Chapter Seventy-Nine: Lakeside Failure

Medicine: a drug or other preparation for the treatment or prevention of disease. Able to be used for 'good' and 'bad' reasons.

*

"Can we stop? My arms are getting tired," Bonnie complained as she parked herself beside a bench on the lake. Mia jogged up to her and sat on the seat, copying her sister's stretching.

Amada and I shared a laugh. "We've just got here," Amada teased walked to her and pinching her arms. She slapped away his arms and continued to complain.

Amia, Estelle, Ava and Robyn strolled to us, unlike all of us dressed in athletic wear, they were dressed in their Sunday casual, Robyn holding a picnic basket full of sandwiches she had made earlier that morning.

"You wanted to go running with us," I reminded, rolling my shoulders.

"Do one lap of the lake, and you can have a sandwich," Ava informed, opening the basket and pulling out one of the sandwiches, "Freshly made."

"I'm not a dog." Bonnie massaged her arms. "Food only motivates me so much."

"You don't have to go on the run with us," I reminded, squatting down to my shoes to retie one of them out of boredom.

Bonnie rolled her eyes, "I'm fine to do it, I just need a minute."

I smiled as I tied off my shoe and looked down to the path we were going to run. Windmill Make, aside from its dozens of windmills, also had a handful of docks on the far side, allowing people to dock their boats or go fishing. There was the occasional runner, but considering it was Sunday lunchtime, I was surprised there weren't more people about on the hillsides.

"We'll just run to the docks and back," I informed, shading my eyes to check how far away it was, "It'll take us ten minutes, fifteen at the most."

Amada got behind Bonnie's chair and started rolling, "Come on. I'll push you!"

Mia hopped off her seat and jumped in place, dressed in her own running gear, she was ready to go.

Bonnie sighed as she conceded to letting Amada push her some of the way. I waved the other girls when we started, having to slow my pace to keep up with Mia, who's little legs only took her so far. Amada and Bonnie sailed in front of us, stopping occasionally for us to catch up. By the time we reached the docks, Mia was red in the face.

I chuckled, "You good?" I asked when I squatted down.

Mia waved away my worry as she leaned on her knees, obeying my advice to not sit down if she was tired. Bonnie rolled towards the edge of the dock, opening her arms to the lake scent and gentle breeze. In the water were a handful of rowing boats, sitting idle with their fishermen as they casted their lines into the water. In the distance, I could see the other girls and their massive pink and white picnic blanket.

Mia tried to wave to them, but they were much too far away to notice us.

I pressed my fingers against my neck, checking my heartrate as everyone else caught their breaths. As I did this, I scanned the hillsides, looking at some of the yellow weed flowers and counting the windmills verses trees to pass the time, when my eye caught something.

Someone was leaning against one of the windmills.

This on its own wasn't suspicious, but they weren't doing anything. They weren't looking at their phone, or taking a call, or dressed in sporting gear like they were having a break, they were just standing there, pulling their long-brimmed hat down their face.

I had grown paranoid in the last week or so.

I had become convinced people had been following us, hiding around corners or watching. When I had brought this up with the others, they hadn't noticed anything, Ava even stating that nothing out of the ordinary was going on.

I faked stretched as I stared at this figure, hoping I was being silly and he was waiting for a friend, or would walk off at his own accord. But he just stayed there, staring at the hillside, occasionally turning to look at the four kids on the docks.

I didn't trust the figure.

"Come on guys, we're heading back," I announced.

There were some objections that we had only just gotten there, and Mia still wanted to catch her breath, but I was determined to get to the others in case this man wasn't by himself. "Come on, we'll walk back," I informed, taking the charge. With some objection, Mia trudged behind me while Bonnie needed Amada's help to get over some of the looser boards of the wooden dock.

Mia and I waited at the mouth of the dock, my sense of panic only growing stronger when Mia seemed equally off-putted. She bit down on her lower lip and scanned our surroundings, her eyes eventually falling on the man as well, but instead of ignoring it or dismissing their possible motives, she shifted on her feet and even shuffled closer to me. I rested a hand on her back when she leant on my leg. "I know, kid," I assured, "We're heading back. Don't worry."

Mia's eyes stared unblinkingly in the direction of that man, so I chose to focus on Bonnie and Amada as they got to land. "I thought your wheelchair was fine on uneven ground?"

Bonnie shrugged, "It's been a bit fiddly lately." To counter this, she started rolling down the path without any issues.

Mia was still red in the face, so I offered her a piggyback. In the time it took for me to get her on my back and look back behind me, the figure was gone. I looked in the surrounding areas, including the pathways leading towards and away from us, but he was nowhere.

"It's probably nothing," I assured when Mia perched herself on my back like a meerkat. "It's been nothing before, right?"

Mia relaxed slightly, hanging from my shoulders as I jogged to catch up to Amada and Bonnie.

Times like this I forgot I was a Dorm Guard. I forgot how perilous the job could be. With less distractions, I was able to indulge my more panicked thoughts, play out certain scenarios in my head, all of these which reminded me of that man at the start of the term, the one I had yet to hear from, or at the very least hadn't had direct contact with yet.

I wondered if there was a reason that I hadn't heard from him, or if I have, just not in obvious ways. I had asked Mia if he had seen him since our encounter in first term, but she was adamant that he hadn't been around since.

Estelle had told me I was being paranoid, but moments like this I wasn't sure.

Where had the man gone? What had he done, if anything?

We waved at passing runners, them in turn giving us a polite smile. "Have you heard from Alexis recently?" Bonnie asked, distracting me from my thoughts.

I nodded, "Uh, yeah. She's called last night. She's been settling in nicely."

Everything slowed again when I noticed something. A man in black was running towards us, at first rather normally, like the other runners that had passed us, but something just made my stomach feel heavy.

He wasn't subtle when he approached Amada, placing a hand on his chest to push him off balance before striking him in the throat, sending him crashing to the ground in a state of wheezing. While trying to aid himself, he tried to stand, only to be kicked back down.

I sprinted forwards, shoulder barging the man and sending him stumbling away. Amada continued to wheeze on the ground, but I couldn't come to his aid, merely try and protect all three of them from the attacker. After a moment, the runner straightened, holding the arm I had struck, in pain. I readied myself, offering a glare as I focused on him.

There was a sudden loud trill, at first a struggled one, but very quickly became an ear-piercing screech.

Rape whistle.

Right behind me?

I felt the influence of a second man's hand on my shoulder, startling me into action as I turned and grabbed their hand. I snatched his arm and brought the man closer, kneeing him in the gut and striking his jaw with my elbow. This sent his head and body flying to the ground, the man a grumbling mess.

I felt the other man wrap an arm around my neck, heat immediately rising to my cheeks as my back got forced back. I gritted my teeth, unable to reach his face, I was trying to claw at his arm. My eyes started to tear up as the world started blurring.

As intense as it was, it lifted. The man's arms loosened, and I was able to fall forwards, stealing mouthfuls of air. I managed to look over my shoulder and saw the outline of Amada flipping the man and kicking his head. When Amada neutralised the man, he fell to his knees and heaved, coughing he placed a hand against his throat.

Mia had run over to her sister, Mia continuing to blow the whistle as Bonnie pulled out her phone.

I felt weak. So weak getting to my feet felt like a struggle. I looked around, hoping there was no one else trying to attack us. To my delight, there wasn't anyone.

I looked to the girls to see they were okay, the whistle hanging from Mia's lips. Despite Amada and my triumphs, Mia and Bonnie stared with mooney expressions at me.

There was a sting in my neck and something tapping my shoulder.

My body felt heavy, as the motion of lifting my arm to my neck felt slow. My hand grasped something and pulled it. My vision blurred again, and my breathing become slower as I saw a small syringe in the palm of my hand. The world felt like it was spinning, throbbing in and out of focus as the ground was against my face and I couldn't move. The grass was in my eye, but I couldn't blink it away.

I could only hear.

The faint throbbing in my ears assaulted me .

I could almost hear it struggling. Breathing felt difficult, feeling the grass against my face was difficult.

That trilling noise came to fruition again, but it felt so distant. I got rolled over, as the green turned to blue and blurry shapes leant over me. "La..ua…g… qtee…. Lo...ag…u…d…aan…." Stringing a word together proved difficult and an oxygen hog.

This felt different from a heart attack. Not in a good way, but I had never felt so cold before. Or so unnaturally calm.

My worry for the state of my heart disappeared. All the grief from Alexis, the panic of protecting the girls, the guilt with Elizabeth, with Mia, with Bonnie, with the twins, with everyone. It disappeared. I didn't feel scared. I didn't feel anything.

All at once, everything shut off. My head didn't hurt, my arms didn't tingle, my chest didn't ache, and my ears didn't ring with my stale heartbeat.

Someone stood over me, and their voice was a loud but distant drone. "La…on!"

Ava? Was that Ava? Could that be Ava?

Thinking became too difficult, and within seconds, I wasn't even thinking at all.