Lego House

ii. Runners

They sit huddled in a circle of warmth. The sun is almost setting now, and the sky is darkening considerably. Michael has an arm around Autumn, who keeps insisting that she is not cold. The silence of their little ring is not a terrible one, it is quite peaceful.

The silence is interrupted by a scream of terror and a gunshot. The feel of marching feet reverberates through the ground. Autumn clings onto Michael now, and he can feel her shaking. "It's okay, Autumn. Come on."

"Everybody, get up," Roselle whispers harshly. Michael doesn't retort that he's the eldest and should therefore be the one shouting orders. This is certainly no time for an argument on leadership. He simply nods and pulls himself and Autumn to their feet. Aleyah scrambles up after Jarrett, and grasps his hand tightly in hers.

They can hear the marching coming closer. And the sound of screams becoming louder and louder as people closer to their current position are shot and killed. "Unhand me!" a man yells roughly. Michael seizes Autumn's hand and propels the two of them forward.

The others follow behind them, trying their best to keep light footsteps. "Where are we going?" Autumn asks, her voice soft but shaking with worry. Michael doesn't answer, but he does know where. He jumps over a fallen branch, so as not to trip, but Autumn stumbles sightly.

"Careful. Watch the ground you tread on." He pushes away a branch of prickly green leaves, and hopes that it will not swing back to hit someone in the face. Especially not Roselle, who would surely hate him forever – or just lie on the ground awaiting death.

He glances behind them just in time to see Rosie ducking beneath the low branch, and whispering over her shoulder to Jarrett and Irisa, who duck also. "Ris!" he hears her scream. He spins around and sees the man, his arm raised to strike Irisa with his sword.

But Irisa is too fast. As the man's arm lowers quickly, Ris grips onto the man's wrist and twists. He lets out a cry of pan as the sword drops from his grip. Irisa's face turns red as she retrieves the sword and slams the hilt into the man's chest. He coughs and folds in half, clutching his stomach as his breath leaves his chest.

"What are you doing? Kill him, Ris," Rosie demands impatiently. Michael almost scoffs. Irisa shakes her head, her blonde hair shaking around her face. Michael is only standing still because he is shocked, though if he'd seen Irisa do self-defense before, he would've been waiting for them to follow him.

Right now, he wants to run. "Take the damned sword, and stab him. And then we run. Or, you take the sword, and then we run. Your choice, Ris, but you better make your decision fast. I can hear more people coming." Irisa grips the hilt of the sword tightly, her knuckles whitening.

"Run, go!" she shouts, and Michael takes off, hearing the soft crunch of leaves beneath his feet and the others as he does so.

Irisa holds the sword with tears in her eyes. She didn't want to kill that man, so she didn't. But now that they haven't killed him, he'll know what they look like and which way they went. "I'm so sorry," she whispers to Jarrett.

"It's okay. You did the right thing." He himself doesn't sound convinced, though. She sighs. "Well, maybe not the best thing for us, but the right thing. You didn't kill him. That's a plus. You basically saved a life."

"One thing I learned from martial arts was that it's meant to only be used as a form of self-defense. It's not meant to be used to attack people, just to defend yourself." Jarrett looks at her with a small smile. Roselle yells at them to speed up or else they'll die.

"You know what, I'll go at the back. Come on, Pedro, we can take the back. Give me the sword, Ris." Irisa nods, loosening her grip on the sword and rolling its hilt into Roselle's hand. They push past Jarrett and Irisa. The boy Pedro is quite tall for a fifteen year old, she notices.