Sanders Sides (power rangers au)

Chapter 19.

"How long have we been gone?" Virgil asked, causing Remus to look up at the sky. The sun was setting, casting the whole forest in a soft amber glow that Remus wished he could paint.

"It has to have been hours. Look at the sky." He answered.

"My mom is gonna kill me." Virgil moaned, tugging at the bottom of his shirt. The voices were getting closer now, Remus could even faintly hear the sound of his name being called, along with the static of a walkie-talkie.

"We should get out of here." Roman said, moving to help Patton up before turning in a circle.

"Did you leave a trail of breadcrumbs we can follow?" Remus asked, crossing his arms.

"No dumbass. I don't even think we're in the same part of the forest as before." Roman sighed, annoyed. "But I say we just walk towards the voices."

"I must agree." Logan interjected. "They would have a better sense of where they are than we do as of this moment."

"Fine, but what are we going to tell them?"

There was a bit of silence, before Roman answered again. "We got lost. We say that there was a sinkhole that formed behind us on the trail and we tried to find our way back without the path, then got lost."

"We look it." Virgil said. Remus looked down at his clothes. They were tattered in odd places from the fall into the sinkhole, and there were grass stains. He could even feel the beginnings of a bruise on his side. The others weren't much better.

"Good," Roman said, clapping his hands, "then let's get going." He turned, and began to lead the others towards the voices ahead.

Remus quickly found himself in the middle beside Janus. Neither said too much to each other, as a matter of fact, the whole group was too exhausted to say much to anyone. They were all just ready to be back in the relative safety of family. Remus spent his time staring at his new accessory.

His bracelet looked like leather, instead of the metal or rock that it had been earlier. It was a simple band with a cylinder metal piece at the top. The metal piece had small indents, which were painted different shades of green. Remus liked it much better than the original, but it still wouldn't come off.

"Hey!" Roman's yell threw Remus from his admiring the bracelet. "We're over here!"

The voices grew excited, and Remus could hear people clambering their way towards them, until Remus could see flashlights. He moved towards the lights, as did the others, until the other people came into view. In an instant, Patton was bounding through the undergrowth towards two men that dropped their flashlights to hug their son. Logan was running towards a girl about two years older than them. Janus was running towards his mom, who had also dropped her flashlight to scoop her son in her arms. The rest of the party- which was just a few police officers- walked over to the other three and greeted them. Remus heard them discussing that there was EMT outside and that the others were waiting for them.

It took more than Remus was willing to admit to shove down the irrational hope that he would see his dad's face among those waiting, and he was even more disappointed when Remus couldn't even see their mom waiting. Virgil's mother was there, her arms crossed, and Virgil just slumped his shoulders slightly while he walked over to her. Remus watched as she looked him up and down, grasped the sides of his head in her hands gently, and kissed his forehead. Patton, Janus, and Logan were close behind with their families, and Logan was soon surrounded by his three younger siblings and one college age sibling. Remus didn't know any of their names, but they were all in a hug together.

EMT checked Remus first, since he and Roman weren't in the process of reuniting with anyone, before clearing both of them with only minor injuries. Then they went over to the principal, who had begrudgingly just sent Virgil to get checked out, and asked her for their phones back. She handed them to Roman, who passed Remus his, and walked away without a word.

"Come on Remus." Roman said, his voice flattening with the mental exhaustion that Remus recognized.

"Roman! Remus! Wait up for a sec!" Patton's voice called from behind them. Remus stopped as Patton handed out his phone. "Put your numbers in there. I'm gonna get everyone's, so we can talk about... you know."

"Yeah." Remus said, and took Patton's phone, putting in his number, then Roman's.

"Great." Patton said, slipping his phone back into his pocket. Remus shifted on his feet awkwardly, before Patton had pulled both twins into a tight hug. It was awkward, since both of them were taller than Patton, but they did their best.

"Talk to you tomorrow, Pat." Roman said as he leaned back. "Come on Remus."

"Yep."