Finding Happily Ever After

Chapter 21

"Shhh. Be quiet."

I relaxed when I recognized Ashton's voice and nodded my head.

He released me once he was sure that I would remain silent, then lifted his index finger to his mouth to emphasize his point. I nodded once again, wondering what the hell was going on.

Ashton motioned for me to stand up while he slung his bag over his shoulder. He started walking away in a crouch, so I followed him, mimicking his stance. My heart was hammering and my palms were sweating in fear. I had no clue what had happened to make Ashton so tense, but it must have been serious if we were creeping silently through the woods in the middle of the night.

I strained my senses, searching for anything that might have worried Ashton. At first, I came up empty handed, but a moment later I caught the faint whiff of a fire. I was concentrating on the smell when a raucous of laughter jolted me in my skin, and I had to hold in shriek. I was so on edge that, although it was obvious that the laughter came from far off, it still scared the shit out of me.

Damn, this was bad. It was impossible to tell who made up the nearby group, but my guess was that they were soldiers making camp for the night. They were probably either a security detail guarding the territory or a group sent out on a man hunt to find us. Either way, if they noticed us, we were screwed.

I continued to follow Ashton, too concentrated on taking careful silent steps to pay attention to where we were going until I recognized the hum of the waterfall approaching. I took a moment to silently praise him for thinking of this. It was perfect. The noise from the fall would protect us from being heard, and if we got in the water, then our scents would be concealed as well. I hoped that Ashton planned to cross the small river. I would feel much better having the water between us and the threatening campers.

I almost breathed a sigh of relief when we reached the edge of the forest, but when we broke through the tree line to approach the shore, we immediately spotted a soldier squatting by the water. Ashton and I froze. I refused to even breathe, praying that the man wouldn't notice us. My hopes were dashed, though, when he whipped his head around and squinted his eyes at us.

In an instant, the soldier had his hand on his holster and was yelling out, "THE RUNAWAYS A—"

He was suddenly cut off when Ashton clocked him hard on the back of the head, making a sickening crunching noise. The man fell to the ground unconscious and bleeding profusely. I suppressed the urge to check on him, and my growing need to puke. I had really hoped that this kind of violence wouldn't need to happen again because of us. I stood frozen, staring in shock at the unconscious man until Ashton yanked on my arm and snapped me out of it.

That's when I noticed the dozen or so shouting voices coming from the woods and getting closer to us by the second. Ashton was desperately trying to get me to follow him to the water. I glanced across the river and saw nothing but trees and darkness. Maybe if we could get to the other side before guards reached us, they wouldn't be able to find us.

We started wading across the river quickly while trying to avoid splashing and making too much noise. When the water reached my shoulders, I started to panic. I wasn't a proficient swimmer, and the current was kind of strong. Ashton kept a strong hold on me the whole time, though, and we eventually safely pulled ourselves onto the shore.

I was sopping wet, panting, and shivering from the terror coursing through my body. There was no time to take a break, though. We ran straight for the cover of the trees, never even stopping to look back to see if we were still being pursued. A few steps into the woods, I had almost calmed my frantic nerves and was starting to see a gleam of hope that we might successfully escape, when three soldiers stepped from behind the trees directly in front of us, blocking our path. Crap, we hadn't considered that there might be someone waiting to capture us on this side.

Instinct took over, and I turned and sprinted back to the river with Ashton close behind. My heart dropped when we broke out of the trees and saw dozens of soldiers closing in on us on either side of the shore. Across the water, the men who were pursuing us had just reached the edge of the woods. There was no where left to run, and far too many opponents to fend off.

I turned to Ashton, silently pleading for him to have a solution, but instead I saw his face fall as he realized that there was no getting out of this mess.

"So this is it?" I asked, my voice cracking with sadness. He only nodded in response. 

"Oh god, I'm so sorry. I wish I had never dragged you into this. You were just trying to keep me safe and I've given you a death sentence. Even if it didn't last for long, thank you for giving me hope." I rushed to get everything out, stumbling over my words, but needing to let him know how sorry I was. Ashton grabbed my chin and held my gaze on his face

"No. Don't apologize. And don't thank me either. You came into my life and gave me a reason to live. And a reason to die. You gave my life meaning. I would do this a thousand times over just to have you in my arms again. I love you so much, Olivia."

"I love you, too." A sob escaped when I said those four words, knowing that they were completely true. How poetic, that we were professing our love to each other in what might be our final moments together.

As soon as I finished speaking, Ashton pulled me into a tight embrace and pushed his mouth onto mine in a heated dance. My body burned with love and passion as I held him in my arms and kissed him with everything I had, knowing that this might be the last time I ever had the chance to touch him. Tears rolled down my cheeks while we said our nonverbal goodbye.

"I'm sorry," I whispered against his lips one more time before rough hands wrapped around my arms and yanked me off of Ashton.

"Hey, get off of me," I yelled, thrashing around violently, though I knew that it was futile. I wasn't about to go down willingly, though. The man who was holding me wrenched my arms behind my back at an awkward angle, forcing a cry from my mouth.

"Don't fucking touch her! I swear to god I'm going to kill you if you hurt her," Ashton shouted while struggling with his own set of soldiers. Ashton was a much more formidable opponent than I, and they had no qualms with using violence against him. I watched him receive several blows, and tears openly streamed down my face as horror and guilt washed over me.

Desperate to help Ashton, I stomped down hard on my captor's instep and used his moment of shock and pain to twist in his grip and free myself of his hold. I quickly grabbed him by the shoulders and rammed my knee up into the juncture of his thighs. The soldier grunted loudly and dropped to his knees, holding one hand over his injured appendage. 

I tried to spin around and make my way to Ashton, but the soldier's moment of weakness hadn't lasted as long as I had hoped. "YOU BITCH," he screamed and grabbed my ankle, pulling it hard and forcing me off balance. I fell hard on my ass, and as soon as I was within reach, my assailant took a fist full of my hair and slammed my head hard on a nearby rock.

I screamed out at first from shock and pain, but drowsiness and fatigue quickly surged through me. I watched helplessly as the world around me went blurry before slowly fading to black.

Thank you for reading! Hope you like it. Tell me what you think about this chapter :) I love getting comments and suggestions!