The Survivors

Chapter 27-Brothers Unite

I race through the jungle feeling my heart pound loudly inside my chest. I beat away the thick green leaves and duck under large branches. My knife holder digging into my thigh from inside my pocket. Sweat drips down my body due to the tropical jungle heat and from working so hard today. My left shoulder is aching because I've been using my metal arm too much. It feels like the bone and metal are scraping together now.

It's gotten extremely red and is painful to move now. I jump over a large log that hidden under a mess of tiny ferns and dead leaves. I glance ahead only to see a glimpse of Ayden before he disappears further into the jungle. Terror shakes through my mind knowing that those men are still out there. Lurking. Waiting to try killing us again. Ayden shouldn't be out here!

Hit with another wave of grief and guilt, I power on trying to reach Ayden before he goes in too deep. Images of Lukas and Sarah flash through my head. Lukas' head cracking to the side and the light gone from his eyes in a second. I feel sick just thinking about it. The smell... I can still smell it. The smell of death. Not rotting flesh. But the smell that reminds you of taxidermists. The dead body itself. Maybe it's all in my head but it's a powerful smell.

I can't let another person die! I just can't! It's all my fault they won't return home. I should have never became leader. This is everyone's fault for forcing me to do this! But I can't get into past arguments with myself. I need to focus on getting Ayden back to the beach. That stunt he pulled with the gun crossed the line. I know his life was pretty rough and saying the love is fake like that... his father must be worse than mine. But I don't need a suicidal running around with a gun acting like a jerk and "testing us" all the time.

And then admitting that we're alike... that also makes me sick because I don't want to be anything like Ayden. I hate it. I hate how we're stuck as brothers. I hate how everything I do, he finds a way to criticize. And somehow he made Thalia cry even though she obviously likes him and he likes her. It's not some big secret. He stares at her constantly and she stares right back at him. Bree even joked today that they needed to get a move on with the romantics if they're going to keep giving each other "goo-goo" eyes. But then Ayden broke Thalia's heart and made her cry. Who does that?

Probably someone abused but that doesn't give you the right to treat other people like dirt. You always have a choice. Just because you've had a rough life doesn't mean that you are stuck being a bad person. Just because you have a good life doesn't mean you are automatically good either.

"Ayden stop! It's dangerous out here!" I shout as I continue to chase after him.

"Leave me alone Levi!" he shouts back sounding angry again.

"You're going to get yourself killed! Get back here!" I argue starting to get frustrated. But he doesn't stop. In fact, I swear he's running faster. I ground my teeth together ready to scream out something I'll regret.

"You can't tell me what to do!!"

A normal comeback from the, "Oh so original Ayden Ericson."

"Come back here and face me, you coward!!" I finally scream at him, letting it all out. I've been wanting to call him that for a while now. I don't even care if we're blood related. I'll treat him like a brother when he acts like it!

Finally he stops running. He stumbles to a stop in a strange clearing amidst all the thick jungle trees and brushes. I slow down and find myself gasping for breath, sweating like a dog. Even more thirsty than before. We're running low on water now. It's a growing problem we have. The water here is poisoned and will change our bodies even more. Everyone agreed not to drink the water, but soon we'll get desperate. I hope we get rescued soon...