if it were a defense from the bus movement and then tears began soaking Evester’s shirt. Evester looked over Zeydar, Evester’s hand hesitating to comfort Zeydar. With another bump, his hand landed on Zeydar’s head and he knew he couldn’t go back then. So he leaned down and whispered, not knowing if Zeydar would hear or not. “I’m here. It’s okay. You’re okay.”

“That’s in the middle of Aralax land.” Rayda snapped coming back to where Evester sat, computer in hand, and loud despite those sleeping.

“Yup.” Evester turned to her as she showed him Uly’s computer. “When does the EverDanger video post?”

“Tonight.” Rayda answered before continuing her tirade. “You realize that that’s not a safe house if its in Aralax land.”

“It’s the closest to the known Aralax strong holds.” It was why the position was picked.

“Why do we have to go there?” Kim sat down next to Heia again, who glanced at her. Kim handed her a blanket and Heia took it.

“To find his father.” Shawn answered from behind Heia. He had woken up. “Right?”

“Right.” Evester liked how Shawn was able to keep up with details, even if there was a furious tone in his voice from being woken. “If he’s alive he’s there.”

“And if he’s not.” Heia finally spoke.

“Then we have a safe house that no one will know to find.” Evester answered leaning against Zeydar himself, and pulling the blanket higher on them both.

“In Aralax land.” Rayda repeated.

“Would you rather we are in Aralax land, safe from people, or in people land not exactly safe from Aralax? I’d rather only have to deal with one enemy. Wouldn’t you?” He used a far louder voice than a whisper this time, knowing he had to stand his ground. Besides it would give them time to train the new recruits into EverDanger and to really chance their team dynamic. Evester looked to each one of those who were arguing with him. He wasn’t the one who decided the safe house anyway, that had been his father.

“This is beyond…” Rayda huffed. “Alright. Aralax Land it is.”

“One enemy is better.” Trace agreed from further back on the bus. “Besides the world will be looking for Zeydar, we need to disappear.”

No one could exactly disagree with her. This was phase two of the three phase plan that he had made all those days ago. Collect the necessary people, find his father, save the world. Somehow  he had managed the first part, with more people than expected. Obviously, he’d be able to solve the last two. Or at least, he had to believe that he could.

“No…” Zeydar whispered to himself but in the sudden silence of the bus, Evester was certain everyone heard it.

Evester, whose hand was still on Zeydar, turned back to him whispering again. “You are safe.”

“Liar.”

Evester was caught off guard by the response, but he had to believe that in some way his voice had gotten into the dream. Who knew what Sweet Dreams did to someone like him. “Trust me.”

“Was it the best decision to put him back on?” Heia asked quickly, cutting in the real question she’d held to and refused to voice for hours.

“Yes.” Kim answered. “We thought we knew better than him. We should have listened to him.”

“But if we hadn’t…” Heia whispere.

“The Tower would have fallen? Probably, but that doesn’t grant us permission to assume we were right over him. He doesn’t know how to use his abilities after they were kept from him. He needs to relearn them slowly. At his own pace.” Evester told her. It also didn’t help that none of them knew his abilities, nor exactly how Sweet Dreams interacted with him.

“But what if he relapses back to full doses?” Heia asked.

“We won’t let him.” Kim answered. “We’ll keep him to the schedule, expedited but still on schedule. He’s going to be miserable, but at least a miserable that he and we can control.”

Evester felt Zeydar tighten his grip once more.

“Plus he is going to have to take time to get over his trauma,” Evester understood then. He’d seen a Tower collapse, and thought it was because of him. He’d seen millions of people die, perhaps personally, and had blamed himself since. That was not something he was going to be able to get over easily. Especially if he had turned to Sweet Dreams as a way to forget. It was going to take a lot of time. “He put it in a locked box for a reason Heia, to stop himself from opening it.”

“None of us are qualified in the mind, let alone our qualifications in the body. None of us are certified doctors.” Uly walked towards the back, having changed with Crass or Phil for driving. His reminder caused a silence amongst the EverDanger members. They’d only been able to medically place him through the detox because of the Igilistal connections. There had been doctors and nurses checking on him consistently, along with the two EverDanger members who watched him twenty-four hours a day. Most of their members had training in medicine so that they could not destroy themselves: Kim and Lynx as a nurses, Crass and Rayda as first aid responders, Phil and Onyx with medicines. None of them were doctors, however and they had, had proper lighting, near perfect conditions, and medical professionals when helping the first time . Now they were on their own, about to be in the most dangerous lands of the world.

“No, but we are going to have to try out best for him anyway.” Evester told him. They needed Zeydar’s power, and they were going to have to adapt.

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