Hiding From the Unknown

Part 5

I had been under the water for about five minutes, but it felt like hours. My brain told me to stay, but my lungs told me to get out of it. I had taken breaths of air about every thirty seconds, but I wasn't sure I would be able to come up again without someone seeing me.  The voice continued talking, and my heart continued pounding. 

In my stress, I flared my nostrils, taking in a large breath of the water.  My throat burned as I choked on the foamy water I had snorted out.  I fell back in the water, thrashing back and forth.  My lungs were on fire.  I couldn't bear it any longer.  If the man hadn't heard me from my display, It would have been a miracle. 

Before thinking about the consequences, I reached to the muddy layer on the bottom of the stream and blindly groped for a rock.  Taking the largest one I could find, I slowly surfaced, and raising my shaking arm, I threw the rock as far as I could, making sure it went in the opposite direction I was in.  I then sank back down, hoping it had made a loud enough noise to distract the man. 

After waiting until I couldn't breathe again, I pulled myself up, letting my damp head rise above the water.  The man was gone. He probably heard the noise the rock created, and went to go investigate it, which was exactly what I intended for to happen. 

I raced out of the water, grabbing my backpack and running as fast as I possibly could.  Then, a thought struck me.  Was Aiden okay? I couldn't just leave him, there.  I needed to save him.  But how? My only option would be to go back. Groaning, I started running back to the direction I came from.

As I neared the village, I saw that it was no longer on fire, but there was smoke coming out of every possible place. I saw a brown head bobbing up and down, which I immediately recognized as Aiden's.  I ran over to him, finding him on the ground, dead.

"Aiden! No, no,no, no. Get up please.  NO! I love you! I need you to get up! Can you hear me? Please." That last part came out more like a whimper.  I watched his face, looking for any indications of life in it. I sobbed, tears flowing fast down my red cheeks. I thought all hope was lost. But that was before I heard his familiar raspy voice. My eyes widened.
"Relax.  I'm fine.  I was just playing dead so they wouldn't kill me." He reached up and wiped the tears off my cheeks.  "You love me?" He smirked.
"No! God! As a brother, you freak!" I slapped his hand away playfully, gagging as I thought of thinking of him as anything else.  The thought disgusted me.  I blushed at his response, though.
"I'm not a freak!" He chuckled. "But I do love you as a sister" he smiled.  I realized that it had been the first time I had seen him do so since the day he found me. 

I quickly snapped out of our loving brother-sister bonding moment as I looked around me, taking in the scene.  Everything was reduced to burned, broken pieces of wood, charred cement, and rusty metal. My heart went out to the people who had been affected by the attack, but there was nothing I could've done. Even if I had fought back and tried to stop them, the Variater would have killed me in an instant. I was terrified at the thought of one sixteen year old girl against twenty trained men and a war machine.

The thought reminded me that if we didn't get to safety, we would be captured, and ever since our run-in at the school kitchen, Mr. Avario knew who I was, and that I was out in the open. I remembered a small trail my aunt had taken me to when I was seven. It had been in California and had been two miles long, but at the end of it, there was a hidden road that lead up to a small hill on which stood a cabin that was hidden by bushes. She had shown it to me so we could overlook the beautiful view, but it would be the perfect place for us to hide until we knew everything was safe. It would be perfect, then again, if I could remember where it was...