The Remaining

Chapter 3

I've been walking into the unknown now for about five hours now. My feet throb and my legs are barely supporting my body. There isn't anything out here but fields of dead grass and signs that say stuff like 'Next town three miles up ahead.'  But surely I should have passed it by now. I stop dead in my tracks. The heat is making me feel more exhausted, and just as everything is starting to fade and my head gets lighter I see a vehicle coming up the road...I shot up. My head burned and ached. Putting my hand on my heart to feel my heart beat, I realised my shirt was soaking wet with sweat. Why can't I just stop with these stupid dreams, why can't my life be normal with a family, a house and friends! Putting my hands to my face, I squeeze my eyes shut as tight as possible and scream loudly. Over my screams, I heard a door close. Wait, a door? Where am I? Who's bed is this and how did I get here? 

I look around the room for something to protect myself with. Grabbing the empty can of cola by my side, I rip it in half with ease and ready myself at the door. I hope I haven't been abducted again. The door opens and I charge myself at the person who walks in.  I push the tall figure, who I assume is male and he lifts his arms up to defend him self, "woah, woahhh!" he shouts, "easy, easy, I'm not here to hurt you! I'm here to help." Finally. Some help, just what I've been looking for. Confused, I scan him with my wide blue eyes. He looks astonished. " You certainly look misleading, but you pack a lot of punch in that small body of yours, I think you cut me with that...cola can... but its fine. I didn't expect you to be all happy and welcoming especially if you wake up in a strange place and have been asleep for twenty three hours." My jaw drops and he just laughs. He seems like an okay person, but I've never really met any new people before. Especially not ones who have took me and put me in a room. I think carefully about what I'm going to say, " What's your name?" I ask. It looks like he thinks about it first. "James, and yours?" He replies. This conversation is weird. Although this is my first conversation with a person other than Percy and Ms Tubbington. "Athena. Are there any others around? Because I did see a van of people coming down the road before I fainted." He stuttered before he spoke, he always seems to do that, "Yeah, Apollo, he's my brother, his girlfriend Orchard, her best friend Lyric and my best friend  Alec. Me and Alec are sixteen, and the rest are seventeen, if you were wondering." I nodded, "Do you know what happened to me? Oh, and I have a feeling you're hiding something so if you are just tell me because I really don't have the time. I shouldn't even be here." Looking nervous, with anger shining in his eyes, he replied, "The doctor said you had really bad sun stroke, probably from all that walking. I mean, you did walk all the way here from Smalltown. Oh, and no, I'm not hiding anything, I always stutter around new people, and if you weren't here, or if we hadn't have picked you up, you would have been dead, so instead of accusing me for things, I think you should be thanking me, since I spotted you at the side of the road, carried you into my brother's van and stayed with you while you were asleep!" I tried to say I was sorry and that I wasn't good at making friends, but he interrupted me, "Go and crawl back to your crappy orphanage!" I could tell that as soon as he said it he regretted it by the guilty look on his face. "I'm sorry" he whispered as he ran out of the room. Wow, boys are more confusing than I imagined.

Following James out the door, I ran down a set of stairs and into a room full of people around my age. They must have been the people that were in the van. "Hi, there." I chimed awkwardly with a little wave. Not wanting to start off any other new friendships badly. "Hey I'm Lyric, how are you by the way? Your sun stroke was super bad." She seemed like a down to earth kind of girl, real sweet. I replied sweetly, "Hi, my name is Athena, and I'm much better now, thanks to you lot. You totally saved me out there. You're like superheroes or something." Eugh, what was I saying? I sound like an idiot and a try hard. "Well - I'm Apollo by the way - it wasn't really us. It was James that saved you. Where is that stupid brother of mine at anyway?" I had to tell them what happened, "Well, I hate to say this, but me and him got off to a bad start. I nearly killed him with a cola can, then I said some hurtful things to him and then he said some hurtful things in return, and so I think that I've upset him." After I stopped talking I looked down awkwardly at my feet, then I heard a door open and heard James whisper to someone. "Well," Apollo said, "I think you two have some talking to do, dont you?" We looked at each other briefly then looked away, then everyone left the room. I felt ashamed. The silence was deafening, so I had to speak, "So, how do you know where I live, and that I'm an orphan?" He looked at my face then looked at the the floor, I could tell he was uncomfortable. "Well you see," he began, "when you were asleep, I went through your bag to find out who you were and on your bag it said Smallville and on the tag inside your bag, it said Smallville Orphange, child N°12." I felt deeply embarrassed. For him to know I'm an orphan really saddens me, because that was a secret I wanted left far behind me. He could see how much I was hurting, and I knew that he'd understand me if I told him anything. "Im sorry. So, so sorry." There was so much sadness in what he'd just said, that I had to forgive him. Swallowing hard, I fought back the tears that were begging to stream out like a waterfall. Launching himself across the room, James made his way over to me and pulled me into a heavy, comfortable hug. I've never hugged a boy, or anyone else for that matter, before, but that was one luxurious hug. So much so that I couldn't bring myself to let go, and neither could he, so we just stood hugging for a while, all of my nasty thoughts and dreams drowning away into the comfort of James' strong arms.

Eventually, we let go of each other and James asked me where I was heading, so I told him, and I included that I had no idea where I was supposed to go. James kindly offered me to accompany them on their travels as they were going in the same direction as I was anyway. To save me the trouble, I said yes, and after that, everyone packed their things, grabbed some money and food, and we set off on a long journey. But what they don't know is that I'm going there to try and save the planets and get revenge on the things that stole my life...