Locked up and tortured but refusing to sell out the people he loves, Nathan tries to flip the loyalty of an old friend in the hopes they'll help him escape.
*****
Just when Nathan...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
We stayed in that hole for I don't even know how long. At one point we heard voices, but they weren't close and just moved further away yet. Birdie shook his feathers and left the hole. He was soon to return, but this time, he was human.
"Come on, they're not close."
I limped out of the hole and shifted back to human. I plopped down on my back, with my arm resting on my chest. Birdie crouched down and gently lifted my arm. I cringed.
"Something is moving," I groaned through my clenched teeth.
"It might be one of the screws or something." He tipped back on his rear and ran his hands over his face.
"How did they find us?"
"There must have been a tracker on the car. It was my car, and my dad put a tracker on it."
"Arsehole," I muttered under my breath. "We need a new car. We need to move."
"Yes." Birdie nodded and rose from the ground. He had blood in his face too. "The road is this way, so we should keep off it, but close to it. There's a gas station a couple of miles from here. We should be able to get a car from there... And get cleaned up."
I nodded and rose too. I cringed again when a jolt of pain shot through my arm. We walked through the forest in silence for a while.
"Your animal form is impressive," I said when I couldn't hold it back any longer.
"You think? Thanks." Birdie slowed down, so I ended up beside him. "You look scary."
"I always look scary," I said jokingly. There was a heaviness to the way Birdie was walking, and I kind of wanted to cheer him up. I don't know why. I might have hit my head in the accident. Birdie snorted half-heartedly. "You don't look scary, Nathan."
"Oh, of course, I do. With my 5'6'' and 100 lbs. I make everybody shake."
"I don't think I've ever heard you joke before." He glanced down at me, his half smile back in place.
"Che is rubbing off on me. He says I'm funny."
Birdie laughed out loud this time. He stopped and looked at me. Really looked at me. "You've changed so much from the time in Scotland. If somebody had told me back then, this is how it was going to turn out, I would have sent them to the psych ward."
"If someone had told me I would get out back then, I would've punched them in the face." Birdie smiled again and started walking. Then something started ringing. Birdie fished his phone out of his pocket and looked surprised at me.
"Amazing it didn't break..." he muttered before picking up. "Che... yes. Yes, I know. We ran into trouble... Dad... No, we're fine. We just... No, we're both fine. Yes, he's fine. His arm may be broken. We're... We're headed towards a gas station off the highway. Are you clo... You could? That's great." He held the phone out to me. I took it from him and held it up to my ear.
