Listen while you read:
Ava - Famy
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The sun beginning to rise as the girls we now close to the mountains. The cool air hitting their skin causing goosebumps to rise. Empty roads were the only thing for miles. From their view they could see the smoke from the now put out fire. Normani lowered her yellow bandana as her brown eyes lingered on the dark smoke rising.
"You think we should go back for our weapons?" Normani asked as she halted her horse. The other two stopped as well and turned around to see the smoke.
Dinah lowered her white bandana, "No, the fire most likely attracted creos and now even more becuase of all that smoke."
"What do you think caused it?"
Dinah sighed, "Maybe they left the stove on."
"Or they started it and hoped we'd burn." Normani said not so quietly causing Dinah to eye her.
"I doubt that, Mani, they fed us and gave us a place to stay."
"Doesn't change anything though. We were still prisoners who they didn't fully trust." Dinah ignored her friend's remark and continued on the journey. Normani and Lauren glanced at one another before following behind the Polynesian.
In that moment, Dinah began thinking of the possibility of Dylan's group setting the fire. After all they were still unsure if Dinah, Normani, and Lauren were part of FoL. If Dylan's group was that skeptical about wether or not they were part of that horrible group then they might have started the fire. Louis and Dylan were the only ones who didn't seem so fond of the girls stay. After that night of sharing stories maybe they went paranoid and thought the girls would do something to betray them.
Dinah had to shake these thoughts because there was no way Liam, Lily, and Cole could have let that happen. They were comfortable with their stay from the start. Dinah needed to have some faith in the first group if people that they had run into.
After riding for a few hours, they all came to a stop in the Yosemite mountains near the water fall. The three of them filled their canteens and allowed the horses to drink as well. Dinah sat on a rock resting for a few minutes as the mist of the water fall moistened her skin. Normani was petting the horses as she looked around for Lauren, who she later found drinking straight from the stream. The Texan smiled as her friend was now taking their general worry of her health into action by staying hydrated.
Lauren then stood up and wiped her face dry and began walking out of the stream carefully stepping on the wet rocks. When she was almost out Lauren misplaced her footing and slipped causing a splash and catching the attention of her two friends.
"Lauren!" Normani yelled running to the stream as Dinah hopped off the rock she was sitting on to attend her friend.
Normani was the first to arrive and smiled seeing Lauren sitting in the water while Dinah arrived, standing next to her.
"Are you okay?" The Californian giggled.
Lauren sighed and looked around at the water flowing pass her. Then with a scoop of water she splashed the two women who stood in front of her. Normani gasped as Dinah shrieked followed by soft giggles.
One thing that surprised both women was that Lauren was smiling and giggled. They spurred the moment and jumped in the water with Lauren and began splashing each other full of laughs and smiles. Lauren stood up and began splashing both her friends that were now attacking her with the cool liquid.
Suddenly the sound of the horses in a panic caused them all to stop and run to check on the animals. As they neared Lauren's horse they seen a short blonde haired woman with brown roots digging into the bag that was on the horse.
"Hey!" Dinah yelled causing the woman's brown eyes to go wide as she held up her machete.
"Whoa. Just take it easy. We're all trying to survive too." Normani spoke with her hands out in front of her.
The short woman held out her machete in front of her pointing it at each woman. The look of shock and anger still on her face.
Normani furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, "Maybe she doesn't talk? Maybe she's like Lauren." The green eyed woman knitted her eye brows and glanced at Normani. "No offense."
"Look we don't wanna hurt you. Just let us help you." Dinah said calmly, but the short woman didn't budge. "We don't even have weapons."
Suddenly the woman's expression changed and eyed all three women, "Way to go, Dinah." Normani said sarcastically.
Suddenly the short woman ran towards Normani with her machete held high. Out of reaction Dinah quickly pushed Normani out of the way and held the woman's arm. Lauren acted a bit later than usual and took the woman's arm and pushed her off Dinah.
"Thanks, Lo." Dinah said releasing a breath of relief.
Lauren flashed Dinah a smile, but was soon knocked down by the petit woman. She straddled Lauren delivering a punch to her face and rose the machete up high. Dinah and Normani were quick to act and attempted to take the woman off Lauren, but she was fast and began swinging her machete at both women and only managing to cut Dinah's arm. The Polynesian fell back as blood began to trickle down her forearm causing Normani to quickly run to her side.
Lauren noticed Dinah's injury and suddenly her adrenaline kicked in and she delivered a hard punch to the woman's jaw knocking her off of Lauren, who quickly stood up. As the woman began getting up, Lauren kicked her in her stomach causing the dirty blonde woman to release her weapon, that Normani quickly picked up with a shaky bloody hand. Lauren stepped behind Normani who now had rage burning in her brown eyes targeting the small woman who was on the floor holding her stomach in pain. Lauren took out her black bandana and tied it around Dinah's arm.
"I should fucking kill you right now, but your lucky the entire human race is hanging on the thread of extinction." Normani said angrily pointing the machete at its owner.
"Normani." Dinah said once Lauren helped her up.
Normani turned around for a moment glancing at the youngest and turned back to glare at the short woman who attacked them. "What do you wanna do with her?" The former track star asked as the short woman began to stand up.
Dinah walked up to Normani and took the machete, throwing it at the woman's feet. The woman looked up at Dinah confused as did Normani.
"Next time we won't be so considerate." Dinah said turning back around while Normani kept an eye on the woman, who now picked up her weapon and fled the scene. "The horses are done resting. How about you guys?"
"Yeah, I'm good." Normani said and looked at Lauren who nodded. "Let's go before she decides to come back."
The three girls mounted their horses and were off once more. They followed the trail where it lead to a few information building where they stopped once more on Lauren's account. The dark haired woman dismounted her horse and held up her finger to the other two as she walked into the building.
The inside of the building was bright. The sun rays illuminating the dusty building. Old pictures of trees and history information, but that wasn't what Lauren was in there for. In the far back we're two vending machines that were covered in dust. She smiled to herself and looked around to make sure she was alone. The building had no rooms so it was nothing to worry about.
Nearing the machines she wiped off some of the thick dust to see what each machine held. In the first one were drinks, but Lauren disregarded that. In the second one were snacks and candy. This made the woman smile from ear to ear. She took a few steps back and rammed her foot into the glass. Lauren smiled as she grabbed a few chips, candy bars, and all of the granola bars. She placed them in her satchel and was off to join her friends, who waited patiently near their horses. Lauren smiled as she neared both women, handing them bags of snacks.
"Lauren, you are amazing." Normani smiled.
"Nice, Lo, these granola bars are gonna keep us energized all day." Dinah smiled as Lauren switched the snacks into the horse bag. "Did it look good in there?" Lauren nodded. "Then I say we settle there. Bring the horses inside with us just in case."
"What about dinner? I don't know about you, but I'm trying to make these snacks last." Normani asked.
"We'll go out and look for something. We'll have to use what we got." Dinah paused as she looked around. "What do we got?" Dinah asked as Lauren then pulled out the steak knife from the farm causing Dinah to sigh in disappointment.
"No, that's a good thing actually because we can use the knife to sharpen sticks." Normani smiled.
"That's not a bad idea. Lauren, you go sharpen a few sticks and Normani and I will try to start a fire." The youngest smiled.
Lauren nodded with a smile before she walked to nearby tree and grabbed onto one of the branches and putting her whole weight on it until it broke off.
"Looks like she's finally coming around." Normani smiled as she and Dinah watched their quiet friend sit underneath the tree and sharpen the stick.
Dinah sighed, "Yeah, but we shouldn't push it. We might go too far and make her go back to how she was before."
"She has a really nice smile." Normani said remembering the wide smile that reached Lauren's eyes.
Dinah smiled, "And a cute little giggle." She said before her smile faded. "Hey what did you two talk about last night when she left the dinner table?"
Normani rose an eye brow at Dinah before scoffing, "Dinah, you know there is no conversating with her. All I did was tell her that some people don't understand how hard it is to be out here for so long and to lose someone close to you. After that she hugged me and cried a little. I think she just really needed to be reminded that we understand her and know what she's been through because we have a similar story."
Dinah stared off into space as the reality of Normani's words sank. Lauren has been through a lot, but who hasn't for the people who've been out in the open since the start of it all. Not only Lauren, but Dinah as well needed to hear that because Normani and Lauren are all she has left.
*****
The sun was setting and the three still hadn't found anything to catch for food. Lauren's green eyes carefully examined every piece of land that she crossed. Dinah and Normani were behind her, spread out to search more ground. Dinah held her stick pointed out in case she spotted anything. Once the three heard a twig snap, they all halted and rose their spears as they crouched.
Near the tall oak tree was a deer, who was carefully treading along the dirt path. Lauren, being the closest, began nearing the white spotted animal silently. The animal paused for a moment and began eating at the small patches of grass. Lauren took this moment and stood up, shooting her arm forward towards the deer. Loud running was all they heard followed by sighs.
"It's okay, Lo, we'll find something else." Dinah said as they continued walking not far from their camp.
A few minutes later, squirrels began to emerge from the woods and quickly climb up trees. Dinah and Normani were quick to act and threw their sticks, catching four squirrels.
"The odds are in our favor today." Normani smiles picking their catch.
After they all walked back to their camp site they were all mildly surprised that everything was still there and the woman who attacked them wasn't following. Lauren placed more dry grass and sticks to their small fire to keep it from dying. Normani and Dinah joined their silent friend a few minutes later with their catch on sticks. Each of them sat and ate in silence for a moment until Dinah began to chuckle.
Both Normani and Lauren eyed the Polynesian in confusion, "What's up with you?" Normani said unable to hold back a smile.
"Your face when Lauren splashed you." Dinah giggled.
Suddenly the silent room was filled with soft laughs from each woman.
"I'm gonna get you back, Lo." Normani chuckled as Lauren simply smiled.
Night came soon, the fire died out and each girl took a spot on the floor to sleep. The horse outside found a soft patch of grass to sleep in. Dinah's soft snores could be heard echoing in the room.
Lauren sat in the corner of the room and sighed deeply. She pulled out the steak knife and began carving L.M.J into the wall.
Lauren wasn't tired even though she got little to no sleep. She knew they wouldn't survive long with their weapons. The green eyed woman thought long and hard for a moment.
Suddenly Lauren walked out the door and placed a large log near the door, but given the fact that there were large windows that surrounded the building, it seemed like a silly thought and removed it. She knew she wouldn't take long and grabbed her horse, taking off in the dead of night.
A/N:
Hey guys I hope you're enjoying thus far. Looks like the girls ran into some trouble. Maybe trouble that could help them, who knows?
So what are your thoughts on why the house went up in flames? Was it really Dylan and Louis or could it have been an accident?
Don't forget to comment/vote/share. Thank you for being so supportive I love reading your comments.
Stay beautiful.
-Steph