The Third War

Chapter Eight: Kristy

Zoe can read my expressions very well. What she occasionally forgets is that I can too...

sometimes.

Not like she can but like normal average person expression reading.

As soon as our eyes locked I knew I had made a terrible mistake. I saw the shock on her face as she realized. Nothing I could say would make her change her mind.

She saw it.

Knowing nothing would convince her otherwise I pretended I didn't know I had let my guard down, "Why don't we go back down Zoe?"

She's way too smart,

in return she acted as she missed it.

Obviously she didn't, she rarely missed, especially not big, completely unguarded expressions. She shrugged.

That was getting really annoying so instead of a suggestion I turned it into a command, "Zoe."

I'm not going to lie, but I have no idea how she felt about that. I still don't actually...too bad I can't ask her.

Whether she was scared of me, annoyed, or just going to do it anyway, she did climb back down. I climbed down after and Zoe fell asleep. I decided to go to sleep as well.

~~~~~~~

I woke up to the sound of the train screeching to a stop. I looked at Zoe who was already sitting up, she looked terrified.

She stared at the open train door and looked at me.

I guess that makes me the leader.

I sighed and barely peeked out of the door.

Oh no,

soldiers had stopped the train probably looking for fugitives, aka, us.

Which meant we had to run away, now.

I grabbed the bag and Zoe's hand,

"Zoe, we have to run otherwise we'll be caught."

She nodded and we heard the left side of the door opening,

"JUMP!"

I grabbed Zoe's wrist and jumped out the other side. I closed the door and pulled the latch down and we ran.

Gunshots and yelling behind us, unknown woods ahead of us.

I refused to let go of Zoe's hand as we jumped over fallen branches and streams. She stumbled once or twice but always used it as a jump to go faster.

We couldn't stop, we still heard yelling and gunshots but we were small and these were thick woods.

We decided to stop after a while of silence and Zoe was panting and sweating and stumbling along as I pulled her by her wrist. I let go and through gasps of air said,

"I...think...we...can...stop."

She collapsed against a tree and slid down to the ground.

Guess we don't have much a choice,

I looked at her and realized I had pushed her too far. She had left her crutch behind and had to run on a broken leg. Along with the cuts on her face reopening and sweat I think she had been crying because her eyes were red.

She closed her eyes and took deep shaky breaths. I had no idea what was going through her head,

"Zoe are you okay?"