THE EPOCH CHRONICLES | ✔

forty

AMELIA WATCHED Lale talk to another marine — she thought his name was James or something, and felt a twinge of regret that she didn't even know — under her eyelashes, which were stuck together by her dried tears.

It was so stupid, how she couldn't even talk to him without getting angry. Because she wanted to talk, she really did. Amelia wanted to tell him about what she had envisioned for the future, and what had happened to her in the past. She wanted them to get to know each other.

Which couldn't exactly happen when she was looking for a way to bite his head off when he so much as looked at her, which was maybe why he had stopped.

Amelia sighed, and fiddled with the bandage around her ankle. She had to clean her wounds, once she found the energy to do so. Thinking about how they seemed to be getting no better made her bite her lip to stop herself from bursting into tears all over again.

Crying won't help heal any infections.

Amelia shut her eyes and tried to shut out her thoughts, too, and leant back against the tilted fern that she'd claimed as her seat. For some reason, her next thought was on the very thing that had gotten her into this mess: the Echmatocrinus brachiatus.

Should've done Eohippus, she found herself smiling, though there was nothing to smile about. It already felt like a lifetime ago ... And, technically, it was. That realization broadened her grin, and she felt like a complete nutzoid. A nutzoid with a dinosaur for a pet, Amelia added internally.

Like it sensed her thoughts, Ed released an inquisitive purr, pressed against her thigh. The young dinosaur's fluffy feathers bristled from between its scales, slowly browning to camouflage it in the dirt. Ed's eyes were wide and bulging as it clicked its teeth together, tilting its head.

"Yep, Ed," Amelia croaked, before she cleared her throat. "I'm totally nuts."

Ed blinked, a thin membrane going over his/her eyes, before it turned its head sharply in the way of the waterfall and released a growly chirp. Amelia frowned, following the direction of Ed's gaze, which was blocked out by the declining level from the falls to the marsh plateau below.

"What's wrong, Ed?" By the way things had been going as of late, she wasn't expecting it to be anything good.

"Hey!" She saw a man point out from the waterfall, obviously acting as lookout. Amelia scrambled to her feet, her joints popping as she grimaced.

C'mon, leg, work with me here.

"It's Tina!" The man hollered, and then Amelia couldn't think anymore as she blotted out the pain and raced forward, wobbling as she left her crutch behind. The pain was nauseating, and the vertigo nearly tilted her entire vision as she paused at the man's side, her eyes scanning over the fogged landscape and locking onto the lone figure who limped, alone.

Tina! Amelia wanted to leap down the ledge to reach her friend, but she held back as Lale did it himself, hurtling down the side of the waterfall to get to her. Amelia's hand shook as she brought it to her mouth. Thank God she's alive. She's alive!

She gulped away the bile in her throat as she backed away from the edge of the waterfall; far away enough so that she didn't fall and die, but near enough so that she could see Lale as he helped Tina onwards. The sunlight from the early morning shadowed their faces.

What does this mean, though? A dark thought worked its way into her mind. If Tina and Luca weren't able to get the volt-guns disabled ... Amelia's lungs felt chilled, and she found herself wishing that Zoey was beside her. I don't know what to do. But we'll have to do something, and soon.

"Tina!" Amelia reached for her as Lale and her friend reached the top of the waterfall once more, and although pain screamed up her spine, she staggered forward and almost collapsed into Lale and Tina's tangled arms.

"Amelia!" She didn't miss Tina's grimace, and Amelia withdrew, her heart twisting like a balloon. Had she hurt the other girl? Or had she already been hurt? Amelia fought back the urge to hug her again. Despite Tina's battered appearance, and the pain that seemed to be twisting up the paler girl's face, she was alive, and Amelia couldn't have felt more relieved.

"What happened?" Amelia suddenly wobbled on her one good leg, and Lale caught her, holding both women upright. His hand was steady against her ribs, and she had to bite her lip to keep from stepping away from him. I can't lead him on ... literally. Amelia doubted she'd be able to work very far with her leg messed up the way it was, but the thought of further blocking out Lale made her cheeks flush with regret. Please, she sent her thoughts up to some divine entity she was ninety percent sure didn't exist.

Please let it not always be this way.

"Ichabod," Tina replied, her voice thin, and then her cheeks flashed white, and she went limp in Lale's arms.

"She fainted!" Amelia caught hold of Tina's wrist as it flopped loosely. Lale knelt and let her rest on the ground as the curly-haired girl tried to contain the fluttering of panic in her belly. Thank goodness she had a rhythmic pulse, though it was weak.

Only then did Amelia notice the blood dampening Tina's shirt; red on brownish-grey. Her hand had been on it before, she realized. Tina had been trying to prevent her friend from worrying.

But worry she did while the other recruits gathered closer, and some with medical experience took to staunching the wound with wet cloth torn from their own clothes. "Probably a stab wound," Lale commented from her side. While Theron and Denver settled Tina into the recovery position (Amelia had taken the opportunity to learn their names while they patched up her friend), he'd been standing while Amelia leant against her retrieved crutch, watching the temporary medics like a hawk and feeling pretty useless.

Amelia frowned, and her stomach stirred with more than just hunger. She hadn't eaten breakfast yet. Their so-called 'differences' aside, Amelia knew she could count on Lale, and she hoped that he knew he could count on her, despite ... well, everything that had happened after their kiss.

(Which had been perfect, but she couldn't think on that at that moment.)

"Ichabod knew she was one of us." Irritatingly, her voice trembled. In front of her laid one of her best friends, unconscious because of him. She tightened her grip on her crutch. He must've interrogated her. She couldn't have told him anything ... could she have?

Amelia recoiled from her own thoughts, and her stomach's fluttering worsened. How could she even be thinking that? Of course Tina wasn't a traitor!

"It's a threat," Lale spoke up before Amelia could get a headache from her own doubts. "He knew she was going to come back here — almost like a message to all of us."

Amelia shut her eyes and wished Lale was wrong. Deep down, though, she knew he was right, and that she couldn't help but agree.

Ichabod harming someone so close to Amelia was an act of war.

"We need to be ready for him," Amelia forced her doubts and uncertainties out of her mind, and her words were as harsh as the mental act. "'Cause if Ichabod wants a fight, he's gonna get one."

Lale looked at her; she could feel his gaze against her cheek. She didn't return his gaze, her eyes on Tina instead, even as her own body tried to betray her and fall into Lale's arms again. The crutch became her lifeline and she wasn't swayed, even as her jaw tensed when he gave up and looked away.

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