Decimate

/ˈdesəˌmāt/

verb

kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage or part of

It wasn't even a day after Bob's death when we received our first video call from the White Coats. Everyone seemed to be on edge about the call, stating that it was the 'end of the world' because they had contacted us directly. While I sympathized with the masses of people, I found myself to grow extremely weary with their complaints as they accused us of not protecting them.

Several times in the weeks following, Luke seemed to be detached from me, but I couldn't confront him about these absent minded moments due to Riley's presence in our room nearly all day. The only time when Riley was not attached at my hip in those weeks following Ashton's disappearance was when she went into his room to sleep.

However, during those times, Luke and I only seemed to fight, the thought of him pulling away from me invading my mind while he held onto the guilt of either killing his father or not protecting the colony enough in these times of war. Either way, I found myself getting extremely anxious every night when he stepped into the doorway, thinking this would be the night that he ended things.

He never did though. Despite all of his shortcomings and his inevitable dropping of the ball, Luke never seemed to abandon his duties as a boyfriend or a father-like figure to Riley. The fact of this though didn't stop my body from breaking into a fit of cold sweats when Luke would neglect to inform me that he was going to be late home.

One night in particular came to mind as I thought of all of these anxiety attacks I had while lying on the bed. Luke had been an hour late, meaning that either he was in trouble or he had decided to stay in a different room for the night, either way, I found myself riddled with worry at the thought.

"Where were you?!" I had screamed at him as he entered the room, but he remained clam as he closed the door and let out a sigh of defeat as though he weren't sure he could do anything right. His feet moved toward the closet, opening the door and throwing his dirty shirt into the hamper before slipping off his jeans as well.

"Out," he finally responded simply, taking me off guard by his apparent annoyance at my constant questions. I shook my head, not liking the attitude that he was giving me at that moment. Although I tried to understand his unpredictable schedule, I found anger swelling within me as endless possibilities enveloped my mind.

"Were you-" I stopped my words mid-sentence, knowing that my question would cut through several layers of skin and break bridges of trust that Luke and I had fought hard to obtain. Instead, I rephrased my question.

"Can you be a bit more specific?" I asked, standing from our bed in only a tee shirt of Luke's that had been strewn somewhere in our mixed up drawers. A sigh escaped his lips again as he turned around to me, bags overcoming the normally beautiful sight of his baby blue eyes. He was exhausted, and I knew the last thing he wanted was a fight, but something inside of me wanted him to scream at me so that he could prove that he still wanted this- that he still wanted an us.

I nodded my head, accepting his silence as proof enough that he didn't want to speak to me at all. My arms moved to gather my pillow and a blanket lying across the bed as Luke's tired eyes watched me with anger drowning out the fatigue.

Tears welled up within my eyes as I heard Luke's voice cut through multiple barriers of silence to ask me a simple question. "Where are you going?" His voice didn't sound like it's normally milky and fluid tone, rich with love and promise. Instead, it gave the impression that he was worn and tired, as though he had nothing left to give me than a few minute words before he climbed into bed for the night.

"You don't want to talk to me so I was going to go to a different room," I told him gently as though it didn't bother me to leave him alone with his rest, but inside, I knew it did. I knew exactly why the thought of not speaking to him all day and night bothered me- it was because I felt as though he weren't with me.

That same feeling that I recalled feeling when I was within those cells of purgatory for six months was back, only this time, I felt his body next to me and I could feel his breath against the back of my neck; however, I couldn't sense his presence beyond his tired and weak exterior. It was as though Luke's interior had evolved to meet his exterior, which left me feeling shut out.

"Don't go," he muttered, sitting on the bed and running his hands through his hair as he held out his other for me to take. I felt uneasy about taking the blonde boy's hand due to his distance in the past weeks; however, I took it without complaint and found my spot beside him on the bed.

"Why have you been gone so much?" I asked suddenly, trying not to pay attention to the way his hand enveloped mine in sparks. His thumb rotated around my knuckles as he let out a steady breath before moving on to explain his disappearances for hours on end.

"They've been sending other messages," he spoke softly, taking my reaction into account as I tensed suddenly. His eyes showed sympathy as he tried to calm me with his words, but nothing that he could do would help me in that moment.

The White Coats, the people who tortured me all of my life by withholding information and attempting to make my entire life revolve around their science projects, were sending threats to the colony. I felt my being grow cold at the notion that they had that much authority to threaten our way of civilization without penalty, but then again, of course they did.

With the White Coats being the only source of government in our land, the idea of disregarding their wishes was inconceivable. Furthermore, the thought of overruling or overturning them was beyond fathomable due to their ability to squash any type of rebellion, even one as large as the Raiders', to the ground with the press of a button.

"Lissa," Luke whispered into my ear as I suddenly remembered that he was sitting next to me, arms now wrapped around me protectively. I felt the tears rolling down my cheek before I could register them, but Luke knew that they were coming, hence why he was prepared to wipe them away in an instant.

"They will never hurt you," he told me protectively, holding me even closer to him as I sat in shock of the information being revealed to me. First, we had to deal with the aftermath of Bob's death, which resulted in Luke resuming all of his responsibilities as the commander of the military as well as Bob's duties in everyday life of the colony.

Within the first week, we knew that it would be too much for Luke, which is why I had decided to take part of the burden and remain with Riley in an effort to raise her in a more traditional way while handling paperwork that seemed to take all of Luke's time if he did it alone.

Despite these attempts to keep Luke's work load decreased, he still spent all of his time within the office that he had been given, but this was the first I was hearing of the reason behind his long nights. While I had been taking all of the colony's logistical issues and solving them within the comfort of our room, Luke had been trying to solve this hazardous safety issue on his own.

"The tapes," I said finally, adjusting to the thought of not having seen the messages from the White Coats before and deciding that I needed to see them. However, Luke seemed to need time to catch onto my desire, but when he did, he appeared less than thrilled to show me them.

"Melissa," he began, his voice trailing off as though he didn't know how to phrase his inevitable 'no' without sounding over-protective. "I don't think that it would be a good idea," he finally spat out, observing my less than pleased facial reaction to his denial.

"Either you show them to me or I will do it myself," I finally said, which left him defeated as he shook his head and ran his hand over his face again in exhaustion.He appeared to be extremely lost in the question of what he should do as he slouched forward, shoulders appearing to bear the weight of the world.

"I just don't want them to cause you pain," he explained, finally finding the strength to lift his face from his hands. The look that appeared on his face was still rugged as I felt my heart break bit by bit at the thought of him staying late for so many nights, his only companion and listener being himself.

"And I want to help you lose this stress," I said in a soft voice as I rubbed gentle circles onto his back. A sigh left his mouth as he shook his head and continued to run his hands through his hair. It was then that I realized just how much this escapade had aged Luke, making him appear in his mid-thirties by the dark bags under his eyes as opposed to his early twenties.

"I never tell you no," he laughed masochistically, standing and taking my hands in his while I smiled lightly at him, allowing his frame to lead me in the direction of his newly appointed office. Even though I was thrilled that Luke trusted me enough to pull me in the direction of the truth, I still felt apprehension for the idea that I would be faced with White Coats for the first time in a year.

When the two of us finally arrived, I recognized the tension within Luke's shoulders and attempted to comfort him, only to be gently pushed away as he went over to his computer and typed away on the keyboard. A photo appeared moments later with a play button covering the entire screen, but one thing was easily recognized despite the screen looking like one large play symbol: the person on the video was my mother.

"Are you sure you still want this?" he asked, looking up at me with tear filled eyes as though he felt the same pain I did in that moment. Despite the large knot tightening in my stomach, I nodded and held my fragile self together. With one nod, Luke turned back to the computer screen and pressed the play button, his eyes instantly coming back to focus on me once he was finished.

At first, there was hustling in the background, but then the sound stopped and an eerie form of silence took over the volume. Farsha, the woman who had given birth to me, began to offer up negotiation tactics at first before beginning her threatening antics that I recognized instantly due to her use of them on me while I was in their facility.

"We will not hesitate to annihilate Melissa Jennings, a proven asset to the Raiders' cause and the girlfriend of you, Mr. Hemmings," her silky voice stated. It always amazed me how she was able to make the most threatening of statements sound so personal and sweet at the same time, but that wasn't the main focus at that moment.

My main focus was Luke, staring down at him with scared eyes as though he would lose his composure in moments. Instead of remaining focused on me, he had directed his attention back to my mother as soon as she began her list of threats against me. He was entranced, attempting to find a better solution than accepting her offer of abolishing our cause than to agree to handing me over, but he couldn't.

"Mark my words," said the voice of my mother as I looked away in fear that actually looking at her would cause me physical harm. "We will find you, Melissa," she spoke precisely, addressing me directly for the first time the entire video as I shivered under Luke's touch, which was still contained only in my hand.

It felt as though she were in the room, so close that she could take me right then and there, and as I felt myself slip deeper into my terrified shell, Luke's hand wrapped tighter around mine as though his touch would bring mystical peace to every part of me, which I wish it did.

"We will bring you back to where you belong and you will be of use to us as a natural descendant of the White Coats," she explained cruelly, reminding me of my original purpose and only reason for living. I closed my eyes blocking out her voice as I heard Luke whisper that this was not what my entire life was about and how my mother was a horrible person on all accounts, but that didn't help to solve any of my problems.

"Turn it off," I spoke suddenly, my entire being shaking like a leaf as I disconnected myself from Luke and found myself crouching to the ground in a position as though I would faint. Luke's soft voice was heard from behind me before I felt his arms wrap around my small frame. Despite his close proximity though, I still felt as though he were so far away from me.

"How-" I struggled to take another breath, my throat closing up from the panic rising within me. "How did she know that you were the leader of the colony?" I asked him, my eyes narrowing as I looked up at his beautiful features, which were now covered with worry.

"I don't know," he whispered, answering honestly as he ran his hands through my hair- an action he knew I loved. "She began the videos by addressing me," he stated, still focussed on my breathing as he felt my pulse to make sure I was alright.

"So they know that you are the leader?" I asked, the bile of my stomach rising to my throat as I tried to compose myself in front of Luke, knowing that he was already worried enough. "They are going to come after you now," I realized, suddenly losing any control I had of my breathing as Luke attempted to calm.

"Hey, it's okay," he repeated into my ear as he held my hand to his chest, telling me to copy his breathing patterns as opposed to my pre-hyperventilation ones. Slowly, I was once again calmed to the point that I was able to return my heart rate to its proper range.

"We'll be okay," Luke promised as he picked my weak body up and traveled back to our room, holding me closer than ever to his body as though I would leave if he didn't. "I'll fight for you, Melissa." His promises sounded endearing like the ones heard in the movies as the boy says something he doesn't mean, but I knew Luke was being entirely truthful.

I could only hope that the fighting he mentioned would hold off longer than I expected it to. Otherwise, I knew Luke would fight the White Coats with his small army and most likely lose in order to prevent me from being taken from him again.

As I reflected upon the revelations within that night, I realized that if I had kept my mouth closed, had I not asked Luke any of those questions and made him feel blocked into a corner, maybe I wouldn't have had to deal with all of the drama that was to come.

Had I stayed out of the business of the White Coats' possible invasion, then we wouldn't have had so much of an upheaval to deal with in those following months.