Scandøva

Kapittel ni

Half an hour passed and the cloud had finally moved on. The sunrise was poking out of the horizon line. We had been travelling all night, and we were all exhausted.
Max switched the light on his rifle, and walked through to the living room of the house. Giulia and I pushed the skeletons outside, and Leysa pushed the sofas over to make a soft surface for us to sleep on.
I pulled out some emergency blankets that were left in the backpacks. We all laid down, apart from Zack. I was worried about him. He wasn't waking up and he'd been disconnected from those machines for hours now. I'd check on him in the morning, but now I needed my sleep.

I awoke. The sky was navy blue. I can't have been asleep for that long, but I heard something outside. I couldn't trust anything, I had to go out there. I slowly took my rifle from the corner of the room and switched the torch on. I tiptoed to the broken door, and saw three silhouettes near the road. I slowly walked out of house and towards them, but I stepped on a twig and...
"Who's there?"
I froze. What if the army had found us? We were done for. I couldn't ignore them and risk getting shot, so I replied.
"I'm Amaris."
"You live here, Amaris?" I heard a man's voice, and a woman's voice whispering.
"No, we're hiding." I couldn't go on being scared, so I became defensive. "Show yourself or I'll shoot!"
Out of the darkness came three people. Two boys and a girl. They can't have been that much older than us. The boys were also holding rifles, and the girl was carrying a rucksack. She walked up to me and smiled. She had long blonde hair tied into a plait. She was dressed in tartan rags, which suggested to me that she came from North Scandova, a very cold and mountainous area.
"Would it be okay if we shared this, somewhat cottage with you, just for tonight? Please?"
I stood back, hesitating. What if they were part of the invasion somehow and wanted to kill us? But I couldn't leave them out in the cold. I nodded slightly, and moved out the way of the entrance to the cottage, the rifle still resting on my shoulder, in case they were not who I thought they were. They walked in and examined the house with a torch.

I brushed passed the three strangers and woke the others up.
"We have some company," I whispered, "but don't shoot them Giulia, they're scared too."
Giulia and Leysa followed me to the kitchen where the three stood. I held my rifle in my hands, just in case.
"This is Giulia and Leysa," I said hesitantly, "we're running from the military base. There's something suspicious about that place."
One of the boys nodded, "I'm Marek, and this is Arick, my brother. The girl over there is Reina. We found her homeless."
Giulia crossed her arms, "Then what are you doing here?"
"We just need somewhere to shelter," explained Reina, "we'll move on tomorrow. We are going to Copenhagen."