Runaways

Chapter One

Zero's POV

"Just jump in!" I spoke loud and confidentally but it was all a show I wasn't very exited about having to go into the trash. But Old Grandma Salt dropped her wedding ring and her husband just died. She exspects it fell into the trash. Bad news for us she already had her son take it to the dumps.

This wasn't one of them big old city dumps, thank the lord, but that of a small town. On somedays if you run the entire way its about a four hour jog to the nearest city. Sometimes we just borrow some bikes. By 'we' I mean Zero (thats me), Eva, (pronounced E-va), and little KD.

"I don' wanna!" She screams stomping her size one feet. At least thats what they where last time I checked. She clung to a stuffed kitten that was so dirty it was almost black, its eyes' were so cracked he looked like he had cataracts. She called him, get this, Poodle. Yep, you heard me right, dear friend.

KD herself has short choppy blond hair that Eva cut for her. Small squinty green eyes that look like gems but are slightly close together. A tiny nose that turns up a bit at the end and full lips that work really well for pouting. (Much like she was right then.) And a super skinny body where you can count all of her ribs, and shes only been on the streets a month. Next to her we have Eva.

"Call me Eva.," she told me when we first met. We where around twelve, back then. Probably our first month on the streets. We banded together in New York and just kept walking West, following the setting sun. We picked up KD in North Dakota. It was the middle of winter and she was huddled in a nice little snow cave.

"Can you help me?" She asked us in a timid little voice clutching her stuffed kitten that was as white as the snow. So she ended up coming with us to Montana, and thats where we are present day.

But I got a little side tracked... She has a slightly larger than average nose, and a small mouth (except when she's yelling at me.) Eva is super pale, mostly cause its winter but I'm beginning to suspect that she's sick. She spends most of the day in bed sleeping with the snow melting beneath her. Her big dark cobalt blue eye's shine in the fire light and always vacant and staring. Her long red hair trailing down the side in a makeshift pony tail, that went nearly the whole way down her back.

Despite the fact that were both fifteen shes about five inches taller than me. Which makes her five eight. She constantly wears a ragged red skirt that has several tears around the bottom, with a long sweater that says 'LOVE'.

Well thats my family if I left something important out, which knowing me I probably did, stop reading. If it wasn't that important lets go on.

Well we were at the dump and I was about to plung-

Ah ah ah, back up. I almost forgot to describe myself. I have short curly black hair almost always covered by a knit black hat, that yes, I did make for myself. My golden brown eyes are slightly wider than I would like, and my nose slightly too large. I'm often told that I have a mischeivious smile (don't ask me what this means) as well as a slightly muscular tone. I say slightly becasue I'm only five three.

Okay before we start again, would you like to go get a soda, popcorn, or any one of several candy bars? I'm sure we'll have a short intermission around the middle of the book.

Okay if your sure I suppose we should get on with it.

I reach up and plug my nose before jumping into the stinky bags of garbage. "Its not so bad!" I call up to my friends, though I'm lying. I look around for Widow Salts' garbage I slash bag after bag looking into each ones contents before moving on.

Sometime ago KD had jumped in to help with her own little knife while Eva kept guard. I suspect Eva woulda been too weak with sickness to get out. Eventually we found the ring in a bag in the corner. We hadn't counted on it bein' so small. "She could have told us it was a small bag." I complained halfheartedly.

I was dirty, smelly, and more than anything tired, but I couldn't wait to feel the hundred dollors in my hand. I sighed with content. Just then I heard a small gasp from KD. I spun around quickly afraid she had cut herself. "Are you okay?" I asked panicking.

She nodded with the biggest most cheesy grin on her face. "Look!" She squealed holding up a bent and broken jewlery box. I shrugged, I was a boy, why should I care about jewelry. But then she opened it up and a small amount of jewls glittered out at me.

Two green gems reminded me of KD's own eyes. I smiled at her too exited for words. I nodded at the side of the dumpster. She jumped up onto my hands and I lifted up her slight frame. We would eat good for the next few days. As soon as she was out of the metal bin I tossed her the ring and the jewlery box. Eva helped me down as I came out.

"What did ya find?" She put a hand on my shoulder and I shrugged.

"Just a jewlery box with some pricy things."

"And the ring?" She asks. At the mention of the ring I reach down to pick it up but it wasn't there!!!! I saw a bird flying off with it clutched in its hand.

"No!" I yell chasing after it with all the speed I had. "Stupid crow!" I scream at it. High above me at nearly the top of a pine tree the bird sat cawing at me. Eva and KD came up behind me breathing hard. "It's laughin' at me!" I was shaking with rage and I threw myself up at the tree almost ripping away the bark.

"Its in a tree." KD spoke up, dejected. Tears forming in her eyes as her lip quivered.

"Stop it." Eva scolded in a cold tone. "Lift KD up on your shoulders so she can reach it." I did this and she could barely reach the lowest branches.

"Just climb up there." I told her. She slowly let go of my shoulders so she could stand on them. She reached up and grabbed the lowest branch which wasn't very close to the bird. She began the slow painstaking climb up to the top.

When she reached the top she shoo'd the bird away and grabbed the ring. Everything was perfectly fine until she looked down. She let out a scream as she lost her balance. I watched her topple down through branches trying to catch herself. I saw it but I didn't know what to do.

Looking left and right I jumped over and tried to catch her. When she fell into my arms I fell down onto my knees. We where all pretty skinny but that didn't mean we didn't pack some muscle. She was breathing heavily with her eye's closed. I held her close to me, my eye's moist. Sometime during the expedition Eva had started crying.

Eva carried the jewlery box and ring back to our ice cave. We settled KD into the two blankets that we had as we made dinner in complete silence. "It's not fair." I whispered. It echoed in the small cave. I glanced at KD to make sure she hadn't woken up.

"Life's not fair, Z." She shook her hair out of its pony tail and sat down to braid it. I finished chopping the vegetables.

"Tomorrow I think I'm gonna go down to the city. I should be back in time for work on Monday." Eva nodded her head in silence. She knew I would have to go down and sell the jewelry we had found no matter how much KD wanted it.

I decided to buy her something special with the money I'd get. As Eva settled into bed beside KD I walked towards the door not even bothering to be quiet, Eva would hear me either way. "Be careful." She whispered sleepily.

I trudged through the forest with an axe I'd found laying out in the woods. It was my job to chop the firewood and thats exactly what I was doing. But I was also venting and thinking about the future. We had no choice, we would have to keep running. But its to cold to continue north, we would freeze! So I decided to go south instead.

As I carried the wood back to the cave I thought again about KD's fall. It wasn't fair, God wasn't fair. How could anyone have the power to simply take someones life. She was young, just a kid and she almost died.

And I had to leave to get money. What if she got worse while I was gone? "You can't have them." I said menicingly staring up at the dark black sky before walking into the cave. I repeated this under my breath over and over until I finally fell into a deep sleep.