The Runaways

Chapter Fifteen - We Can Be Good Sometimes

When it started to get late we all got ready for bed. Warren had fallen asleep on the couch hours before any of us. Cleveland claimed the spot next to him and curled himself into a little ball. It was certainly odd for him to be so comfortable in that position, seeing this guy was like six foot six and had the build of a pro football player yet he was most comfortable curled up into this "tiny" ball.
I made myself comfortable on the floor by the couch laying on a pile of pillows with two blankets covering me. It was much better to sleeping on the cold ground of a tent. Especially with it starting to get colder and colder out. It wouldn't be long til it started snowing.
The winters have always been hard. Food is scarce and you can never seem to be warm enough. People always get sick and weak from starving in the cold. Without any heat and with most people unable to even have proper housing it's not uncommon to be traveling in the winter and stumble across a couple of bodies along the way.

"Elias! Elias wake up!"
I woke up in the middle of the night to Corban shaking me awake. It was still dark out and I was still very tried.
"What?" I tiredly groaned as I sat up. When I look up Warren, Cleveland, and Remington were anxiously staring out the windows. Reece was sitting up on the floor tiredly wiping her eyes, "What's going on..?"
"Syndicates," Remington breathed, "I thought they wouldn't come this far... we need to get out of here now,"
I stand up and look out the window only to see a gruesome scene. Syndicates everywhere standing illuminated in bright organs light from the town thy set a blaze, their signature white and red masks were everywhere. I could see some tearing children away from their parents as they began raiding threw the houses on the outskirts of town. All the older men and woman who could not be of use were being lined up in front of a firing squad and being shot, right where their screaming children could watch. Their houses were being burned. Syndicates threw burning pieces of wood into houses while others doused the house lighter fluid and throwing matches at its base setting the house up in flames.
"Grab your guys shit, we need to leave," Remington said as he pushed away from the window and ran into the kitchen to grab as much as he could.
"What about her?" Warren asked as he pointed to the unconscious woman tied up on the floor, "We can't leave her here to die,"
"Leave her! She'll be fine!" Remington called from the kitchen as he frantically went threw the cabinets.
I started getting together stuff around this woman's house I thought I could use, I looked back at Cleveland and Warren seeing them whispering to each other before Cleveland leaned forward and picked up the woman and threw her over his back. Okay great we had to bring her now. Whatever it didn't matter those two would be gone soon.
After we quickly went around grabbing anything of value we quickly fled from the back door of the house and headed towards a cluster of trees behind the house. As we walked at a fast pace I turned around watching the house start to go put up in flames, I'm Glad someone was keeping watch and was able to alert everyone.
We ended up safely making our way to the forest where me and Reece tried to argue we'd be safe if we climbed in the trees to sleep since we were both tired but the others all agreed that would be too risky with Syndicates so close by. So we kept walking, and walking, and walking. At some point Cleveland set the woman down and untied all her restraints. Hopefully when she woke up she wouldn't be to upset about her house getting burned down.
I was extremely tired and wanted to go back to sleep. Warren looked like he was in a rough shape too. Tripping over his feet and sometimes reaching out and putting a hand on Cleveland's arm to stabilize himself. Cleveland asked him many times if he wanted to be carried but Warren insisted he could do it on his own.
"Can we please stop soon," Reece groans, "We've been walking for ages and I'm so tired,"
"Yeah, I think we're finally far enough away from the Syndicates," I yawn.
"We should keep moving," Remington muttered.
"Warren literally looks like he's about to pass out," Reece argues.
"I'm fine." Warren grumbled.