Endless: Part X

I woke up to the soft patter of rain on my face. I sat up as straight as I could and looked around at my surroundings. I was in a field with Kellin, Aiden, and Marcy who were all asleep under a tree, raindrops barely hitting them. I remembered blowing up the apartment where I was staying. After that, Kellin said he’d find a safe place for us. Well the wide open isn’t exactly what I’d call safe.
I shook Kellin to wake him up. He shot up and pulled out a knife from his sleeve.
“Whoa!” I said. “Slow down settle down there buckaroo.” Kellin looked at me as if in disbelief I was there. He set the knife down and wrapped his arms around me. “Um…. What’s your deal?”

“Ren, you’ve been asleep for three days… we weren’t sure if you’d ever wake up…” He let me go, and now I was the one in disbelief.

“T-Three days?!?” I asked. There’s no way I could’ve been out that long… I didn’t feel that tired…

“Yeah…” He looked at me and must’ve seen that I was worried. He stood and took me out to the middle of the field. “Look. Do you see that city over there?” He pointed way out into the distance to a city that was about seven or eight miles away. I nodded, and then he said, “That’s where we came from.”

“You guys got out here in three days?” I was honestly a little shocked. I never would’ve thought Marcy would be able to walk as far as she had. “So where are we heading?”

“To the nearest town. Our main concern is finding somewhere safe for us to stay. Then we’ll need to worry about food and water, and-“

“Wait.” I interrupted. “I would think food and such would be our main priority. You know, it is the stuff that’s helping us survive.”

“Well…” He gave me a look that beckoned for me to follow him. We walked a little farther from the tree, down near a river. The trees swayed silently, letting little streaks of moonlight in through the branches. When we were a few feet from the water’s edge, Kellin continued. “When we reached the city limits two days ago, we ran into some guys and a girl. They wanted all of our supplies, and when we told them no, they tried to take you off of Aiden’s back and take Marcy from me… I took a knife and shoved it in the throat of the guy who had Marcy...” He cringed. I knew that look. Blood splashed on his face… The blood of another man. “I must’ve killed the girl’s husband or boyfriend, cause she flipped absolute shit, kissing him to try and bring him back to life. She said she’d get revenge… and oh boy, did she mean it…”

“What do you mean?”
“She’s been following us. With more and more people every time we see her. She is constantly looking for us… She almost shot Marcy the other day while I was giving you water. We haven’t been able to sleep much because she shows up right after we’re ready to rest. She’s relentless.”

“It’s okay… I think I know where we could go.” I noticed something out of the corner of my eye, and when I turned to see what it was, I noticed a dim glow from a lantern or torch. “What’s that?”

“That’s them.” He grabbed my arm. “We have to go. She’s coming.”

“Go wake everyone up.” I looked at the water. It wasn’t black… it was a dirty blue color. “This is the cleanest water I’ve seen in months. Just let me wash my face off, and I’ll be right up there.” Kellin was hesitant at first, but after I agreed to come straight up when I heard a single noise, he left.

I dropped to my knees, and splashed the icy cold water on my face, enjoying every last drop. I looked at my reflection in the water. My long black hair has grown stringy from lack of showers. My pale blue eyes have dark circles around them from absence of sleep. And my pale white skin has grown tan with my exposure to the sun, and has a layer of dirt on it. I splashed water on my face again, and then I could begin to hear twigs snap. I looked up and saw the torch was much closer now. Then I saw about 50 or 60 people heading my way. I stood, wiped the dripping water from my face and ran back up to the tree.

“Hurry up, Ren.” Kellin said in a harsh whisper. When I got near them, I strapped my backpack on, put a knife and gun in my belt loops, and then turned into Aiden who was standing behind me waiting for a hug.

I wrapped my arms around him, breathing in his scent of grass and pine sap. It had been at least three days since I hugged him… Hello! Earth to Ren! Remember? People are coming to kill you all, it might be smart to worry about your little romance later.

I let go of Aiden, then looked around. “Where’s Marcy?” I asked. She walked out from behind Kellin and ran to me, hugging my legs. “Marcy, listen to me. We need to go. People are coming to kill us. I know somewhere we can go to stay safe.”

She smiled. “Okay Ren.” She whispered. The sound of a gunshot startled me, and as I looked in the direction of the noise, I saw a man reloading a sawed-off shotgun.

I grabbed Marcy’s hand and said, “Follow me.” Then we ran off into the woods. Truth be told, I had no idea where the hell we were, but it wouldn’t take me long to figure it out. After about 20 minutes of running, I looked back to see if I could still see the flame or if the man had kept up with us. The man was gone, and the flame was still there, but faintly. “Can you guys keep going?” The three of them were panting. They were exhausted but they all stood up and continued.

“Hey…Ren!” Aiden called as we ran.

“What?” I replied.
“I wanted to know… where you got those explosives.”

“Oh… I stole them… from a military base.”

“A what now?” Kellin asked.
“A military base… they… they went out looking for supplies and I… I stole what I could.” I stopped running. My lungs began to burn from lack of oxygen, and my legs were sore from being asleep for the past three days. I took deep breaths, trying to restore my ability to breathe properly. I turned to check on the torch and saw that it was nowhere in sight. I sat on the ground, and so did everyone else.

“How… How did you get in…?” Kellin asked, gasping for air.
“There were only… six or seven guards… four of them went for food supplies… There was barely any… security.” I replied.

Kellin laid on the ground, and as I looked over to check on Marcy, she looked as if she were asleep. Aiden lay next to her, taking deep breaths of the sweet air.

I laid back and stared at the pinkish sky. The sun was starting to rise… A new day was starting. I looked over at everyone who all seemed to be asleep already. I began to think what it would be like if my parents were still here… maybe we wouldn’t be running for our lives. Or maybe we would still have a place that was safe for us… Maybe our family would still be here.

Open your eyes Ren. Don’t you see? This is a family. This is your family. I smiled. Yeah. A family. Maybe this time I can keep this one safe…