Chapter 3

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The next morning, Gordon left. And I left with him. It wasn't as if he had any choice in the matter. I followed him, even though he told me not to. I had never really been good at following orders. In fact, if someone told me not to do something, you can bet your ass that I would do it as soon as I possibly could.

For the first few minutes, I followed him at a distance, carefully. I stepped on the ground with care, and made sure I didn't make any noise when moving branches, and bushes out of my way. But after half an hour of that, I got bored. And I decided I wanted him to find me out. It wasn't like I wanted to tag along with him, just for the scenic route. I had wanted to spend some time with him.

I became sloppy after that. Making as much noise as possible, thumping tree trunks, and scrunching tree branches under my feet, so much so that I imagined I would wake up every dangerous creature in the vicinity.

"That isn't safe," Gordon said, as I looked up from the ground where I had fallen after kind of twisting my ankle, because I wasn't paying attention to my footing. He kneeled down to come down to my level and he looked angry. "You know, if I had known you would be such a pain in my ass, I would have kicked you out of the camp right away. It would teach you a few things to fend for yourself in the wilderness." He sighed.

I gave him my best puppy-dog look. "It was only because you wouldn't let me come with you officially. Of course, the only option I had, was to follow you."

"Of course." He said, sarcastically. I tried to stand up on my foot and grimaced. It wasn't too painful, in fact, I was probably exaggerating a bit, but I wanted him to suffer. I wanted him to feel the guilt of causing me hurt. He was an empath - I am sure he would be upset by this.

"Let me see that." He said. He started poking and prodding my foot with his callused fingers, while I spent that time observing him. He was dressed in camouflage pants and a dark green shirt, with dark streaks of camo across his face. His hair was slicked back with something gel-like. He looked like a hero from one of those Hollywood movies that we used to watch before the world started falling apart and the celebrities enclosed themselves in their mansions to watch the reality tv show that is humanity's demise.

I forgot in all of that observation to pretend like his poking hurt me.

"Are you even hurt? It seems like everything you are doing right now is to waste time, and annoy me." Ooh, I have never seen him like this. He was actually outright enraged with me. Good. Now we are even.

"I'm sorry. I think my ankle's fine. Could I please tag along with you? I promise I will be good."

He glared at me. He knew that I knew that he wouldn't abandon anyone in a forest like this by themselves. He knows that I know that, and I am basically taking advantage of his weakness. But a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. Extreme circumstances call for extreme measures. And all of that jazz.

He sighed again and said, "Fine. But keep up. I'm not going to look back every few seconds to make sure you are fine. And also put some of this on your face - your face is glowing like the moon even in this darkness." He thrusted a tin of black goop towards me. I put some streaks on my face, mimicking him.

And a minute later, we were on our way.

He had a backpack that he had been carrying, which he now passed over to me. It wasn't heavy, but I was glad I was able to lighten his load a bit. The other bigger backpack that was on his back, god knows what it was filled with, but it seemed like it was heavy, and I was grateful to help him in any way I could.

We walked in silence.

There was really nothing to say. Nothing to talk about. The forest we were in, was one of the last few tree-covered areas in the district we were in.

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