UNDECIDED OUTLAWS

Chapter 5.

Jaspers POV

It was dark and I felt as if the ground was being pulled from beneath me. Dizziness. It was getting harder and harder to breathe. Harder too see and harder to put one foot in front of the other.

The wind was sharp; like I was breathing in ice and my body saturated from head to toe. I was trailing behind Bennet and Cadence stayed at my side, making sure I didn't collapse under the pressure of my own concaving chest. I knew something wasn't right. I must've broken a rib. this wasn't normal.

My feet dragged through the large lake-looking puddles of the unfamiliar swamp. It was so cold. Too cold. I needed to stop.

I was able to make another step before I tumbled over. Cadence tried to catch me but she couldn't stop the inevitable. I met the mud with my face and couldn't find the strength to get back up again.

I wasn't even sure I wanted to get back up.

What is the point in living when your chance of survival is so slim? Why should I carry on when she is dead? The little girl I taught everything to. The little girl that taught me how to live again. To breathe.

I couldn't breathe.

I felt Cadence and Bennet pull me up and lean me against a tree. Cadence was saying something to me. Her lips were moving but I couldn't hear what she was telling me.

The sound of my heart hammering across my rib cage pounded in my head as I gasped for air. I was in a trance. A very shallow, merciless trance. Sadness consumed me and so did my lack of will to carry on walking through the night.

"Jasper!"

Her voice penetrated my bubble of self pity and sadly enough, I was breathing again.

"Jasper? Can you hear me?"

Cadences voice was frantic but somehow calming. I got thrill from knowing that their was somebody that wanted me alive. I didn't know why she wanted to come with me, considering I supposedly shot my own sister. Thoughts of Esbin flooded my mind. There was so much blood. Too much.

I clenched my eyes shut as unwanted thoughts came to mind.

"Jasper look at me."

She grabbed my cheeks and forced me to look at her. I was stunned but apparently not as stunned as she was. Her hands shook as the water dropped though her dark brown hair and over her fair skin. Her eyes were wild and fearful as the moonlight reflected in them.

She quickly pulled her hands away, realising I was okay now. Somehow, I was fine but I couldn't walk any further. My lungs wouldn't allow it.

"I need a break."

The words came out in a cough, only just noticing Bennet beside me, staring quizzing his sister. I knew Bennet from school, but I never spoke to him. Probably because he didn't speak to anybody. The Keaton boys were all like that. Quiet and deadly. All except that Craig guy, who obviously loved to flaunt his dominance. Puffing put his chest and tensing his broad shoulders to make him look bigger than he already was.

Bennet was lanky and tall. Taller than me and a little skinnier than I was.

"We don't have time to take breaks."

Bennet was panicked. He had been as long as we'd been walking, which was at least a few hours. He hadn't put the gun down the whole time. Constantly protecting himself behind the handle of the pistol.

"He's right."

I stared at Cadence in annoyance. I couldn't walk. How on earth did she expect to breathe, let alone walk.