Fates Intertwined

13. | Nebraska

It was early in the morning, the sun barely risen. The five lay sleeping, Aurora laying on her side with her jacket draped over her as a makeshift blanket.

There was a roar in the distance. It was far, far enough that it hadn't woken the others, but Aurora heard it. She shot up, gasping for air. She looked around. The others were sleeping peacefully, and yet she had not. Pushing herself up, she rushed to the window. But there was nothing there.

Aurora walked to Zyran and woke him up. "Zyran." She whispered. It took a few tries before he actually lifted his head. "Zyran."

"What?" He whispered, his voice rough and hoarse.

"We need to get ready to leave. We can't stay here." She whispered back.

"Why? Did something happen?" He asked, brows furrowed.

"No, but I'd rather not stick around long enough for something to happen." She told. "We'll need to go through the food and organize, so we can make room for the weaponry."

"What?" He whispered, wiping a hand over his face. "We're taking it?"

"We need it."

A shoe was sent flying. It knocked Aurora in the head, who uttered an "Ow." in response.

"Shut it." Nara grumbled, flipping over and returning to her slumber.

Aurora rubbed her head where the shoe had hit her and turned back to Zyran. "I'll go work on getting the weapons and everything organized." She said, then she was walking away.

He blew out a breath, running a hand over his face. Then he was pushing himself up, stretching, and walking toward the others. He kicked Eric's shoe, successfully waking him, then moved to Nara and Lina.

"Get up. We have to go." He instructed.

Lina sat up, rubbing her face. "Why? Did they find us?"

"No, but I don't think they're that far behind." He explained. Just then, Aurora returned with her arms full of weapons. She walked to them, dropping them on the ground, then moving to the bookbags.

"What are you doing? That's our food." Lina stated.

"We need to organize, so that we can take all the food and the weapons. We need something to protect ourselves." She explained, dumping one bag after the other. Zyran sighed, dropping down and helping her.

There were four bags. They had to pack food and drinks into three, and weapons into one. Easy enough.

Though, when they finally packed everything up and everyone was awake, there was a roaring noise from the distance.

"What the hell was that?" Lina asked, wide-eyed.

"I don't know, but I'm not sticking around to find out." Aurora replied, snatching her jacket up from the ground and throwing it on. The others followed, grabbing their belongings and making their way down to the outside.

They continued their way, carrying a bag with food and drinks. Aurora carried the weapons.

Zyran hurried up beside her along the road. "Hey,"

"Hi." She replied, but she didn't meet his gaze.

"Can we talk?"

"We're talking now, aren't we?"

He sighed. "I mean, privately."

"Not exactly a private place, now is there?"

"Why won't you tell me what happened? You saw something." He pulled her to a stop.