Spoiler Alert: They Ain't Gonna Make It

39. Selfish

Zoe watched Miss Smith's back as it disappeared from the room, her heart filling with black muck. She knew that teacher was as bad as their kidnappers. Zoe knew Miss Smith was never on their side. She knew her teacher was a coward.

And, maybe, so was she.

"Fireball!" She cried for the tenth time, choking on her tears.

It had gotten to her. Everything had gotten to her. The deaths of her five friends had slowly eaten her as she sat tied to the chair.

No one close to her had ever died. She had never been exposed to as much pain and guilt as she did sitting on the stage in the golden room. Pain because she was experiencing her first lost. Guilt because when Sarah had asked if anyone had to go to the bathroom, Zoe did have to go. But, she hadn't gone and now the people who did were dead, meaning she could have died.

If she had gone to the bathroom, she would be dead.

All of the emotions she was feeling, remorse, intense sorrow, anguish, were so scary, so awful, so horrifying, she was cracking. Her brittle frame work was cracking and it scared her. She didn't want to break, she didn't want her insides to spill out so that she was left with a hollow shell.

So she did what she felt would save her.

She called on her crush to rescue her.

"Fireball please!" She sobbed, fighting against her restraints.

Everyone was looking at her. Her friends were still processing the fact that Miss Smith left them and they didn't understand why Zoe would want to leave too. The red shirted men were annoyed, glaring at the obnoxiously loud girl. And Fireball, well, he was taking his merry old time wobbling up to her.

"Z-Dog, what's up?" He said, coming upon her. Under his bright red t-shirt, were bandages upon bandages masking the bullet wound he obtained not so long ago. The bullet hadn't hit anything but fat tissue, which meant that Fireball was going to live with minimal pain. He was going to live.

"Fireball," she stared up at him with her puffy, clouded red eyes. "Get me out of here."

He smiled, cooking his head to the side. "Now why would I do that, my lady?"

She took in three shaky breaths before saying, "Please, please just let me go."

Zach and Eric watched helplessly as their crush crumbled beneath Fireball's feet. They could see now that she liked Fireball, it was bluntly obvious. No one could like a bad guy unless they really, really, really liked them. Which didn't make the most sense but was true. Eric and Zach watched as they lost another part of their hearts.

Fireball leaned down, putting his face next to Zoe's ear. His breaths were lights puffs on her cheek and his closeness was a divine tingle in her chest.

"If I let you go, you will do everything I say," he said in a low and husky voice.

Zoe shivered. He was so close it was hard not to feel this gesture at an intimate one. And the way he did it so flawlessly, so mysteriously and quiet made her heart beat ten times faster, ten times louder, ten times stronger. It was attractive. Deadly attractive.

The girl nodded, tears still streaming down her cheeks. She would do anything to get out of there. Anything to avoid death.

He set his hand on Zoe's opposite cheek, gently stroking it with his index finger.

"You will not complain, you will not fight against me."

She could feel his intensity, his complexity, his integrity all pushing out of him in heated waves. There was a desire to him, towards him, for him, something that Zoe could not fight against. Just the simple way his jaw bone touched hers made her crave for more. More more more more more. He was enticing, inviting, addicting. He was something Zoe wanted, Zoe needed. He was the very medcine she had to have to stay alive.

His Adams apple bobbed up and down before he went on.

"I will untie you and you will be rope free. But you are not free. The second those ropes leave you, you are mine." His fingers stopped caressing and instead tightly gripped the left side of her face. He was posseing her like she was a toy, like she wasn't anything but a wind up jack-in-the-box. "You will do as I say when I say it and never leave my side. Never."

He pulled away from her, his hand linger on her cheek before letting it drop.

"Can you do that, Z-Dog?"

Zoe didn't hesitate when she fiercely nodded.

And Fireball didn't hesitate when he untied her.

Kala watched her friend stand from her chair, gritted her teeth. "You're just going to leave us, Zoe?"

Zoe turned around to face her friend, her face wet with fresh tears.

"You're just giving up."

"No, I'm not," Zoe retaliated. "I'm not giving up, I'm just-"

"Just what?" Kala snarled. "You're just what?"

Zoe shook her head, more tears leaving her eyes. "Please don't make me stay," she whinpered. "I can't stay. I can't do this."

"And you think we can?" Kala was yelling now. "You think we can watch all of this happen and not feel bad? You think we had a choice on whether we can handle all of this? Because we didn't. We didn't have a choice or a warning or anything. This is real life, this is what's happening. And if you can't handle it, then you don't deserve it."

"I'm sorry," Zoe whispered, stepping off the stage with Fireball's arm around her shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

Then, she too was gone.

She couldn't save them so she saved herself.

And Eric and Zach were heartbroken.