Escaping the End

Chapter 9

It took three hours of dodging in and out of houses before the group managed to get past the swat team that had invaded the town. It took them even longer to get far enough away from the town to set up a sufficient camp. Ashton was exhausted beyond belief and he took the opportunity to get as much rest as possible. He figured he would be put in charge of the girl from now on, he was the one who had volunteered to get her out of the town when everyone else wanted to ditch her after all.
After Ashton laid the girl on the ground and found himself a spot to rest, Mila made her way over and examined the girl. All she could think about was what the girl had said in the split second that she had woken up for.
"What happened? Why were you on that boat with so many supplies? Someone had to have known you were alive and your clothes..." Mila thought about the strange clothes for a second and then looked over to Kotone, "You said these were used to dress those who were worthy right? How did you know?" Mila questioned her.
Kotone looked surprised for a moment and then calmly pulled a handful of papers out of her bag, "These, look at them," Kotone said, handing the papers over to Mila.
Mila took the papers without hesitation and started to look them over but she quickly became confused. She looked each one over and over again but still couldn't understand, all these were, were the flyers telling everyone that judgement was coming up. The flyers were all from different places and had different art on them, but each one showed what looked to be the elite. That's when it hit Mila, each of the elite in the art depictions were wearing the same clothing as the girl they had found.
This just raised more questions, there weren't bullet holes in the dress but she was definitely shot at some point. It wasn't treated at all, but someone took the time to change her clothes and then load her lifeboat with supplies? It didn't make any sense, at least not to Mila. She turned back to Kotone and handed the flyers back, she wanted to know why Kotone would carry around such flyers, but she didn't bother asking.
"Kotone, what do you make of this," Mila said gesturing down to the girl.
Kotone sat emotionless for a second while she thought, "They definitely knew she was alive and because there isn't a shot hole in the dress, she may have been escaping on the boat that was torpedoed. She could have also been captured at judgement and shot by someone on that boat. Either way, someone cared enough and knew she was alive," Kotone said.
Mila nodded and looked down at the girl, "Well, she can tell us what happened when she wakes up," she then looked to everyone else and made sure Ashton was asleep before she continued, "If she is a worthy, we can't risk bringing her along, who votes we ditch her if, and only if, she is worthy?"
Everyone in the circle nodded in agreement and then they all hushed when Ashton started to stir. They were afraid he would want to take the girl along no matter what kind of a threat she had posed. He had already proved that to everyone when Ashton opted on carrying the girl instead of doing the sensical thing, which was just leaving her behind. Mila was hoping for all the world that, one, Ashton didn't wake up anytime soon and two, that the girl was unworthy so they wouldn't have to deal with Ashton.
After about another twenty minutes, Mila and the rest of the group, except for Tamara, went fast to sleep. It had been a long day on everyone and even Tarama considered just sleeping instead of staying up and keeping watch though she knew that was an unbelievably bad idea. Instead she just watched the girl.
She wasn't heaving like she had been when Ashton found her, but her face was still contorted with pain. Tamara could feel a twinge of regret for voting on leaving her if she was a worthy. Even if she was, this girl wouldn't survive on her own and didn't deserve being left behind to die, she didn't look like she could be more that fifteen.
"For goodness sakes," Tamara complained under her breath, "I can't believe we live in a world where leaving a fifteen year old to die is okay!"
"Uhh," the girl mumbled as she stirred awake, scaring Tamara half to death, "Where, where am I?"
Tamara sat quietly not sure whether or not she should answer the girl's question. That seemed to be the right choice as the girl started to look around, she never even noticed Tamara sitting right next to her. This didn't seem to stop her from noticing everyone else sleeping and she froze up with terror.
Once again she asked herself, "Where the heck am I?" but it was more intense tone as she scrambled to her feet, "I wasn't kidnapped was I?"
Tamara grabbed the girl's wrist before she could decide to do anything stupid like run away into the dark woods. The girl jumped and looked at Tamara with wide, fear filled eyes and all Tamara could do was sigh. She felt bad for this girl who was not only hurt, but obviously confused about her current situation.
"Calm down, we won't hurt you," Tamara said slowly as she got the girl to sit back down, "We took care of that nasty wound for you, but it's not like it's completely healed or anything, so you should sit down,"
The girl nodded and sat on the ground looking helplessly around from her spot on the ground. She didn't do much but change her gaze and mumble incoherently to herself for a long time. Tamara finally decided she couldn't take that much longer and turned to the girl.
"What is your name and what are you?" she asked bluntly.
The girl looked at Tamara, her eyes now totally blank of expression, "Klara, and I am not decided. Both my parents are, were, unworthy," she said.
"Oh," Tamara said turning to the rest of the group.
She had decided it might just be best to let Mila handle the girl, Mila at least didn't care if she drudged up bad memories with her questioning.  Tamara cared a great deal if she did such a thing, she didn't want anyone doing that to her, but Klara's statement did make Tamara question a few things. The first was why was she undecided but both her parents unworthy? The next was, how old is she if she is undecided?
As Tamara continued to keep watch, Klara fell back asleep. It seemed to be an uncomfortable position, but she was sound asleep nonetheless. Tamara snorted at her and wondered how Klara could sleep in such a position, but didn't do anything to help her. Insead, Tamara just went back to keeping watch and listening to the woods quietly rustle around the group.