Finding ELE (ELE Series #2) Written By: Rebecca Gober and Courtney Nuckels (9 page)

I grab my silverware and start heading back
to the table. I pass by the two of them who are still in line. Tony
stares at me strangely and Molly puts her hand on his shoulder
completely unaware of my noticing. Crap! Double crap, crap! It's
there! I have no idea why or how but it's there. A small pang of
jealousy that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever is there.

I walk past the table I was going to sit
with them at and set my tray down next to Sebastian at the kid's
table. The kids wiggle over giving me space to sit. Their little
eyes light up excited to have someone new at their table. I eat my
food and answer all kinds of silly questions that the kiddos throw
at me. Sebastian is beaming. He seems so proud to have his big
sister sitting with him, especially when I'm gaining all of the awe
and attention from the other children.

Every once in a while I glance over and
catch Tony staring at me. He has a brooding scowl on his face.
Molly has even taken notice because she's inched her way to the
edge of the table, eating her food in silence. I try not to think
of what Tony's look means. I don't understand what is going on
here. There is absolutely no reason I should be jealous at all when
it comes to Tony. I have Alec. I love Alec. I miss Alec. Alec,
Alec, Alec. I tell myself. I close my eyes and the first thing that
comes to my mind is the hottest guy in the universe with black hair
and navy blue eyes. My Alec. I open my eyes and realize that
whatever I'm feeling must have to do with something else. Perhaps
it is jealousy but it's not the: I am pissed that you want to touch
my man kind of jealous, it's something else. I breathe a sigh of
relief knowing that my feelings for Alec aren't jeopardized.

After breakfast I walk Sebastian to his
class then head out in search of my mom. I find Mr. Leroy
downstairs and at first I hesitate but then I gain the courage to
go talk to him. "Do you know where I can find my mom?" I ask
him.

He studies me for a moment. I don't have to
listen in on his thoughts to hear that he's catching on to the
faint neon yellow swirl in my eyes. I expect him to wig out or
handcuff me again but instead he surprises me. "I'm sorry
Willow."

I look at him in surprise but don't say
anything.

"I misjudged you. I can see now that you are
not a Reaper. I had to be careful though. I have to help protect
these people. It's my job." He says to me.

I nod my head. "I understand sir."

He nods his head. I guess that's all he has
to say about that because he swiftly changes the subject. "Your mom
is in the weapons room."

"Thank you." I say then head there. That was
definitely unexpected but his apology meant a lot to me.

My mom is alone in the dim room. I catch her
cleaning a pistol at a table close to the thin windows. A lantern
lights her view since the clouds outside have blocked out most of
the morning sun.

"Hey mom." I call out as I walk towards
her.

She looks up and smiles. "Hi honey."

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" I hadn't
really realized why I felt compelled to find my mom until now.

"Sure." She pats the chair next to her.
"What's going on?"

I take a seat and rest my hands on top of
the table. "Mom, I really need to find my friends."

She puts the gun down and gives me her full
attention. "I know you do sweety. We will do our best to find them,
but I can't tell you enough that you need to prepare yourself just
in case."

"I know they are out there, they can't be
gone. I'd feel it, right?" I say.

She looks at me with love. "I don't know for
sure if you'd be able to feel it. I wouldn't say that it's
impossible though. I knew that your father and you were going to be
okay. I knew it deep down in my chest. I believe whole-heartedly
that if something happened to any of my loved ones, I would know. I
don't know how I would feel it but I imagine that the world would
grow dimmer and I'd just know." She takes my hand in hers. "But, we
are connected in a way that is different than friendship, so I
don't really know if you'd feel it or not."

"But if it were more than friendship, if it
were love then I'd know if they were dead or alive?" I ask a bit
confused by her statement.

Her eyes go wide and she does her best to
contain a smile. "Are you in love with one of them?"

I forgot that I hadn't told my mom about
Alec and I being together. I nod my head. "Very much. I love Alec
so very much."

My mom's eyes tear up and mine do too. She
pulls me into her chest, hugging me tightly and brushing my hair
back with her hand. "My baby girl is in love." She pulls back from
me and looks me in the eye. "It's hard for me, you know...I should
have been there to hear you talk about your first kiss, about the
first time you fell in love." She looks hurt, which I can totally
understand. She missed a huge milestone in my life.

"You’re here now, I can tell you
everything." I smile trying to make her feel better.

Her eyes brighten. "Please."

"Alec was sort of my boss." I laugh when her
eyes go wide. "He's only a year older than me though. At first we
didn't get along that well. Then we got to hanging with each other
and started connecting on a deeper level." I continue telling her
all about how I got hurt and he carried me to the medical clinic.
How he checked on me every day and then about our first kiss the
day I got released from the hospital. I tell her about the cute
check box note he gave me asking if I wanted to be his girlfriend.
I even tell her about when I heard him say that he loved me in his
thoughts.

She oohs and awes appropriately. When I'm
done telling her everything about our relationship she pulls me
into another hug. "My daughter is in love. Wow." She pulls back
again and raises her eyebrow. "So, what did your father do when he
found out?" She smiles as if already knowing the answer.

"At first he didn't like the idea but he
grew warmer after a while. No dad wants to see his daughter date,
but I'm pretty sure that deep down he knew Alec is a good guy."

"Well, I guess since he didn't have any of
these guns he wasn't able to properly threaten him. I can take care
of that when I meet him though." She smiles really big which gains
a good eye rolling from me.

"Yeah, we have to find him first." I
say.

"We’ll go out again tomorrow if the rain
lets up. Have you asked Molly if she saw him? If there is another
group of survivors out there then they may have seen them." My mom
offers.

"Of course! I'm going to go talk to her
now." I had totally meant to ask this yesterday but Molly was in
such shock. Well at least I thought she was. It seems like she's
over that now. I jump up excited about being able to do something
productive. "Love you mom." I kiss her on the forehead.

"Love you too Willow." She goes back to
cleaning her gun as I head out in search for Molly.

I pass Tony in the hall on my way to find
her. A huge weight is lifted off my chest. Talking to my mom about
Alec really reaffirmed my feelings for him. Tony still seems a
little moody though.

He stops me by putting his hand on my arm. I
look down at his hand on my skin and he quickly drops it. Seeming
uncomfortable, he runs his hand through his copper locks. "Your mom
asked me to train with you today. Are you ready?"

I look past him down the hall. "Um, yes, but
I need to talk to Molly first."

He looks even more out of sorts. "Look
Willow. She was flirting with me but I wasn't reciprocating. I
didn't want you to think..."

I cut him off, "It's fine Tony. I'm not
judging."

A spark lights in his yellow eyes. "She's
just a baby! I wouldn't."

"Whoa, I'm not saying anything about it
Tony. She's not a baby though, she's only two years younger than I
am. Not that it matters, but really, it doesn’t bother me." I seem
to make him more agitated with that comment but I don't know what
more I can say.

"You seemed bothered." He stares me
down.

I don't look away when I answer, "Well I
wasn't."

His gaze is so intense that it takes nearly
everything in me to keep from breaking our staring match. I'm
certainly not going to sit here and admit that I did feel a pang of
jealousy even though it was totally ridiculous. Anyway, no matter
what I feel, I don't have to defend myself here.

Tony breaks eye contact and looks behind me.
"She's back there talking to Andrew in the lobby."

I look back to where his eyes drifted. Sure
enough I see Molly's small frame. Her hand throws her dark hair to
the side in a flippant toss. Urgh, this girl is totally
incorrigible. "Thanks." I call back to Tony as I walk away.

"Meet me in the training room in fifteen
Mosby." He calls to me once I'm halfway down the hall.

I turn around surprised to hear him call me
by my last name for the first time. I only catch sight of his back
as he turns the corner.

"So you could really lift a car?" Molly
giggles and curls her black hair in her finger.

"I could lift a bus." The boy I'm assuming
is Andrew says back. He puffs his chest with pride. This boy is
more Molly's age. He couldn't be more than fifteen. His face is
covered in freckles and his blonde hair is cropped close to his
head. He's not bad looking if you are into guys that wear Dockers
and polo shirts everyday and have preppy school boy written all
over them.

"Can I feel them again?" She asks him.

He gives her a toothy grin then flexes his
arm muscles. I'm pretty blown away by the size of his guns myself.
I wouldn't have thought that those babies would be on this lanky
boy. Molly feels his muscles and makes an awe sound.

Nearly gagging I interrupt them,
"Molly?"

She spins around surprised to see me. "Oh
hey Willow." She doesn't seem overly excited to see me interrupting
their powwow.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" I look
over at Andrew, "Alone." I add.

She turns and tells Andrew, "I’ll see you in
a bit, okay darling?"

I groan.

He smiles goofily, "Okay Molly. I’ll be
here."

Molly winks at him and then turns to walk
with me. I lead her to a small conference room.

"What's up?" Molly asks me.

We both take a seat at the table. "I wanted
to find out if you've seen my friends."

"Which ones?" She asks thinking I'm talking
about someone here.

"Three of my friends from the shelter that I
came from. We got separated. That's who we were looking for the day
we found you."

Molly's purple eyes go dark remembering the
day we met. "Three friends?" She asks me. She taps her fingers on
the table in thought.

"Yes, their names are Connor, Claire and
Alec. Do you know if anyone from your camp saw them when you were
there?" Her eyes tell me she knows something and hope sparks inside
me.

"Actually yes. Three new people did come to
our camp the day before you found me. One of our scouts found them
out by the mountain. Since they were like us, they took them back
to our camp." My heart pounds with excitement as she continues. "I
didn't get to speak with any of them, although I planned to. The
dark haired guy was freaking hot. The elders wouldn't let me near
him though, since they were still in shock."

She catches my murderous look and scoots
back. This time full-blown jealousy boils in my veins. I do my best
to ignore her remark and focus on this amazing news. Taking a deep
breath I continue. "Do you think they are still there?"

She shrugs her shoulders. "I don't really
know. I heard a rumor that they came from the shelter and that they
needed to go back. Our people were strongly against it since the
Reapers cover the mountainside. Our leaders had asked them if they
could give them a few days to gather up a team to escort them. I
don't know what came of it though."

"They can't go back! I need to find them." I
say hoping desperately that this rain has set them back as
well.

"They may be there when you take me home."
Molly offers realizing my desperation.

"Okay. Thanks Molly." I hug her and she
gasps in surprise. Even though the girl is starting to drive me
nuts, I'm still so grateful for this new hope she's given me.

"You're welcome." She says. "Oh, I'm sorry
about flirting with Tony by the way. I didn't realize it was like
that between the two of you."

I crinkle my eyebrows. "It's not like that
between the two of us."

"If you say so." She throws out hopping up
from the table and to walk out of the room.

Yep, the girl still annoys the crap out of
me. I follow her out of the room and head over to meet up with Tony
for training.

I find Tony in the training room, which must
have formally been a banquet hall. It’s a very large, open room.
There are targets set up on the back wall along with several
different kinds of weapons. Bows, arrows, guns and knives are
scattered about on long narrow tables. Next to that is a table
dedicated solely to ammunition.

As I enter the room I watch Tony hit a
punching bag in the far corner. With each hit he lets out an oomph.
I watch his technique with mild curiosity. One thing that is really
evident is his strength. He knocks the punching bag around like a
rag doll. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

I clear my throat to get his attention so I
don’t startle him. He doesn’t notice right away so I do it again in
between punches. His body swirls around at the sound of me and he
simply stares.

“
How long have you been standing
there?” He asks me.

I shrug my shoulders. “Not long, why?”

He swipes his hand across his forehead
taking his sweat with it. “It’s just that I usually sense when
people are watching me, even if I can’t see them.”