Chapter 13

"Ahh Carla, I'm surprised you didn't realize I was here until now."

"You obviously wanted to kill us that's why you told the Commander where we were, why are you here?" I angrily said.

"Because you're not dead and if I can't kill you then I'll just kill whoever eats the potatoes."

"Psycho," I muttered.

"Not psychotic, just have a dream."

"A dream to kill 30 people and then what? Drift out into the ocean and die?" I argue.

"I'll become the queen of America."

"What is wrong with you? You used to be so sweet and kind," I asked.

"I grew up,"

"You obviously grew up on the wrong side of crazy town,"

"You grew up there too, that's why you convinced 30 people to go on a suicide mission with you," She angrily remarked.

"We sailed off for the hope of freedom, you poisoned them just because they agreed to come. Which one sounds crazier Paige?"

"The hero of our stories are different," Paige angrily muttered.

"That's because someone doesn't want their crazy delusions destroyed," I argued back.

"And who's that?"

"Obviously the crazy person who poisoned their family and friends!" I yelled.

"Well," She looked around, "That's up for debate."

"You're insane," I repeated.

"Debatable," She said.

"I'm seriously not dealing with this right now," I said as I turned my back on her and started to walk away.

I felt a piercing pain in my back with the full force of her bodyweight.

"Be careful who you turn your back on," Paige demonically said from behind me.

A knife fell to the ground behind me as I turned around to her. I ran up to her and angrily grabbed her by her throat and knocked her legs out from under her. I started dragging her by her neck to the stairs. "You should've studied your opponent before stabbing someone in the back."

I continued to drag her by her neck up the stairs and to the deck. Nathan looked more shocked than anyone else. Paige's face was pretty much blue at this point. I threw her into the mast of the ship. She gasped for air and fell into herself trying to breathe. I angrily walked over to her, grabbed the collar of her shirt, and punched her as hard as possible in the face. She fell back down onto the deck.

"Carla?" Carter softly asked.

I picked Paige back up and punched her again.

"Carla!" Madelyn yelled.

I angrily kicked Paige in the stomach as hard as possible which made her immediately start getting sick on the deck.

Someone came from behind me and tightly embraced me to keep me still. I calmly melted into their arms and instantly lost all anger. I knew exactly who it was just by how they were able to calm me. Carter released his embrace and looked me in the eyes. His blue eyes looked extremely concerned.

"Are you okay?" He concerningly asked.

"Go look downstairs and look what she did," I answered, "Then I'll ask you the same question!"

"Carla, the tests are coming back negative for poison, I don't know what's wrong with the potatoes," Madelyn's voice said concerningly from behind me. I turned to see her holding a handful of blue test strips. She looked terrified.

"There is no way this is the end of us, we're so close," I thought. My heart started to fill with rage again, I was not going to let the rest of my people die. I walked around Carter and grabbed Paige by her throat and pulled her onto her feet.

"You're gonna tell me what poison you used or I'm going to destroy your molecules until you do," I angrily lashed out.

She was gasping for air.

I hit her head against the mast, "Tell me! I'm not choking you hard enough for you to suffocate. If you can breathe then you can talk."

She started trying to pull my hand off her neck. I looked over at Carter, he looked scared or disappointed and I couldn't tell which one he was feeling. Kathy and Liam were leaning off the side of the boat, sick, probably making themselves get sick so the poison doesn't kick in. I looked back at Paige and let go of her throat.

"Are you gonna take to easy way or the hard way?" I snapped.

Paige put her hands on her knees and started coughing.

"Paige!" I yelled, "Which are you choosing."

In an instant, Paige swung her arm up and smacked me across the face. She tackled me and we rolled around on the deck, she was punching me with one hand and choking me with the other. Carter shouted my name and was trying to pull Paige off of me. Nathan came over to help.

I grabbed her hair and pulled her over to one side and got on top of her. I smacked the palm of my hand onto her forehead and she instantly went limp.

"What did you do?" Nathan asked.

I didnt really know so I checked her pulse, "I'm not sure, but shes not dead."

I grabbed her by her wrist and pulled her back to the mast.

"Do we have rope?" I asked.

Madelyn reached into her backpack and hesitantly handed me a line of rope. I tightly tied Paige's wrists together on either side of the mast. I looked back at my friends who looked extremely concerned. I started mumbling under my breath and pacing. My mind was going a million miles a minute. I stuck the ball of my palm on my temples and kept pacing.

"Hey Carla?" Carter asked concerningly.

I threw my hands off my head and to my sides in frustration. My eyes started to tear up. I threw my hands over my face and sat on the floor of the deck.

"Carter, I know, I'm being irrational and aggressive," I cried, "This is too much, I can't even keep my own family safe, not to mention everyone else's families."

"You're trying to handle it on your own, instead of letting us help," Carter said as he crouched down beside me and put his hand on my shoulder. All of my other friends had started to gather around. I lifted my head when Kathy started to speak.

"What if we," Kathy paused, "What if we just dunk her head underwater until she talks."

"We're seriously talking and contemplating torturing someone for information, who have we turned into?" Madelyn questioned.

"I could always just start singing," I laughed, "That's torture enough right?"

"Liam," Carter laughed, "Would you give the guest a special hug."

"What?" Liam confusingly laughed.

"You know give her heart that one to one connection with her ribcage," Kathy laughed.

It made us all chuckle.

"Hug of death, well that's one way to do it," Nathan said.

"We could get Madelyn to start talking about clouds," Kathy laughed as he nudged Madelyn with her shoulder.

Madelyn let out a little laugh, "Hahah very funny."

"Now Kathy," Liam laughed, "We don't want her to sleep."

Madelyn started laughing, and her laugh made everyone else laugh. I looked over my shoulder at Paige, her head was hung down and I couldn't see her face. I slowly stretched my arm out to check her pulse. She jerked her head at my hand and bit me. I yelled in pain, and simultaneously punched her in the side of the head with my other hand.

"Ow you flabber jabbing butt nugget," I painfully said as I rubbed my hand where she had bitten me, "What the heck is wrong with you?"

She had broken the skin and blood was starting to pool on my hand. Madelyn reached into her bag and handed me a cloth to stop the bleeding. I quickly applied pressure to the bite wound. I wouldn't bleed out from it but I wanted it to stop bleeding.

"The mad are usually spiteful Carla, that's what makes them mad," Paige said in a menacing voice.

"They're synonyms!" I yelled, "You're using a word's synonym to describe itself!" I looked over at my friends, "Can I just throw her in the ocean? She's to crazy to tell us what she used to poison everyone."

Carter and Liam shook their heads.

"Liam you should hug our guest," Carter suggested.

"Umm, no," Liam quickly answered, "I'd rather not get bitten."

I took the rag off where the bite was to see that my skin had healed.

"I'll take that and go clean it," Madelyn said as she took the cloth from my hand and then walked downstairs.

"What is she up to?" Kathy asked.

"What do you mean? She said she was going to clean it?" Liam explained.

"There's no water downstairs," Kathy suspiciously explained.

"Hmm," I hummed, "Its Madelyn, she's probably testing something."

"I have an idea," Carter exclaimed.

"What is it?" Nathan asked.

"What if she's using Carla's healing cells to try to destroy the poison running through their bodies. Like an antibiotic type thing," Carter intelligently explained.

"I don't know but if she isn't then that's a good idea to try," I happily agreed as I stood up and started cracking my knuckles, "I'm up to donate some blood for the lives of everyone."

Carter nodded, "See you can be a hero without hurting anyone."

I looked down at Paige, "She deserved a beating."

After a few minutes passed Nathan finally broke the silence. "Well, on a different subject, is everyone excited to..." Nathan asked.

"Guys!" Kate's voice shouted from behind us, "Madelyn told me to come up here."

She had a bandaid on the top of her hand. She looked really pale but she was walking and that mattered.

"How are you awake?" Paige angrily snapped. I spun around and punched Paige extremely hard in the side of her head. It created enough force to knock her out. Carter looked down at Paige and then back at Kate.

"I woke up to Madelyn putting a bandaid on a cut on my hand," Kate cheerfully explained, "I feel a little woozy."

"Go back downstairs, sit down, and drink some water," Liam told Kate, "It'll make you feel better."

Kate nodded and walked back downstairs.

"We can make your blood into medicine," Nathan explained, "We shouldn't tell anyone that."

"I agree, the wrong person with that knowledge will use it against you," Carter agreed.

I nodded and looked down at Paige who was starting to wake up again.

"Why do you keep punching me?" Paige cried.

"You're being rude, I'm going to be rude back," I angrily answered.

"I think we need to talk about the elephant in the room," Liam stated.

"Yeah, she's too dangerous to bring with us," Kathy answered.

"Are we going to kill her?" Liam asked.

"P-please dont kill me," Paige cried, "I don't want to die."

"Trust me, your opinion of what's going to happen doesn't matter," Kathy snapped.

She started crying. And for some reason I felt the need to help her, this person who had poisoned my whole family, and I wanted to hug her. I walked behind Paige and untied her. Everyone started yelling about it. I grabbed her hand and shoulder and helped her stand to her feet. She hugged me and started bawling on my shoulder. I hugged her back and everyone seemed to be surprised. "I don't want to die, please don't let them kill me," Paige cried in my ear.

"I promise, I won't let them kill you, you didn't hurt anyone, I wont let them kill you," I assured her. She pulled away from the hug and stood in front of me.

"Thank you," She said. She sniffled and wiped her eyes on her sleeves. She managed to break a smile before a gunshot rang out.