Rising From The Ashes

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

“I have to go,” I said abruptly, cutting Sadie off in the middle of a sentence. I don’t wait to hear what she has to say about this and hang up, knowing that she is going to be extremely pissed off with me later. I don’t have time to worry about it at the moment.

If I’m warning Cameron then it has to be right now. I might already be too late if the railroad was where he was headed after he left me earlier. The best I can do is be as quick as possible and hope for the best.

My mom was upstairs taking a shower and Catherine wasn’t home, which was for the best. There was no way my mom was going to let me leave without a good reason why and since I can’t tell her the truth it’s better to not have to say anything to her at all. She would be worried when she realized I wasn’t home, but that’s just another thing I’d have to deal with later.

I grabbed my bike and quickly climbed on. Ignoring the throbbing pain in my ankle I pushed down on the pedals, forcing myself forward. I refused to let myself think about the fact that I was basically becoming a traitor to the female population by trying to aid a male criminal. I didn’t see Cameron as a criminal the way that I should have, though. I saw him as a frustrating, annoying, yet completely harmless boy that seemed to be the exact opposite of everything I had been told. Maybe he is some weird exception and all the others on the other side really are terrible beings, but Cameron isn’t and I can’t stand aside and let him die.

I speed down a shortcut I know, hoping that I won’t be seen by anyone. It would be bad if someone recognized me or even worse if an Official pulled me over to see what I was doing. Luckily, I made it to just before the abandoned train station, still out of sight so that anybody waiting to ambush Cameron won’t notice me.

I didn’t really figure out a plan for what I was going to do once I got there and so I wait a minute, trying to scope the situation out. I couldn’t actually see any Officials waiting to ambush Cameron, but then again I doubt they would be in plain sight since that would kind of defeat the whole purpose.

I continued to stand there, hidden behind a tree, when suddenly I noticed a flicker of movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned just in time to see Cameron slipping out of the cover of the woods, completely unaware of the danger that he was about to walk into. Without thinking I scrambled out behind the trees after him.

“It’s a trap!” I yelled, racing towards him. He paused to look at me in shock for a moment, but a second later he’s in action, grabbing my hand and dragging me back into the cover of the woods.

I glanced behind me as I ran to see a group of Officials emerging from around the railroad and chasing after us. Cameron never looked back and just kept pulling me along with a single-minded determination. I heard a gunshot ring out behind us and I was tempted to drop down to the ground for cover, but Cameron strengthened his hold on my hand to stop me.

“Oh my god! Oh my god!” I gasped over and over again, clearly in shock. I can’t believe that the Officials are actually shooting at us. How did I get myself into this? I was just supposed to warn him, not risk my life for him!

“Shh, you’re going to be fine,” Cameron tried to reassure me. The confidence he had actually did help to calm me down a little, but I still couldn’t believe any of this was actually happening.

I knew I was slowing him down a lot. I’m a pretty decent runner normally, but with my ankle being messed up I can hardly keep myself from falling down. I wasn’t going to last much longer since I was already gasping for breath and I couldn’t bear the thought of Cameron being caught because of me.

“Let…go,” I gasped between breaths and tried to tug my hand out of his grasp. He seemed to understand that I wanted him to leave me behind, but he refused to let go.