In Between Seasons

Chapter 13

I thought my family loved me.

I thought a lot of things—things that were right and wrong all at once. My eyes fluttered as I thought of the pages scrawled with my word; my thoughts. A truth I only ever imagined, and now it was playing out in front of me.

War. Deception. Greed. Corruption.

I'd known it all was there. I'd known it wasn't all my invention, but I'd never wanted to be this right.

What frightened me was who might know; who might have found those journals, and what they could have mistaken them for.

I shook the thought away before turning to Hunter. He was giving me the cold shoulder, and for good reason, but I couldn't bring myself to explain it to him. I was utterly ashamed of my prior stupidity.

"So how long will we stay here?" I finally asked as I watched him sitting on the far end of the couch from me.

"Another day at the most," he replied, still staring into the fire place.

"Why did you pack everything already then?" I asked, looking at the backpacks, one beaten up and one new.

"Just in case," he replied as a squealing buzzer filled the room and cut him off.

"Fuck!" he yelled as he jumped up and grabbed my arm, yanking me up with him.

"Can't everyone in the county hear that?" I hollered over the noise as Hunter dropped my arm and lunged across the room to the backpacks.

"Sound proof walls," he explained, slipping his backpack over his shoulders and throwing mine at me.

"What's going on?" I asked as my chest tightened.

"Just in case just happened. We need to leave now—Hunters are here!" Hunter shouted as he pulled at something in the floor I couldn't see.

I looked down to the opened floor to see a dark tunnel. Sweat was beginning to pour off my forehead as I watched Hunter jump into the darkness before his arm reached up and pulled me in, too. I gagged against the stale air as Hunter reached up and pulled the floor shut before grabbing my hand and dragging me into a sprint.

Hunter dropped my hand as we rushed forward against the dark, towards God only knew what, or where. I had no clue where my feet where going, but I knew I needed to push forward. Finally, after at least a mile, Hunter skidded to a stop, and I rammed into his back, falling onto mine.

"Are you okay?" Hunter whispered as he grabbed in the dark for my hand and pulled me back up.

"Fine," I replied, through deep gulps of air as I watched Hunter's outline push at the ceiling until it gave way to the open sky. The setting sun streamed in through the opening, and he dropped my hand before somehow grabbing the edge and pulling himself out of the hole. His hand grabbed me and yanked my body out before I could comprehend what was going on.

"Someone found us?" I mumbled, finding my voice as I watched him rushing to cover the hatch we escaped from.

"Yes!" His eyes were bitter as they snapped over me. "Don't act like you didn't know this would happen! Let's go!"

His words stung, and I stopped breathing heavily as I swallowed the angry retort coming up my throat. His eyes softened as he closed them and then opened them with a shake of his head.

"Please, we need to go," he begged.

I nodded my head, and he grabbed my hand again as we rushed through the forest. My heart jammed against my chest as we leapt over the logs and ducked the limbs hanging over head. There was no time for fear; all I knew was my feet weren't moving nearly fast enough.