The Ruds

Chapter 5

I was alone when I woke up, I looked around to see if anyone was there, but I couldn't see anyone. "Hello!" I yelled. "Dylan! Mason!" I yelled some more. I looked around and saw a note pinned to my sleeping bag: 'Went to the store to get food, be back soon.' The note read. I looked around the cave for a while, looking in the box and the things outside the cave.

About an hour later Mason and Dylan came back with two boxes. They dropped them on the dusty dirt on the cave floor. "Thanks for leaving me," I joked when they got back. "Hey you were out cold for a long time before we left." Dylan argued. I just shook my head. They got a whole lot of stuff, bread, peanut butter, jelly, soap, water filter bottles, etc. "Wow and this only cost sixty buck?" I asked "We still have some money left over." Mason smiled.

It was the end of March and it was still a little cold outside, especially at night. Dylan and Mason would always let me have one of the sleeping bags and then they would rotate using the other one. We would always wake up in the middle of the night because we were to cold or because we heard animals or something. For the first couple nights I couldn't sleep, I would always have nightmares about what happened.

"We can't even ask the police to look for them now because they would be in even more trouble and so would we." Navvy said to Cash, Ty, Marty and HiJack. "Look, if they really did kill that Mod it wasn't on purpose." Marty defended. "Even if they didn't they will still have to go to prison or get killed." Navvy argued back. "Calm down we will find them." Ty said calmly. "They are smart kids they will be fine." Ty continued. "What if they aren't?" Navvy kept arguing. "Navvy they will be fine; we will find them." Ty said grabbing Navvy's shoulders.

Knock, knock, knock. "I'll get it," Ty said walking to the door. He opened the door and saw the fuzz standing at the door. "Are you Ty Thorton?" The police man immediately asked. "Yes, sir." Ty hesitated. "I am officer Peters and I was wondering if you know, Faith Borden, Dylan Gear and Mason Fox?" Officer Peters asked. "Yes I know them." Ty tried to seem calm. "Are they here?" Peters asked. "No they ran away two days ago and we haven't seen them since." Ty explained. "Do you know where they would have gone?" Peters asked. "If we did we would be going to get them." Ty joked.

"Who's at the door?" Marty came around the corner. "Officer Peters," Marty said when he saw who it was. "What do you want?" Cash asked Peters. "I was wondering if you know the location of Mason Fox, Dylan Gear and Faith Borden." Peters explained. "I... have no... idea where they are." Marty tried not to stutter and to give away that he really did know where we were.

It has been almost a week since we got to Tulsa and so far we have eaten a life time of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, played innumerable games of, Go Fish, poker, solitaire, spit, Egyptian rat screw, basically if it is a card game we have played it. I have gotten pretty good at the bow and arrow; I have been practicing on wood I carved with my knife to look like a target. "How long do y'all think it will be 'til Marty gets here?" Dylan asked. "He said he would be by in a week or two, so it could be a whole 'nother week." Mason said shuffling the cards. "Achoo!" Mason sneezed. I noticed that he had bags under his eyes and he was a little whiter than usual. "You ok Mason?" I asked putting the back of my hand to his forehead. "I'm fine." He told me when I moved my hand away. "We should hike up to the top of the mountain, just to, you know, get out of this cave." Dylan got up and walked to the end of the cave. "Sure why not," I said getting up.

We hiked to the top of the mountain, since we took our time it took about ten minutes, but I bet if I ran I could get up in one or two minutes. When we got to the top the scenery was beautiful. No yellow or red leaves, just pure green we could hear and see the river and there was no houses or even the rail road tracks to be seen, just miles and miles of trees. "What is that?" Mason asked. "What's what?" Dylan asked as we looked in the direction Mason was looking. "That right there," He pointed to the forest, nothing unusual just trees. "There is nothing there," I said when he put his hand down. Dylan and I kept looking off into the distance when we heard a noise on the ground. We looked over to see Mason had fallen over and had passed out. "Mason!" I yelled sinking down to my knees, I put my palm on his head again, "He is burning up," I told Dylan

We finally got Mason down the mountain and into the cave. Dylan put him in a sleeping bag and I went to go fill up a bucket with water. "Be back in a while," I said to Dylan as I started to walk the mile to the river.

I was filling up the bucket in the river when I heard a branch snap on the other side. I quickly looked up and saw a figure walking in the forest, it was too dark so I couldn't tell what it was. I grabbed the water and hurried back to the cave. "How is he," I asked when I got back. "Same," Dylan replied. I grabbed a wash cloth and got it wet with the water, "Here put this on his head," I handed the rag to Dylan. "We are almost out of food I say we go hunting tomorrow." Dylan suggested after a while. "Yea, ok, sounds good." I said grabbing the blanket. "You take the sleeping bag tonight." I told Dylan. "You sure?" He asked, "Positive," I smiled. "If you get to cold or something let me know and we can switch." Dylan said. "I'll keep that in mind,"

"Marty," Ty half whispered, "Yea," Marty acknowledged. "You know the other day when Officer Peters was here and you said you didn't know were Dylan, Faith and Mason were," Ty started, "Yea I remember," Marty replied. "Were you lying?" Ty asked. Marty didn't say anything for a while, "No," He whispered. "I don't believe you." Ty exclaimed. Marty just smiled and shook his head, "Of course you wouldn't," "What's goin on guys?" Navvy asked as him and HiJack walked in. "Ty thinks I know where Dylan, Faith and Mason are," Mary explained. "Do you?" HiJack asked. Marty broke eye contact and just looked at the door. "Yea," He whispered again.

"Why didn't you say anything!" HiJack yelled. "I didn't want them to get in trouble." Marty argued. "Where are they!" HiJack yelled again. "Not in Texas," Marty explained looking at all of them individually. "They left the state!" Ty yelled. "How could you let them do that?!" HiJack yelled at Marty.

It was a long night, I kept hearing noises outside and I couldn't sleep so I just stayed up to make sure Mason was alright. I didn't know what time it was, it felt like that night would never end. Finally, the morning came and Dylan woke up. "When did you wake up?" He asked. "I... um... I never fell asleep," I stuttered. "Faith, you need your sleep, you can't hunt if you are tired, we can just do it some other time, but you need to go to bed. I don't want to have to deal with two sick people." He got up and started a fire so we could boil the water I had gotten last night. "Dylan," I started, "Yea," He said as he got out a match to start the fire. "Last night I was thinking about what this bleach was used for and I think I know." I held it up. "No, nahah there is no way you are touching my hair," He turned around to face me. "I meant for me, we can just cut your hair." I examined the bottle of bleach. "Cut... my... hair..." Dylan slowly said. "Do you want to go to jail?" I asked, "Don't worry it will grow back and we will need to do it do Mason's hair too." I finished. "Fine, just do it now and get it over with," Dylan pulled out his switch blade and gave it to me. It wasn't really that hard, I have had to cut my own hair all my life.

"There you go," I said when I finished, "I only cut a little of, nothing big," I told him. "Now... your turn" I hesitated. "Yes it is," Dylan smiled. "Hey, be nice," I laughed. He was cutting it for ten minutes when he was done, "Great now put this in my hair and I will go sit outside for ten minutes." I gave him the bottle of bleach and he smeared it on my hair.

I sat outside for ten minutes then went back inthe cave to see if Dylan thought I looked the same. He was still trying to makethe fire, I walked over and stood next to him, he looked up and just stared fora while. "Woah," He whispered. I looked around with my eyes, not moving myhead, then looking back at him. "What?" I asked. "Your hair," He responded."Yea, I know it looks weird," I shyly said. He stood up and walked over to me,"No, it looks really pretty actually," He smiled, I could feel my face go red."It is blonde on the top and darker on the bottom, looks nice." He turnedaround and went back to making the fire.