Oblivion {n.h.}

Chapter 11.

A shaking awoke me from my deep slumber, the grayish-yellow of morning seeping through my eyelids.

"Danielle." A familiar voice whispers towards me. "Danielle." It didn't take long for me to realize it was Jackson's husky voice.

I open my eyes, squinting to the new burst of light. Tears nearly escaped my brown eyes, looking slightly up at his blue.

"What the hell happened?" He asks me, laughing out loud at how his part of the situation played out.

Steven and Emily both sit across from us, Emily still dozing off to sleep while Steven takes in the fresh air and surroundings.

"Don't ever fucking scare me like that again." I whisper as I squeeze my eyelids tightly together. He laughs his regular crazy laugh and pats my back in a brotherly way. I put my head in my hands and laugh along with him.

"You guys know when we'll be arriving at the boy's camp?" I ask no one in particular.

Steven turn to the side and gives Alex' window a pat on the glass.

He rolls it down and sticks his head out a bit to see what Steven had wanted. His eyebrows knit in confusion, meaning to question Steven what he may be asking.

"You know when we'll be arriving?" Alex's head reverts back into the car, mumbling things to the other boys.

I heard Niall's Irish accent reply back to Alex before his head had returned to face Steven out the window.

"An hour at the most, hang tight."

Steven nods, giving me the answer, relieving my nerves just a bit.

"Hey....back at the car crash..." Jackson speaks up, surprising us that he actually remembered it in the first place.

We nod, ready to hear what the recently unconscious boy has to say. "Do you think we could've...Done something? You know, to save Luke."

"You couldn't have buddy; how do you even remember that?" Steven asks Jackson maturely. No one had even bothered to tell him where we are now and why.

"I remember hearing the brakes hit forcefully and then seeing Luke get thrown out of the windshield and into a tree. That's the last thing I remember before hitting my head and blacking out."

Everyone nods and the trunk goes silent. It wasn't a topic anyone would want to ever talk about again.

I pulled out my knife and clean it off with the underside of my shirt and make clear of the guts and blood which used to be a living person's.

My mind wanders to how much of a family I really consider these people. I've learned more about them in the past week than I have with people I've known for years.

Josh is a U.S. war veteran. He was in the United States Army before he hopped across the pond to visit his family, who happened to live somewhere on the outskirts of London. I like to think of Joshua as my father figure. My dad.

Steven, Emily, Alex, and I have known each other for a while... but they're all as close as siblings to me now.

The back of the truck stays silent for a while. A loud silence such as the quiet conversations behind the glass from the front of the truck, and the buzzing of nature around us.

A bang on Perrie's jeep and the stopping of our truck, indicates that we have arrived. Both cars come to a complete halt and the loud shutting of doors allows us to hop out of the trunk.
I walk around just as Niall is getting out of the passenger door.

The whole place is surrounded by green luscious trees, and we're standing on a rich dirt path. Large wooden fences stand, at least ten feet tall in front of our cars. A black metal gate like one you'd see in movies beholds a cobblestone path leading up to the biggest mansion I've ever seen in my life.

Grey with a brown roof and large beautiful windows cover the house on top of the green hill up above ground level. "Damn.." I whisper, standing next to Niall.

"It's nice isn't it?" Niall's Irish accent rings through my ears. He holds his shotgun on the ground facing up and he shuts his car door behind him. "My family owned this land before shit went down. Now it's just my brother and our residents." He chuckles, a hint of memory and despair behind his laughs.

"REALLY nice." I repeat after him, my mouth still gawked at the beautiful piece of land.

He chuckles again and puts his hand on my back to guide me forward. Our large group stops at the gate before Niall presses the audio button to the house. "Yo Greg. It's Niall."

"You're late buddy."

"You're not gonna believe what we've been through man."

Without another word through the speaker, the black-railed gates creak open loudly. Opening outward to lead us through.