Run Like Hell

Run- Part One- Pursuit V

Andy winced as her stomach growled loudly. "What do you guys do for food around here?" She looked at the two boys on either side of her, eyebrows raised in question.

"Well it's not exactly a five star establishment as you may have noticed..." Andy raised an eyebrow as Mike said this. "But we do scrape by. We have vegetables and meat; water. We have everything we need to survive, even if it's not really very comfortably."

"Layla and Tucker should be done preparing the food any second now." Mike said, and as if on cue, Layla came back holding a large bowl, Tucker trailing behind her. Cassie wandered over as she set the bowl down and Andy leaned forward to look into it. It didn't look particularly appetising; there were messy chunks of greyish meat in a grey watery liquid. There were some green herbs mixed in and Andy caught the distinctive smell of mint.

"After you." Jordan said with a suspiciously wide grin.

Since there were no spoons or anything of the like, Andy reached out for the bowl and warily raised it to her lips. She wrinkled her nose slightly as she smelt it but was not by any means going to be a wimp. She took a large gulp of the concoction. Everyone was looking at her expectantly as she put the bowl down again. Though it didn't taste particularly nice she could stomach it. That was, until she opened her mouth to venture her opinion.

Laughter erupted from Jordan, Mike and Cassie as Andy blanched. Tucker and Layla merely smiled amusedly.

"What do you think?"

Andy swallowed a few more times before turning to Cassie. "It's... Not good. It's bitter and it's oily and it's foul. What the hell is it?"

"Rat." Everyone chorused.

Andy, if it were possible, turned even paler than before. "That really just makes it worse... But I know this is probably the only thing that's going to keep me alive in this hell-hole so I'll eat it and I won't complain."

-A round of nods and murmured agreements.

"You do get used to it," Layla offered. "It doesn't get to the point where it tastes good but it doesn't make you want to retch." At this, a few people winced sympathetically, recalling the first time they had each tried it.

"No use moaning; we have to eat something to keep our strength up, rat meat or otherwise." Cassie declared and they went back to taking turns to gulp down the stew.

"We'd better move out now." Cassie stood up and declared; a faraway look in her eyes. The others merely nodded, drawing themselves to their feet.

Supplies were gathered and carried by hand. The walk to secondary base was not long but there were so many surprise turns in the semi gloom that Andy almost instantly became lost in the labyrinth of passageways. It was a wonder how Cassie could lead the group so confidently and how Tucker, bringing up the rear didn't fall behind and lose the others. But Cassie, Jordan, Andy, Mike, Layla and Tucker all shortly entered the base and settled themselves together in a corner.

"It can get pretty freaking cold at night. It's best to huddle together and share our body heat. It's like penguins, yeah?" Mike tripped.

Andy nodded and chuckled slightly, briefly marvelling at the younger boy's innocent optimism even in such an environment.

"Shut it and get some sleep." Tucker growled in irritation. "Jordan; you take first shift."

Jordan sighed and stood up to move away from the group. As he noticed Andy's questioning glance he explained that they took turns in taking watch. "I got it," Andy confirmed. It was quite an obvious thing to do really. Each watch would last about an hour if Layla's watch was anything to go by. Andy was nominated for fifth watch. She was pretty happy with that.

Sleep didn't come easy that night. The harsh squeaking of rats and the occasional terrifying groaning that suggested a pipe or two on the roof might be too eroded to last the night jolted Andy back from the brink of sleep every time she felt close to drifting off. Eventually though, the rhythmic hollow dripping of water and other questionable liquids onto the concrete floor lulled her into sleep.

She woke.

The fourth lookout of the night was sitting on a rock with clouded eyes, fondling the blue glass pendant hanging from a length of black thread wound around her arm.

"Cass?" Andy whispered, tiptoeing over the sleeping bodies of her... friends? Yes, she supposed they were her friends now. They were too friendly for acquaintances; hell, she thought of Mike as the little brother she never had and Mike looked upon her as an older sister; none were mere comrades, even if Tucker was still a total mystery to her.

"Andy?" Cassie whispered back, eyes widening in surprise at being jolted out of her thoughts. She cleared her throat quietly. "Can't sleep or what?"

"I just... woke up. Didn't feel like going back to sleep I guess."

Cassie hummed in understanding before looking into the distance again with a sad smile. "My brother gave me this necklace," she spoke almost too quietly for Andy to hear, twirling the pendant between her fingers again.

"Really?" Andy said awkwardly. She wasn't accustomed to people randomly telling her things like that and often found difficultly in interacting with other people. She sucked at all that touchy-feely bullshit. But she also could recognise when someone needed to say something and they needed someone to listen. So, Andy pulled up a rock and listened.

"LG was a great brother. He always looked after me and he made me laugh all the time. He used to take me out fishing sometimes when I was a kid. The fishing itself was dead boring but I still had a lot of fun."

"What does LG stand for?"

"It's just short for Logan." Cassie said with a shrug. "He hated the name Logan so everyone called him LG. His full name was Logan Ryder Strongbow."

"That's a cool name," Andy proclaimed, nodding sagely.

A small laugh. "Yeah, rolls right off the tongue, huh?"

"Do you miss him?"

There was a pregnant pause and Andy began to worry if she had said something wrong, when

"Yeah, I miss him. I really loved him. He died two years ago."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be kid. It's not your fault. What about your family?"

"I'm an only child. My parents are divorced and I live with my mum. I don't know where my dad is and frankly I don't care either. My mum has some disease so I have to take care of her. She's not got it so bad though. I don't mind looking after her but sometimes kids make fun of her which is how I get into so many fights. I also just have a really short temper." Andy didn't even hesitate as she said those words, not expecting or desiring a drop of pity. She meant it when she said she didn't mind taking care of her mother.

"Oh geez... Is it curable? Does it have treatment?"

"...No and no. It's degenerative. But in the meantime I fight for her because she can't and wouldn't fight for herself. She's far too kind. I never fight to protect my own pride but if it's for someone or something important to me I won't hesitate to leap into battle."

"That's very admirable of you. I bet she's dead proud."

A small smile graced Andy's lips. It was too small to be made out in the gloomy tunnels but it was there. "Yes. Yes she is."

Blehhh. I'm not happy with this chapter and I don't know why. I might just be in a mood or something :P But yeah, slightly filler-like but I like to call it more of a plot-builder because although nothing really happened it gave us information about characters. Um. Next chapter in the works. There might be two or three installments left of Part One.

I haven'y proofed it so there might be some errors. As always, please point them out if you see any.