No Longer.

9. Water

Rule #7 - Mind your business

I DON'T WANNA WRITE THISSSS.

Day #20

Noah -

So much has happened, I found...Tyler, and Cody basically confessed to me. And I accepted. For once I'm actually feeling hopeful that we can make it out of here. I'm feeling confident. Cody actually fell asleep on me yesterday. He's still lying there when I wake up. His hair is covering his face and I can see his shoulders rise and fall as he breathes. I think this is the most peaceful we have been since this all started. He stirs and I see his eyes open slowly, he smiles up at me. He buries his face back into my chest. Oh my god, I love this man so much. We silently decide not to get up until absolutely necessary.

The moment is ruined when we realise the camp is running low on basically everything, we only have 8 bottles of water and a couple snacks left, that will barely last us a day. We form a small group of Me, Cody, Bridgette, Trent, DJ, and.. fucking Duncan. I already know I'm staying as far away from him as I can. All of us get ready and arm ourselves with whatever we can just as a last resort. After roughly 30 minutes, we all head off. It doesn't take us long to find the cafeteria, but the travel back was a different story. We've went the complete wrong way, I wanted to give Duncan the benefit of the doubt but we have taken 3 wrong turns already.

"For God's sake, we are going the wrong way!" I yell, I'm getting sick of this.

"No we aren't I know where the goddamn camp is." Duncan replies. He fucking doesn't, the only reason he is in the lead is because people think he's threatening because he was in juvie. He isn't scary in the slightest.

"Duncan, we were supposed to go right back there." I point out, gesturing behind us.

"Shut the fuck up, if you want to be so fucking annoying why don't you make your own way back."

I'm heavily debating it, but I don't want to walk on my own for god knows how long. I decide to shut my mouth for now, hoping for a miracle to put us back on track. I stay quiet until it starts getting dark.

"Duncan, you are going to get us killed, its getting dark and we have no idea where we are." I just want to go back to camp, I can tell the rest of the group do as well.

"Noah, for fucks sake if you want to keep moaning, find your own way back, no one even wants you back anyways." I don't know why but that really struck a nerve. Cody didn't even say anything, that just added salt to the wound. I stopped walking. Duncan walked back to me. "You can either shut the fuck up and continue with us, or make your own way back to camp. By yourself." I could feel his breath on my face from how close he was to me. "I'd rather go on my own than spend another fucking minute with you. Cody, come on." I just prayed that Cody would actually go with me. "Cody isn't going anywhere, you can make your way to camp alone." Duncan started walking back to the front and continued his own way. Cody just looked at me. I felt my eyes cloud over with tears that I refused to let fall. Cody doesn't even trust me.. I thought he was different. It's okay, I get it. He's scared of Duncan, I don't blame him. I stay, watching them go, including Cody. I'll show them, I'll make it back before them, I can do this.

Fuck, no I can't. I can feel my chest closing, I can't breathe properly, I begin to shake, tears begin to fall, I can hear my heart in my ears, thumping away. I can't hear anything other than that. I can't hear the leaves rustling, the footsteps. I feel something go around my neck, it got harder to breathe, I panic, my hands instantly go to my neck. There's a rope. No, no, no, please. I can't die, I can't leave Cody this quickly, please, no, no. I kick, try and scream, scratch, I do everything I can think off. Just as I feel like I am going to pass out, I'm dropped onto the ground, I crawl as fast as I can. Please, let me go. I get turned over onto my back as I feel the rope around my neck again, I mumble pleads over and over, it all goes un-heard. I think I was struggling to much as I feel a burning sensation in my shoulder, I try to look down and see a handle. No, fuck, no, please. I can't die yet, I still have so much I need to do, please, I'm only sixteen, I don't want to die.

I get dragged by my hair, I begin kicking again, it hurts, fuck it hurts so bad but I need to get out of this. I can't die. I feel wooden planks below me. It's the dock. No. I don't want this to happen. I'm turned around and feel my head get pushed into the water, I feel the water already enter my lungs, the salty water entering the wound on my shoulder making it sting. My head gets brought above water again but I'm dunked back under, this happens two or three more times before I feel my consciousness slip away. I don't want to die, please. My head is brought up for the last time, I just mumble 'No' multiple times. My pleads go unanswered. I am put back under. I can't breathe, I can't fight. I am going to die. I was left for dead. Why? I'm only sixteen, I didn't even get to tell Cody I love him. He doesn't know. He'll never know. I'm so sorry.

Cody's POV -

I left him, I am such a bad person. I left the man I loved. What if he got hurt? No. Noah's smart, he can make it back, I know he can. After so long, me and the group make it back, the first person I look for is Noah, I can't find him anywhere. I ask around, no one else has seen him since we left.
"Why are you asking where Noah is? He was with you." Eva asks. I don't even want to admit it. Luckily, Duncan speaks up first,
"He wouldn't shut up, so we told him to make his own way back."
"We? This was all you, for fucks sake!" I can't hold my tongue any longer. I decide to go look for him but before I can leave, Gwen stops me.
"I'm sure he's okay, why don't we wait around for 20 minutes and see if he comes back." It takes her a lot of convincing but I decide to wait the 20 minutes. I count the seconds in my head but at the 13 minute mark, I feel myself nodding off.

By the time I wake up, it's almost light outside, it's still dark but the sun is rising in the sky. Fuck. Noah isn't here. No. No. I need to go find him, Now. I don't wake anyone, dont tell anyone where I'm going, they'll all know anyways. I try to retrace my steps from last night to where we last saw Noah. It was near the dock I think. I make my way over, it's hard to see but my eyes quickly adjust. It's fucking freezing. I make my way closer to the dock. I can see multiple muddy footprints in random areas as if someone was..struggling..
Fuck.
I basically run in the direction of the footsteps, stopping once I see a discarded rope just as the wooden dock begins. I forget about it and continue forward. I cant see in the water, it's too dark. I make my way to the end and get on my knees, I can kind of make out some things. No. I.. I can see a red vest. No, please, no, dont be Noah. Oh god. I grab onto the vest, bringing whatever its attached to upward. I'm met with Noah's cold, pale face. He has a knife sticking out of his left shoulder, his hair is sticking to his face. I know he would hate that. I drag him up towards me onto the dock. I hold him so fucking tightly. I feel for a pulse, I already know it wont be there but I need to have hope. Theres no beat, no breath leaving him. He is a cold, still corpse. If I hadn't left him behind he would still be here. This is all my fucking fault. I hold him close again, letting out wails as I do. If the group didnt know where I was, they sure as hell do now. At this point I'm hoping the killer finds me and finishes me off. If Noah isnt here, I have nothing. I fucking left him. He died alone, cold and scared and it's all my fault. I'm so sorry Noah, I love you.

THAT WAS SHIT. But sad. Anyways, have a good day, hope you liked this and hopefully you aren't to sad. Love you all.

Genuinely omg thank you so much for the comments, votes, reads. Everything you all do is making me so happy, thank you all so much.