so, you wanna start a war?

002

Sitting against a brick wall underneath a lone street lamp flickering above me, I sat behind the diner, a wrinkled note from the waitress lying beside me on the gravel. It had told me that I would find a bundle of supplies taped onto the back of the dumpsters. I sat between them, rolling up my shirt to reveal the blood-soaked bandages on my left hip, which I peeled off and replaced with a cotton ball drenched in antiseptic. Hissing in pain as I pressed it against my wound, I wrapped the bandage around my waist and secured it so that it wouldn't move as I walked.

By the dim light, I quickly cleaned up, not wanting to leave any evidence that I was here. After taking a tally of everything I had, I stuffed the supplies into my bag, knowing that I would need them again soon on the long walk ahead. Daintly, I pushed myself up, and made for the door adjacent to the dumpsters. The manager had propped the back door open so that I could slip in and sleep in one of those cushy, red booths.

Finally, I thought with a sigh. A place to rest without worrying about being caught. 

As I approached the door, I heard the sound of heavy rubber boots meeting the gravel. I peeked around the corner, only to find. . .nothing. Confused, I backed up towards the door, but instead of the grimy metal of the door handle against my arm, a hand pushed against my back, and something pinched my arm. My head assumed the weight of several bricks and my surroundings swirled together. The world continued to swirl around me as I searched for my attacker before a mop of blinding blond-white hair came into my vision. My body fell into the gravel as I tried to push away from the figure.

Gray mixed into the colors of the sunset as I rolled over to try and see what was going on. My head hammered and my ears were starting to ring, blocking out any other sound around me.

More gravel scraped against rubber, and I turned my head to see the vague outline of Elijah, his dark frame mixing into a white shape that he was leaning against. A figure moved towards me, red trailing behind him.

My eyes flickered as I tried to count the colors around me.

Four. There are four.

My head pounded and

Elijah shouted something I couldn't quite make out as my vision blurred.

***

A pounding beat in my head and burning behind my eyes came first, urging me to wake up as the pain pulsed through my body. Light flashed over me and my eyes blinked rapidly as they opened. Over my head was cloth like another set of eyelids - thin enough to see the brief flashes of light ahead, but thick enough to not be able to see anything else. The odors of sweat from beside me and mold around me invaded my nose, and I strained my ears just enough, I could hear the echoes of dripping water past the stomping feet. Piles of dirt gathered in front of my feet as we trudged along, my limp body hanging from their arms like wet laundry on a clothesline.

"I hate having to carry in runaways," a voice came from my right,

"You have Si to thank for that," another voice called from ahead.

"No, I filled the tank all the way. Elijah's the one who didn't want to stop," a younger voice said from my other side.

Keeping my head down, I listened to their conversation, pretending I was still unconscious.

"That's not how I remember it, Si. Wasn't there a certain someone whining for food?" Elijah's voice came from behind me.

"I was not whini-... whatever."