Lost Memories

Chapter 13 - Kennedy

Kennedy's POV

We had been walking for eight days. Eight long, freaking tiring days. It had been brutal, I was sure my feet were totally covered in blisters, but I didn't particularly want to look and see that because I would probably throw up.

It was the morning of our eighth day, Onix had said we were over half way to our destination, making us ahead of schedule so said we could have a little more sleep that morning. We still took turns to stat up during the night, just incase something life threatening happened, like the guards found us or some rabid, wild animal wanted to eat us, which was highly unlikely, but who knows what can happen in the woods at night? I wasn't going to take any chances, and I knew the others didn't want to either.

I happened to be the one keeping watch, whilst the others got some more sleep, but I didn't mind, I was relaxed and just lying back on my mat and blanket, looking up at the canopy of the trees around us, with a knife by my side. I could hear birds chirping noisily to each other and leaves rustling as a breeze swept through the wood. We had been mostly traveling through woods, but there had been occasions where we would reach fields and stretches of small and sparse villages. We always tried to camp in woods and avoid the villages if we could, as the trees kept us hidden and there was always the possibility that someone would recognise Annie or me in the villages.

Whilst I lay there, my mind drifted to Onix and the kiss we shared at the beginning of our trip. I still hadn't told Annie, and I knew Sade knew by the way he would give me knowing glances, when Onix and I would walk ahead deep in conversation and he caught my eye, when I checked to make sure they were still with us. He was kind of a creeper in my opinion, but Annie seemed to like him, so I just had to accept him. I had planned on telling Annie about it at some point on the trip, away from the boys, but, like the procrastinator I am, I was putting it off. I knew she didn't have feelings for Onix anymore, because all she would talk about was Sade when we were walking together, which did get a bit annoying; but I was her friend so I did what a lot of friends would do (or what I imagine they would do in my position), I nodded and daydreamed, mostly of Onix, which was frustrating but I couldn't help it! He wouldn't get out of my head.

I was so caught up in my frustration I almost didn't here the distant barks and pound feet moving in our direction. Shooting up from my horizontal position, I quickly shook Onix, who had been sleeping not too far from us and he groaned softly, rubbing his eyes.

"What? What's wrong?" he asked, too loudly for my liking.

"We have to go, like right now. I can hear dogs and people running, I'm assuming it's the worst, so let's pack up and get out of here before they catch up to us." I stated, wide eyed and hurriedly getting up to wake Annie and Sade. I shook them and told them what I told Onix. Annie looked frightened, while Sade just simply nodded and started gathering our sleeping stuff together.

I ran back to my own blanket and mate, gathering them up and shoving them in my bag, then moving to help Annie. Sade and Onix began to gather up the weapons, passing me a couple of knives and the bow in the process. Within minutes, we were ready to get moving again.

"Ok, it seems like the dogs are about three miles away to the west and we've been trying to heading north for the past week and a bit and we still need to do so if we want to keep on track, we need to avoid any possible confrontations with the guards, but still head in the right direction of sorts, so lest head north-east, then divert back once we've lost them." Onix says, hurriedly, beginning to walk where I assume is the northeast. We start into a slow jog; just so every one of us was prepared for the worst. After five minutes we were panting, the exhaustion of the eight days of almost continuous walking, our muscles were tired and this was just building the burning sensations in my lungs and muscles.

Suddenly, there were barks ahead of us, heavy footsteps pounding across the dirt towards us from the place we weren't expecting. We diverted our path, following Onix and increasing our pace to an almost sprint, making sure those guards that were in front of us, were now behind us. I had no doubt that they were guards from the prison now; the dogs must have caught our scent whilst we had been sleeping. My thoughts raced and my heart sped at a mile a minute; this felt too much like deja vu, from after Annie and I escaped from that hellhole.

We darted around the trees, trying not to stray too far from each other, but the dogs and guards were gaining. I could hear their shouts to each other now, informing each other to spread out and that they'd nearly got us, but I didn't dare look back to see if they had.

Onix made a sharp left, jumping over a fallen tree stump and heading towards a cliff that could be seem between a distant gap in the trees, I couldn't be sure what he was planning, but I had to go with it and made the same maneuvers along with Annie and Sade, we trusted his judgment (as well as having no other choice, there wasn't anything we could do in the heat of the moment). I could hear the guards almost on top of us, they heavy pants and footsteps like drums in my ears; they were the only thing that I could hear over my beating heart. The cliff got ever closer, two hundred meters away or so, and growing ever closer. I could feel the dog's teeth nipping at my legs, trying to bring me down as I ran, making me pump my arms and legs faster, to get away from them.

I was losing breath; I couldn't keep up this pace for much longer.

One hundred metres.

The edge was in sight. I was going to flipping kill Onix after this.

Seventy-five metres.

I saw Annie, her face red, she was struggling to breath. Come on, Annie, we've got to make it! I screamed in my head. I saw Sade grasp and tug on her hand, making her go faster.

Fifty metres.

Please, may we survive this. Breathe, breathe, run.

Thirty metres.

A dog bit my leg, making me cry out. I lost some air that I most desperately needed in my lungs, but the adrenaline kept me going. I felt a hand trying to grasp at my shirt. No!

Twenty metres.

Ten metres.

The drop was huge. There was no coming back from this. I couldn't breathe anymore.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

We all jumped. Down we plummeted.