The Secret Grounder

Part 20- The Girl

Wooo! We've reached 20 chapters!!! Lets keep goingggg.

I woke up cold. The warmth that fell asleep next to me had moved. I sat up slowly as to not disturb the headache that had seemingly taken over my brain last night. Echo was curled up on the sofa, book in hand. I made my way over to her and wiggled myself backwards, further into the chair. She looked up from the pages and smiled at me.
"You sleep okay?"
I blush quickly and chuckle at the girl,
"Better than okay." I smiled. I think that's the first proper sleep i've had since everything turned to shit."
Echo laughs but doesn't lift her head up from the book. A strand of hair flops down over her face. I reach over and tuck it behind her ear, causing her eyes to attach to mine. We stay like that for a few seconds, though it seemed a lot longer. The girl smiles to herself and then merges back into the story. That was the perfect moment, but it passed by. As usual.

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John's pov-

"Jaha! Where the hell are we going?" I shout forwards, following the man up what seemed like a dry, sandy mountain.
"I gathered people before i came to you. They're waiting up there." He says, pointing just above us on the ledge.

Up on the ledge were five other people, all of which i somewhat recognised from the Ark. Obviously people who decided to follow Jaha instead of Kane. We began our journey; passing a small village minute after leaving the ledge. A figure stood at the edge of a roughly made house. Staring out into the desert, their head spun around as we got closer and they stared us down. As we passed the house i realised it was a woman. A dark mitten was wrapped around her right hand. And a scarf over her head. Jaha stopped when he noticed that woman.
"Can we help you?!" He shouted. She didn't respond, but turned her head quickly behind her. The look on her face was startling, over the dune at the back of the house came two men on horseback. They stopped at the top and shot a rifle into the air. Having no coverage anywhere made the sound echo for miles. The woman ran over towards us and almost straight into me.
"Please help me!" She screamed.
Jaha enveloped himself around her and ushered her towards the other people in the back.
"In there." Jaha says, pointing towards a small camouflaged hut to our left. All eight of us pushed through the door and sat down against the wall.
Jaha placed a finger to his lips. The footfalls slowly receded past the hut. Until distant horse hooves could be heard back on top of the dunes.

We must've kept walking for days. Slowly we began to run out of food and water, though Jaha was still extremely skint giving out the resources.

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Kyara's pov-

"Ky! Come on! You said we could leave twenty minutes ago?!" Echo shouted.
"In sorryyy." I whined, "i was doing my hair!"
I walk out of the small bathroom with my hair in two dutch braids leading into a ponytail. I give a small spin as i walk towards Echo. She smiles,
"I like it."
"Why thank you!" I laugh, picking up my jacket from the sofa and sliding my arm through it, "what even is this meeting about?" I ask.
"Honestly," Echo starts, pulling open the door, "i have no idea."
"The commander called it, and i don't really wanna mess with her."
"Does she frighten you? I mock, giggling at the brunette.
"Yeah. A bit." Echo mumbles.
"Awww." I laugh, jogging to catch up with the girl and placing an arm around her shoulder. She gives me a half-hearted death stare but then gives up and interlocks her fingers with mine slung over her shoulder. I'm shocked at the action, it was so straight forward. So easy. Why couldnt i be like that? I had to always take the scenic route. I feel my cheeks go red, but i will the colour away quickly.

The brunette lets go of my hand and i slowly move my arm off her shoulder. It was nice while its lasted. We move out towards the stables, and quickly tack up the horses that had been picked out for us. I had kinda become Azgeda's honourary little sister at this point, no one questioned why i was there or what i was doing. It was nice having free rein like this.

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