Burned Ones

Chapter 17

Cameron.
16 years old.

I awoke with a jolt, eye scanning my surroundings for the threat.

An employee dropped broken boxes outside the back entrance of the store they worked at. They didn't glance in my direction and I didn't move. The slam of the back door closing after they retreated back inside echoed around the concrete.

I was in a small street for the back entrances to four different buildings and I was sure the only purpose of the street was for trash collection. There was a pawn shop, clothing store, cigar shop, and tattoo parlor. The road was on a slope and because of that, the tattoo parlor had a small staircase leading up to the backdoor that I was currently slouching against. The sign on the parlor's doors in the front said it wasn't supposed to open until later in the day so I used it as a safe spot to take a nap without having to worry about employees busting me or asking questions that I didn't want to answer.

My dad drove me out of Melkin last night and left me here. He was angry that I didn't openly welcome the Casey symbol being branded into my skin, that I kept arguing with him about Alex, that I didn't want to go out on jobs with him, and I was pretty sure he was still a sliver pissed that I had punched him a bit ago in front of everyone. It was only the two of us on the drive, which I was thoroughly impressed with because typically he had others deposit me somewhere for him. He very kindly took time out of his busy schedule to do it himself so I was obviously on the search for a World's Greatest Dad mug to surprise him with.

Usually, the order was to stay out here for a week and only at the end of the week could I walk back through the Casey house doors. It was understood that if I didn't show back up, he wouldn't send a search party out for me, he would just assume that I hadn't been tough enough to survive and that was my own fault. Can I get a #1 Dad shirt, too?

This time, the time frame was two weeks. That was new.

Two weeks where I had no money, no food, no water, no roof over my head except what I could provide or steal for myself and no one available to help me. If a Casey helped me and my dad found out, they'd get punished for trying to make me weak. Thankfully, I knew my dad, this wasn't the first time he'd abandoned me in the middle of nowhere and my distrust and dislike for him was already at an all-time high. I hid cash in my shoes regularly and occasionally in my jean pockets for this very occasion. It wasn't a lot of money, but it was enough.

This time, I was dropped off in Lake Grove, one of the cities nearby that Caseys frequented often but only for things I didn't like to acknowledge. There were a lot of Caseys that pushed drugs in Lake Grove. Or, a lot of people who unofficially worked for Caseys to push drugs for them. That meant the chance of eyes on me were higher here than in some random town hours away.

I had been living my life of luxury for two days and when I wasn't napping behind tattoo parlors, looking for water, or buying food, I walked around the town. Sitting all day made my legs get stiff and frankly, I was bored. I walked street after street, avoiding the ones I knew Caseys occupied, and I walked to the grocery store to peruse the aisles full of food I had no intention of buying, and I walked to the bus stop. I studied the path the different busses took, where all of the major connecting stations were, and how far I could get. I bothered the train attendants often, asking which cities, towns, or states certain stations went to. If I could manage to get my hands on Alex and Annabeth, we could get out of here. If we did it close enough to the end of my two weeks, our dads might not even notice we were missing until we were far away.

That night, I was perched on the side of the four buildings because they were all open for business and I didn't want to disrupt them. I closed my eyes and I wasn't sure how long I had passed out before another noise startled me awake.