The Assassins: Code Death Chapter 10

Chapter 10 - Assassins: Code Death
Zahir took a breath as he clenched his fists- he felt so helpless. He couldn’t do anything for Grace, but Zira could. Zira, of all people!

‘Jealous?’ Zira taunted lowly. Zahir growled. No, he wasn’t jealous. No, he was just annoyed. He just go annoyed.

“Hey, Zahir,” The black haired boy looked up to see Hector and Logan. “Uh, thanks for having Zira heal Grace.” Hector muttered.

“Yeah, we know how he is...it must’ve taken a lot to hold him back.” Logan said. Zahir smiled.

“It’s cool, it’s cool.” Zahir fixed his suit. “The only thing that happens after he comes out- considering he doesn’t go berserk- is that he taunts me in my mind until he gets bored of that. Then I’m pretty sane.”

“Man, that sounds rough.” Logan mumbled. “I wish we could do something to help you out.”

“Nah, I’m fine.” Zahir said as he felt the bus--finally--begin to move. “It’s only things like him playing with my emotions. That’s all.” Hector sat on the right of Zahir.

“You want to talk about it?” He asked carefully. Zahir hesitantly nodded.

‘Tell them all you want,’ Zira said. ‘It isn’t gonna help.’  Zahir gritted his teeth.

“I just felt so useless that I had to call on him to heal Grace. Zira. He isn’t supposed to come out, period. I feel...bad. Why did Zira have to come out?” Logan sighed.

“I know how you feel.” He said. “But that isn’t something bad on your part- it’s bad on all of our parts because we knew that we would get into a predicament like this but we didn’t prepare- at least, well enough to prevent that.” Hector fiddled with his thumbs.

“Yeah, so don’t worry about it.” Hector said finally. “We all couldn’t have stopped Zira from getting out- we needed him.”

“We could’ve prevented the injury.” Zahir mumbled.

‘Are you that opposed to me coming out?’ Zira said. ‘I need to stretch my wings and fly too.’  Zahir thought for a minute- was it really that bad? Letting Zira come out, fight a few battles, and then come back? He never really had a normal life so it can’t be that bad...

“Did he say something?” Hector asked, noticing Zahir’s quietness. Zahir nodded.

“...He wants to come out more often. But I can’t risk him getting more control and eventually overthrowing and killing me.” Zahir mumbled.

“Come up with a compromise.” Jess said from across the bus. She had recently came from where Grace was at, and now Courtney and Hanna were there. “Let him come out for a short amount of time and then you take back over. If you let him out for, say, 2 or 3 minutes a day, it’ll take around 3 years for him to even get enough strength to take over.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:114%;">“And I doubt we’ll be that long.” Logan said.

<p style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:114%;">“You don’t know how long we’ll be.” Hector began. “We could be ten years, with the size of the U.S.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:114%;">‘I like this idea.’ Zira grumbled. ‘''But 2 minutes? How am I supposed to do what I do like that?’''

<p style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:114%;">“You’ll figure it out.” Zahir mumbled before standing. “I feel a little odd...” He said, walking to the back. “I think...I’ll go visit Grace for a minute...” When he did get back there, Courtney and Hanna seemed to be having a stare-down. They just stared at each other- and Zahir was positive it was because of something between them. Or maybe it was boredom.

<p style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:114%;">“I’ll take watching Grace.” Zahir said and the two girls stood and walked out of the room quietly. He sat down next to Grace in a seat Hanna just sat in.

<p style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:114%;">It was quiet- he wasn’t even sure why he came here. Zira didn’t even say anything. What was wrong. Was it the fact that this could’ve all been prevented? He could’ve done something...just a few more seconds and he could’ve reached her- he would’ve reached her. All he had to do was use the Death Manipulation skill that he often forgot he had. And she wouldn’t be like this. She would’ve been bad, but not this bad.

<p style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:114%;">“A few broken ribs...a concussion...” Zahir listed off the symbols. “Sorry, Grace. I’m sorry I couldn’t make it there in time. I swear all I needed was a few seconds...” Grace stirred a little in her sleep, pain evident on her face. Zahir sat there quietly again. Until, Logan came in.

<p style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:114%;">“Zahir,” Logan said. “We’re having a meeting. Possibly gonna change tactics now. Come on.” When Zahir took his place at the front of the bus, the meeting began.

<p style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:114%;">“I propose,” Jess said. “A system like the buddy-system. That way we won’t have another incident like Grace’s.”

‘Yeah.’ Zahir and Zira thought at the same time. ‘A buddy system.’