Runaway

Chapter 3

The afternoon was starting to set in, Max still hadn't returned from his search and I had to admit I was a little worried about where he could be. I lay my back flat against the side of the cold rock and looked up towards the long branches on the trees that gently swayed in the small breeze. I sighed lightly at the thought that at least I'm not alone. "Alexa!" someone called. "It's me Max, where are you!" Max called. "Over here" I yelled, as I started to stand up off the ground. Once Max was in front of me he said "I have a plan". "What is it?" I asked anxiously. "We are going to go that way towards the lake" he signaled towards the direction in front of us, which I believe is North. "Then from there we will find a rock road and follow that." "Ok, so when do we leave?" I asked curiously. "Well we could go now, but we would have to risk having to walk in the night, or we could leave tomorrow morning but risk staying the night here in the open". I thought for a second about getting caught by Austin then said "let's go now" Max nodded then with one last look of where we had stayed we began to walk deep into the depths of the forest.

As evening started to set in I started to grow cold, it seemed like it was below freezing to me. Max walked at my slow pace, looking confident in where we were going. "So." I broke the silence, "where does the road from the lake lead to?" I asked. "Well, it leads into a small city called Lockwood which is about a 2 hour drive to San Francisco." "Oh okay." "Yeah...so um do you have any family looking for you right now?" Max said carefully like it was a touchy subject. "Well I have my mom, a younger sister and a...". "Wow check this out!" Max interrupted. I looked down to where he was pointing and saw it was a small pocket knife. Max carefully kneeled down, picked it up and examined it, slowly turning it to get a view of all of it. I kneeled down next to him and understood why his face had suddenly turned a pale white, on the end of the blade there was a thick coat of fresh blood. "Max?" I asked concerned "we have to go, now." I said. Max set the knife back onto the ground and stood up, after looking around he turned to face me and said "Alexa, are you afraid?" I hung my head down, then looked back up to meet his twinkling brown eyes, I took a small gulp then replied "Max I am scared." A small tear ran down the side of my cheek. Max's hand cupped my cheek gently then swiped the tear away. "It's ok, I won't let anyone hurt you, ok?" "Ok." I said in a whisper.

After we were confronted by the knife with the blood on it, our pace was a little faster and we were able to reach the lake by sunset. "Maybe we should find a place to sleep." Said Max. "Yeah, I think your right" I said through a yawn. Max started to search through the bush's near the shore of the lake for a comfy place as I sat on a small rock with my arms crossed because of the harsh cold. Hey, Alexa! How's this?" Max hollered to me. I walked towards where I had heard his voice come from. Max stood in front of a pile of large leaves he had gathered to resemble some sort of mattress. The grin on his face was enough to make me say, sure!

I carefully lay my sore body on the blanket of leaves and took a huge sigh. "Sleep well." Max said. "Night" I mumbled. After half an hour I still couldn't sleep because of the cold air, I was curled up into a ball and was slightly shivering. Behind me, i could here Max quietly shifting around to find a comfortable place. "Hey, do you want my jacket? Alexa you look like your freezing." "No, duh." I thought "are you sure you'll be alright without it?" I asked. "Yeah, I'll be fine, here." He said sincerely. He carefully lay the thick jacket on top of my body. "Thanks" I mumbled. "Goodnight Alexa." Max said "night" I yawned. Max pressed his back to mine, so we were back to back. "I wonder what Josh would think of this?" with that last thought in my mind I fell into a deep sleep.