How much do you really know?

ten

    The walking that day was pretty uneventful. We passed a lot of trees and saw a lot of mountains. We kept one specific mountain range in front of us all of the time because just past it was Canada. When we got to the foothills of it, we would stay to the north of the mountains so that we wouldn't have to venture through them. Carson told us that it was the Alaska Range. The boys had pretty much planned out their entire escape, which was fine by me. I was just along for the ride.
Just around five pm, we heard a rumbling from afar. At first, everyone was confused, except Carson.
"GET DOWN!" he yelled without hesitation. Everyone dropped to the ground immediately. "Everyone crawl slowly to shelter," he said a little calmer this time. I looked around me and saw a boulder with a small overhang. I was just small enough for me to fit underneath it and curl into a tiny ball. The overhang would shelter me from anyone above. Everyone crawled in separate directions as the rumbling got louder and started to sound more and more like helicopter blades. You would think a group smart enough to escape from a government facility would realize what helicopters sounded like. Of course they would be trying to find us. Eleven kids could make a huge difference.
    As I heard it come right above us, I scrunched even smaller than I already was, desperate not to be seen. My body was beginning to ache from being so balled up and tense. I squeezed my eyes closed and clenched my hands in fists. When the helicopter was directly overhead, the noise vibrated through my body. I could feel the vibrations in my teeth. Then, it slowly got quieter and quieter until we couldn't hear it anymore. I finally relaxed, allowing myself to take a large breath. I unrolled myself and pulled myself out from under the rock. Everyone else was also slowly coming out of their hiding spots. I found my way over to Connor and Bryce, who had hidden behind a fallen tree.
    "Man, who would have known we were so popular that they would try to find us in helicopters! I guess it's just my dashing good looks," Connor said. Leave it to Connor to turn a close encounter into a joke. Bryce rolled his eyes. I smiled. "Wow, no response. I see how it is," Connor said, sticking out his bottom lip.
By that time, everyone had gotten out from their spots and formed back into a group. Carson spoke up again. "I underestimated how badly they wanted to find us. That helicopter could have been for something else, but we still need to take precautions. If anyone hears a motor or the blades of a helicopter, you need to let everyone know right away and everyone needs to get to a spot as quickly as possible. What we did here was perfect, but there might not be as many hiding spots somewhere else. If so, just get down and cover yourself in dirt." Everyone nodded at those words, but no one replied. Everyone was still spooked. My hands were still shaking.
    The next couple of days were some 0f the most boring days I had ever experienced, and I could tell that all the boys were also feeling the lack of excitement. It felt as if we walked a hundred miles every day. I didn't know how far we were actually walking though, and no one else knew either. There were more helicopter sightings, but we handled those with ease, dropping to the ground and being absolutely still until the helicopter passed over us. Sometimes, when the helicopters would get close to us, we could hear GORG talking through the walkie talkie one of the boys stole from Walker. Gosh, that seemed like months ago. I glanced down at my still red wrists. They still had not healed from the handcuffs. They never got directly overhead, however, meaning they still weren't quite on our tail.
    One day, I was the first to hear the whirring of helicopter blades far in the distance. My heart skipped a beat and I yelled, "Helicopter!" I quickly looked around me and realized that we were in the middle of a field, with only a couple logs and bushes. Everyone had acted faster than me as I had wasted a couple seconds to observe my surroundings, so all the good hiding spots were taken. I dropped on the floor and started scooping grass and dirt over my body. I laid face down hoping that my hair would blend in with the ground better than my face would. The dirt felt rough against my skin and I felt something crawling along my arm. I didn't dare rub it off in fear that the people in the helicopter would see me moving. I just tried not to think about it and focused on the sound of the blades growing closer. My arm was almost twitching.
    My heart started to beat faster when I realized the blades were louder than I had ever heard them before. They were directly overhead, and hovering. My breathing picked up. I tried to slow it fearing they would see the dirt moving up and down from up above. When it didn't get any quieter after a couple of seconds, my head started to spin, my vision started to blur, and my chest tightened. I wanted to yell out for someone, but I couldn't get the words to come out of my mouth. I squeezed my shaking hands into fists and just focused on my breath, but I kept thinking about what would happen if the people in the helicopter saw us. When the sound of the blades got quieter, my chest progressively got less tight. When I could no longer hear the sound of the helicopter, I was able to sit up and rub the dirt off, but after that, I just sat for a second trying to get back the oxygen I wasn't breathing in when I was waiting for the helicopter to leave.
    I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Eliana, are you okay?" It was Gavin. I forced myself to stand up and put a smile on my face. I turned to him.
    "Yeah, I'm fine."
    "That was a close one," he said.
    "It was," I replied, trying to breathe as quietly as I could and willing my hands to stop shaking. Everyone was joining back into one big group, excitement in their voices at such a close encounter. Apparently some of the boys had enjoyed the adrenaline. I did not. We all regrouped in a matter of seconds and were back on our way. I joined Connor and Bryce, who were once again arguing and laughing about something I didn't care about. I blocked them out and tried not to think about anything, still overwhelmed by what had happened with the helicopter.
    Finally, we stopped for the night. The sun had already set and we were starving. We hadn't eaten in at least eight hours. It seemed as if I was more hungry at every dinner than I was at the dinner from the night before. Carson came around with a bag of food, handing out a portion to all of us.
    When he came to our group, he handed each of us a bag of beef jerky and an overly ripe apple. When he was handing me my food, I heard Connor say, "Dude, is your goal to make us starve to death? Hand it over." I turned to look at Bryce and Connor. Bryce groaned and handed over an extra bag of beef jerky.
    "I think your goal is to make me starve to death. I'm a growing teenager. I'm hungry!" Bryce said. Connor rolled his eyes and threw the beef jerky into the bag of food. Carson said, "Bryce, everyone here is a growing teenager," with a laugh.
    It interested me that Connor had thrown the food back. I pegged him as the type who would keep it for himself, but I didn't ask about it.
    I pondered on this thought while eating my food, but couldn't come up with any reason that agreed with my theory that he was pretty selfish. For some reason, I had just decided that he was selfish. I decided I wanted someone to talk to after I finished my food, which hadn't tasted very good, but Connor and Bryce were in their own little teenage boy world. I looked around and my eyes immediately landed on the only boy sitting alone, Gavin. He was sitting against a tree trunk as usual, looking down and finishing his apple. I looked back at Connor and Bryce quickly, but they hadn't noticed I had stood up to leave. I walked over to Gavin and sat next to him against the trunk.
    "So, what's your story?" I asked him, staring off at the boys eating around the fire.
    He didn't answer for a second. I glanced over. He was looking at me in shock, like I was a ghost.
    "Um, what, what do you mean?"
    "I mean, why are you sitting over here by yourself? Why aren't you hanging out with the boys?"
    "I don't know."
    "Oh, well you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. I guess they are a little crazy, huh?" I said with a chuckle. The truth was I actually liked the crazy. My life was boring; it needed a little crazy. Just not the type of crazy that comes with almost being spotted by a helicopter full of your enemies.
    "Yeah," he smiled at me. "I like some peace and quiet."
    "Agreed. Sometimes it's good to take a break. I assume you were sent here because of that and because you're so quiet." I tried to portray some sympathy to him, let him know I was not judging.
    "Yeah, I guess I was so quiet that they thought I hated them and was plotting against them in secret. They got half of it right." He chuckled and it was nice to hear. "What about you, if you're fine telling me about it."
    I knew he was trustworthy for who would he tell? I needed to tell someone, get it off my chest.
    "Well, my mental health was definitely not great during my time at the school. I had a friend who was really just someone to make me not feel lonely. But I was too wrapped up in myself that I wasn't as kind as I should have been. She was pissed at me and stopped hanging out with me."