A Time To Rise

Chapter 9

"Catherine, run to the other side of the clearing."

"Please don't kill me," The boy says meekly, standing nervously infront of me.

"What makes you think I will do anything you say."

"Nothing. I guess you will kill me like you have killed everyone else.

The look in his eyes changed to being confident. What does this guy know and what has he been told?

"Tell me what you know. What did they tell you?" I say, pointing my knife at his throat. I'm not sure how serious I am yet.

"They told me that you had lit the orphanage on fire and killed all the soldiers that were in there."

I hold back the urge to laugh. This is ridiculous.

"And I suppose you believe them."

He stares at me. "I don't. Why would I."

This is getting stranger by the minute. He is on our side or....

"Let me come with you. Please."

A hand touches my shoulder. I spin around and find Catherine still standing there.

"He has to come with us. If we leave him here, he could tell the soldiers where we are or where we are headed."

I get the strangest feeling that she wants him to go with us but I go along with it anyway.

"Fine."

He picks up the gun I did not see and runs over to a bush. He throws the gun into the bush and runs back to us.

"Lets go," I say and we ran out of the clearing and into the forest again. I do not like this idea of him coming with us. Just because he says he didn't believe in the government doesn't mean he isn't a spy. Why is Catherine trusting him so easily?

The clearing is far behind us as we run through the trees. Every now and again, a thorn bush snags my leg but I keep running. The soldiers still sound like they are on our heels. The only good thing about this boy is he runs fast. Really fast. Probably from all the drills they gave soldiers in the army. The darkness begins to grow on us again. Perfect. My favourite time of the day is the night, where the shadows conceal you. We stop to catch our breath. Apart from the 30 second stops we took to have a drink, we have barely stopped running. I spy a clump of bushes just off my left and head over to them. The bushes are thick, green and tallish. A good place to camp but it looks to good to be true. Catherine and the other guy walk up to me.

"Is this a good place?" Catherine asks.

"I don't know. It looks to good to be true if you ask me."

"I don't like it. It looks like one of those traps the army sets up to catch their prey."

I spin around to glare at him and to say something nasty but Catherine cuts in.

"What's your name?"

"Zane."

Okay. Not the type of name I would have thought the army would give him. I still don't trust him.

"Well Zane, where do you want to camp?" I say with a smirk.

He just smirks back at me.

"Well, we could climb a tree or something........Jake."

"How do you know my name? Who are you!?" My voice rises as frustration and anger starts to course in my veins. Some birds fly from their perks a short distance away. Who is this guy? Why does everyone seem to know me!? A branch snaps a few metres in front of us. Wait a second! The birds and the branch were triggered. The army is closing in. Zane seems to have picked it up to but Catherine seems to be off with the pixies.

"Where can we go?"

"Towards the noise. Hurry!"

"TOWARDS THE NOISE? ARE YOU INSANE!"

"No. Trust me."

"Seriously. You want me to trust you with our lives when I hardly even know you! For all I know you could be to enemy!"

"It is either me or them. It's your pick."

"Fine. Do Not make me regret this."

We ran towards the noises with Zane infont. I piggy-back Catherine as she is still far, far away. Zane stops so abruptly that I almost run into him. He looks at me.

"Something is wrong.."