Summer Ends

9

We had been walking for two days now and we hadn't found anything except some abandoned house in the middle of the woods. The fact that even these lonely houses were empty worried me. People couldn't just disappear from the world, so where were they?
"Are you sure we're getting somewhere?" Lola asked Kai who had been leading for the past few days. At the beginning Peyton didn't really like it but it seemed like she had accepted that he was a good leader. We shouldn't fight over things like that because it was already hard enough to just make it through the day. Lola was exhausted and had been complaining for the last hour. I was getting really cranky from all her groaning and murmuring.
"I'm not sure but I do have a good feeling about this." Kai pushed the branches out of his face to form a way through the trees. Our hands and faces were full of little cuts. The heat caused us to sweat and it made the cuts sting. We were messes. We hadn't showered in three days. Soon we would start puking because of the smell. The sour stench followed us everywhere. At least the mud kind of masked it.
"I don't have a good feeling about anything anymore." I said out loud without thinking. Every time we were on the move I was always really quiet, so they were all a bit confused. I wiped my sweaty hands on my black pants. Who gave the idea to give us black clothes in the middle of summer.
"Me neither." Hardin broke the tension and it made them move again. We were so awkward at times and I knew it was because of me because they couldn't have been like that for more than 16 years.
I was never like this with my old friends. I was pretty loud at times and the most outgoing. I guess it's because I just knew them longer, even though I've been through more with my new friends. I did like this new group and I could see us being friends. I just wished it happened under different circumstances. Now they thought I was this lame, silent, prude. I knew how to have fun, it just doesn't seem too appropriate now.
I always lost track of time when I got lost in my thoughts which made the walks seem shorter than they actually were sometimes.
"I can see a road!" Kai raised his voice and almost jumped in the air. I followed his eyes to where he was looking and saw the gray asphalt road through the green leaves of the trees and bushes.
"We found a road guys!" They all started laughing but all I could think about was that we had to be careful no one could hear us. I pushed the joy away because it could all just turn around in a heartbeat. No fun for me until we found a place where we could be happy. I was determined to find what I was supposed to look for even if it meant killing myself in the process. I wasn't going to lose myself, I wouldn't let it happen. I didn't truly believe myself, but at least I would try.
"Aren't you happy?" Hardin asked me and they all went silent again. I hated this silence so much. I put on a fake smile.
"Of course I am. I just want to be careful and make sure no one hears us." I always seemed to ruin the mood they were in.
"She's kind of right. We don't want to run into unwanted strangers, again." Peyton said and I was happy at least one of them agreed with me. I really didn't want to be a mood killer, but I promised Nick I would survive. I had no idea how I was going to keep that promise because I was still not the best fighter and we never know what could happen.
We started walking again and got to the road in about 10 minutes.
We stood on the side of the road and it was weird not being surrounded by trees. We stepped on the hard rock and my feet had to adjust to the different feeling. I also felt how sore they were. Our backpacks had become slightly less heavy because we were able to get out some of the cans of food.
"How do we know where this is going to lead us?" Lola had a point. We couldn't keep walking without having a plan anymore. We had to have some sort of plan or idea. The road looked endless on both sides. It was a gray line in the middle of nowhere.
"Isn't there a map in these backpacks?" Hardin put his backpack on the floor and opened it. He went through it with his hands. He couldn't see everything in it so he just had to hope he would feel a map with his fingers.
"How will a map help if we have literally no idea where we are?" Peyton pointed out.
Hardin pulled out a map and smiled. I heard him say a silent 'got it'.
"We can look for signs. Any board could help us. Even just the name of this road could help." Kai said and went closer to Hardin to look on the map with him.
Lola let out a breath and sat on the floor, she threw her head back and let the sun hit her pale skin. The sun had created more freckles on her face than she already had. I was sure I also had gained some, but it was nothing in comparison to Lola. Peyton was a little more tan, but I figured after being inside for almost four weeks no one really tanned. I missed my summer tan.
We sat down with her and handed each other our water bottles. We had been lucky that we had the chance to fill our bottles at the last house, but we were definitely running out again.
I was putting my bottle back into the backpack when I noticed Peyton staring at me. I raised my brow and waited until she would say something.
"Is your nose okay?" She touched her own nose as if she could feel the pain in mine. I sometimes forgot that my nose was broken or had been broken. It still hurt, but Nick had done a good job with whatever he had done to fix it a little.
"It's fine, I think it looks a lot worse than it feels." I let out a small laugh and I honestly didn't really want to imagine what I must have looked like.
Hardin called for us from where he and Kai were talking.
"I think I can see something over there." Kai got our attention and we walked over to him. We had to put on our heavy backpacks again.
We got closer and closer to the object Kai had spotted and I was sweating like crazy.
"I had forgotten it was this hot." Lola said while wiping the sweat from her forehead.
"If you want to take a break we can." Kai said while facing her but still walking.
"No, it's fine." She waved her hand through the air to say he didn't need to worry, but she could barely do that.
"Are you sure you're okay?" I asked her and she nodded, so I decided to let it go.
Kai quickened his steps and reached the board.
"This could help us, guys." I saw the excitement on his face and it made me smile. Hardin and Kai examined the board because it was pretty hard to read and looked back on the map. Peyton, Lola and I watched how they moved around the whole board. Suddenly I heard a loud thud and I turned around to where Lola was standing just a mere second ago and saw she had fainted.

"Damn it Lola." I ran over to her and shook her by her shoulders.
"Someone give me some water." I put out my hand waiting for the bottle. Peyton handed me the bottle and helped me to get Lola up a little so I could put some of the cold water on her face. When she woke up a little I made her drink and luckily she felt better pretty soon.
"Thank you." She looked at me while taking sips from the water.
"You should take that sweater off." Peyton said, helping her with her backpack. I had taken off my sweater a while ago to feel the sun on my skin. My arms were slightly burned, but there wasn't much we could do about it.
"Are you feeling better?" Hardin asked while still looking on the map with Kai.
"Yeah, sorry I kept going, even though I knew I couldn't anymore, I just didn't want to admit it." She said ashamed of herself. If there was one thing I had learned about Lola, it was that she absolutely hated giving in. This just proved that even more.
"It's alright, but if you feel like that again, please tell us. We need to take care of each other." Peyton put her hand on Lola's shoulder and squeezed it lightly.
We helped her get up and we went to the boys.
"You know where we are?" I asked when we were all looking at the board. It was worn off and pretty difficult to even read it. A few of the white letters were gone and now all you could read was 'Grely'.
"Yeah and it's somewhere we don't want to be." Kai looked at me and took my sweaty hand in his. I didn't really know what it meant. Comfort, looking for help or trying to say that he would need me.