How much do you really know?

twenty four

    We moved fast, not talking, just listening for any other sounds over the helicopter blades, which were extremely loud. They made the pain in my leg ten times worse as I could feel the vibrations down to my bones.
    Pains shot through my leg, so bad that I grunted with every step. But I kept moving, the thought that GORG guards could be right behind us urging my brain to keep allowing me to walk. Survival instinct had kicked in and it was stronger than on any other part of this journey. I would not allow myself to get captured again.
By the other grunts I heard around me, I imagined that my other followed injured people were not doing very well either.
    We had no idea where we were. We didn't know where they had taken us, but it certainly hadn't been back to the prison. We only hoped that it was close to the Canadian border and that we hadn't lost all the progress we made on our weeks long journey.
    Maybe we would be lucky, but probably not.

    We kept moving and when the tiniest bit of light and warmth started shining through the trees, I almost broke down into tears.
    We could see again. We had lived to see another day.
    I felt like a whole new person as I felt the sun begin to warm my skin. It took the edge off my pain and made me feel that I could walk a hundred more miles if it meant that we would get our freedom.
    It was amazing that we had even come this far. We, a bunch of teenagers, had escaped the government. They seriously needed to up their security.
Oh, h0w good the sun felt.
    And as the sun came up more and I became even warmer and the smile on my face spread, we noticed that the forest had begun to thin.
My smile was wider than it had been in probably years. Bryce turned back to me, his face red and bags forming under his eyes from carrying Connor for hours on end, but even though he looked exhausted, he had a grin on his face and a sparkle in his eyes. I never wanted to look away from this look on his face that filled me with hope.
    I didn't even think about the fate of the boy he was carrying.
    The sound of the blades had neither grown nor lessened. We had been hearing it for so long that my ears were ringing and I had begun to forget the noise was there. It was like how I imagined a rock concert to be, though they had been outlawed long ago for "promoting rebellious and violent action." I had seen some videos of them, and I thought I would enjoy that genre if I was allowed to listen to it.
    It seemed as if every step we took, the forest thinned a little more. It was easier for me to find easy places to step.
    However, as the forest thinned, we were confronted by the truth. That when we were out of the forest, the helicopter would be able to see us once again.

    We walked on for about another hour before we finally saw an ending to the forest.
    A scream filled the air. I looked up to see that it was Aspen and it was in fact a scream of joy. Right at the edge of the forest was a fancy looking house.
    My heart sped up with the thought that we could be saved. The boys slapped each other's backs and jumped on each other, as boys do. Carson just smiled and continued to walk forward. Aspen ran to me and wrapped me in a hug, swinging me around as I laughed, the joy bubbling out of my mouth.
    When we got to the very edge of the tree line, we stood hidden to discuss our tactic. The helicopter was still very near and if we all went out in a group together, it would most definitely see us. We thought our best hope was for one person to dart across the lawn. We would just have to cross our fingers and hope the people in the helicopter were looking the other way. We voted Aspen to go to the house as she was the fastest and most discreet. She had the greatest chance of making it to the house without being seen by the spies above.
    And amazingly, she made it. She ran at a full sprint from behind one tree to the porch of the house. When she had made both feet onto the porch, everyone stopped breathing for a couple of seconds, waiting for the sound of the helicopter blades getting louder. They never did.
    Aspen, however, wasted no time waiting to knock on the door because we still knew that guards were making their way through the forest as we waited.
It took a couple seconds for anyone to come to the door, enough seconds that I almost gave up hope that anyone was home, but finally, the doorknob turned and an old face popped out. It was an old man who looked peaceful. Aspen talked to him for a little bit. We watched the man's expression change from confused to worried to happy to angry, so we had no idea what his intentions were when he motioned her inside. Aspen gave us a thumbs up when she walked in the door, so we assumed everything was fine. We all sat down to wait out her visit in the house.
    No one spoke. It was utterly silent and my patience was running thin. The tension was so great and my leg was beginning to throb again, but Bryce had leaned against the tree next to me, and he seemed to sense my tension. He put his hand on top of mine and seemed to say without words that everything would be okay. I believed him.
    After that, I tried to relax a little bit. However, that did not last long. Maybe a couple of minutes, maximum.
    All of a sudden, there was too much stimuli at once. First, we saw Aspen step out of the house towards us, motioning us to come inside. As we all began to stand up, shaking with excitement, we heard something from the forest. It sounded like dogs barking. GORG was on our trail and not too far behind us. We started to move faster and then we heard sirens coming from the other direction, where it seemed like a road went to a city.
    We were closed in.
    My heart started to pound as all this uncertainty hit me. Would this man really help us or would we be caught by GORG again. Were the police sirens for us, or was it just some odd coincidence that they started the second we heard the dogs barking?
    I didn't realize I was frozen until I felt a hand on my shoulder. I jolted to look. It was just Carson, giving me a little push to get me going. He didn't say anything, but I was sure he understood. Bryce and Chase had Connor again in their blanket. I heard Connor groan in pain and my heart skipped a beat. He was awake. A part of me wished he was still unconscious so he didn't have to witness us get caught, again.
    "Move," Carson whispered. "Get to that house. Now."
    It didn't take us long to get to the house, but it would have been faster if we all had the ability to run. I could barely walk, as could Justin, and Bryce and Carson had to be careful with Connor. We could already be inside the house by now if we weren't moving so slow. But I knew the people who could run wouldn't leave any of us behind.
    When we did finally make it to the porch, Aspen rushed us all inside. The second I stepped inside, I was in awe. It was such a nice house, one of the nicest I had ever been in in my entire life. Well, the fact that I hadn't been in many houses, mostly living in a school and then in a prison, didn't help. It definitely wasn't a mansion, but it looked modern, clean and put together. Someone really took lots of pride in this house. They took care of it.
    There was a bowl of candies on the counter. I had definitely never seen that before.
    The old man was sitting on the couch. He waved us all over kindly. He didn't look at all nervous that he had just invited a whole bunch of escaped convicts into his house, and, not to mention, we were all covered in blood and dirt. We could barely keep our eyes open from being so exhausted and we had a dude who had been shot in the stomach and couldn't move by himself.
    I had to say, this man was extremely trusting.
    "Please, come and have a seat guys." Then he looked us up and down. "Well, how about we steer clear of the furniture." He laughed and it filled me with hope. We slowly made our way over and sat down at the old man's feet. The hardwood was cold, but I barely noticed it because the air was warmed by a heater.
    "I want you guys all to know that you are safe." I had a hard time believing that statement. I didn't even know what safe felt like anymore. "I'm a retired cop and we have a deal with GORG. They aren't supposed to come into Canada unless we allow them to, and same with our government. We stay out of each other's business in exchange for a steady supply of trade. And if I heard Aspen right, they've already broken that deal once, and they will pay heavily for it. I have called the local police station and they are already on their way." So that's what the sirens were for. I let myself half believe that we were safe.
    The old man glanced out the window. I followed his gaze and saw the GORG guards with their dogs sneaking out of the trees. "Look who decided to show up," the old man commented.
    They were slowly making their way across the lawn, the dogs sniffing the grass. My heart pounded. We would be caught again. We would never escape GORG.
My brain was playing tennis. Did I feel like I was in danger or like I was safe? When I looked at the man, all I saw was hope, but the dogs just a couple hundred feet away from us made me feel the opposite.
    The old man then pulled himself off the couch and onto his feet. "Come on, let's go," he said before making his way to the door.
    "Hang on. You can't expect us to go out there and just be taken by those guards," Justin almost shouted.
    The old man just shrugged and continued walking. Aspen stood up and joined him from her spot on the carpet with zero hesitation, as if she already trusted this man with her life. Must be a Canadian thing. I had sure never trusted anyone with my life, except maybe these boys I had been traveling with for the last month. She had only known this man for ten minutes. She motioned to us from behind her back.
    "What the hell are we doing?" Chase whispered as he then stood up as well.
    Just then, we heard the sirens get extremely loud and tires skid in front of the house.
    "Oh, shit! The police!" Carson remembered. He jumped up, telling Bryce and Chase to leave Connor on the ground and to get moving.
    I had never sat down because I knew it would be too hard to stand back up with my leg, so I just began to hobble my way to the door. Everyone easily passed me even though they had stood up after I had begun walking. Bryce stopped at my side though and walked next to me.
    When we got to the door, the police were just getting out of their cars and the GORG guards stopped in their tracks halfway across the lawn. We just stood on the porch watching the scene play out. It felt as if I should have a bowl of popcorn in my hand.
    There were two police cars and four police. However, the guards outnumbered them at least three to one.
    The guards and the police stood facing each other. The tension in the air was strong. Everyone was wondering who would make the first move.
    The police did.
    "Is there a problem, mates? Cause as far as we know, you guys aren't supposed to be here," one of the police projected in a strong voice.
    The guards were frozen. They knew they were screwed.
    "No officer, no problems here. We'll just be on our way," one of the guards said, a humiliated look on his face.
    "But what would be the reason that you're stepping foot in our country, against our deal, might I add?" the officer reputed.
    No one was breathing.
    "We were just pursuing some people through the woods and didn't realize we had crossed the border."
    "Oh yeah, huh. So you didn't know that the instant you step foot into that forest, you're in our territory?"
    The guards knew. We could see it on their faces. They weren't fooling anyone.
    "Tell you what," the police said after the guards were silent for a couple moments. "If you turn your backs and leave right now, we won't spill anything to the government; our deal will still hold. What do you say?"
    The main guard nodded, pure frustration on his face. But he knew he had to take the deal. He grabbed his walkie talkie out of his belt. "Come get us," he said into the device, loud enough for everyone to hear. "The kids are protected by the police." He put down the walkie talkie, a death glare on his face.
    And just like that, it was over. If I had had popcorn, I wouldn't even have had time to finish it.
    The guards walked to the road, giving lots of room between them and the police, and walked away without another look. We heard the sound of helicopter blades in the distance.
    I didn't take my eyes off the backs of the guards until they had disappeared around a bend in the road. Even then, I didn't move. I couldn't believe that it was actually over. Were we safe? Surely we couldn't be. We had gone through so much for it to be done so simply.
    I slightly noticed one of the police cars driving away and one police officer walking towards the house, but I gave them no attention, just waiting for the guards to come back around the bend.
    Any second now they would be coming back with even more guards and weapons.
    They never did.
    But I waited and waited, the voice at the back of my brain telling me to wait just a little bit longer, just a little bit longer and they will be back.
    I waited until I felt a hand at my waist. It jerked me out of my thoughts, the voice silenced. How long had I been staring at the road?
    "Eliana, Connor asked to see you before he's gone," I heard Bryce's low voice whisper in my ear.
    I spun around immediately. "What?!" I practically screamed. "Before he's what?!" My brain spun at how fast my mood had changed.
    I looked straight into Bryce's eyes, his despair cooling my anger a little.
    "Just come," he said quietly before turning around and heading back into the house.
    I followed after him, forcing one foot in front of the next. What else could I do? I couldn't not go see Connor, but I couldn't believe what Bryce had said.
    He couldn't be dying.
    Not now. Not after everything we'd been through. He couldn't die right when we were reaching the end. He couldn't be.
    The first thing I saw when I stepped through the door was everyone sitting in a circle on the hardwood floor. They all turned to me when I walked in. Aspen scooted over and patted the floor next to her.
    I almost turned around and ran away right then, seeing the look in everyone's eyes.
    Right when we thought everything was over. I guess our luck had just run out.
    But I didn't run, because Connor wanted to see me. I could at the very least give him that.
    So, with Bryce's arm around my waist to guide me, I made it to the group of solemn teenagers. I lowered myself to the ground before even risking a glance at Connor, who was laid on his back, his head on a pillow.
    His eyes were on me, dark circles under them, as if he had just put purple makeup there. I chose to believe that instead of the harsh reality.His face was so pale I almost believed he was already dead and laying there as a ghost.
    "Hey, loser," he managed to get out. He tried to smile.
    I could barely hold the tears back, but I didn't want to cry in front of him. I knew him enough to know that if I did, his last words would be him teasing me. His shirt was off, so his bloody bandages were fully visible. They were saturated. No one had bothered to change them again. His chest moved up and down, fast and shallow. Couldn't they have at least put clean bandages on him? Could they not do anything right? They couldn't save him. They owed it to him to put on clean bandages.
    "Hey, stupid," I responded.
    "Well I guess I'll be leaving this world as a badass. Pretty cool, huh? Who would want to die any other way?"
    I couldn't breath. If I spoke, a flood of tears would come storming out. I just moved my head in a yes-no motion, no because I couldn't believe he was leaving and yes to appease his question about being a badass.
    "Hey, don't cry," he said, which triggered the first tear to spill out. A lump formed in my throat as I tried, with no avail, to hold more tears back. Bryce wiped them from my face.
    His breathing was getting shallower.
    "You take good," he paused to catch his breath, "care of her, Bryce."
    "Anything, buddy," Bryce whispered as he lightly punched Connor's shoulder. Connor's eyes were beginning to close.
    "You guys better miss me."
    I could barely hear those words as he spoke them with his last breaths. His chest sank and froze. I stared at it in disbelief, as if I could magically make it begin to rise and fall once again.
    But it never moved.
    No matter how much I willed it too.
    "No," I muttered, not even noticing as my mouth moved and my salty tears spilled into the crack between my lips. "No," I said, a little louder.
    My chest felt heavy and I wondered if it would stop moving just as Connor's had.
    I could faintly hear sobs around me and a hand on my shoulder, but I wasn't thinking about any of that. I couldn't bring my eyes off of his unmoving chest. I just couldn't.
    Why was this happening to us? What did we ever do to deserve this?
    I think we all sat there in disbelief and sadness and anger for hours, the different emotions coming in waves. One second there were tears streaming down my cheeks and the next I felt like I needed to punch someone, someone to blame.
    The only person to blame was myself.
    I was the one he had taken a bullet to save.