Chapter Nine | Home

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Someone forcefully shoves me awake, and I yawn, opening my eyes. I move my dirty blonde hair out of my eyes, looking up. Walker drops a backpack down onto my stomach and I let out a big gust of air. I realize my head was lying on Forrest's arm, and his hand was holding on gently to my upper arm. I slowly get out of his grip and place a hand on his heart. It's still beating. Thank you, God. I decide I will re-bandage him once he wakes up. I stand up next to Walker. Her short hair is wet and a beany lays on top of it.

"Where'd you-" I start.

She points to the stream and grin. I see Oakley attempting to climb a tree and I walk over to give him a lift. He smiles down at me and then asks, "Is Forrest going to be okay?"

"I think so." Is all I say, walking back to Walker and the stream. I make sure Forrest is asleep before carefully taking off my black tank top and leggings, immersing myself in the cold water. Walker makes herself busy with searching her backpack for something, who knows what.

I dunk my head under the water, getting all the dirt and leaves out of my long hair. I wash myself up, trying to get as clean as possible without soap. When I'm finished, I'm tempted to stay in longer, but I don't.

I step out of the stream, grabbing my backpack. I rummage through, finding a baggy gray sweater and another pair of black leggings. I pull them both on, the sweater hanging halfway off my shoulder.

As if right on cue, Forrest wakes up, breathing in a lot of air loudly. I run over, kneeling down next to him. I place my hand on his shoulder, watching as his eyes slowly drift open.

"Willow." He sighs, closing his eyes again.

"You're alive." I smile broadly. I help him sit up. "I need to bandage your bullet wound again." I say, slowly unwrapping the cloth around his midsection.

He groans as the wound is revealed, and I try not to look too surprised when it doesn't look pretty. I swallow, grabbing hold of one of my white shirts and ripping it in half. I place a hand on his bare chest, wrapping the bandage around his back and stomach. I tie it at the end, and he grunts in pain, not moving his eyes from my face as I study the bandage.

I stand up, reaching down to help him out. His breathing fastens as I lift him up. He yells out in pain as he straightens his back. Walker looks at him in disgust almost, tossing me one of his shirts from his backpack. I lean him up against a tree, pulling his shirt over his head carefully, and pulling it down over the bandage.

The corners of his mouth twitch, almost smiling. I can't help myself, I wrap my arms around him in a hug. "Easy there, tiger." He says, surprised at first, but then returns the hug, resting his head on top of mine.

"Don't ever do that to me again!" I say, releasing him.

"What?" He asks, confused.

"Almost die!" I exclaim.

"Hey, it was either me or you, and I wasn't going to let it be you." He says sincerely. I was surprised by that, remembering I was the one that had the gun pointed at me. Forrest jumped in front of me to save my life. I swallow, not knowing what to say. But then I remember that a simple 'thank you' is what he's looking for.

"Thank you." I smile, and he nods.

"Hate to break this sentimental moment up, but we need to get moving." Walker interrupts, throwing her backpack around her shoulders. She walks over to the tree Oakley is in, and yells at him to get down. Oakley listens, and catches his backpack in midair that she threw at him.

I grab Forrest and my backpack, hanging one on each shoulder. "I can carry mine." Forrest tells me. I shake my head viscously, reaching under his arm to help him walk. Walker gets under the other one, giving him twice the support.

"Get better soon." Walker tells him.

"Okay."

"Just because I hate dragging you around." She adds. I hold back my laughter as we walk through the woods, Oakley trailing close behind.

Reaching the end of the woods was a positive and a negative. Positive being, we're finally out of the woods. Negative being, now we have to cross an open intersection. There are about six cars, two of them are crashed into each other. Smoke was rising in the air, the streets too quiet for me. Across the street, lies a small diner.

"I'll go first and give you the signal to cross." Walker instructs.

"Why can't we all go?" I ask.

"With the hot stuff slowing us down? We don't have a chance." She rolls her eyes, releasing Forrest, and more weight comes on me.

"Sorry." Forrest grunts under his breath. I shake my head slightly, watching as Walker held a gun in between her fingers, cocking it. She starts her way across the street, looking abruptly back and forth between her right side and left side. I see her stop in her tracks to look at something, but I can't tell what it is.

Whatever it was, she ran like heck to the other side of the street because of it. Why didn't she just shoot it? She has perfect aim. She looks back at us, opening the diner's door, and ushers for us to cross as well.

I look at Forrest worriedly. She just ran after seeing something or someone. Can we trust her that it's safe? He shrugs, and I grab hold of Oakley's hand and we try to make it to the other side of the street as fast as we can. I look in the direction of where Walker looked and I found nothing. I sigh, finally getting to the other side.

"What did you see?" I ask her, as soon as we enter the diner.

"I want to go home!" Oakley suddenly yells, and I realize I haven't talked much to him at all today. He's barely said a word. I situate Forrest in one of the booths, and I kneel down next to Oak.

I open my mouth to say something like 'it's going to be okay' or 'everything is fine' but I shake the instinct off when I realize nothing is okay. I glance down at my hand, which happens to be on Oakley's tired shoulder. I see the bracelet my mom had given me before she died.

"I will always be with you." She had said.

I slowly take the blue and white thread bracelet off and tie it on Oakley's wrist. "You didn't know my mom, but she was the most incredible woman. You would have loved her, Oak. She believed that as long as you had family with you, you were at home. So that's why we need to stick together. We're family. And as long as we're together, we'll always be at home." I tell him, tears swimming in my eyes.

His big eyes look down at the bracelet and he nods. "Okay."

"I love you, Oakley." I pull him ino a hug before standing up.

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