Save ourselves- One Direction

Avery

I fully expected Hempton to call for us within hours, but there was nothing and no one. It felt a bit like the calm before the storm. On the one hand, I was relieved that Daisy and Liam were safe, but on the other hand, I was afraid of what would happen to us now.

What they would do to us?

Nevertheless, I continued to follow the plan, or as Roxy had called it, the protocol. I buried the lighter under a tree near our tents and pushed leaves over it so no one would see the stirred up earth.

Our mobile phones, too, I hid nearby. Linda had given me hers too, giving me a vote of confidence that she was there. However, we had arranged it so that one of our group would carry a mobile phone during the day to collect necessary evidence. A little video here, a few photos there. That way, everything would come together bit by bit.

While Roxanne and Niall practiced swimming together, Louis and Zayn already went into the tent, but I could already see from their faces that they had the same worries as me and probably wouldn't find any sleep either.

Harry, on the other hand, got up to sit next to me. Lost in thought, we looked into the fire, which painted dark shadows on our faces.

"A penny for your thoughts?", Harry then said to me.

Without looking at him, I revealed my thoughts.

"I'm afraid I can't figure out my thoughts right now. It's all completely mixed up right now. There's relief that two of us are safe, surprise that we made it this far at all and...", I faltered.

"And what?", Harry inquired.

"...Fear," I finally admitted.

"I mean, we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. What Hempton will...do. I'm scared that one of us will give himself away. I'm scared that none of us will come home. I'm afraid I'll never see my parents again."

Harry didn't answer. Instead, he put his arm around me and pressed me gently against him. I leaned my head against his shoulder and enjoyed his closeness. If he could have, I'm sure he would have found some words of encouragement. But there were none. Because everything I had just listed to him was perfectly reasonable and would probably even occur. We had no guarantee that our plan would continue to work.

"Avery, we've not always seen eye to eye, but we've always been honest with each other. And I want that to continue, okay?", I heard him say and I took my head off his shoulder to look at him.

"Okay?", I replied a little confused.

"So to stick with the truth...I would love to promise you that no matter what, our plan will continue to work and we will be home soon and everything will be okay. But we both know that's not true. Because we can't know if it will really work out. But what I can promise you is that I will do everything I can to get you back home. That we'll come home. And that...we can do everything we talked about afterwards," he then said almost solemnly.

"I think that's good," I murmured, leaning my forehead against his shoulder again as he tightened his arm around me.

"Maybe we shouldn't even think so much about what could happen," he murmured.

"Maybe."

***********************************

The next morning, the storm came. We entered for our morning round as usual and tried not to let on. As if we were completely clueless. We realized, of course, that Hempton would not believe, but we had better not give him any offense.

Hempton stepped silently into the middle. His face was so grim that I already believed he was trying to conjure up the end of the world.

"I don't know how many of you have caught it so far, but actually two of you managed to break out of camp yesterday. I congratulate them on this move and wish them good luck in the rest of the game, because they will need it," Hempton said with a mocking grin.