The Way Back Home

Camps and Carter

Lori's POV:
The field below had several tents and a bonfire burning. There were a few people walking around, tending the fire, and fixing the tents. The tents were made out of leaves, branches, and the occasional piece of cloth but there was barely any.
Dylan had sat down on the ground and was propping himself up with his arms behind him. He must have been really tired after basically dragging me up the cliff. (Keep in mind, I did help pulling myself up with my arms, I wasn't completely helpless) "So here's the deal." Maddy said firmly as she started to walk down the hill. "You either become one of us or you die."

"Excuse me?" Dylan said standing up. "We came with you, we didn't have to. we could have just lived on our own!"

Maddy turned around to face Dylan, "Look, it's. It not our decision it's Carter's"

"Who is Carter!" Dylan's voice has escalated to the point where a couple people below had started looking up at us.

"Our leader." Maddy said softening her voice and looking at the ground. Dylan smirked.

"By the look on your face I would assume he's the kind of leader that's all words, no work." Dylan walked over to Maddy.

"I wouldn't say that." Maddy grimaced, she was obviously lying.

"So how do we become 'one of you.' " I butted in, using my fingers as quotation marks. "Why can't we just decide that we're one of you, live happily and not die."

"Well it's all about trust." Maddy explained. "If Carter thinks we can trust you than you can join us. He also wants people who can work" We started walking down the hill again.

"Why would you need our trust, do you know if anyone else lives in the island?" Dylan stopped. He looked nervous.

"We don't know of any inhabitants other than normal animals and us, we just don't want people to take our supplies and don't help get more." Maddy sighed, "It's happened too many times, people take our supplies and run away or just sit there and do nothing all day." Maddy started walking down the hill again and I followed. Dylan looked hesitant but I looked back at him with a 'please come with me I don't want to walk away with a stranger who might kill me' look. He sighed and kept walking. Dylan got back to his questioning.

"So why were you all freaked out when you found us?" Dylan had a small smirk on his face but it disappeared after a couple seconds.

"I have the job of roaming the island to find new things or rarely, new people, but when i do find newcomers I'm not supposed to, you know be all like 'oh come with me! I totally trust you cause you're sleeping in a cave-thing with no roof.' That's not how it works." Maddy rolled her eyes. We had reached to bottom of the hill and now basically everyone at the camp was watching us. They were all your stereotypical 'got stuck on an island and I'm all scratched up and dirty.' Looking people. Maddy weaved through the camp she seemed to know where she was going.

Dylan had stopped asking questions and was silently eyeing the camp and the people who were eyeing him right back.

Maddy stopped and turned to face us. "Ok so Carter's gonna give you a... test, don't get nervous and don't show fear." Maddy looked pretty nervous herself. She was twisting a silver ring on her right ring finger, it was simple with no design but it was small and barely noticeable. "You ready?"

"Sure." I said. I looked over at Dylan, he nodded his head at me and Maddy. Maddy pushed a leaf out if the way and stepped into the tent. I walked through with Dylan behind me. Imidiatly I knew who Carter was, it was obvious, he was the hot guy. His hair was in a quiff (how he got it like that I have no idea cause he's on freaking island) he had electric blue eyes and dirty-blonde hair. He had a lip ring on the right side of his mouth. He was wearing a red t-shirt and black skinny jeans with rips in the knees. He was wearing big boots. Your probably imagining him smirking well, yeah that's what he was doing all right. A huge smirk was spread across his face. If looked like it had been permanently glued there. I brushed a price of hair out of my face and behind my ear.

Maddy stepped forward. "Carter?" Carter was talking to a boy with short brown hair and brown eyes. He looked 12 or 13 and it seemed like he was trying to get Carter to come look at something. He was making a lot of motions towards outside the tent. Carter would just shake his head and continue talking.

"Carter?" Maddy said louder. Carter said something to the boy and the boy ran off.

"What princess?" Carter smiled at her.

"Carter, stop you know you don't like you." Maddy crossed her arms.

"I can call you princess if I want, that doesn't mean I like you." Carter crossed his arms to.

"Oh well that one of the hundred things that I can cross off the list." Maddy looked irritated.

"Look, what do you need Mads I'm busy ." Carter said sighing.

"Sure." Maddy mumbled. "I found these two while I was out today." Maddy pushed us closer to Carter.

"Great more people." Carter said rubbing his hands together. "What are your names?"

"Lorelei"

"Dylan"

"Lori and Dylan." Carter paused for a second.

"Um actually it's Lor-"

"Oh I know." Carter was good. I could tell he was reading us just by looking at our posture and our faces.

Carter looked at us for a little while more and then snapped his fingers. Two people came out of nowhere. One coming at Dylan and one me. The one coming at me was running. I assumed this was a test for us and that we would have to defeat them or whatever. When the person got close enough I kicked them in the chest and they fell down. That was surprisingly easy. I felt someone kick my back. I fell to the ground and turned to se who it was. It was someone dressed exactly like the one who had started running at me. I swept my legs around and tripped the person. Then I got up. Dylan had just judo flipped one of the people. I didn't know he could do that! When had he learned to judo flip people?!

We both turned around to face Carter. He was smiling. He started slowly clapping his hands. He stopped when he saw Maddy rolling her eyes. "You did pretty well." Carter walked closer to us. "Better than most people do." Dylan and I were silent. "But before you join us I have one more question."

"Yeah?" Dylan said raising his eyebrows.

"What do you remember?"

"What do you mean?" Dylan looked confused.

"Well you obviously got shipwrecked right? So what do you remember?" Carter looked pretty focused.

"I don't remember anything" Dylan said.

"A cruise ship-" I mumbled. I had no idea what I was saying.

"What?" Cater looked at me. His eyes staring me down.

"Never mind." I looked down.

"No, what did you say." Carter walked over to me.

"A cruise ship." I said a little more confidently. "My mom, and Dylan. That's all I remember."

"Just like everyone else." Carter nodded his head and turned away from me.

"Why?" Dylan butted in, of course, with a question.

"When people come here they remember what kind of ship they were on, one of their relatives and they remember everything about the person they appear with. We don't know why but they always spear in 2's" Carter explained. "So Dylan what do you remember?"

Dylan winced. "Uuum, a really big ship, my brother... I think, and Lori- I mean Lorelei."

"Well you guys are telling the truth and everyone who doesn't remember those things are the ones who are useless so welcome aboard!" Carter clapped Dylan in the back.

Dylan stepped away and Carter frowned. "What's wrong, we're brothers now." Carter put on a pretend insulted face.

Dylan frowned back, "I don't trust you"
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AN: hey guys I'm really sorry i havnt updated I'm soooo long but I hope you like this chapter. This one was kinda short so I'm gonna try to make them longer. Tell me if you like Carter and Maddy!!! Oh and that brown haired boy from before is gonna be in the book a lot more😜 anyway I hope you liked it and I'm sorry for taking so long. I love you all!
Julie❤️