Wanted

Chapter 25

     I wake up to the sound of voices. "Sam?" I rub my eyes.

     "Shhh." I hear him say. I finally realize he's listening to his walkie talkie.

     "We have eyes on the house and we're heading in now. I'll show no mercy, Peterson." He says nothing as he grabs his backpack and stuffs everything into it.

     "We gotta go." He grabs my arm and rushes out of the door. Out in the distance I spot ten Rebel Guards heading our way.

"That's not good." I look back as Sam pulls me in the opposite direction.

"If we run, they won't be able to catch us."

"Well, if they're as fast as the others, they will catch us. Plus, they have guns so they don't really need to catch us." Sam glares at my insight. "Just sayin."

"There's no time to think like that. We got away from them once, we'll do it again." I smile at his optimism.

Boom! Boom! They're shooting. This won't be good.

"Surrender now!" I hear a Guard's voice slowly growing behind us. "There are too many of us! You won't win!"

"Heard that before!" Sam yells back. He grabs something out of his backpack while we run and tosses it behind him. A minute later, I stop hearing footsteps behind us. Instead, I look behind me and see a cloud of smoke followed by a bunch of coughing.

"What was that?" I ask Sam.

"Um I think it was a smoke bomb... don't really know. I just picked it up from that house we were just in. Crazy what people keep in their sock drawers these days." He smirks and looks over at me.

"Real funny, Sam."

We keep running and are soon out of their sight. Wow, almost died again. Shocker. It's dark out now and we continue to walk through the desert. There's a city in sight so we'll take shelter there.

"Well that was close." Sam tells me.

"Ya, ya it was. Good thing you had that bomb thing. Seriously, Sam, way to pull through." I smile and pat him on the back.

"Ah, ya know, just doing what I can to not get us killed."

"Well keep doing it. It seems to be working." He laughs. His laugh is one of those deep and passionate laughs. The ones you want to play on repeat because of how beautiful they are. Is that weird? Ya, but I don't care. I like what I like.

"It wasn't all me, though." He looks over at me as we tread through the cold desert.

"What do you mean?" As far as I know, I'm not the one throwing smoke bombs at our enemies.

"I mean, you're the motivation." I look at him weird. Usually being the 'motivation' is an insult. "No, no. I mean it as a good thing. The only reason we're not dead is because you give me a reason to live." What? "I don't know what it is, but for some reason the last thing I want to see is you getting hurt. So, I will do everything in my power to make sure you stay safe." Once again, I'm speechless. He must really care about me. "Say something, El."

"Sam... I." What do I say in a moment like this? "I don't know what to say." I turn to Sam and see a hurt expression on his face. "No ones ever said anything like that to me. I've never been anyone's means of survival."

"I know, I'm sorry for putting you in that position. Say something when you're ready." I feel my cheeks gushing with blood and my stomach filling with butterflies. Everything inside of me is telling me to kiss him, but I don't. Kiss him, Ella. No one has ever said anything like that to you before. My subconcience needs to shut up. I can't kiss him! Sure, he's saved my life a few times, but I don't like him like that. Do I?

Guess we'll find out.

I step in front of him and put my hands on his cheeks. I press my lips to his and feel his hands wrap around my waist. This feels right. It has to be right, doesn't it? I pull away and look into his eyes.

"What was that for?" A smile stretches across his face.

"Just figuring out what I want." I smile back. I think I know what I want.

"And what's that exactly?" I can tell I have his undivided attention.

I pause for a moment. "I'll get back to you on that." I wink and pull my hands away from his cheeks. I turn around and continue my trek to the city ahead.

"Ella..." By the sound of his voice I know he was disappointed with my answer.

"C'mon, Peterson. We have a city to get to."