Doves

Chapter 5

      Now we were deep in the woods, in a place we'd never been. I couldn't hear anyone but us now. "Auto, what are we gonna do?"

    We slowed to a walk and he dropped my arm so that I could lean against a tree. I watched as he paced back and forth. "This is your fault." he muttered angrily.

"Hey, that's not-" I protested as Auto glared at me, "You're right. I'm sorry." He grumbled something else.

"What?"

"I said, sorry's not going to bring my family back."

    I couldn't say anything to that; he was right. "Look, if we've got any chance of survival, we've got to stick together, right? And I mean, we didn't actually see it. Maybe they survived, right?"

"I'm not going with you." he said flatly, looking away from me, "You opened the files. I can explain that to the police. And you're on their list. I might not be. We didn't see my name."

"Auto, you saw them back there. They didn't even want to listen to us! They just wanted to shoot us, remember?"

"Well we didn't try to explain, did we? We just ran, coming across as exactly who the we're being painted to be! Maybe if we tried talking to them-"

"Auto, no, if Surveillance is doing this, they'll just take us if we try to talk. There's never been any resistance to anything they've ever tried to do, I mean, don't you think that's a little-"

"Shut up!" he nearly screamed, whipping around to face me again, "You're the reason my parents are dead! Do you think I can bare to look at you? You really are the devil, Lucius! This is your fault."

"How could you say that? This is exactly what they want! We're easier to pick off alone! I need your help. I can't...I can't do this without you." I tried to step forward and the pain came searing back. Blood streamed down, pooling in my shoe.

"I don't care what anyone wants, Lucius. I just..." He trailed off, turning his back on me, "Give me the flash drive." he demanded, holding his hand out to the side, refusing to face me.

I limped towards him, "The people need to know about this." Even as I ensured his departure, I asked him to stay. "Don't do this," I begged him, "I need you, don't leave me. Please."

"Leave me alone, Lucius." he growled, "Quit being so selfish." And then he took off at a run, a pace I couldn't even begin to keep up with. He left me standing in the middle of the unknown, blood trickling down my leg and hounds baying in the distance, getting closer and closer.