Page 49 of Resistant

I glare at him some more.

Declan sets a brutal pace right off the bat and I’m already dropping behind. I don’t care. It’s not a competition.

“Baby, you need to keep up. I need you next to me, for safety.”

“I’m safe when asleep in the bed.”

“My Angel is a grumpy-ass in the morning.”

“Yeah, at the butt fuck crack of dawn. Yeah, I’m an asshole.”

“Noted, Angel.”

“Fuck you.”

Declan shakes his head in disbelief and picks up the pace. Somewhere in the recesses of my brain I’m acknowledging that Declan will make me pay for this, but at the moment I don’t care.

Honestly, as a rule I’m not feisty and I have no idea what happened to my filter. I’m not happy, but generally, I don’t complain much but it feels good to stretch outside my norm. I’ll deal with later, later. I huff, wheezing, my side is already hurting, and my feet feel like concrete blocks.

“How far are we going?”

“Until we get a bite.”

“What?”

“Bingo, two o’clock.”

“Who says bingo?” I mutter.

A man steps outside a small pink bungalow and walks to his mailbox. It’s hard to see through the Gray, but as we get closer, I notice that he is wearing thick bottle glasses with sparkly plastic frames that enlarge his eyes.

He has a graying goatee and is also sporting a purple terry cloth robe. He looks us over, squints as we approach, and smiles. It’s an almost painful smile, and either he’s extremely introverted, or he is not glad to see us.

“Mornin’, Y’all must be the new neighbors. Welcome.”

Declan nods at the man and slows. Great, it’s social hour at the butt crack of dawn.

“Morning, yeah, we are new, moved in a few days ago.”

“Name is Rick, y’all let us know if you need anything.” He leans in closer.

“Heard y’all are looking to start up the meetings. Used to have bingo night back when the superior wasn’t paying much attention. Figure, that’s about to start back up again. We should do poker night, but folks ‘round her don’t seem too amicable for it if ya know what I mean.”

Declan lets out a short bark of laughter.

“Thanks, man, we appreciate the invite. Let us know.” He smiles and pulls me into a slow jog.

Rick nods at me and I grimace and give him a stupid salute. I don’t want to talk. Declan is lucky that I haven’t hit him over the head with something pulling this bullshit running stuff. I’m certainly not talking to anyone else unless I have to, especially someone who doesn’t seem too excited that we are now in the neighborhood.

“That was awkward as fuck. Listen, Angel, we need to learn the lay of the land, how many potential exits there are, and how many guards at each exit. We need a plan. And this is an easy way to get a handle on our surroundings. If something happens to me, you need to know the layout like the back of your hand.”

I stop running.

“What do you mean if something happens to you?” He turns and “Angel, anything could happen at any time. You know that.”

I do know that. I’m still in my pretend world where there isn’t a government oppressing us because we don’t agree, where people are forced to get married, and I’m held prisoner at a concentration camp. I don’t want to leave my little fantasy. I like it here. I sigh and start running again. He’s right, but I’m still going to behave like an asshole. We could do this at night. Jesus, I don’t know what time it is, but it feels like four in the morning. Ugh!

We run around a curve, and I study all the little copycat bungalow houses. Some are different colors, but they all seem to be in similar states of disrepair.

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