A Week Away

Chapter 8

Lizzie's P.O.V.

I watched as they finished taking Peter's body off the tree. They had laid him down on the edge of the woods with his hands crossed over his chest, in a peaceful manner. Quite a contrast to the way he had died. Joseph dusted the dirt off his pants, not caring that he was covered in dry blood now and looked like a victim from a horror story.

"So," he said, heading towards me. I didn't say anything. I stood there and watched Peter, looking ever so peaceful, and yet here we all were, wondering who was going to be next. "Are you alright?" My attention diverted towards Joseph, now standing right in front of me with his curly hair matted to his face with sweat and blood and his hands on his hips.

"We're all screwed." I mumbled. I know he heard me because his body became tense, and I could feel his eyes watching me. "There's nowhere for us to go, and there's a psycho on the loose, trying to, and succeeding, in killing us. No, Joseph, I don't think I'm alright. I don't think any of us are."

He nodded, moving his arms to fold them over his chest. He knew just how right I was, and so did half of the camp. Speaking of half the camp, I hadn't seen Cameron for a while. An hour, at least.

"Have you seen Cameron?" I asked him. He looked up at me, his lips parted, looking for words before he decided to shake his head. My heart started pounding in my chest to a rhythm too fast to recall. The fact that neither of us had seen him wasn't a good sign.

"He went off looking for the Asian chick, didn't he?" I nodded. He pursed his lips, his brows furrowing and his face going slightly pale.

"We need to find him. We need to find him now!" My tone was firm. I started walking off but Joseph grabbed my arm and spun me around to face him, nearly making me crash into his broad chest.

"Look, you can't go by yourself." He said, worry in his eyes.

"Are you going to come with me?" He hesitated, and completely out of character let slip his fear that you could see from his expression. Worry, fear, concern. Three emotions he wouldn't have shown in any other situation. "I'm taking that as a 'no'."

"Wait..." I didn't let him grab my arm this time. I headed off away from him, leaving him standing there, moping and fidgety. It didn't take long before he began chasing after me.

In all honesty, I had no clue where to start looking. I didn't know what direction Cameron had gone off in, nor did I know where he had intended to go. Such an innocent task had lead to neither Joseph or I seeing him in over an hour.

"Where do you even intend to start looking?" Joseph questioned as he caught up to me. At the moment I was walking through the camp, away from the bloody tree and towards the other side of the wood clearing.

"I have no clue. You tell me where we should look." My heart was starting to beat even faster now, and I could feel myself beginning to panic. It was difficult to keep the intense feeling of dread down, but I had to try. I would be absolutely no help at all if I curled into a ball and began hyperventilating.

"I don't fucking know, Liz!" He cried. His breathing was beginning to get heavy, and I knew he was feeling the same as I was. "But we can't just go looking for him wherever! If we go out there by ourselves, the likelihood is that one of us is going to get hurt. For all we know he could have been kidnapped, or better yet, murdered!"

That struck a chord, and before I knew it I could feel my face heating up and tears beginning to pile in my eyes. He ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

"Look, Liz. The best we can do is wait until the sun comes up and then look. There's no point in looking right now, it's dark and it's cold and we're all on edge right now." The logic in his words stung even more, but I had to agree with him. Wiping the tears from my face, I nodded. He held his arms out, offering me a comforting hug, and I accepted. As soon as he wrapped his arms around me I couldn't help but begin crying again. It all came out. Tears for all of the worries that I had begun to build up, and tears for the fear that was wallowing inside me, eating me from the inside out. The best part was that Joseph was okay with all of this. He stood there, not letting me go until I had finished crying. And even then he held on a bit longer, my bet would have been for himself. He didn't let any tears out. He just held on a bit longer, and I think it was at that point that I realised we were all on the verge of breaking down at the moment. No one had ever thought that we would be put in this position. It wasn't something that was logically possible, and yet, here we were.

"Get some rest." He mumbled. He sniffed a bit, wiping the stick locks of hair off his forehead and pushing them back on top of his head before he walked off. He shoved his hands into his pockets and his shoulders drooped as he strode away, his feet shuffling along the ground.

I did as he said and headed to my tent, going to get some rest. The next day was going to be brutal.