Chapter 16

Sage's P.O.V

Before the ambush...

"Sage, I want to talk to you." Westy said.

I looked up at him lazily. "Why?"

"Because I need to talk to you about something."

"That doesn't answer my question. Why?"

"Because I want to talk to my brother."

I huffed. "Fine. What do you want?"

"Can we talk in private?"

I groaned in annoyance and stood up. "Whatever."

Westy and I moved to a row of seats that was a good distance away from everybody else. We both sat down. I refused to make eye contact.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Sage, do you have a problem with Mum and Dad?"

"Why do you care?"

"Answer my question first."

"Fine. I hate them both. They've never had time for me, they're always busy ensuring your success rather then mine. I hate them because they chose you as their favourite child."

Westy raised a bonebrow. "Do you honestly think I'm their favourite child?"

"Of course. It's the most obvious thing in the world."

"It's not true."

"Bullshit."

"I'm telling the truth, Sage."

"Again, bullshit."

"Sage, I have no reason to lie to you."

I huffed. "Prove it to me then."

"Three months ago on the night that you had been put into a cell for the night, I overheard a conversation Mum and Dad were having."

"Were they talking about how much of a failure I was?"

"No. Mum was talking about how he was a failure for not being there enough for you. He was crying, Sage. He blamed himself."

"So he blames himself for turning me into a complete failure. So what? Am I suppose to feel sorry for him?"

"I don't think you feel sorry for him. I think you feel sorry for yourself."

"You've lost me."

Westy's gaze became firm. "You created your own formulas for chemicals nobody has seen before. Then you used them to steal and make trouble and draw attention to yourself. You wanted Mum and Dad to notice you."

"Is that what you think it is? Attention seeking?"

"No, I think you're seeking recognition and acceptance, but you're going about it all the wrong way."

I started feeling angry. "Oh, you just know everything about everyone, don't you?"

"I never said that."

"You certainly act like it. You know what you are? You're a stuck-up smart ass!"

"Sage-"

"SHUT UP!" I stood suddenly, glaring at Westy. "I hate Dad! I hate Mum more! But you know who I really hate? YOU! I LOATHE YOU! WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE HOW MUCH I WISH YOU NEVER EXISTED!"

Westy's calm expression changed suddenly, he looked very hurt by what I said. I felt everyone in the truck lay their eyes on me, judging me. I hated it.

"I...I see..." Westy looked down at the floor sorrowfully. "I think this conversation is over now."

"Good." I hissed, turning and joining Moon back at his seat.

"Wow." Moon said. "You got the attention of the whole truck. Congratulations."

"I don't feel like talking."

Moon huffed. "Fine."

There was a long silence. I found myself looking off into the distance at nothing in particular. How dare he, I thought, act like he knows everything about me like that? He's an idiot. Nobody knows me better then me. He's a fool to think he can talk to me like that.

I was lost in thought for a while. But I was snapped out of it when there was a sudden jolt that made almost everyone fall out of their seats, including me. The trailer seemed to slant and I had to hold onto my seat to keep myself from sliding. There was a loud creak and I could feel something carry the whole truck into the air.

"What's going on?" Blueprint asked.

"I dunno, brah!" Fresh answered, trying his best to stay upright.

"There's a massive lizard outside and it has us in it's claws!" Desire yelled.

Fresh let himself slide down to the door of the truck trailer and he kicked it open. "Everyone out!"

Everyone in the front rows got up and slid down to the door and leaped out. Moon grabbed onto the open door and lowered himself down, I jumped and grabbed his arm and rode down it safely to the ground. I looked back up and saw a massive zombie lizard holding the truck in the air, trying to look into the one-way view windows. Half of it's skin had completely decayed. It's ribcage was completely exposed, as well as the tip of it's long tail. It's head was covered in gross, dead eyes and long spikes of bone protruded from every part of it's skin below it's neck.

A black mist shot out from the driver's seat of the truck, followed by the budgie and rainbow parrot. The black mist set itself down and formed into Hate, who was carrying FC.

"I don't like flying." FC muttered, her voice unusually high-pitched.

"We don't have time for you to be freaking out." Hate put FC down.

"Bluescreen, you need to jump!" Blueprint urged.

I looked up and saw that Bluescreen hadn't jumped yet. He was the only one, too. He quickly shook his head.

Gradient stepped forward, holding his arms out. "I'll catch you! Come on, jump!"

The giant zombie lizard opened it's jaws and crunched down on the truck, breaking through the metal trailer. Bluescreen glanced behind him.

"Bluescreen!"

Bluescreen looked back at Gradient, who showed him a soft smile.

"It won't hurt," he said. "I promise I'll catch you."

A split second later, Bluescreen jumped. Just as he did, the lizard's jaws snapped down and completely destroyed the truck. Gradient caught Bluescreen and instantly Bluescreen began glitching uncontrollably, which eventually led to him crashing and going completely limp.

A voice came from FC's pocket. "FC, what do you want us to do?"

FC took the walkie-talkie out of her pocket and spoke into it. "We'll meet you at our next dinner stop. Make sure nothing hurts the children. We'll take care of this."

"Roger that."

I heard the other trucks leave down the trail, disappearing into the distance. The zombie lizard dropped our truck, turning it's head to us and flicking it's tongue out at us.

"Everyone run!" FC yelled.

And we all ran. The lizard roared and chased us. Fresh took a grenade out of his pocket and pulled the pin and tossed it at the lizard. The grenade exploded in the lizard's face and it hissed.

"Split up!" FC ordered. "We need to get off the mountain and to our next stop, we have an extra truck there!"

"I'm not running away from this thing! Moon stopped running.

With a swinging motion, Moon's goopy arm shot out at the lizard and grabbed it's snout. The lizard simply opened it's jaw and ripped away the goop.

"We don't have time for this, kid!" Hate yelled. "What're you trying to prove?"

"That I'm not a coward like the rest of you!" Moon growled.

That made me stop and turn too. "Well, I'm no coward. Bring it on, you stinky corpse!"

The lizard thrust it's head forward, seeking to chomp our heads off. PJ jumped in the way and swung a paintbrush. Black paint shot out of the paintbrush in the form of sharp bullets that went deep into the lizard's skull. The lizard shrieked and threw it's head in up. A massive, clawed foot raised and tried to crush us but Hate flew at it in a jet of black mist. He spun around the foot with a knife out so fast that the foot was cut right off, crashing into the ground just in front of us. Hate made a crash landing nearby, panting with exhaustion.

The zombie lizard's shriek had not been left unheard. In mere moments, dozens upon dozens of wolf-sized rotting reptiles appeared and begun charging at us. Snakes, lizards, you name it, they were all there. Only now did Moon decide that now was a good time to run. We split into three groups. FC led Fury, Faith and Sprinkle. Fresh guided Desire, PJ, Gradient and Bluescreen. Hate was stuck with me, Moon, Westy, Blueprint and Raven.

The giant lizard and it's giant army chases us with surprising speed. To my relief, the big guy went after Fresh's group of idiots. Unfortunately, there was still a dozen or so decaying reptiles following us.

One appeared out of nowhere, leaping at Raven. Raven yelped and tried to get it off of him but it had a good grip on him. Blueprint slashed the reptile with his knife and then threw it off of Raven. We continued running, eventually reaching a dirty stream. We followed the stream and I silently hoped no zombie piranhas would jump out and attack us.

Another zombie reptile came out of nowhere, a snake. The snake went for me, but I found myself being pushed out of the way. Westy took a bite to the arm, screaming in pain. He slammed the snake against a rock as he passed and the snake let go, dropping to the ground and completely limp.

"You alright?" Raven asked.

Westy whimpered, but that was it. Why did he do that?

"Keep running and prepare to jump!" Hate yelled.

Before I got time to ask, we turned a sharp corner and found ourselves at the edge of a cliff. Having to time to react, we ran off the side. Hate deformed into a cloud of black mist that wrapped around us as we fell. All the reptiles that were chasing us stopped at the cliff, hissing and snarling.

FC, Fury, Faith and Sprinkle ran as fast as they could. The majority of the army of reptiles had decided that they were a worthy meal. Perhaps it was because they were the only group with a fleshy human.

"FC, what do we do?" Sprinkle asked, constantly looking back at the reptiles and making sure Faith and Fury were keeping up with them.

FC sounded exhausted already. "I don't like exercise..."

"FC!"

"Right! Uh, we, well...get ready to jump off a cliff!"

"What? Have you gone mad?"

"I've been thinking up insane ideas since I was born. Just trust me!"

There was a sharp scream and Sprinkle looked back again. A lizard had jumped and chomped down on Fury's shoulder. Faith grabbed the lizard by the tail and ripped it off, making Fury scream again.

"Now! Jump now!" FC shouted.

The four all jumped, falling off a steep cliff. They fell fast into the cold yet welcoming waters of a lake.

Fresh, Desire, PJ and Gradient zig-zagged through the rocky terrain, the giant zombie lizard hot on their tails. While they had to get around every obstacle in their path, the lizard just smashed through everything and pushed it out of the way. Gradient was looking tired from carrying Bluescreen and was beginning to lose speed.

"Come on, bro! Just a little bit farther!" PJ encouraged.

The force from the stomp of a massive foot almost made Gradient trip. To everyone's dismay, they came to a dead end. A tall wall of rock stopped them in their tracks.

Fresh cursed under his breath. "I went the wrong way..."

They all turned and watched as the massive zombie lizard stomped towards them. It hissed loudly, it's horrid breathe filling the group's nose sockets.

Fresh looked around quickly for any cover they could hide behind. Not too far was an abandoned hollow dug into the side of the rock wall. Fresh looked at Gradient.

"Brah, go put Bluescreen in there!" Fresh ordered, pointing at the hollow.

Gradient nodded and ran towards the hollow as fast as he could. The lizard spun around and swung it's mighty tail at the three who remained. Fresh pulled the pin of three bombs and tossed them at the tail. The explosion tore the tail apart and chunks of rotten green flesh spattered out everywhere.

The lizard roared in pain. It became enraged and it's attacks became much less direct. Gradient had made it to the hollow and was now attempting to crawl inside with Bluescreen in his arms. The lizard suddenly jumped forward. One foot crushed PJ, but his ink body deformed and reformed beside the foot completely unharmed. Fresh and Desire had managed to get out of the way. The lizard thrust it's head forward and it's teeth closed on Gradient. Gradient screamed.

An explosion caused the lizard to drop Gradient, Desire leaped forward and caught Gradient before quickly pushing him and Bluescreen into the hollow. Now it was PJ's turn to rage. How dare this creature hurt his little brother.

PJ held several paintbrushes between his knuckles. With a swing, the black paint shot out with angry spikes and impaled the massive lizard. The lizard hissed and flailed until it eventually fell silent. The hundreds of spikes sticking out of it's body was like a coat. The massive corpse fell to the ground, dead for good this time.

PJ panted, his legs shaking. Fresh caught PJ as his legs gave in, then he looked at Desire.

"Brah, go get Bluescreen and Gradient. We've got to get a move on."