The Alternate State

chapter 10

*UNEDITED*
Hannah and I exchange glances quickly just as the boy rushes us "Jonathan! You made it! My God I-" "RUN" Jonathan exclaims again grabbing Hannah by the shoulders " Hannah theyre right on my heels, we don't have time for me to explain!" He grabs her by the hand rushing her towrads the stream as shock and questions rail through me, I turn on my heal running to wake the others, "Hurry! Hurry! Everyone they're here" I shout as I make a bee line for Gabe, we nearly crash in to each other as he intercepts me pulling me in to himself, "what? What is it!" He says searching my face "Some boy named Jonathan just came rushing through covered in blood, theyve found us!" The others have joined us now as shouts and dogs bark just beyond us. We all break away grabbing what3ever wee can carry, Hannah went with him to the river so that's where I lead the group. We leave the fire and most of our belongings behind, I hardly fill the chill in the air as our feet stomp the ground and my pulse pounds in my ears. Sticks and low hanging branchs claw at my face and ankles as we scurry blindly through the pitch-black woods. I'm not sure if we'll all make it, I can hear the grunts and racing breaths of our friends behind us as someone trips and cusses beneath their breath, I glance back to see one of the twins regaining their balance. My head whips forward just as Gabe pulls me to a holt causing me to collide with Hannah causing us to both stumble a few steps. "What" I demand, "why have you stopped running" Jonathan places a finger over his mouth hushing me, I hear the rest of our group come to a stop and gather around us panting wildly.
"They killed my friend." He says, I study him for a breif seccond and see the deep sorrowful in his eyes, "right in front of me, there was nothing I coud do, but we can't keep running" He scans our group and my gaze does the same, we're bruised, and bloodied, (twin boy) stands bent over with his hands on his knees taking shaky breathes, his sister is using a tree trunk to stable herself on, her palm gripping the trunk as beads of sweat are visible in the moonlight, he's right, we need a plan.
"I'm so sorry, ill get us out of here, i promise." Just as i finish my sentence I see the beam of flashlights bounce around the forest beyond us.
"Shit. Everyone! Run- faster! Like your life depends on it!" Link calls from ahead of me. Beefore I have time to think we take off running again I feel my lungs start to burn and my lips begin to tingle as the head rush as adrenaline fills my body.
"Cress! You have to keep running" Link grabs my hand again and pulls my forward, forcing my legs to keep his pace. A kind of animal instince kicks in I internally yelled at myself. "Not tonight and not like this" I tell myself, I am NOT dying tonight. WE are not dying tonight. We were so close! All of a sudden the gunshots slow, and the voices quiet. We all stop. After a while its only the sound of pounding feet and the shallow breaths of our bodies in the air, the wooded area begins to thin and I'm worried we're going to reach the street where we can be more easily intercepted.
"We need to contact Trey, he can help us" I choke out, Gabe nods and we slow our pace gathering the group together "What! Why did we stop" Lincoln spits Gabe gives him a long look before turning to the rest of us "Who has the other bag?" He says looking around. We all look at each other. No one has it. We're screwed.
"No, no no, no!" Link yells with his hands on his hips and stairing in to the sky scoffing.
"Link, we have to be quiet." I hush, I don't need him getting us caught not since the quiet left behind by the security team has put a creeping unease in the air
"No crescent. This is a problem! A HUGE problem! we need that bag! We won't survive without it." We stare at each other for a moment, neither willing to be the first to break contact until finally Gabe interupts our seething staring contest, "You two, we have to work together and quickly." Fine. I spit sliding my eyes to Gabes. "Fine. I will go get it."
I say giving Lincoln a side eyed look and making sure my leatherman is still atached to my waist.
"Cress-" Lincoln and Gabe say in unision
"No link, you are not going to stop me." He begins talking again. "And im going alone." The others exchange glances as the force of what i've proposed hits them. "I am the only one not bloody or bruised of the lot of us, I am the most atheltically inclined at this point, and should I get kidnapped I'm the only one with a get out of jail free pass, as my parents wont kill me if I"m caught, can the rest of you say that?" There is a long pause as the horrible truth of my statement settles in, I look each of our monlty crew in the eye for approval and am met with a nod from everyone but Gabe. He lets out a long slow breath throug his lips, placing his hands on his hips and staring at his feet, when suddenly he doesn't care who sees and grabs me by the face, pulling me close to that the heat of his breath mingles with mine
"Cress," he starts with such tenderness my heart breaks beneath my bones, "I wonnt stop you, but please, God,  please be careful. I'm not losing you again. I can't." I look up at him seeing the sorrow and seriousness in his eyes and I nod once "I promise, I'll be careful" I say placing my hands over his as he kisses me roughly once pulling my face away slowly and glancing deeply in to my eyes once more
"I'll be careful." I say barely louder than a whisper after a moment of memorizing his face one more time I give his hands a squeeze and remove them from my face, we stand there facing each other, hands held neither of us wanting to be the first to let go, we both know this could be another last goodbye. Finally link givesle  a little cough and I'm brought back to reality, i kiss him quickly once more and walk away.
"If something happens dont wait for me. I'll find you guys." I give Link a knowing look and he nods once, if nothing else I know that he will do this for me, lead them out and leave me behind if he needs to. I'm met with faces full of mixed emotions as i walk past our new friends, "Remember we're here where the stream just begins to fork, if you stick to near the steam you can easiy find your way back to us" (the girl twin) says matter  of factly. Good thing she thought of that, I hadn't really considered how to find where we were let alone how to find how to get back, sticking to the stream is the only way to find my way, its a good thing Gabe and I stole away those moments at the stream earlier, otherwise I'd never find our camp again, maybe Ill luck out and they left out campfire going, or they ransacked everything and its all gone. I hope its the frirst option.  I follow the river for a while jog, not wanting to burn out too soon, I know my adrenaline will run out eventually and then my energy will crash, I hear the ocasional sound of dogs barking in the distance and a few times my mind played tricks on me swearing I saw or heard someone, I hate the instinct my body has to freeze in those moments like a deer in headlights, neck craining to hear anything unusual, eyes focusing hard to make out any sign of dager. My ankle is beginning to throb as I slip and trip on the occasional root and slick rock along the streams edge but I know I have to push through the discomfort. My mind begins to wonder as my heart and legs pick up a rhythm, letting myself really consider all that the last hours have brough, Lincolns betrayal, the kiss, God, why did we kiss, findindg Gabe, oh how I've missed him, and now, now I get to have him, the warmth of him still in my mind, the way he kisses better than I ever imagined, his smell is somehow even familiar, its as though everything and nothing has changed between us, like somehow those two kids back at the archade still exist on some plane, my mind quickly snaps back to reality as a sound of muffled voices carries through the woods, I begin to cautiously creep around the next bend where I can see the light from a fire begin to light the ground ahead, well that's good news and bad news, I've finally found our camp, the fire is still going, but I am not alone. As I being my careful creep I edge closer, sticking to the stream, just ahead I see something that makes my blood turn all at once hot and cold,it's a gaurd from brudice inc. and he's roughly 100 yards ahead of me facing the stream, he appears to be releaving himself in the bushes at its edge, disgusting.  I decide to try and sneak past him, I dont wannt to have to kill anyone unnecessary. I move away from the stream a bit and head deeper in to the woods tobegin the walk towards the camp, trying to walk as silently as possible. I need to see who else is out here, what other surprises await me. After doing a perimeter sweep, it doesnt look like theres anyone else at camp, probably they think no one would be dumb enough to come back here so soon, and they're right except, I have no choice. I'll just go in and out quick.  I get about 50  feet away from camp before i hear a twig snap behind me. I stop on a dime and whirl around and see that the soilder is gone from where he was standing just moments ago, I checked one last time before I started towards the now low lit fire.  Right as i begin to panic i turn again, this time feeling someone grab my shoulders. I feel the cold metal of a gun press between my shoulder blades, one shot would send my lungs exploding and me dead within moments.  I should be panicking by now minute the barel touching my skin registers with my brain suddenly a switch goes off in my mind and and I am as calm as ever, all my training kicks in and instictively  I move my hand to my waist where my leatherman sits leaning in to him as much as possible to conceal my movement, "Listen" I start " You really don't wan to do this" I begin and in one swift motion I slip it out and quickly stab him in the thigh whilst spinning around pulling the gun sharply to the side and up causig him to loose his grip. All at once he is bent over in pain cursing to himself, I take this opportunity to turn the gun over and slam the butt of it in to his skull and he drops to his knees and roughly falls to the ground face first. I hear as a sharp deep breath escapes his mouth and he lies motionless at my feet.