Kaely slept like a rock and woke around nine o'clock. She'd been asleep for so long, but it did her good. She was more alert now, but the room was kind of dark, so she groaned slightly and sat forward, rubbing her eyes with the palms of her hands. She let out a wide yawn and sighed, blinking heavily before looking around sleepily.
"And now she bloody wakes up," someone grumbled, and she frowned, looking around. The boys were all awake, sitting around the table with a single lamp lighting up a few pieces of paper scattered around its surface. She ran a hand through her hair to get it out of her face and brushed the covers off of her legs, slipping off the bed to trudge over to the four of them. She was curious now, as to what they were doing. If she was to be with them for a time, she wanted to know how they worked, what the process was. It might even save her one day.
"Put some damn pants on," Eliot scowled, covering his eyes. Kaely tilted her head sideways.
"Somehow," she replied, "I find it hard to believe that you haven't seen a woman's legs before. Also, I have some pants on." Eliot grumbled something else as Kaely approached, letting a small yawn escape her lips before sighing again. "What are you doing, anyway?" she asked. "The lights are all out, you're looking at a bunch of papers... what's going on?"
"We're planning our route," Leo told her, his eyes narrowed slightly as he looked down at the map in his hands. "Except I've put together reports of where the police are patrolling at what times, and it doesn't go well with any routes we can take to get to Sydney in time."
Kaely paused. "What's in Sydney?" she asked, confused. No one answered her, and she bit her lip. She had started by not trusting them, but now that they seemed to be the only people that didn't want her dead, she was starting to see the sense in co-operating with them. But now it seemed they didn't trust her, and she was trying not to be offended by this. Instead, she sighed and moved closer to one of the maps. She studied it for a moment, then took it from Leo, turning around to take it back to her bed. She sat on it with her legs crossed, the map before her, and she frowned harder. She saw all the routes that had been crossed off, and there seemed to be none left to take to get to Sydney without having to sit and wait for weeks on end for a police squad to leave. Then, she realised something.
"Guys, why have you been looking at getting to Sydney in the van?" she asked. "It's definitely not small enough to be inconspicuous, and certainly not fast enough to outrun the cops. So why haven't you thought of flight routes?"
The boys exchanged glances and Dex jumped up, coming to sit beside her to look at where her finger was pointing. "If we drive from here straight to Melbourne, then we can get on a plane and fly straight to Sydney from there. I've taken that trip before; it'll be about six hours to get to Melbourne without traffic, so if you park the van somewhere safe you can get to Sydney without wasting too much time, and just come back to the van after you're business is done. The flight won't be long, so you'll get to Sydney in under eight hours if you leave tomorrow. I'll even check some flights now."
Dex looked up at Leo and Leo shrugged. "They wouldn't think we'd have money after this long," he replied. "The security at the airport won't be hard to get through. This is the best route, I think."
"Do you know ever think about the future?" Kaely asked as she searched up possible flights for the next day; around one in the afternoon which would give them enough time to drive to Melbourne from Pinnaroo if they left in the morning.
"Not really," Eliot admitted. "It's kind of just now that we think about. Anything else will make us hesitate."
Jared – who had been quiet since Kaely woke up – stood suddenly, grabbed his coat and went for the door.
"Hey, wait, where are you going?"
"For a walk," Jared replied gruffly, shrugging into his coat and snapping the collar up around his neck as he swung the door open and slid out into the darkness of the night, shutting the door firmly behind him. Kaely's eyes lingered over the doorway for a few moments, her eyes filled with an emotion she couldn't quite identify.
"Flights, Kaely?" Eliot interrupted her thoughts, and she tore her eyes away from the door and back down at her phone, nodding her head quickly.
"Yes," she replied. "Okay, um... there's one right here. Tomorrow, one o'clock, for the five of us. Quite cheap, too. We can reach Melbourne with time to spare if we leave early in the morning, preferably around six. Is that good?"
"Yep," Dex confirmed, taking the map and rolling it up, sliding off of Kaely's bed to go over to the table and put the map back down in front of Eliot and Leo.
"Then we leave at six," Leo agreed. "Which means sleep now."
"Yeah, I second that," Eliot yawned, rising from table to sink into his bed.
"What about Jared?" Kaely asked curiously, turning to look at the door again.
"He can handle himself," Dex answered, clearly amused at her reaction. "He'll be back when we're all asleep, no doubt."
Kaely simply nodded and pulled the covers of her bed up around her waist, turning over to face the wall as the light on the table flicked off and everyone settled into their own sleeping pattern.
She didn't even realise she had fallen asleep until she heard the shouting.
She sat bolt upright, her eyes aching from being interrupted so abruptly. She turned her head, her hair falling down in front of it and she slid out of bed as soon as she saw that the light was on and no one was in their beds. Kaely then turned to the floor and saw Jared lying on his back, his eyes rolled up to the back of his head. Dex was trying to wake him up. Her eyes filled with alarm as soon as she registered the situation, but just as soon as she'd slipped out of bed, someone was turning her around and wrapping her in a long coat, opening the door.
"Don't come in until I get you," Eliot murmured quietly to her, and she frowned, her eyes widening even more.
"What?" she demanded. "What's going on? Is he okay? Eliot!"
But she was still guided out of the room and it shut behind her, leaving her to stand outside with nothing but a pair of tights and a coat to keep her warm from the coldness of the night around her. It couldn't have been any earlier than two in the morning, and the moon was shining above her, leaving the sky around her in an eerie silence. This let her think about what she'd seen
What the hell was that?
Kaely fought against her curiosity and let out a deep sigh, turning to walk over to the van. As she reached it, she leaned against it with her legs pressed against the cold metal behind her. She tugged the coat tighter around her body, covering as much as she could to avoid any awkward encounters. But she wasn't expecting anyone to be walking past her at this time of the night. Who would be stupid enough, apart from herself?
No matter how much she tried to distract herself, her mind slipped back to Jared every time, until she finally gave in. What was wrong with him? She'd never seen anything like that before, and it really scared her.
She looked down and realised that she was wearing Jared's jacket; the one he snapped on last night when he went out for a walk. When he stormed out, not telling anyone where he was going. Kaely was curious about Jared, but it was too early in the day to be thinking about it seriously. She knew something was going on, but she didn't want to care at the moment. She just wanted to sleep; she could think about it when they were in the van a few hours later. If, however, what was happening to Jared wasn't going to be a problem. She wondered if this was a normal thing for him, but then again, how would he be able to live like that? She wouldn't.
The door to their room opened and Eliot stepped out, seeing Kaely leaning against the van. He trudged over to her, his hands in his pockets with his head downcast. When he reached her, he moved to lean against the van beside her and lifted his head slightly, his sapphire-coloured eyes full of what could only be recognised as pain.
"What's happening to him?" Kaely asked, her voice quiet in the night.
"He doesn't like people to know," Eliot explained, crossing his arms beside her, "but he has problems when he sleeps. Do you remember when I said I wanted these people to pay for what happened in Perth?"
Kaely's ears perked up. "Does it have something to do with that?" she asked, her curiosity piping. Eliot nodded grimly.
"Unfortunately," he muttered, "it has everything to do with that. See, it was just after we'd come home to find Mike dead. We didn't know that we were being threatened yet, because we didn't think we'd heard anything serious. But we found out there. So, after Mike's funeral, we decided we needed a break and went down down to the local oval. They were playing cricket, and the team we barracked for was winning. So we stayed and watched. Eventually, I got up to go to the toilet. Dex went with Leo to get us some food. We can't have been gone long, but when we came back, Jared was- he was..."
Eliot had to stop. It looked like he was tyring to choke the words out; he really didn't want to talk about it.
"You don't have to tell me," Kaely said gently. "I don't need to know."
"Yes, you do," he mumbled, a hand to his forehead as he cleared his throat and tried again. "So, we came back, and the whole game had stopped in its tracks. The field was silent. Jared was in the middle of the field, holding the body of our high school coach in his arms. His head had been- he'd been sniped, from a business building nearby. It was horrible; Jared had been standing right next to him, apparently. When his head... it got all over him."
"So that's how his nightmares started?" Kaely asked, mortified. But Eliot shook his head.
"There's more," he rasped. "They found the gun in the dumpster behind the building. It had my fingerprints on it. Information was later passed on that Leo and Dex were heard discussing the plan. "Eliot is going to shoot in five minutes. Dalton is in position, distracting the coach. We should get out of here before we're seen." Apparently, they had a recording of that very conversation."
Kaely's hand went to her mouth. "They didn't believe it was you, did they?" she whispered, and Eliot shrugged.
"Of course they did. They had nothing else to go on. The people that did this... they were talented. Experienced. Real assassins. After that, we sent our families overseas as the real threats started. Since then, they've killed over forty of our old acquaintances; all people we used to know or have had a conversation with. And we were blamed for it all."
"Do you have an idea of who could be behind it?" Kaely asked, nervous all of a sudden. This was big news; as far as the rest of Australia knew, these boys were all mass murderers. And she was helping them. "What about the people in the courtroom you overheard? Do you know who they were?"
"No, none of us got a good look," he muttered, glancing away. Kaely frowned, shrugging off his sudden mood change.
"So you're being hunted down because the whole of Australia is intent on believing that you – four guys a few years out of school – are behind the murders of all your old associates?"
Eliot sighed. "It's a strange world, isn't it?" he murmured.
"So that's why Jared freaks out when he sleeps?" Kaely asked finally, trying to keep the silence at bay. Eliot nodded.
"Having your old coach's head splattered all over your face would do that to you, too," he said darkly. "He'd known no death before that, except for Mike. And this man's head just exploded right in front of him. I'm rather surprised it didn't make him insane."
Kaely bowed her head. "I'm so sorry," she mumbled, but Eliot just smirked, his old self back again.
"We should probably be apologising to you," he admitted, amused. "We've just dragged you through hell backwards, and now you're wanted across Australia."
Kaely smiled. "I must admit," she told him, "I am rather annoyed at being cheated out of a normal life. But at least you guys are looking after me. I can't imagine how I would've gone if you hadn't busted me out of the Police station back in Adelaide. I never really had anyone I could talk to like this, either. I guess, in a weird way, it's kind of nice."
"What about that girl you were working with in the café back in Adelaide?"
"Work colleague," Kaely explained. "Not really a friend, just someone I see everyday at work. I don't suppose she knows I'm missing, though. She was only on shift in the morning yesterday."
"She'll know," Eliot assured her, then tilted his head sideways. "What's up with you and Jared?"
Kaely frowned at him and opened her mouth to speak, but Leo poked his head out the door and beckoned to them, so Eliot nodded and took Kaely's arm, gently leading her back to their room.
"I expect an answer later," he murmured in her ear, and she rolled her eyes before stepping inside the room, rubbing her cold hands together in an attempt to warm them from the cool breeze of outside. When she got inside, she saw Dex and Jared sitting side-by-side against the wall next to the bathroom; Jared had his head in his arms, and Dex was murmuring something to him, so she kept her eyes downcast and stepped towards her bed. She dropped Jared's jacket on the end of her bed before sitting at the other end, crossing her legs under the covers. It was quiet for a moment, until the end of the bed dipped and Kaely looked up to find Jared sitting across from her, his eyes weary and tired but gentle all the same. The others stood at the other side of the room, talking quietly to each other. Kaely didn't need to hear them to know they were talking about Jared.
"Are you okay?" he murmured, and Kaely looked at him.
"Am I okay?" she asked. "You cannot be asking me that."
"I'm sorry," he sighed, raking his hair out of his face. "I probably should have told you but I didn't because I'm selfish. I've been told that a lot."
"No, don't apologise," Kaely told him. "I just wish you wouldn't... ugh, I don't know."
"No, tell me," Jared pressed, eyes now curious. "I want to know what you're thinking."
She bit her lip, not wanting to make eye contact. "Don't you think it hurts them when you lie?"
Jared looked down. He knew what she was talking about. "I know," he murmured, but Kaely shook her head.
"I don't think you do," she said. "If you did, you wouldn't be holding this brick wall up to everyone who tries to talk to you."
"I don't want anyone else's blood on my hands," Jared said finally, leaning back as he said this. "I can't handle it; imagine how they must be feeling. I can't bother them with this, it'd kill me to know they're suffering for me."
"But that just leaves you to suffer alone," she said quietly, looking up at him. "If you let them in, they can help you. We can help you."
"We?" he echoed, and Kaely glanced sideways at the others.
"I want to help, Jared," she murmured to him. "I used to be this shy, lonely girl who served people coffee every second day. I haven't done anything with my life; my parents are dead, and I was left in their place but I've nothing to show for it. I want my life to have some kind of meaning before it's taken away from me. And if that meaning is helping you, so be it."
"You would help us?" he whispered. "After what we've done?"
"You haven't done anything wrong, Jared," she argued. "You're being framed; you cannot hold yourself responsible for everything they're doing to you. You can only survive. And you can't survive without family. You have to let them in."
He glanced up at her, but didn't respond. Kaely understood this as him processing her words; that meant he was listening to her. It would take time, but it would be well worth the wait.
Kaely looked at him as she spoke. "What happened in Perth... Eliot told me. Is it true?"
Jared tightened slightly, but nodded nonetheless, not saying anything. Her heart clenched in her chest at his reaction, and she instinctively reached her hands out, clasping Jared's in her own.
"Their deaths are not your fault," she told him, and he met her gaze with something sparkling in his irises that Kaely couldn't quite put her finger on. "And they aren't all dead; I'm still here."
They held this position for what felt like a lifetime to Kaely. She was trying to figure out that emotion, that one little spark she didn't recognise. When she realised where they were and what they were in the middle of, however, she caught herself.
Kaely blinked and bowed her head slightly, taking her hands back to herself. Jared, in turn, reacted similarly and stood from the edge of Kaely's bed, turning to join the boys in on the other side of the room. She let out a deep sigh and ran her hands through her hair, settling them in a comfortable position on top of her head before dropping them and lying down in her bed and turning away from the wall. She tucked the sheets up under her arms and was sleeping before she knew it.