The Runaways

Chapter Forty-Two - The Baby

I stared in horror at the baby as they cried. My heart sank, the poor thing still looked to be an infant. Probably wondering where their mother is, not understanding why their in so much pain. I watched as blood started to trickle out from the baby's ear and onto Blake's hand.

"Oh God... oh my God..." Blake murmured.

"We gotta get them to Warren." I said.

"We can't tell him his brother did this." Blake said as she shook her head and began walking back up the hill with me.

"What happened?" Cleveland asked as he saw us walk back up, "Is that baby okay?" He walked over to us and looked at Blake who was holding the baby in her arms.

"One of those monstered kicked this poor thing in the head." Blake said as she kept her hand over the babies bleeding ear, "It's bleeding from the ear..."

"I— why would someone do that? It's just a baby..." Cleveland breathed.

"We should go now, he— or she could be hurt very bad." I said, "Warren will know better than any of us."

We walked back over to the pond in a hurry. The whole time Blake held onto the baby as it's crying slowly reverted into whimpers of pain and discomfort. I had a pit in my stomach the hole time. It made me remember what they used to do to babies back in Syndicate territories. The babies they would steal from family's.

"Warren!" I called as we walked up the small hill he was laying down on when we left a few minutes ago. His arms were still covering his face like he hadn't moved a muscle, I felt bad, he probably just fell asleep and I had to wake him up again. "Warren wake up!" I said as I put my hand on one of his arms and shook him.

"What? What?" Warren groaned as he sat up and and rubbed his eyes.

"We uh, we found a baby." I breathed.

Warren pulled his hands away from his eyes and looked up at Cleveland and then over to Blake who crouched down with the baby in her arms.

"It's hurt pretty bad." I muttered, "Syndicates were looking for us. They killed its mom and then— kicked it... in the head."

"What?"

"I know, we're just as upset." Blake said, "They started bleeding out of the left ear afterward."

"Oh my God," Warren said as he moved forward to take the baby out of Blake's hands, "Please tell me it cried a lot more when you grabbed it."

"Yeah it did," I said, "Their calmed down now. Their just fussy now."

Warren let out a defeated sigh as he held the baby in his arms very cautiously titling its head to the side as it whimpered so he could see the side of the infants head that had already started to show the first signs of major bruising.

"What's going on?" Reece asked as she walked with Remington, both of them were dripping wet and were still in the wet clothes they jumped into the water with, "Aww baby!"

"The Syndicates kicked the fucking baby in the head." Blake said bitterly.

"I— no..." Reece muttered, "Oh no... Warren is it going to be okay?"

Warren sat there for a moment before answering, he just started at the whispering baby with a horrified look, "...I'm not sure."

"What? What do you mean is there not anything you can do?" Blake asked.

"No there isn't, look we need to get them out of the middle of the forest, there has to be a town or somewhere nearby." Warren said, "They just need to be kept in a safe place where I can watch to make sure nothing changes, plus if the Syndicates are looking for us then that's another reason for us to high-tail it out of here."

"Where's the mother?" Remington asked in s strangely serious tone for being Remington.

"She's dead." I said.

"Are you sure?" Remington asked.

"People don't survive getting shot in the head." Blake said bluntly.

"HELLO? WHATS GOING ON?" Elias yelled from the edge of the pond.

"I'll go help him Remington and Reece why don't you get dressed." Blake said as the baby started to cry again.

Out of the corner of my eye I watched Remington flinch when the baby started to cry again, I turned my head and gave him a weirded out look only for him to turn away right as I looked towards him. He's such a weird man.

We started walking and searched for a small town or village near by. Elias kept complaining about his leg and the baby was crying non stop. Warren would manage to get the baby to calm down every now and then but sometimes even when using the techniques he must've learned from when his daughter was that young it just wouldn't work. The baby just cried and cried. Warren said it was probably a result of the head injury and that usually babies weren't this irritable. The weirdest part wasn't the baby, no, it was Remington. Apparently the sound of a baby crying was like nails on a chalkboard for Remington. Every time we heard the baby start crying again Remington would cover his ears and walk far up ahead of behind. I found it strange because Remington and Babies isn't something you usually never pair up together but I mean maybe it's for the best. Remington being in charge of any child scares me.