Twenty Fifty-Six

-25-

We've finally reached a decision. Actually no. It's a compromise. Kendra, Jay and Tristan were certain we should go to the town. Mitch and Greyson we dead set against it. And me, well, I'm somewhere in the middle.

But the final decision is that we will walk towards the town, and find somewhere in the nearby woods to stay for the time being.  We all want to be out of this area that the people were searching for us.

We're ready to go. We can continue on our escape now. I don't really care where we go, I'm just happy that we're walking away from the ADCCG complex. 

"Everyone have their backpack?" Jay asks.

We all confirm that yes, we have everything.

"Amber, how's your ankle?" Kendra asks me.  "Need to rewrap it?"

"Uhh..."

"I'm gonna take that as a yes."

I roll up my pant leg.  "Yeah, it's definitely not doing much right now.  We need to have your ankle wrapped tighter if you want it to be supported," Kendra tells me, and expertly wraps the bandage.

"You're really good at that," I tell her.

She smiles modestly and says, "I always wanted to be a doctor.  The ADCCG stole that dream from me."

Mitch puts his arm around her.  "But we're out now, love."

"We're not out of the woods yet guys."

I groan.  "Greyson, why?  Why do you torture us with your horrible puns?"

Tristan laughs.  "Oh come on.  It was pretty good."

"No it wasn't.  You deserve to be slapped for saying that," I tell him, and of course, slap him.

"You know you love me."

"Come on you guys.  Let's go," Jay urges.  The sun is setting, and it's time for our departure. 

Greyson leads, since he's the only one who knows where we're going.  Jay is beside him, Tristan and I behind, and Mitch and Kendra are bring up the rear.

"So," Tristan says.  "Are you still undecided?"

"Yeah. I really don't know. Like-I'm scared that if we go into the town we'll get caught, because we would be suspicious looking. But staying in the forest, we'll never know exactly where we are, and we're gonna run out of food eventually. There's good and bad for both, and I just can't decide which option I like better."  I stop.  Another reason is that I would like to see my family, but I don't know if I should say it, with what I know about Tristan's family.

"You want to go home eventually, don't you?" He asks me, thinking one step ahead of me, like always.

"Yeah," I mutter.

"Amber, it's fine. I'm used to it by now. I don't want to go back to my family. But maybe someday I'll meet yours."

"Well you've already met Greyson," I say with a smile.

"I think he hates me."

I laugh. "Nah, I think he just decided to play the role of the overprotective brother."

Tristan laughs.

We walk in silence for awhile.  One of my favourite things about being with Tristan is that we don't need to always be talking.  There's no pressure to fill the silence with him.

I'm mulling this over when I feel a drop of rain hit my forehead.

"Did you feel that?" I ask.