lost ~ the gone series

eleven

Karis had been taking a lot of naps since the FAYZ had begun, and yet, she felt obligated to take more. She felt that she owed it to her brain to take little breaks every now and then. 

So even as she walked down the highway out of town with her friends, she was tired. Tired of Quinn and Aspen doing their on-and-off flirting thing, tired of talking about Caine. In her opinion, there was another Coates kid she thought, but didn't dare mention, was way hotter than the one who had quite legitimately taken over their town. 

"Are we close?" Karis sped up to walk next to Mila, who seemed to be even more tired than she was. 

Mila shrugged. "I've never had to walk there before." Once again, everyone wished they had found bikes. And although no one would admit it, they were all too scared to try and drive actual cars, but Karis thought it beat walking ten whole miles to Perdido Beach Nuclear Power. 

But it wasn't terrible. Aspen led the way with Quinn shortly behind her, of course. Quinn offered to carry Aspen on his back for a while, but Aspen had refused. Karis, however, was glad to accept Sam's offer to carry her, after Mila had refused.

The hope was that they would find an abandoned car on the highway that hadn't run out of gas yet. They had found a few, but none of them had felt comfortable driving a big SUV, which was all they had found. 

"Let's take a break, guys." Aspen turned around and took a swig from a plastic water bottle. Only Aspen was allowed to call breaks, they had decided, since it was her brother they were all looking for, and she wanted to get there as fast as possible. 

Mila sat down in the grass, and Karis sat next to her. Their friendship had been weird since yesterday, and the awkwardness had escalated since the church meeting today. 

Mila laid her head on Karis's outstretched legs. "I don't know what to do." Her friend whispered. 

"I feel bad for you." Karis agreed, now playing with Mila's light blonde hair that was splayed all over her legs. 

She felt Mila's laugh rather than heard it. "How come?" 

Karis sighed. "It's weird," she tried to word it in a way that wouldn't insult her friend, "you've almost become a boring adult."

Mila sat up and pulled her hair out of Karis's grip and over her shoulder. "I have not."

"Have to."

"Would a boring adult do this?" Mila stood up and immediately threw herself into a backflip, one she didn't land. 

Karis laughed while Mila pulled bits of the grass her face landed on out of her hair. "You've proven me wrong, Mila."

"What did you just do?" Sam looked at Mila in half awe, half disgust. The surfer boy's crush wasn't well kept secret, and Karis waited in suspense for the days she would be stuck with two couples instead of just Quinn and Aspen, who she could almost stand as they weren't a couple yet. 

"A backflip, obviously." Mila remained facedown on the grass, and Quinn and Aspen stared at her. 

Quinn laughed and pointed. "Hey, I can do that." 

Aspen sighed and gave Karis a small smile, resonating the difficulties of being Mila's friend. Karis returned the smile, never having something to bond with Aspen until now. Well technically Mila had always been there, sans the necessity to actually bond. But here Aspen was now, without her annoying friends and unbearable need to please everyone.

Just as Aspen was about to help Mila up off the ground, Karis saw a black sedan speeding down the highway in their direction. It almost went unseen with the pitch black sky as a background. Karis thought it looked suspiciously like the cars used for the Coates takeover, and she was even more suspicious when the car started to slow down as it reached them.