Dangerous Skies

Part 1

     I look around at the lush green trees surrounding our clearing where my younger sister, Dawn and I are camping. We seem safe enough for now in this secluded section of the forest. This forest is one of the only places left untouched after World War III. After the war, America collapsed and none of us knew if the rest of the world was ok because there was no way to contact the rest of the world. After America collapsed, many different gangs began fighting with each other, trying to seize power from the fallen country. Few of them almost have, but so far none have succeeded. A year ago, one of these gangs, they called themselves the Esari, they saw me using my powers and now they are after me.
I sigh and look at Dawn still sleeping beside me.
     "Hey, Dawn? It's time to wake up." I say.
     "Oh,come on. Five more minutes." Dawn pouts while turning onto her side, to face away from me. I sigh and start shaking her.
      "We have to get moving." I start, "we need to get some more supplies."
     "Ok then." Dawn says, "give me a minute." It takes ten minutes to pack our stuff and make it look like we were never there. Then we start walking to the nearest town.

     <time skip>

     It takes us about a half hour to get to town. Even in town we aren't safe, because this town along with multiple other towns in the region are under the control of the Esari. After making sure my hat is secure, I play with my light blonde hair, formerly raven black, as we walk in to town. I casually look around town as we walk to the marketplace. Since no one is looking at us strangely, we seem to be fine for now.
     "Buy only what we need," I say quietly to Dawn, "we don't have much money left." She nods her head in acknowledgment, as we enter the market. Given that it is a cold day, I'm not surprised that there aren't many people out and about. After getting much needed supplies, we shop for food. Since Dawn does most of the cooking, I let her pick the food. As I follow Dawn, I get this strange feeling that I'm being watched. When I look around, I see a cute, brown-haired guy, standing over by the hunting supplies. He looks close to my age. When he realizes that I'm looking at him, he smiles and waves. Aiming to be polite, I give a small smile and wave back. I look back at Dawn, only to see that she was already finished shopping and was watching me smugly.
     "Ready to go?" I asked, scowling at Dawn.
     "Yeah." she says quietly while smiling. As we walk out of town, I look for the guy that I saw earlier, but he has disappeared. Then I start to get a feeling of unease as I look around. We walk back into the forest, going the opposite direction that we camped. Once I feel we are at a safe distance, we set up camp. After we gather some firewood, Dawn puts them in a teepee formation. I carefully reach inside trying not to knock the whole thing over, and light the wood from the inside with my fire powers. Dawn surprises me by pulling out four hot dogs, (a rarity these days).
     "I think roasted hot dogs are my favorite meal nowadays." Dawn says contentedly.
     "Well it is certainly the easiest meal to make when I'm around." I comment. Dawn laughs. We finish the hot dogs in silence.
     "We should probably go find a different spot now. The Esari probably have spotted the smoke by now" Dawn said. I nod in agreement. So we pack up our stuff again, but this time we don't do anything to cover our tracks, except cover the direction in which we go. We walk eastward for an hour, so that we can put some distance between us and our campfire. Even then, I still felt uneasy, I keep hearing footsteps behind us but every time I look there is no one. By the time we feel we have enough distance between us, it's dark, so we just pulled out our sleeping bags to sleep.
     "I'll take first watch." I declared. Dawn simply nodded drowsily. I pull my sleeping bag over to the nearest tree and sit down on top of it. I'm too alert to fall asleep, I start thinking about when the Esari found out about me and about how they killed my parents. Killing my parents is mainly the reason that I'm running from them. The only other group that I think about besides the Esari, are the Musai. I first heard about the Musai from my parents. Before they were killed, they used to tell me stories of the Musai's powers. I don't know what the Musai are planing or if they want to take over. My goal is to get out of Esari territory, and get to the Musai and help them anyway I can.
When I hear a twig snap nearby,I instantly look up. I stand up and take a step forward, while looking around. A split second later, some unknown assailant tackles me to the tree stunning me. He puts his hand over my mouth before I can make a sound. I look at my assailant, it's the guy from town.