January 19th
Days I have survived: 1050
Dear Roddy,
Liam is insane. I’m still not scared of him though; I figured that if I just do what he says and keep on his good side then he won’t try to kill me again. He killed two people yesterday; he says they were hostiles but I can’t be sure. Liam thinks we’re getting hunted now, and we’re about to move out from our cave to another place he knows about which is about five miles away. I think he's slightly paranoid, but I'll go along with it for now.
We had rabbit for breakfast this morning; I’m so full up I don’t know how I’m going to be able to walk five miles, but I don’t have a choice. He won’t tell me where we’re going, but I think I trust him. After all, he did take me to a hospital to get patched up, even though it turned out to be overrun with hostiles.
I’m determined to find out what happened to Liam to make him so screwed up; he still won’t tell me anything.
P x
I shoved everything that I needed into my bag and hoisted it up onto my back; I didn’t feel so much pain in my arm today. Liam wanted to tie a rope around my wrist to walk me like a dog, but I promised him that I wasn’t going to run away or anything.
“Why can’t you tell me where we’re going if we’re just gonna end up there anyway?” I whined, trudging alongside him as we left the cave with all our stuff.
Liam had most of it on the sled and was dragging it behind us.
“He’s a friend of mine. If anyone finds out where he lives, they’ll kill him.”
“How many times do I have to tell you that you can trust me?”
“Not enough. I don’t know how to trust anyone, Payton. Stop taking it personally.”
***
I followed him in silence for most of the journey, not really knowing what we could talk about. I wasn't even sure I wanted to talk to him with the way he was acting. He was off in his own world again, looking ahead, a frown on his face.
“Okay, I need to go and make sure he’s there before I let you see where he lives,” said Liam as we reached a clearing in amongst the thick trees.
“What, you just want me to wait here for you?” I scoffed, looking around at the forest.
“Yup.” He retrieved his gun from his belt and the rope from his bag.
I knew what was coming.
“No way, if you think you’re tying me to a tree again…”
“I’ll be like ten minutes, nothing’s going to get you here. It’s safe.”
He grabbed me and flung me against a tree in the middle of the clearing, just like he did when I first found him. I put up a fight but he still managed to tie me up and he wasn’t gentle about it either.
“Ten minutes,” he repeated and took all of our stuff with him, disappearing into the forest.
***
Liam was a liar. He was way longer than ten minutes. My legs were aching from all of the walking we did today and I could feel myself getting tired. Every noise that the wind made through the branches made me uneasy and my imagination was making me think all sorts of screwed up things about what could be out there.
Just as I could feel my head getting heavy and my eyes lowering in tiredness, I heard a low growling sound coming from the trees. I snapped into focus and I wanted to shout for Liam but I had a feeling that it wouldn’t do me any good now. I gasped as a boy around Liam’s age crawled out on his hands and knees from the forest, blood dripping from his chin. His teeth were bared as he snarled and they were all sharp and pointed, the bottom ones covered in red. He was wearing black Ray Ban sunglasses and a grey hoodie, his hair was hidden by the hood. I knew he could sense my fear, even though I was stood still and I hadn’t screamed yet. He was so far gone into the hostile process that he would be able to kill me in one pounce if he wanted to.
