War of Peace

Chapter Thirteen

Camden

I've been sitting against a tree looking at the girl I just saved. I don't know how long it's been but I've debated leaving several times. She's extremely pale and has dark hair. I look at her brown leather bag again and wonder what's inside. I carefully slip it off her back and open it up. It holds more than it looks like it can and it's extremely heavy. Inside there's a silver briefcase and several weapons, mostly guns. I haven't known many girls my age who can use weapons like these, I myself don't even know how to use them. I've only shot a gun once.

I zip up the bag, there's a lot of useful materials in here that I would benefit from. I could just leave. She's only going to slow me down from finding my sister. My sister! I almost forgot all about my sister since I got the girl out of the water. This place looks familiar, it's far from home but Maisie used to walk here to be alone, on the other side of the river though. She used to draw here and would always tell me how inspirational the environment was for her art. I drop the leather bag and run through the river water, ignoring the cold against my legs.

"Maisie!" I start calling her name in case she's hiding close by. There's a large shrub with berries to my right. I look down and see a damp piece of paper. It's a drawing of me and it has Maisie's signature in the bottom right corner. There's several drops of dry blood over my graphite face. It makes me feel like she was murdered in front of me and the residue was left all over my face. I silently cry and squeeze the paper to my chest. I thought for sure I could find her, I was too late. If only I was here a day earlier. I fold the piece of paper up and put it in my drawstring bag.

As I walk across the river again I think of what I'm going to do next. Do I return home with the bad news? Mother will blame me for Maisie's absence. I didn't try hard enough to find her alive. I'll be a walk of shame to return home alone. I can't just leave mom home all by herself. Though she has Ms. Shipman across the street she can turn to.

I get back to the other side and my head is throbbing. I look over at the girl lying unconscious. Her hair is drying fast and the sun is shining over us. It's chilly out but the sun helps keep the surface of my skin warm. I pick up her leather bag and start walking away from her but I hear her groaning. I turn around and she's slowly sitting up, her face perplexed. I run over and place her bag next to her.

"You're awake!"

"What happened?" She huffed out while putting lumps of slightly damp and tangled hair behind her ear.

"You were drowning. I pulled you out and gave you CPR. I was so scared you weren't going to make it but you still had a pulse and I waited for you to wake up."

"First of all, you put your lips on mine?"

"Well, yea, I had to."

"Oh disgusting," she wipes her lip with her sleeve and looks up at me in disgust.

It wasn't how I imagined I'd be treated after saving someone's life but at least she doesn't have a knife to my throat or a gun to my head. Although that could be the next thing she does after I remember all the weapons she has.

"And second of all, why would you go out of your way to save me just to leave me here with nothing. You had my bag!" she bursts out suddenly. Her voice is firm and angry.

"What would you have sat here for hours waiting for the person you saved to wake up?"

"No, I wouldn't have saved them in the first place!" she scowls.

"Well you should be thanking me for saving your life."

"Maybe I didn't want to be saved. What do you expect from me, to treat you like my prince in shining armor?" she snaps sarcastically then laughs at me like I'm some clown who failed to scare her.