Runaways- Runaways 1

Chapter 19: Peyton

It was almost dark. We'd just passed a street sign for Lawtey, Florida, about twenty minutes ago. My legs ached from walking for so long. We hadn't stopped since we'd left Bryceville, with me being the one who kept us going. Marcus complained every now and then, but everyone else was fairly quiet. You could see the fatigue on our faces though.

"Should we stop here?" I offered as we came up on a clearing.

"I don't really care," Eli replied. He swung his backpack off his shoulder. "It's supposed to rain tonight. Should we hang one of the tarps over our heads or something?" The thick canopy of trees above us offered plenty of ways we could do that.

"Rain? I thought it just rained the other night," Luke protested.

"Hey, at least there haven't been any thunderstorms yet," Marcus pointed out. Luke rolled his eyes, nudging him in the shoulder. Marcus smirked.

"I mean, sure, why not." Aaliyah took one of the tarps out and started scaling the nearest tree. She was high enough to tie it in seconds. "Toss me a rope?" she called down. I took one of the longer pieces out of my bag and threw it up to her. She caught it easily and threaded it through one of the holes.

"Eli, can you get over there?" She gestured toward the tree directly across from hers.

"Oh, yeah, sure. Sorry." He climbed up almost as quickly as Aaliyah had, throwing his leg over a branch to keep his balance. Aaliyah tossed him one side of the tarp and they strung it across in a matter of minutes. Then they moved to another pair of trees about 10 feet away from the first set.

"Let's have a quick dinner and head to sleep. I'm exhausted," I told Luke as he pulled out several of the things I'd bought at the convenient store. I shuddered, pushing the memory out of my head. I didn't want to think about the blonde man who'd been in there with us.

"Agreed. I'm on watch though," he pointed out.

"Are you good with that? I mean, I can switch with you if you want."

"No, it's fine." He took out a giant bag of trail mix along with several bags of chips.

"No fire tonight I assume. Considering it's going to rain anyway," Marcus added. I nodded. "I'm not going to string my hammock tonight. How many extra sleeping tarps do we have?"

"Um, Aaliyah and I usually share one. Eli likes to sleep on the ground, but I guess he won't tonight. Y'all could probably share one. Luke's on watch," I told him. Just then Aaliyah and Eli came out of the trees, their feet hitting the ground at the same time.

"What's for dinner?" Eli asked. I handed him one of the bags of chips and pointed to the trail mix we were all going to share. "Sounds good."

"I'm famished," Aaliyah said enthusiastically. I chuckled. I found a fairly clean spot on the ground and took a seat. It was just out from under the tarp. She and Eli dropped down on either side of me while Marcus and Luke sat across from us. We formed a sort of oval.

"How many days do you think it will take for us to get to the camp from here?" Marcus asked Eli.

"Three and a half days at least. That's if we keep at it like we did today without many breaks. Lake Apopka is still a little ways down the peninsula. I mean, that's going off the directions I was given by the last group I was with. Before y'all." He shot me a look. The people in the previous group were the same ones he'd told me that were trying to kill him. I grasped his hand, lacing my fingers between his.

"And you're sure they gave you the right directions?" I asked. He nodded.

"I mean, it's all we really have to go off of, so there's nothing to lose. I think it used to be a popular park, but it closed last year because of the depression. They said the camp was built on what used to be the park. Apparently, they'd been there, but left shortly after. Said it was pretty nice and reminded them of a legit summer camp."