Surviving

Chapter 21

The tension was incredibly high, and I could feel the constant eye being kept on the three of us especially. Though our little rebellion didn't actually work, we accomplished showing the adults that we could by dangerous. Next time, what we did just had to actually work.

It was completely dark now, and the only light we had were the fractions of moonlight that came through the trees and the minuscule amount of light the stars gave off. Though nobody spoke, there was always the crackle of leaves or the snapping of a stick that just fueled my paranoia. I tried to keep an eye on all of my surroundings, but the full lighting and the crowd did not help.

Off to my left, the crowd started to part a bit around a small spot. I looked over to see Billy kneeling and messing with his shoe. I tried to stop and make my way towards him, but was roughly shoved from behind.

"Keep walking. He'll be fine," the guy behind me said.

"Aw, come on. He's only five and can't tie his shoes by himself yet. Somebody needs to help him, and since I'm his sister that somebody should be me." I rolled my eyes at the guy, though he probably couldn't see it. But we kept walking, and the distance between us and Billy was beginning to build.

I did as the guy said, but kept looking over my shoulder at Billy. He looked pretty stumped at what to do with his shoelaces, and nobody else seemed to have any intentions of stopping to help him.

After a moment, a guy did stop and look back at him, eventually looking back at us with a sigh of exasperation.

I almost tripped over something and had to look in front of myself for a moment to regain my balance. Once I had rightened myself again k was about to glance back over my shoulder when I heard a shriek.

"ADIRA, HELP ME!" Billy screamed. I turned to see him go down with a corpse. It easily took him down, overpowering him. The guy who had originally stopped just stared, not really any closer than we were, dumbfounded. Why wasn't he trying to help?!

"NO, BILLY!" I tried to run to him but was caught by Roland out of nowhere. I tried to fight him, but he kept an iron grip around my waist, pulling me closer to his body.

Billy's shrieks stopped by the time I stopped fighting Roland, and he was no longer moving. All I could see was the corpse leaning over his still body. I covered my mouth as the tears began to flow from my eyes. My chest ached as if my heart had been ripped from it.

Roland let go of me, and Ingrid pulled me into a hug. I realized everybody had stopped moving and was looking st what had happened. Roland stomped up to one of the men holding a gun, a grim look on his face.

"Give me a knife or something," he ordered, voice vacant of emotion.

"Why—" one of the men tried to protest.

"Just give me a knife or something. I'll give it right back. There's no way I'm stupid enough to attack one of you." Roland stuck out his hand expectantly. Although I heard his words, they were not registering in my mind. After some hesitation, the guy gave him a small pocket knife.

Roland went over to Billy's body and the corpse, stabbing the corpse in the head. He knelt down next to Billy's body, and I looked away as Ingrid hugged me harder.

There was no way this could have happened. No way my brother could be dead. Just because of some people's ignorance.

Soon, Roland was back with the rest of the group, but I'm not sure how fast it was. We started moving again, and I numbly followed everybody else with Ingrid right beside me. She seemed to have taken it upon herself to help me.

The group's attitude was now solemn, and the men seemed to feel awkward with the situation. I didn't feel anything except for the vast emptiness where there should have been feeling.