The Revival

06| I Need to Find Her

When Craig had told him they would be traveling well into the night, he really wasn't kidding. Even after the sun had long past set, their group of seven had continued on further and further into the woods.

Further and further away from Portland.

Once it became too dark to see, Ty and Simone each unpacked a flashlight, lighting the way for the rest of the group. Everyone else, including Nathan, followed close behind. Because of his injuries, however, Nathan was usually at the tail end of the pack, Kat always glued right to his side.

She didn't talk to him very much, and for that Nathan was grateful. After she had not so kindly told him that Elia was nowhere to be found, Nathan wasn't in a very talkative mood. He was still stuck in his mind, trying to figure out where Elijah would have taken her. Or better yet, what he even wanted with her. Unless he needed to know about Wyatt, a man he'd already killed, Elijah wouldn't be getting anything useful out of Elia.

Neither of them had planned for anything in their plan to go quite this wrong. There hadn't been a need for him to tell her anything else at all.

When they first started to move, after an uncomfortably quiet packing up due to the news about Elia, Craig kept trying to reassure Nathan that they were going to find Elijah.

The group is planning to go down to San Francisco where there is another large gathering of Revival members just waiting to be taken in. It's the obvious place for Elijah to be, which is exactly why Nathan doesn't believe he's there. Craig reasoned that Elijah needs the people in San Francisco to be by his side if he wants to go up against the rest of the Rats, but Nathan isn't convinced. Something definitely doesn't seem right to him.

As Nathan's feet crunch along all the dead leaves dotting the ground, he lets his eyes focus up into the trees. Even though there is still some greenery up on the tree limbs, most of it has turned dull and brittle. The good thing about that was that it allowed Nathan to see the night sky tonight, relishing underneath the thousands of bright starry specks.

"Watch where you're going, or you're going to trip over a root."

Turning his head to take a look at Kat, Nathan gives a sheepish smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes. Nathan isn't sure he'll ever actually smile again after everything that's happened. "You're right-sorry."

Waving him off, Kat pulls on his arm to steer him around a dip in the small path they'd found. Why there was still a hiking path in the woods for a population who were forbidden to partake in leisure activities, Nathan didn't know, but it is here nonetheless.

The two fall back into yet another laps of silence, Nathan feeling the itching urge to actually start up a conversation with her. While they moved today, he'd been purposely avoiding her for what she'd said about Elia. Even though the circumstances were completely out of her control, Nathan had just found it easier to direct his blame at the closest target.

Though he tries not to be a confrontational person, the people around him can definitely tell when Nathan is angry. When he's silent, he's usually quite a brooding figure, equipped with a gaze that could scare off even the toughest of people. Even Kat, apparently, who'd avoided making any direct eye-contact since she'd offered him his second jug of water.

"Do you think Elijah will be in San Francisco when we get there?" Voicing the question in a sort of whisper as to not let the others in on his doubts, Nathan turns his gaze ever so slightly in the direction of Kat's face to his left.

Kat meets his eyes with an easy shrug, squinting ever so slightly at the look of childish vulnerability on Nathan's face. What she doesn't know is that everything in Nathan's entire life is riding on Elijah being in this city. More importantly, him being there with Elia.