Chapter eighteen

I didn’t know whether I had been blown down, pulled down or had dove onto the rough ground myself. I knew I was being battered by heavy debris though, large rocks raining down on me among smaller pieces. It continued for what felt like days; I was going to be buried under rubble and trapped there for days I know it. The avalanche of dirt stopped; I opened my eyes carefully and blinked some dirt away. I tried to move away and yelped as I felt something holding me in place; it was heavy and sitting on my back like a lead weight. I had a headache that felt like someone was cracking my skull with a steamroller.
“Someone get this thing the hell off me” I coughed, blowing dust away from my mouth so I could speak.
“Sorry” Gemini’s double voice said; the weight got lighter slightly as she got off me, then it all disappeared as both of her hammers were taken from somewhere in my spine. I got up carefully, boulders and what were the remains of boulders cascaded from my body. The amount that fell from me I was surprised that I hadn’t been crushed under the weight. I love my exoskeleton.
“Sis?” I called out, spinning around on the spot and seeing a groaning feathered female being dragged out from beneath a pile of dust. She gave her wings a few careful flaps and gasped as the blood leaked out; the dust had stuck to the blood and has hidden the wound.
“You take her” Gemini said, Amp nodded and helped my sister towards the door we had arrived from. A small crowd was gathering there, injured from the explosion.

“What the hell was that?” Gemini asked, the one behind thumped her chest and the one in front coughed up a little cloud of dust.
I tipped my head slightly and pebbles fell from my spiked head, relieving my headache slightly “Look for the guy who’s either burning or giggling; possibly both.” I looked around sure enough; TNT was flat out on his back giggling insanely with Mist beating out a fire with a rock. I made my way over to them, Gemini followed in some strange walking process that was a lot like a horse.
Mist growled at TNT “What the hell did you do?” she coughed, shaking her head to clear her head of dust.
“Breaking rocks” TNT giggled, clearing himself of dirt “Bit too much boom. “
“How the hell did you get explosives in here?” Gemini spoke in her double voice.
TNT got up and shook himself from head to toe, the dirt fell from him and he was still covered with the black oily substance “My skin makes a dirty explosive.” He wiped off his greasy hand on a small rock, picked it up and tossed it away. The rock smacked onto the floor and exploded, crumbling to dust on the floor. “I guess I used too much before, I just wanted to get rid of all the rocks at once” TNT said dopily.

Mist stared in a mixture of horror and admiration; I was still stuck on horror. I was stuck with an explosive psycho in my room and he didn’t seem to know the meaning of “less is more”. I didn’t want to look at TNT right now; I looked around and winced slightly, Trapper was in Stitch’s arms. His wheelchair was melted to the floor; his new clothes were slightly burnt and he was holding his arm.
“Try that again TNT and I’ll tie your arms and legs onto the bars” I growled, then realised what I’d just said. I shouldn’t taunt the mad man. I didn’t like my friends being hurt though, Stitch seemed ok but then again she went to pieces a lot. Stitch carried Trapper over towards the gathering crowd, my hope that Trapper would be alright following her.
“This is Gemini” I said, pointing to the conjoined girls “She’s a friend of my sister.” Mist nodded half heartedly, dragging TNT up onto his feet.
“I think we should go to the doors” Gemini said in her harmony voices “Work seems to be over today.”
“HOORAY! A day off” TNT laughed, throwing his arms in the air and earning a smack across the face off Mist.
“Try that sort of thing again and I’ll beat you an inch from death” she growled, jerking TNT around by the collar.
“You are such a flirt” TNT giggled, staring up at Mist with his red and yellow glittering eyes. Mist took a step back and stared at him, a small flush breaking out in her cheeks.

“Come on you love birds” Gemini said, sighing and stroking their hair out of their faces. She dropped the hammers where they were, walking wearily towards the crowd. Mist grumbled as she broke from TNT’s spell, dropping the man like sack of bricks. TNT just laughed it off as he got up, his spine bending in a way I didn’t know it could.
“Looks like it’s just you and me tonight bunkmate” he said, his smile a shine of white through the explosives covering him.
“If you’re not blown to pieces by the guards” I sighed, eyeing the collar warily.
“Oh I wouldn’t worry about that, I’m immune to high explosives a flame.” TNT tugged at the collar “Is this full of explosives then?”
A chance, I could see it glittering in front of me like a diamond in a coal mine “Yes, there’s explosives in there. Enough to take your head off apparently” I bit my lip “You have to be careful with this information TNT; you could be the only one here who would survive a blast. If they find out you can survive explosions they’ll stick you in a cell and not let you out, if we’re ever going to escape we’ll need someone who can survive a blast.” There was a moment of complete silence, TNT stared upwards at the slightly hazy and dust clouded sky. I thought I’d gotten to him, made him think about leaving here and his part in the future plans.
“Wonder if they have TV here” he said finally, still staring up into space. I growled and smacked him hard on top of the head, grabbing his shirt and dragging the explosive idiot after me. I couldn’t tell anyone it was him, they might do something to him and I didn’t want someone’s death on my hands.

A guard stood in my way, arm up to block me from going any further “You will refrain until you have a guard to-“ He hardly got the sentence out, TNT barrelled into him from the force of my throw.
“You carry the nut job, I don’t need a stupid guard” I growled at the stunned man. He looked uncertain for a minute, not expecting a freak like me to act like this.
“I... don’t know the way to your cell” the guard said nervously, trying to hold a floppy TNT up. Sighing I looked around and sniffed, I wasn’t in the mood for this right now and my headache was starting to pound away at me. I sniffed deeply, making the guard holding TNT up even more nervous and finally found what I wanted. I took three firm strides, found that it made my brain ache to do anything too dramatic and wobbled slightly before finding my feet.
I tapped a black guard on the shoulder, one of my male guards “Hey, you’re meant to take us back to our cell.”
I was making this guard nervous now “We all look the same” he said “how do you know I’m one of your guards?”
“You’re uglier than the rest, now get me back to the cell before I decide just to walk out of here” my headache was killing me and I didn’t want to deal with any questions now.
“You should be civil-“
“Oh shut up” I groaned, then winced as I was smacked hard across the head. It had been a step too far I knew it. We got back to the cell after all but nearly every doorway or post we passed ended up connecting with my head. I managed to land on my bed when I was pushed into my room, groaning and curling up on top of it as TNT was almost tossed onto me.
“Get some sleep freaks” the guard I had insulted chuckled “You’ll need it for tomorrow.” I couldn’t ponder what he was talking about now, my brain was on fire and I needed to rest aching muscles. I pulled my blanket on top of me, rolled over and fell asleep at once.

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Ebony and Ivory Collection
Ebony and Ivory chapter nineteen