The Altered.

Chapter XL.

"Good thinking," Miles noted, sorting through the small pile with a concentrated expression.

"We can't go without dried apricots," Eira said, pulling a few packets of those out. "Aaron eats them like they're gonna go extinct or something."

"Well in a way," Miles said, "they are."

"Right."

For the next fifteen minutes, Miles and Eira worked to gather a small amount of food that they'd take to keep them from going hungry once they made it back to the city. Percy and Lia finished packing the bag around the same time, and Aaron concluded his conversation with Claire, which seemed to be just further discussion about where they were headed after leaving the treehouse.

Miles felt an unusual excitement buzzing in his veins, like they were preparing to do something especially rewarding. They weren't really, though - all they were doing was going back to the city. He noticed that his feelings were mutual, though. Eira was energetic as always; more so, even. Percy and Lia could hardly stop laughing at whatever continuous jokes they were throwing around, and Aaron was grinning, carrying his bat everywhere and repeatedly jumping in on conversations.

Everybody was excited, but Miles knew they were all nervous, too.

By the time Lia rose to her feet with the backpack on her back, it was hard to determine if Miles' group was glad to be leaving or not. Miles drifted towards where Percy and Lia stood, and Eira and Aaron also crossed the room. Luca stayed with Bri's group, expression unreadable. The younger boy had told both groups that he'd be staying at the treehouse, and to Miles' surprise there hadn't been much argument around the topic.

"Is everyone ready to go?" Miles asked, stuffing his phone in his pocket. He'd shut down the device a few days ago to preserve its remaining charge, and he wasn't letting himself turn it back on when they didn't need it anyway. The fact that the phones weren't working was getting increasingly annoying, but there wasn't anything anybody could do about it. Not yet, at least.

"I think so," Lia breathed, tightening the straps on the backpack. "We should head out now. It's going to rain soon, and we don't want to be caught up in a storm."

Miles glanced out the window to get a glimpse of the sky, where dark clouds were gathering in preparation for the storm Lia had predicted. "Good idea."

Miles took a few backwards steps towards the trap door, redirecting his gaze to Bri and her group. "Thanks for letting us stay here." He lifted an awkward hand in farewell - it didn't really feel like goodbye, considering the groups would undoubtedly meet up again somewhere along the line.

"Stay safe," called Bri, flashing a broad grin. "You know where to find us if you ever need us."

Miles was the first one to start descending down the ladder. Though the wound in his shoulder was growing less painful each day, his movements on the ladder were still a little stiff.

He wondered, as he clambered down the ladder, what Bri's group would do if they ever needed to find Miles' group. They knew they were in the city, but the city was big.

He shook the thought off when he hit the ground. First, they needed to actually make it to the city, and then they could think about what came next.

Miles waited on the ground for the others to follow him, sliding both of his hands into his hair and gripping it.

One long sigh.

"Ready to go?" Percy threw his arm around Miles' shoulder and leaned against him, a boyish grin playing on his lips.

Miles gave Percy an elbow to the ribs. "Personal space."

Percy retreated at once with a wounded expression, linking arms with Aaron instead the instant Aaron reached the ground. Aaron laughed at Percy's antics - a reaction the raven-haired boy was far more fond of than Miles'.

Miles started walking only when Lia and Eira were also on the ground, Lia still trying to adjust the backpack straps so that it fit her better. Miles had been the last one wearing it, and their height different apparently made for complications when sharing a backpack. Miles fell into step with Eira once the group started moving, and Lia made her way to his other side.

"It feels so weird to be leaving, don't you think?" she asked. They were making quick progress across the short yard, almost at the gate.

"I mean, I guess," Eira replied. "But I'm also glad. I don't know how much longer I could've been stuck in that small space with that many people."

Miles, who was in the middle of this conversation, felt the need to input something. "I'm just glad to be getting back to the city. We're all far more familiar with it than we are with places like this."

On their way to the gate, Buddy drowsily lifted his head off his paws. He blinked once groggily at the departing group, paid them no heed, and set his head back down again to return to his slumber. Even when Miles tugged the squeaky gate open to make his way through, Buddy didn't open his eyes again.

"I'm going to miss Luca," Eira said miserably.

"It's not like he's dead," Miles pointed out. "We'll see them all again. The whole point of separating isn't so we get rid of them, but so that both groups can work from two different locations to try and figure this all out."

"The city is going to be so dangerous," Lia said, suppressing a shudder. "We'll have to really amp up our game."

"Can we not worry about this now?" Miles objected, leading the group in the direction of the city with Lia and Eira still close by his side. Behind him, Percy and Aaron were talking about something that Miles couldn't quite catch from where he was. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. We just need to actually get to the city alive, first."

"Right." Lia clapped her hands once. Miles had noticed she did that a lot; either when trying to get everyone's attention, or to encourage herself. "When we get closer, we'll stop and take the knives out of the backpack. You never know if we'll need them or not."

Miles nodded without saying anything. He glanced once at Eira, once at Lia, and once back at the boys just to make sure everybody was following and not beginning to fall behind.

Everyone was in check.

That was it, then. They were finally going home.

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+1792 Words.