ELBINA

Chapter 29

It didn't take us long to get everything packed and ready, but each minute that past had Lucas on edge even more.

His breaths were heavy, his hands becoming steadily shakier. Once or twice, I had to give his arm a gentle squeeze to calm him down.

I grabbed my hat and threw it on along with my coat, tugging the zip up with my own shaky hands.

"Come on... We need to hurry." I let out an unsteady breath, nodding along with him and walking out of the door ahead of him.

Our hands interlocked when we rushed down the gravel path, following it out of the woods and walking until we hit the main track. This part was large enough for a car to drive on, the two bare sections of track to the edges with the centre of it lined by grass. It was obvious that it was driven on, not regularly but enough for the outlines of the car tires to still be evident in the partly dried mud.

I was being half dragged by Lucas, my knee still aching so I couldn't keep up my pace with him easily.

Eventually we came to a split in the road, one section veers off to the right further into the valley with the winding stream in the centre of it. Curling its way through before disappearing between low bushes and boulders.

I can still hear it though, the noise rippling quietly.

The other side, away from the valley levels out. Switching to the rolling fields we had seen before, each field lined by those same low almost natural rickety stoned walls.

The sun was high in the sky now, the previous morning frost that I'd noticed on the windows in the cottage had gone, leaving us with a moderately mild day. The deep blue sky rising high above us, a few scatterings of cirrus clouds present, wispy and bright white in colour.

"Which way?" I switch my look between each root, it's not like we knew which direction the farm would be.

But then I look down before nudging my elbow into Lucas' side.

"Look." I said, pointing down to the ground where the smudges of footprints were in the drying mud.

This time, looking down at it I notice the singular tyre track beside the footprints also seemingly heading in the direction of the fields alongside the footprints, I glanced up at Lucas. He was already staring down at them too, mumbling an okay before quickly diverting off to the right.

"He had a bike?" My voice wobbled in nerves, it wouldn't take him long to get back and find us missing.

Not looking back and pulling me along with him, he mumbled again. "Maybe. We don't know for sure."

There seemed to be a lot of things we didn't know for sure.

The bag jostled on his shoulders when he marched down the road, looking back in paranoia every so often.

Except now the split in the road was behind us, falling away with the drop in the road we were in. The track moving closer to the stream, its noises increasing in volume. Apart from that, it's eerily quiet.

We had no idea where we were really, the only thing we could hope for at this point is that we'd meet a village sooner rather than later. Or more, reach it before Fallen reached us.

Birds chirped loudly from the high rising trees to our right, leading up the hillside forcing my head to snap up that way. Searching the gaps in the trees, at the incline and every crevice of the rock face that produced a shadow.

I felt nervous, that kind of nervousness that made you feel sick to the stomach.

It's silent between us, the only sounds we're making are our boots skidding along the road. Occasionally, or more often than not, Lucas looks back in search of Fallen chasing after us.