Rogue (Exceptional) Read Free

she had to decide; the two couples or the immature boy and the pregnant girl.
           Willow had been great on the trip so far, but every now and then she would get sick and they would have to stop while she ran into the woods to vomit. Willow was pregnant, maybe six or eight weeks along. She had been in the ORC when Ally had first found her in the City; the Ordinary Reproduction Center. The building served as a holding area for Ordinarys, and Willow had fallen victim to its sick and twisted purpose before Ally had had a chance to break her out. Several times Willow would beg Ally to let her go back to the settlement and turn herself in, that way the group could move on more quickly.  Ally refused, however, because she couldn’t let her friend take the heat, and because she knew it was a risk.  She knew they probably had harsh ways of getting information out of people, and Willow knew too much.
           Ally pulled her pack from the ground and slung it over her shoulder.  She had taken it from the storehouse they had spent the night in the day they found Cody, and it proved to be quite useful so far. Ally started to cut a path through the wilderness, using the position of the sun to turn herself toward the west.  The others would fall into step behind her, just as they always did, and they would travel in their own form of silence.  For Ally this meant actual silence but for the others it was a mix of singing, rustling leaves, humming, and sometimes giggles.  She tended to walk ahead on the path and spend her travel time thinking, and planning.
           She felt responsible for ripping these Ordinarys from their homes and dragging them on what might end up being a futile trip.  She had no idea how they would meet up with the others, or if they would even find this so called southern City.  Ally had no idea what dangers waited for them in the Wilderness, and she had a feeling there were worse things than Rogues waiting in the darkness of the trees.  For this reason she kept her hands ever at the ready, and the package of vaccines safely tucked in the bottom of her bag.  Ridding herself of her abilities would be a selfish act at this point, but Kemp had left them for her for a reason. She wasn’t sure of their worth just yet, but knew that a single dose would take away abilities from an Exceptional. Perhaps they could be used as a weapon if necessary.
    Two hours and one scouting trip later, they set up camp in a section of old, crumbling homes.  These homes were different than others Ally had seen on their trip.  They were long, not very wide, and they were set off the ground, as if they’d once been mobile.  The homes sat side by side in neat little rows, an odd display of order in the overgrown and untreated Wilderness.  Most of them had been completely gutted but a few of them had bench type seats built into the walls and tables in broken apart kitchens.  While five of them climbed up into a home that looked suitable for an overnight stay, Theo and Flora snuck off to a home several down in the row.  They would do that every now and then, spend the night away from the group or slip off during meal breaks.
           It made Ally nervous. Maybe a little bit jealous, but mainly nervous.
    “Don’t look so sour.  You made your choice,” Stosh said as he laid his pack down on the table.
           He did this every so often, chiding Ally for having feelings at all.  More and more she felt like her emotions were on overdrive.  She found her bottom lip quivering at the thought of their mother, her heartbeat quickening at the worry of an attack, and her skin tingling at the mention of Luke.  Stosh was always there along the way to remind her of the choices she had made, and in those moments she felt the heat of anger filling her cheeks.  In a way, Ally wondered if he blamed her for everything that had happened, as though she were personally responsible for the bullet that took their