War of Peace

Chapter Eighteen

Gianna

"Are you sure this is the way we came?" Simon asks, panting.

"We're all tired, dehydrated and hungry. Can we please stop and rest for the day?" Kyle begs, clutching his grumbling stomach.

"We stop when I tell you guys we can stop," I say, not wanting to sound pushy.

We've lost a lot of time resting and our friends will continue to travel farther away.

"Water!" Kyle hollers out.

I hear streaming water in the distance. Kyle runs around the corner. He shouldn't drink the water. He'll get sick.

"Kyle, wait!"I shout after him, but it's too late. He's already out of sight.

We all run after him and find him dipping his hands in the water and sipping it from his palms. Kyle is really sweet, but sometimes I feel like he's also an idiot. Who drinks from a river? Well, I guess that's a stupid question to ask. Anyone as dehydrated as we are would.

"We need to keep moving," I demand, grabbing Kyle by his jacket.

He stumbles up and looks at me, water dripping from his chin.

"Where are we? Are we crossing the river?" Simon protests.

"Where else are we going to go? Turn back around and go back the way we came?" I ask, shouting.

"Let's not shout at each other and get this over with," Alex says, calmly walking through the river.

I join Alex in the water and motion for Simon and Kyle to follow.

My feet and legs are burning. We might've been walking for hours because it's dark outside and it has been for awhile.

"We need to rest for the night Gianna," Simon insists.

"Yea, I don't know how much longer we can carry on like this. We're so tired and famished," Kyle agrees.

They're right, we should rest, but that's all we've ever done these past few days. I ignore them and keep walking. I can hear them all groaning and our stomachs have been churning. I suddenly forget my hunger and realize we're walking towards a dirt path. I motion for the others to stop.

"Oh now you want us to rest?" Simon barks.

"Shh!" I hush him quickly.

There could be people around the corner. It could lead anywhere, but we're going to find out where. I turn the corner to walk among the path.

"Gianna are you crazy? Let's just get out of here and find somewhere to sleep for the night. There's no business for us here," Alex whispers loudly.

He grabs my arm and I shove it off me. There's some sort of building ahead. I keep moving forward until I stop in front of a house. There's so many windows in the front showing a kitchen.

"There's a fridge inside! You guys think there's food?" Kyle hollers suddenly gaining a boost of adrenaline.

After a few silent seconds, we all rush to the door. I don't even stop to think about who could be inside. My stomach craves food and the only thing I can think about is getting inside and eating food.

Kyle is bantering with the door, but it won't budge.

"It's locked," he says disappointedly.

"It's better to break in a house through a backdoor or window anyway. We're less likely to be seen there," Alex chimes in enthusiastically.

Kyle runs around the side of the enormous house and we all follow him. My stomach is growling with hunger and I can't stop thinking about what a full belly might feel like. We reach the back and there's a closed garage door next to a door into the house. Kyle runs for the door and grabs the silver knob that glimmers in the moonlit forest. He slowly turns the knob, slightly, putting force towards the door. It slowly creaks open.