A/n: UPDATE!
I will be having much more regular updates now that I am on holidays. I will be aiming to update once every three days, but that will depend on how quickly I can write the chapters. I hope you are all loving this story and actually like it. I try my best and can't wait until it is finished to see the final result!
Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter! And check out that song ^^^^ that's my song of the day choice!!!!!!!!
Enjoy! TaylorLeFay
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AND DON'T FORGET TO READ THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER!
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Chapter Sixty Nine:
I yawned as we walked quietly through the woods. The sun was rising around to the middle of the sky indicating that it was noon and still we walked through these treacherous woods. The screams slowly began to quieten around dawn as the sun began to rose. It gave me some assurance that we would not have to worry about the horrible creature as of right now.
Lucas walked along side me slowly as our bodies heaved and felt the pressure from all the running last night. I still felt it's affects from the scrapes along my arm and the numbing pounding pain in my head that has not relented since falling into the rock.
We were exhausted having no sleep, being awake all night. All I wanted to do was to drop but I forced myself to keep moving no matter how much my body begged me to rest.
I watched as the thick trees somewhat became thinner and hope began to gnarl within me along with my hunger as the approach of the end of the woods began to near. However, I was worried we would not making it out before nightfall.
We continued on, passing many bodies that littered the ground. I could never describe the smell, it consumed every part of me, the rotting of bodies and I felt tears well in my eyes every time I passed them.
It was terrible how so many had died so young.
I watched as the sun shone on Lucas's face and he closed his eyes as he welcomed it. His dark hair where usually was sticking out in many directions now laid plastered onto his head as it was drenched with sweat and blood from the night before.
Tiny little cuts peppered his face from the small bush he pulled us into and tiny insect bites loitered his arms as a result of the bush.
I watched as he breathed in deeply and out and continued to do so for another minute before he opening his eyes and stared straight ahead. "You know, its creepy to stare at someone for so long."
I felt my cheeks heat up before I quickly cooled them not allowing myself to become embarrassed. "I have a bone to pick with you."
"Really, do you now?" He faked shock as he turned towards me.
"I do."
"I wonder what for."
I closed my eyes briefly before opening them and staring at him as a grin grew on his face. "Are you a psychopath?"
"No," he replied fully knowing well that I was referring to his little knife trick last night that only proved to aggravate the beast. "I'd say I'm . . . creative."
"Yeah, pretty creative at making up different ways to die."
"I knew we wouldn't die."
"You could not have known that?" I exclaimed exasperated at this boys terrible logic.
He raised a brow at me and glanced around him spinning in a circle, his eyes darting between the trees and staring at the sunny sky above before resting back on me, looking me up and down. "Are we not still here?"
"But-," he cut me off and repeated his question.
"Are we not still here?"
"You couldn-," I tried again but he shook his head and faced forwards. "I rest my case."
It was silent for a few moments and I knew instantly he felt incredibly guilty after last night with his knife trick. Because even though it saved both our lives, the result of it was the death of the pair with us.
Even though he did not actively seek to kill them, I knew he would blame himself for their deaths and forever will bear the weight on his shoulders as he will with the drawstring bridge.
Faintly, the noise of birds tweeting and singing their harmonised songs echoed through the woods as I took a deep breath and said, "You know, it isn't your fault."
He hesitated for a moment and I saw the way he halted his movement before he continued walking. He was silent for a few moments and I watched the leafy floor and his boot connecting with a loose rock sending it flying into a nearby bush on the right, sat next to another one of the tall trees loitering the woods.
The sound of the birds singing paused as a breeze wafted by sending shivers down my spine as the woods became quite for a moment.
I watched as Lucas shook his head, his dark hair bouncing within the few strands that fell forwards, the rest sitting at a still from the recent haircut I had given him just before this test.
His shirt was coating in a layer of blood and leaves stuck to him like a second skin, no doubt from the bushes of last night. I could see his neck was peppered with tiny cuts and nicks from the small delicate branches of the bushes and he winced as he moved his head upwards from facing the ground to look straight ahead.
"No," he shook his head. "I knew what I was doing."
The breeze picked up once again and I wrapped my arms around myself before wincing and dropping them from the incredible pain in my arm where it was scraped and burning. My hair flew behind me but was restricted from the hairband keeping in place.
It helped fight against the sweat pooling around my neck and my body creating a stench of odour smelling so bad that I cringed whenever I caught a waft of it.
"Doesn't make it your fault." It wasn't his fault we were here. Was not his fault that all he was doing was surviving.
He took a deep breath.
"I might as well as held the knife to their neck myself."
He then picked up his pace and sped along the forest floor at a fast pace that I struggled to keep up with him. I watched as he slowly gained some distance between us and when he was around ten metres in front I screamed back to him.
"By not doing anything you would've been holding a knife to my own and your neck instead."
I watched again as his head cocked to the side fast and he paused in his stride before he shook his head and continued travelling forwards at a fast speed.
I kept up with him this time.
We were better off not staying in these woods any longer than what we needed to.
And we did not talk much after that.
The day continued by fast, as we were walking we found a stream and stopped for a bit to take a rest after our long night. We greedily drank from our canteens and after testing the water we refilled all our bottles making sure no bottle was left empty in the slightest.
From our rationed food we only ate a limited about being careful not to consume too much and more than what was required. After all of the running last night we had to sacrifice more of our food than we normally would've so we could keep our energy levels up.
We left quickly after not wanting to linger as the stream was no doubt going to attract more people than necessary and did not want to be caught in another life or death situation. I mean we never did in the first place, but after numerous scenarios I was happy with keeping the risky situations to a minimal.
We spoke very minimally but after a while we truly remained in silence wanting to conserve as much energy as possible. After going longer than twenty four hours without sleep and constantly moving, it make it harder to stay awake and alert and I felt myself grow more strained as every minute passed.
I had no idea how much longer I could last.