Killer One ✓

Chapter 18

Lacey.

I woke up to a boot lightly prodding my stomach and I opened my eyes immediately. Travis still had his arms around me so I knew it wasn't him. Whenever he moved or made any type of noise in the night, I had woken up. Each time it felt like my senses were on high alert as I took in all of the sounds in the woods, as if someone was about to come and attack us at any moment. I had held perfectly still, paying close attention to Travis moving to try to see if he was in pain or trying to get up. It was all unnecessary because no one came to get us in our sleep and I don't think Travis ever actually woke up.

Cameron nudged my stomach again and he looked like a tower standing over me. He didn't say anything but looked at me expectantly, as always. We entered into a staring battle as he waited for me to presumably get up and I waited for him to tell me what he wanted. Cameron won and I found myself slowly slinking out of Travis' grip.

Before I stood up all the way, Cameron spoke. "Is he still cold?"

I put my hand to Travis' forehead. "No. He's hot though."

"Good."

Standing, I narrowed my eyes. "Good?"

Cameron nodded, "I didn't want to make a fire. It'll waste time and we need to find him some water. I need your help."

I stared at him again, waiting for him to continue. Instead, Cameron just started walking away from me. I glared harshly at his back. Travis and Ben were both sleeping and looked relatively okay so I ran after the brooding tower.

Now that it was light out, I could make out more of my surroundings. We were in the woods but they were rather dense. The spaces between the trees were either taken up with fallen logs, rocks, or tall grass. I could see a cliff of rocks in the far distance but we didn't head in that direction. Instead, we headed towards the edge of the trees and I couldn't tell for sure, but based on the limited amount of trees in the distance, it looked like we were on a hill ourselves.

Cameron was looking up at the canopy of trees. I followed his gaze but didn't see anything out of the ordinary for a forest. The sky was a light blue and there were hardly any clouds in the sky. If we hadn't just escaped a jail, killed two men, and half of our group wasn't knocked out in pain, I might have said it was a nice day out.

Instead, I thought the day was rather ugly.

We stopped walking and Cameron looked at me in such a way that I wanted to throw a giant clump of dirt at him. It was a feat only he could accomplish.

"What?" I snapped when he didn't talk.

Cameron looked up and pointed. "Climb this."

"Me?" I asked, looking up at the lowest branch that was well above my head. "Why?"

"I need to see what's up there," he began explaining. Before I could tell him the answer to that would be leaves, he continued, "I need to see if there's a town nearby."

"Why don't you go up there?" I asked.

Cameron shook his head. "The branches are too thin, I'll weigh them down. This one is tall and there aren't many trees in the way. You should be able to have a good vantage point of what's beyond all of this. I need to know what direction is worth walking."

He had a point. We were on the edge of this little patch of trees so most of my view would be unobstructed. I looked up at the branch. There was no way I could grab onto it.

"Get on my shoulders," Cameron said like he could read my mind.

"Seriously?" I asked.

He didn't voice his answer but instead crouched down in front of me, with knees bent out to the sides. He held his hands out near his shoulders, patting one. "I hope you have good balance."