Bygones

~{Chapter 6}~

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Flashback

I heard some bird calls outside of our tent. I sat up, alerted, from where I was lying and took out my knife. Leyla was still sleeping so I tried to not wake her as I got up. A stream of yellowish-orange light came through the crack of the opening of the tent. I relaxed myself. It was just the sunrise. Leyla shifted positions, but was still sleeping. Everything was calm and quiet. A little too quiet. Then I started to smell something burning.

"Shit!", I whisper-yelled as I saw our fence outside on fire, "They're here. Leyla wake up!"

"What? Whats going on?", she jolted up.

"They're here and we need to leave.", I said as I grabbed the emergency backpack. Leyla strapped the backpack on and looked at me. I finished strapping on my weapons and looked back at her.

"Stay close.", I grabbed her hand and crouched through the tent opening. We slipped out the back way, leaving our fifth home behind.

I lead us to the river, to an underground place. As we almost reached the river, I heard something snap and an arrow shot through my achilles. The pain made me tumble to the ground.

"Mommy!", Leyla ran back to me.

"Leyla go! Follow the river's flow and you'll find yellow hatch on the floor. Go in there and you'll be safe. Take the backpack. Do not come out of there unless it's absolutely necessary, understand? I will come find you. Go!". I took her face in my hands.

"No I can't leave you plea-"

"You don't have much time, Leyla. I can't run and they'll catch up to us. Go. Please do it for me. I'll find you soon okay?", my voice cracked. A tear rolled down both of our faces. I gave her a long kiss on her forehead and slightly pushed her in the direction of the river. She backed up and started running, but stopped a few feet and looked back at me.

"I love you, Mommy!", she sobbed.

"Go, baby. You can do it. I love you to!", I called after her as she ran.

Torches were coming my way from the back. I crawled underneath some bushes and hid myself as best and quietly as I could. I looked through the branches and leaves to see feet stop in their tracks. Someone sniffed and crouched down. I covered my mouth and held my breath.

"Blood. Fresh.", a deep voice said as he crouched down and observed the pool of blood from my leg.

"Look. A trail." another voice said, inching the torch closer to the bushes. Dammit, I thought as I held my breath. A wild animal ran by and caught their attention.

"Let's go!", the deeper voice said. As the sound of footsteps and the light of the torches faded, I crawled out quietly. For a few minuets I just sat there trying to catch my breath. I finally got up and headed towards the river. My leg was still throbbing and bleeding even more because I was walking on it, but I kept going. All I was focused on was get to the Hatch and Leyla safely.

"She's a smart girl," I reassured myself, "She knows everything that she needs to know to survive."

The river was beautiful and the raging waterfall was a sight to behold. Droplets landed softly on my skin and shone brightly in the sunrise. A faded rainbow appeared at the top of the waterfall. Everything was so breath taking, but it would be the last time I'd see sunlight for a while. Something went over my head and blocked my vision. I was hit in the back and shoved to the grounded. I felt my hands and ankles being tied up together. I could tell that there were a lot of who ever it was because people were howling like wild animals. I tried to get up and run, but someone grabbed me and punched me in the stomach. I knelt to the ground and grasped for air. Another blow went to my head and I hit the rocks. Immediately, I felt something warm trickle down the side if my head. A pair of hands enclosed around my ankles. I was dragged for miles until I felt like my entire skin on my back was rubbed off.

As we arrived at the destination I was dragged to, the sack on my head was taken off. They tied me to a large boulder and circled around me. Their glances flickered back and forth between me and the others. One of them grunted and another one pulled out his knife. I started to panic a little.

"Please, don't. Why are you doing this? We- I didn't do anything to harm your... tribe."

It was quiet for a few seconds until the sound of footsteps and metal jingling interrupted. The group parted to make way for a woman. She slowly walked through; her gaze locked onto mine. She had dirty blonde hair, very defined cheekbones, and black leather clothes from head to toe.

"You didn't do anything to our tribe? You came into our land and disrupted the peace by blowing up a village when you landed," she boomed, "Then you decide to settle down on our territory and roam freely. We actually did you a favor by not killing you right away."

"I didn't know that there were others. You know that I moved countless times to get away from you people. Let me go and I'll move. It's that simple."

She scoffed, "Move where? The only place you'll be safe is past the Reapers, Mountain Men, and the Daunters to get to unclaimed land. You might as well just die now." She observed her knife.

"It's worth a try," I said. Everyone looked at each other and bursted out laughing. I took this chance to try to escape. I took a rock and smashed it on one of the guy's head, took his knife, and cut through the ropes. I bolted for the entrance, but the woman caught my arm. She slammed my head against her knee and pushed me to the ground.

"Take her. I'll deal with her later.", she ordered. One of the men dragged me by my arm to a near by cave. He switch the ropes for chain and nailed them to the ground. Then he stood guard at the cave entrance. I heard shouting outside.

"Find her and bring her back! Dead or alive!"

My heart dropped. They were talking about Leyla. I quickly thought of a plan to lead them away from her.

"You guys are just wasting your time", I called out to the guard. He looked at me over his shoulder, but ignored me.

"She's dead," I lied and made my voice quiver," She died in the fire your people set to our camp a few years ago."

Another guard came up to the one at the cave entrance and whispered something. The cave guard eyed me and whispered back. The other guard nodded and walked up to me. He knocked me out with a punch to the head.

As I regained consciousness, I couldn't see anything. For a second I thought I was blind, but I saw a stream of light through a crack. I felt my way towards it and peered out. Grounders were gathered around a large campfire doing what seemed to be a ritual dance. Shadows pranced from tree trunk to tree trunk. Something blocked the crack and darkness wrapped around me again. I then heard a painful scream followed by a loud bang. It made me stumble back and trip on a rock. I landed in something a lot softer than the ground.

"Ugh!", I grimaced as I lifted my hands up. The smell of iron was so strong my head was spinning. A rumbling sound came from in front of me and light came into the cave. I blocked the brightness of the campfire light with my hands. The slimy, mushy stuff dripped from my hand onto my nose. I looked at the palm of my hands to see blood. The guards laughed hysterically at me. Knowing that I shouldn't turn around, I did anyways and saw a huge pile of guts, animals cut in half, and large pools of blood. A lump in my throat was rising and a sour taste formed in my mouth. I felt like I was going to puke. The Grounders entered the cave and towered over me, with their cold stares. I knew that I would be here for a while. Maybe even forever.

~{ GUYS!! I am truly sorry for not posting all last week. I was WAY to busy with SATs, summer work, and practice because I'm an athlete. But thank you guys soo much for reading and voting for my story!}~

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