Surviving.

Chapter Thirteen: Betrayed

  "I'm Conner," the stranger says. He glances at his axe lying on the ground and then back at me with his smirk still on his face. "And you are...?"

I scowl at him and reply, "I'm Lainey."

He smiles a genuine smile, which catches me by surprise, and sticks out his hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lainey. I'm sorry to meet you in such a manner."

I stand there with my mouth gaping open, but I snap out of it quickly.

"Oh it's okay I guess, but why are you here?" I say, surprising myself with my politeness.

"I was just out wandering in this beautiful stretch of land when I came across this fellow over here," he gestures to Tommy and continues, "patching the gaping hole in this fence. So of course I rationalized and decided to speak with him. Because that was the only rational answer of course. Then you came along and here we are now."

I nearly choke at his words, surprised by how proper he is "The only rational answer? You could have just went back to where you came from! Gone back to your own camp and left us alone. Not 'speak with' Tommy!" I say, anger beginning to burn in my veins.

His smile drops and then at the gun I had raised once again. He puts his hands up while looking at my every movement. I could feel his burning eyes on every part of me. He takes a step closer to me and takes the gun out of my hand, placing it next to his axe on the ground.

"I am not going to hurt you or anyone else in your group. There is not a scratch on him. He attacked me before I had a chance to say a word." He points to his split lip and growing black eye, "He did this to me, I did nothing to him." 

My eyes widen a bit as I look at Tommy, "Is this true? You attacked him first?"

Tommy casts his eyes towards the ground and nods solemnly. I gape at him and shake my head slowly. 

"You can't just attack people Tommy. You could have killed him or he could have killed you! How is that supposed to help us?" I look back at Conner and smile hesitantly. 

Tommy just tucks his hands into his pockets, beginning to walk away from me. 

"Tommy! Where are you going? You can't just walk away!" I say furiously.

He doesn't even look back at me, but just walks towards the front entrance. I sigh and look at Conner, who has stayed silent through the whole ordeal. I'm just about to say something when a girl around my age comes out from the lining of trees with a bow in her hands. She notches an arrow and aims the point of it at me, ready to shoot if I make a move. Conner's face lights up when he sees her and he picks up my gun and his axe. He tucks my gun into the waistband of his jeans and carries his axe in his hand. He smiles at the strange girl and comes towards me with a thick rope in his hands.

"Conner....what are you doing..." I stutter and take a few steps back.

 The girl sneers and pulls the bowstring back more, "Take another step and you're gonna have an arrow through your head."

I freeze and look at Conner, my eyes pleading for him to help me. He just averts his eyes away from me and begins to tie the rope around my wrists. He ties it tightly so I can't move my wrists at all. I struggle and try to untie it, but it's useless. He tied it into a square knot. One of those stupid boy scout knots.

"UNTIE ME CONNER. RIGHT FUCKING NOW." I say maliciously, but he just grabs the rope and pulls me along. 

"Laken, put the God damn bow down and let's go." He tells the girl, who i'm assuming is Laken.

She sighs and lowers her bow, her eyes shooting daggers at me through the whole process. Conner starts walking into the forest, with me in his tow as Laken follows behind us. We enter the dark forest and I just follow a few feet behind Conner. I hear the twigs breaking under my feet, and the crunching of Laken walking behind us. I feel unsafe with her behind us so I turn to look at her and instantly regret it, because I feel a searing pain in my abdomen. I let out a blood-curdling scream as I look down to see a single arrow sticking out of me. I feel drowsiness wash over me, but I won't go down yet. So I say the one thing that comes to mind:

"That's the thing about Pain. It demands to be felt."

TFIOS fans will only understand this. I'm trying to update much more often than I have! I apologize for not updating quickly.

~Lizzy <3