It's hard to believe that's what everyone thinks of me. They think I'm indirectly responsible for Conner's death, and they're right. I should face it; none of them would be in the position they are now if I hadn't barged in that night. I start to grow tired, but it's not like I can complain. This is all my fault; no raising our chances of getting caught. I can't believe I got them into this. I suck.
"We should try to find a secluded place to sleep before it becomes dawn and it's harder to hide." I try to hide my labored breaths while speaking, even though I really need the rest.
"Good point. Or we could try to pace it until tomorrow night, and rest as soon as dusk falls," Jedrek immediately rations.
Scattered groans from everyone in our group, but I try to keep my expression placid.
"No way we can make it today and tomorrow. We barely slept last night!" Brianna complains.
"Humans die over eleven days without sleep. If we need to fight, we'll be way too weak," Hugo asserts.
"What about those trees over there? If we make sure to rotate turns staying awake we could each get a full hour or two," I suggest. I try to make my voice as peppy as possible, comforting, as if there'll be something good coming soon. As far as I know, there won't be.
"Fine. I'd say we have a good four hours before sunrise. We can split it into increments," Jedrek says.
"I don't know who made you captain of the team," Brianna scoffs.
"Donna did."
Donna kicks him in the shin. "Shut your trap, Jedrek. We can each get about 40 minutes before sunrise."
Jedrek refuses to get the memo and stays power-crazed. "Right, so I'll take first watch. After I go, it's Donna, Bree, Hugo, Athena, then Emma. Alright?"
"No. But whatever," Donna answers, already walking over to sleep before her post.
Underneath the trees that form a narrow passageway, we lay in the order of posts. The pattern follows two legs, a head, two different legs, a different head, and so forth. Jedrek is the only one sitting up, with one leg stretched out forming a line in between us and what isn't inside the "tree alley". I squirm in place and try to breathe slowly. I know I should take advantage of this opportunity to sleep, but I don't think anyone actually considered resting on this. After hours of walking on hot cement, we need to sleep on hard gravel, squished together like sardines. I wearily lift my head and neck to see if there's anyone, except Jedrek, still up.
Sure enough, I'm right. Everyone’s still awake except for Emma and Hugo, who are both snoring softly in a deep sleep. While lying awake, I begin to doubt what Jedrek said. It'd suck being the last to hear the news of a family member dying, everybody hiding it from you.
I look around again. Donna and Brianna are still awake, though I'm not sure how to deliver the news. I could show them the paper, but that's too cruel. Then again, I wouldn't want to bore it out. Like a bandage.
I climb over Hugo and Brianna to get to Donna. "Hey... how are you feeling?"
She doesn’t respond.
"I'm sorry, but I need to tell you something. We wanted to wait until you felt better but I think this might be best." I take a deep breath, unfolding the newspaper in my hands. How are they so bony already?
"We were reading the news, and we found this. It's a list of all the people who died today." I point to her sisters, and her lower lip quivers. Her eyes and nose redden as tears start seeping again. "Donna, I'm so sorry."
She uses my shoulder as a cushion for her head, where she breathes sparingly. Brianna scooches next to us and Donna wipes her nose on the back of her arm. "What happened?" she whispers. Donna hands her the newspaper, already on the right page. "Oh, yeah, a lot of people died. It's awful."
"Just read the list, Bree," she whispers in between whimpers. Brianna's eyes fall smack in the bottom half of the paper.
"Oh, well, I mean," she stutters.
"Hey, if you guys are staying awake, one of you should cover my shift," Jedrek interrupts.
"Not now, Jedrek," Brianna's voice cracks. I shake my head and Donna gives him the death stare.
"I just can't believe that... can't believe they... it just happened so soon, you know?" At first, a single tear escapes her eye, but she breaks into a full-on wail, waking Hugo up.
Hugo pulls me over next to him, even though I already was. "Why's she crying?"
"I told her."
"How could you have done that? We're all traumatized from Conner, and now they know about their sisters?"
"And what were we supposed to do? Let them figure it out by themselves? Or tell them days after? This is family, Hugo. Family."
"We're not going to be able to save you, or ourselves, if two of our strongest members are mourning," he whispers with gritted teeth.
"I'll become more useless after time goes by. That's when we'll need them most. Don't you think they'd handle it worse the longer we waited?"
"Fine." Hugo lets go of my arm and lays back down. He sits back up to add, "But, please, get Brianna to quiet down. I don't want her to wake up Emma." I nod then move over to Brianna to comfort her.
"I'm really sorry you had to find out this way... I just couldn't wait until tomorrow to deliver the news, I didn't want you all to feel like you were the last ones to know. It's just... you..." I try to find the right words to tell her to be quiet.
"Athena," Donna says, placing her hand on my shoulder. "We would have felt like we were the last to know. It's fine. This is better... I guess." She hesitates before saying, "Thanks for telling us." I look over to Brianna, who aggressively nods her head in concordance, while she still shrieks in stuttered breaths.
I try to sit next to Bree and console her, but she just hides her face from me. I look to Donna to ask how I can help.
"I can take care of her. Go to sleep." For once, Donna's gaze softens while talking to me. I smile. She returns to cradling Bree’s head, shushing her, making her sobs turn into whimpers.
Before doing as I'm told, I tap Hugo in the arm. "We have no family left. They only have each other, Jedrek has no one, and you only have Emma."
He's still drowsy from sleep but sits up to talk to me. "What do you mean we don't have family? Look around."
"You know what I mean, real family. Blood."
"Blood comes from the heart. The heart's a symbol of love. Family's love, not genes, Athena."
"You really think so?" I ponder.
“Sure. Now, you should go to sleep,” he nudges me in the ribs.
I step over Hugo, trying to get cozy, and my eyelids seem to be forced down.
Hugo wakes me up what must be a few hours later, but I was in such a deep slumber I’m even more exhausted than I was before. It seems as if I only closed my eyes and opened them back up, definitely not a full night's rest. "Hey, do me a favor and wake me up instead of Emma after your forty minutes pass," he whispered while bumping my arm with his foot.
"That's nice of you, but I think Emma can handle it." My mouth tastes bitter and slimy, as if someone put mucus into it while I was sleeping and I wasn't supposed to speak just yet.
"Yeah," he kneels next to me, while my head stays lying on the floor. "I think so too, but she needs to rest. She’s the youngest, you know? I'm practically her big brother."
That comment makes me sit up, my vision blurry from sleeping. "Practically? I thought you were her big brother."
He looks at her with concerned eyes. "Yeah, I get that a lot. She lived in a terrible household, which burned down when she was just around five years old. That's when I found her on the street. I was only seven or eight, but I still felt the need to do something. Anything.” Hugo stops to observe her and notices the chatter of her teeth and the tremble of her skin. He takes off his jacket and puts it on her, careful not to wake her up.
“She talked a little, not a lot, only enough for me to put two and two together. I'm pretty sure she doesn't even remember what happened when she was younger, but I do. She was scared. I'll never forget her eyes, so full of fear. Everyone told me that it was hopeless, that she would never have a peaceful life. She didn't trust anyone, cowered at the smallest things, but there was still a little glimmer of hope."
He stands up and reaches his arm out for me to take, but I help myself up. His eyes remain focused on Emma. "It was then that I vowed to take that glimmer of hope and turn it into the happiest person possible, no matter how hard it was." This is the first time I see him get teary-eyed, instead of being so calculating and rigid.
"You know, I think I can just stay up." I bat my eyelashes, still trying to focus in on the pitch-black world. "You clearly need your rest."
"No, really, it's fine. Just do me a favor and don't wake her up?"
"Yeah," I whisper back. "You got forty minutes!" I kid, trying to lighten the mood. He spares a laugh at my efforts, but his eyes stay focused on the sleeping girl. He lies back down, and I carefully step over everyone to block the entrance of the alley.
Above me, riddled with boredom, hearing the small crickets and trying to count the stars, I notice the trees have nearly ripe lemons. I pick off a few and shove them in my bag.
A few minutes into the post, I hear voices. I shuffle back into the alley, hidden by the small cement wall before the couple of meters worth of lemon trees. I stay as close as possible to Jedrek and Donna, trying to not wake them up until I figure out what’s happening. I hear radio feedback, and a muffled, static voice speak, "Are you sure the fugitives went this way? Over." I bite my lip and curse under my breath.
"Yeah, I'm sure. I'm keeping watch for now, but I might move later. Over," a clear voice responds. I kick Jedrek and Donna over to wake them up. When they begin to speak, I desperately shove my arms over their mouths to stop them.
"And do you have a place to rest? I talked to the Chief. He said you can continue the hunt in the morning. Over."
"Uhhh... no," the non-static voice replies. "But I see a couple of trees that might make for a good place to take a break." He starts to move closer towards us, but we remain hidden. Jedrek, Donna, and I start waking up and shushing everyone to tell them to be on guard. The cop continues to inspect the alley from afar while we huddle together, tight enough to be as covert as possible, but each with enough legroom to be able to run when needed.
The cop does what I can only describe as a hiss. "But, then again, there might be pests in there... I think I'll just lay off in my car until the chase makes its way near a motel. Over."
"Ha!" the static shouts.
"Excuse me? Over."
Someone clears their throat over the walkie-talkie. "It’s nothing. Just that some trees turn you into a coward."
"Screw you. But, yeah, I guess you're right. I'll go check. I saw some rustling in the leaves, so if I don't reconnect in fifteen, call for backup. Over."
"Ok, got you. Over."
We all rush up to our feet and proceed to try to blend in with the woods before realizing it would make way too much noise. "Oh, man, oh, man, what are we gonna do?" Brianna whines.
"Brianna, not now," Hugo says as his eyes dart over to the cop, back to us, back to the trees. “We need to knock him out. Yes!” he exclaims to himself while diving back to the ground, feeling around for something along the dirt. "Jedrek, you were practicing that boulder lifting thing, right? Well, there's a rock, bash it over his head!"
“That’ll kill him! You’re insane.”
“Then just don’t do it too hard, we need to get him unconscious. Do you have any better ideas?”
Jedrek reluctantly takes the stone and we all fall into position. The cop still strolls, twirling his keys around his pointer finger. Finally, he reaches the alley.
"Hands behind your back!" he yells while reaching for a gun in his holster. Jedrek comes up from behind him and slams it over his head, his body dropping to the ground immediately.
Jedrek and Emma try to ensure a pulse while Donna feels around his belt for weapons. The cop squirms, making her repel her hands back. Her eyes look to Hugo, who holds the cop's right arm down. She searches again, pulling out two guns, a taser, and a pack of bullets rolled up in a neat piece of a dirty, white elastic thread.
The cop wakes up.
"Everyone grab your weapon!" Donna shouts, even though we're only a few feet away from her. Jedrek keeps holding his stone above his head. Hugo grabs a taser, Donna a gun, and Brianna a gun as well. "Bree, Hugo, stand back. You don't know how to use these."
"What do you mean I don't know?" Brianna bickers. "I know perfectly well."
"No, I..." Donna begins. "Not the time!" she snaps. She holds the gun more firmly in her hand and points it towards the cop's chest.
Waiting for what to do next, Brianna strikes the conversation back up. When Brianna and Donna argue again, we all simultaneously realize the only two people with long-distance weapons are distracted. The cop starts shuffling away and buzzes his walkie for backup.
In a panic, Donna hands her gun to me and puts my hands around where I should hold it. Running toward him, she takes his blue button-up shirt by a fist-hold and hisses, in between gritted teeth, "Call off backup."
Instead of obeying, the cop smacks her across the face, hard, leaving a faint red mark, making a run for his car. Donna gently grazes her cheek and yells, "Athena, shoot!"
I cock the gun like Conner did earlier. I lose focus at the thought of Conner. My throat swells and my eyes fill. I shake my head and try to focus as my finger tightens on the trigger. The cop keeps running, faster than anyone would expect him to, but I still need to do this. If I don't, we'll lose. If I do, I've just shot a man. If anything, I've learned not to harm people with all of this. The thought of that throws me out of balance, and, as my finger fully pushes on the trigger, I move the gun to the left, so the bullet only grazes his shoulder. The impact of the back of the gun on my palm makes my wrists hurt. Metal sparks fly everywhere, and a little piece burns my skin just by falling on it.
"We had him! You had him!" Donna scolds. "You moved your hand!"
"I still slowed him down!"
The cop continues towards the vehicle, struggling and applying pressure over his arm. We all sprint to him, but by the time we’ve made it to where his car was, he’s driven away.
"He's the one that shot Conner!" Her eyes redden as she paces around the alley. "And you just let him get away! You didn't change at all."
Jedrek drops the rock and comes between Donna and me. "Now, I hate to interrupt but we just made an enemy. We need to move."
"Well, are we just gonna find a new route then? Remember, we're on the clock. We wait an hour to make sure we scared him off, then move," argues Hugo.
Jedrek doesn't say anything, because we all know Hugo's right.
I exhale, realizing I've been holding my breath this entire conversation. Hugo nods to me. He’s the only one who knows about the route. I nod back.
For the next few minutes, the group stands between Donna and me. Nobody says it out loud, but we all notice it. We wait anxiously until the cop is fully out of eyeshot. The sun has started to rise, yet our bodies tremble. So much for resting.
"We should probably get going now," Hugo mumbles. We're all exhausted, but need to move eventually; and none of us have night vision. Or flashlights.
ns 18.68.41.177da2
