The Runaways

Chapter Thirty-Three - Tent of Leaves

"WARREN!" Cleveland ran past me through the dark as he nearly tackled Warren in a hug, "I got so scared! Remington said you said you were going to leave and— and I didn't know if it was true or not— a-and I was so scared you were hurt or that I would never see you again and I was so scared Warren..." Cleveland cried as he held Warren as tight as possible.

"As much as I missed you too Cleveland we need to get out of here as soon as possible then we can hug." Warren said.

"Right! Let's go!" Cleveland said as he wiped his eyes and lead Warren and me back to the ladder. As we walked towards the light I could see Warren's face more clearly, he looked eerily paler and even though it had only been a day but the circles around his eyes had darkened noticeably more. It was accompanied by a large bruise that had formed on his upper right cheek that covered a small portion of his eye as well. Not exactly a black eye.

"Did you get him?" Blake asked as she stared down as Cleveland climbed up the ladder.

"Yep!" Cleveland replied cheerfully.

I glanced back at Warren who was using the light to look at his bleeding finger. The palm and his thumb on his left hand had been cut pretty deep, blood was running all the way down his arm on was dripping onto the floor.

"What's wrong with your arm?" Blake asked.

"Nothing, I just got snagged when Elias was cutting the rope." Warren said as he climbed up the ladder.

We hurried out of the twins house meeting Corban, Remington, and Reece. We all quickly ran out of the area as fast as we could we had to make as much ground as possible to avoid both the Twins and the Syndicates. It would be hard seeing that we had Corban who barely got enough time he needed for his back to heal and his concussion symptoms to go away. Remington would also be a drag for today as well, hangovers are not a fun thing to have when your goal for the day is travel. Warren looked extremely tired, I don't know what happened to him but he looked like he was struggling as well.

"Elias," Corban said as he walked up to me with his hands shading his eyes to protect against his temporary oversensitivity, "We really need to stop."

"What? We just left, are you sure you can't—"

"It's not me. It's Warren looks absolutely awful, he looks incredibly dehydrated. Didn't anyone bring water or something?" Corban explained.

"No I told everyone to pack light so we could get out of here as soon as possible."

"You're telling me no one brought water?!" Corban exclaimed, "God I thought you would actually lead better than Remington but I guess I was wrong your both equally stupid."

"Wh— Corban don't you dare—"

"Um guys?!" Cleveland called from behind us holding up Warren like he had just caught him mid-fall.

"God dammit! This is what I mean!" Corban exclamation angrily.

"He could be having an episode from his narcolepsy." Reece put in.

"Then why is he pale?" Corban asked, his eyes drifted over to Remington who was holding out a water bottle for him. Corban grabbed it and walked over to Cleveland.

I sighed, I didn't know what to do. Warren was still bleeding out of his hand, he just loosely tied a piece of cloth around it. I think that should've been a clear indicator something was wrong. I'm faced with a huge issue both Warren and Corban need to sit down and rest. Corban maybe acting like he's fine but I know concussions are rough. But if we sit and wait this close to the twins and Syndicates were done for. I looked over at Remington who had already taken this opportunity to lay in the grass. It had literally been two seconds and he was already on the ground.

"You're being oddly quiet for someone who loves being in charge." I said.

"I'm taking this as a sick day. Plus this is a situation I would rather not make the call for." He replied as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"We're going to have to do the only thing we can do," Blake said, "We have to hide."

With hiding being our only choice me, Blake, Reece, and Cleveland began working on making a small enclosed tent from sticks and leaves trying our best to make it look like a bush. Meanwhile Remington did nothing to contribute but throw up when we asked him to come help us. Corban however was muscling through all his pain to help out Warren who just needed some food and water in his system. Corban also helped wrap up his hand that I had accidentally cut open earlier. Warren seemed okay, he woke up after fainting and was basically able to figure what he needed to do for himself even though he didn't need the help Corban still insisted on it.

"Well it isn't the best but, it's all we can do for now." Blake said. By the time we finished us was getting close to sun set, the bush tent we had made was small and cramped and could barely fit three people inside. I knew I would have to sleep outside tonight.

"Hey Warren," I said as I peaked my head into the crappy mess of leaves and tree branches, "What did happen?"

"Well I told Remington that the Twins were planning on selling him into Syndicate custody, Remington stormed off and Vincent grabbed me by behind kicked me in the face when I tried to defend myself, tied me up in his basement and told me he was going to sell my off to the Syndicates as well when they came. And that's it, then you guys came." Warren explained simply.

"They didn't give you food or water or anything?" I asked.

Warren shook his head, "I had nothing."

"Remington told us you said you were leaving," Corban said, "Is that true?"

"Yeah, look you all are nice people but I need to get back on track to finding my daughter." Warren said as he scratched the back of his head nervously, "Being in that situation only made me think of her more. How much more terrifying it must be for a six year old."

Corban nodded and sat there with a strangely sad look on his face. We barely knew these guys, why did he look so upset in knowing they were leaving?