Then, Now, After

Chapter 3

Waking up the next morning I tried to ignore the aching of my bones and muscles. The boys were still sleeping and i couldn't wake them up, let them have a rest after three days of being on the road they needed rest. I repacked my things and decided to look around the area, I had never been farther than my city before and despite the urgency in wanting to keep moving I could hardly ignore the unfamiliar landscape.

When I was little before things got bad my dad would take me out into the woods behind our house pointing out the names of plants and trees, I believe these trips were more for the benefit of tiring me out rather than treaching me anything. I made an arc through the trees and came back to our campsite, it was light enough for us to travel we only had about a days walk left before we came to the meeting area. "Wake up guys," I said shaking each of their shoulders. They grumbled but otherwise stayed silent as they put their shoes on and packed up their belongings.

I set the pace brisk but made sure they could keep up, their small strides were no match for my longer ones and would be easily left behind if it was desired. Following the vague directions took all my concentration and I soon started walking behind the boys, a long trek up a hill caused them to slow alittle but really they were making good progress ahead of me. Reaching the top I hadn't noticed they had stopped until one of them reached out to take my hand and pull me back. Looking up from the map I starred down the hill at the orange flames that had use to be a town below. "Run."