It didn't take us long to get everything packed and ready, but each minute that past had Lucas on edge even more.
His breaths were heavy, his hands becoming steadily shakier. Once or twice, I had to give his arm a gentle squeeze to calm him down.
I grabbed my hat and threw it on along with my coat, tugging the zip up with my own shaky hands.
"Come on... We need to hurry." I let out an unsteady breath, nodding along with him and walking out of the door ahead of him.
Our hands interlocked when we rushed down the gravel path, following it out of the woods and walking until we hit the main track. This part was large enough for a car to drive on, the two bare sections of track to the edges with the centre of it lined by grass. It was obvious that it was driven on, not regularly but enough for the outlines of the car tires to still be evident in the partly dried mud.
I was being half dragged by Lucas, my knee still aching so I couldn't keep up my pace with him easily.
Eventually we came to a split in the road, one section veers off to the right further into the valley with the winding stream in the centre of it. Curling its way through before disappearing between low bushes and boulders.
I can still hear it though, the noise rippling quietly.
The other side, away from the valley levels out. Switching to the rolling fields we had seen before, each field lined by those same low almost natural rickety stoned walls.
The sun was high in the sky now, the previous morning frost that I'd noticed on the windows in the cottage had gone, leaving us with a moderately mild day. The deep blue sky rising high above us, a few scatterings of cirrus clouds present, wispy and bright white in colour.
"Which way?" I switch my look between each root, it's not like we knew which direction the farm would be.
But then I look down before nudging my elbow into Lucas' side.
"Look." I said, pointing down to the ground where the smudges of footprints were in the drying mud.
This time, looking down at it I notice the singular tyre track beside the footprints also seemingly heading in the direction of the fields alongside the footprints, I glanced up at Lucas. He was already staring down at them too, mumbling an okay before quickly diverting off to the right.
"He had a bike?" My voice wobbled in nerves, it wouldn't take him long to get back and find us missing.
Not looking back and pulling me along with him, he mumbled again. "Maybe. We don't know for sure."
There seemed to be a lot of things we didn't know for sure.
The bag jostled on his shoulders when he marched down the road, looking back in paranoia every so often.
Except now the split in the road was behind us, falling away with the drop in the road we were in. The track moving closer to the stream, its noises increasing in volume. Apart from that, it's eerily quiet.
We had no idea where we were really, the only thing we could hope for at this point is that we'd meet a village sooner rather than later. Or more, reach it before Fallen reached us.
Birds chirped loudly from the high rising trees to our right, leading up the hillside forcing my head to snap up that way. Searching the gaps in the trees, at the incline and every crevice of the rock face that produced a shadow.
I felt nervous, that kind of nervousness that made you feel sick to the stomach.
It's silent between us, the only sounds we're making are our boots skidding along the road. Occasionally, or more often than not, Lucas looks back in search of Fallen chasing after us.
I guess he had the most to fear out of the both of us, even if he didn't really know it, Fallen did try to kill him.
Although I'm not sure he would have done it.
Or maybe I'm just hoping he wouldn't have done it, that he was just pretending to, to get me to follow him without an issue.
Maybe if Lucas actually knew what happened when he was unconscious, he'd probably be even more worried than he is now.
I was biting my cheek, trying to remove the ache in my knee as I tried to keep up with him. He was right to drag me along, we didn't know how much time we had and I wasn't sure exactly what he would do if he did find us.
I wish I could run but I could only jog a couple of paces every so often to keep up with his long strides before my knee couldn't handle it anymore.
But as we walk further and further away, a feeling of dread settles on my chest. It's growing gradually till it's heavy and restricting my breathing. It's because I can't stop thinking, about what we're doing and the things that Fallen said.
"Lucas." His head tilted back slightly, murmuring a yeah before continuing forward.
"You really think that whatever out there is any safer than back with Fallen? Should we be walking back into public? What if that's where these people are?" I fired each question one after the other, more to myself then anything as I tried to work through them in my head.
I was becoming more and more unsure about what we were doing. Even if we didn't stay with Fallen, would risking going straight into the hands of these other people be any better? Would they be worse than Fallen?
How could we make a decision without knowing enough about both sides of it?
"I don't know. We just need to get as far away from him as possible at this point... I don't care what direction." He shouted, tugging on my hand again to bring me closer to him.
"I understand you're scared! So am I!" I raised my own voice at him, "But we need to think clearly."
He refused to even look at me, pushing himself on further. I chased after him, feet grinding on the dirt and stones beneath me to bring myself in front of him
The wind picks up sending a chill over me in the moment, I ignore it and wrap a hand around his wrist to stop him. Blocking him from walking any further, enough so he drops his head to mine in frustration.
"Fallen hasn't even got a plan! I don't want to be stuck inside that cottage for the rest of my life... do you!?" I shake my head.
"No, I don't... and I'm not saying going back with him is what we should do. But we need a game plan, we can't just walk into populated areas." I pause for a second, "Quinn, that night. He was looking for the microchip. He kept asking where it was, so clearly, what Fallen is saying is true. There's people out there and they want it."
I look right at him, analysing the dark bags under his eyes and the remnants of bruises that peek out from the thick stubble growing on his face. His green eyes bore into mine, looking up briefly over my head to think it over, but the minute he did, they widened. The whites of his eyes became vivid and shocked.
Before I knew it, he wrapped me into his body and twisted us around. He does it so quickly he forces us both to the ground, I have to close my eyes ready for impact.
BANG
My back hit the floor first, the weight of Lucas throwing my head into the ground as well. The palms of his hands either side of my head, preventing him from landing his chin directly into my nose.
Lucas scrambled up from above me, still bending down and grabbing my arms, pulling me up.
It was so fast I didn't understand.
"RUN!" He shouted.
Run from what!?
I don't get a chance to say anything because he's pushing me forwards back in the direction of the cottage.
BANG
What the fuck was that?
My heart clenched in my chest, ducking my head.
Another two loud echoes through the valley and Lucas dropped beside me.
I skidded back; heart dropping right down into the base of my stomach, He's holding his arm with blood pooling from in-between his fingers. It had gone through the rucksack into his arm.
I turned to look behind me, spotting a man running towards us now. Worse is the gun in his hand that's obvious even from here. My heart rate skyrockets, I almost freeze seeing him rounding the corner, where the hillside ducked outwards and hid him from view.
He was sprinting towards us, getting closer and closer.
"Get up!" I shouted at Lucas on the floor, but he wasn't fast enough. Shock evident in his features as he clutched harder onto his arm, breathing rapidly and his shoulders fight against the rucksack weighing him down.
I tried to get my hand under his shoulders to lift him, scuffling along the ground. I didn't get a chance to get him on his knees before I'm pulled backwards to the ground. His arm slipping from my shoulder, and I don't get a chance to get away either because an arm is wrapped around my neck, and he's dragged me up from the ground.
In the corner of my eye, my hands pulling at the arm I can see the gun being lifted towards Lucas on the ground.
Shit, shit, shit!
I managed to twist myself into him, slipping out of his tight hold before grabbing the gun. Pushing it down to the floor and jamming my elbow up into his chin, forcing him to let out a grunt of pain.
BANG
It went off again.
Lucas yelled in pain.
Using the recoil of the gun loosening his grip, I get it out of his hands before throwing it across the dirt track away from the both of us, his eyes following it quickly.
I tried not to think about Lucas on the ground and his pained shout.
It didn't matter what was happening with him if I didn't stop this man from killing the both of us. I used his distraction to connect my fist into his nose, snapping his head back from the force before landing another into his jaw.
And god did it sting, splitting the skin at my knuckles from the force.
I don't think too much about it, my brain fixated on the man in front of me whose intentions seemed clear. My knee came up to hit him between the legs except nothing made contact because my head dizzied from his quick punch right into my temple.
The sheer force knocked the breath out of me, rattling my brain in my skull so my eyes take a second to adjust. Even then, I could just make out the sounds of Lucas fumbling and groaning in pain behind us.
I shake my head, stumbling on my feet trying to keep myself upright.
His knee lifts, hitting me in the ribs forcing a gasp from my lips and I only just stop myself from falling to the ground. He went to throw another punch into my temple looking to knock me to the ground, but I managed to slip a shoulder and dodge it, landing my own fist into his stomach.
I'd hoped it would have some effect, but it was like hitting a brick wall, it didn't seem to faze him in the slightest.
He grabbed my ducked shoulders, using them to push me backwards.
He kept pushing me back till my feet tripped over themselves, sending us backwards and onto the floor.
In the chaos I get him under me and I don't waste a second in smashing a fist directly into his eye socket. It swelled almost immediately, and his head ricocheted off the ground. I landed another after another, and I thought I was winning. I thought he was giving up and I thought maybe the blood that crept into the crevices of my knuckles might mean that I had the advantage.
I didn't, he was manipulating his legs behind me on the ground, which is made evident when he quickly catches my leg and flips us over.
When he has the advantage, his determined expression looming over me, he doesn't waste a second either. Barely giving me the chance to protect myself as his fist slammed into my face, the back of my head smacking against the ground for the second time. I wriggled as much as I could, boots grating along the gravel and stretching out along the ground to try and get him away.
None of it's working and he's relentless.
Now that he has the advantage, there's nothing stopping him. Not my arms desperately trying to defend myself and not the scratches I manage to indent into his forearms.
His legs mounted my hips, pushing down on them so I couldn't move, and all my legs could manage was to kick out pathetically behind him.
"Stop." I nearly said please too but all he did was grin menacingly. I couldn't get any other words out because every second he's hitting me knocks them right back out of my mouth again in the form of grunts of pain.
He easily slapped away any of my panicked punches, returning each one with his own. Leaving my head feeling lighter and lighter from the multiple hits accompanied with the ground below.
Suddenly he pauses, my head throbbing and my eyes shaking.
"Where is he?" I shake my head, trying to get up.
As soon as I get my elbows under me to lift myself up even a little, he pushes me back down, it doesn't seem like he even has to try against my weak arms.
Before I could really say anything else, his hands clamped around my throat. His thumbs pressing down hard, immediately cutting off any air to my lungs.
I instantly grabbed at his hands, tensing up and cutting into his skin in panic. Opening my mouth and desperately hoping that some air will bypass his obstructing hands.
It doesn't, wheezing sounds escape my throat as I tried pulling on his arms to get him off.
I didn't know how to do this... Fallen was right.
Oh shit... Fallen was right.
"He's got to be around here somewhere, and I'm not letting go until he's here." Somehow as he says that his grip grows even stronger.
I couldn't breathe anymore, and my lungs screamed so loud at me in pain that I scratched even more at his hands in desperation. My eyes flitting to the side urgently looking for something, my fingers scrambled out against the ground beside me, searching back and forth in panic until I get hold of a rock, small and sharp in the palm of my hand.
"I need the both of you." He's grumbling to himself, clearly growing tired by the force.
My visions blackening around the edges but I can still hear the sounds of my boots grating along the stones on the ground because I'm trying so hard to get him off me.
He's too heavy and I don't know how to do this.
I don't know how to get out of this.
"Let go!" Lucas shouted from somewhere, but the hands pressing my neck further down into the painful stones beneath me made it clear that was the last thing he was going to do.
The dark edges to my vision grew even more cloudy, the rest of my vision becoming more blurred till the only thing I can see are the pair of brown eyes staring right back at me with determination. It took the very last of my willpower to bring the rock up and land it into his temple hard.
He winced loosening his grip just slightly, a tiny trickle of air passing through but it's not enough. Now he lifts his head up higher away from any further attempts, tightening his grip once again as the shock dissipated.
I tried again to breathe but there's nothing.
He looked satisfied down at me, my hand dropping back down into the dirt and mud beside me.
"Go to fucking sleep." He pushes down at each word that grunts from his lips, frustrated and angry as he spits down at me.
My legs are falling limp.
No.
This can't be it.
No.
I etch a nail against his hand but it's trailing rather than digging in now and I think I might be crying.
No, No, No.
This can't be it!
"LET HER GO!" It sounds like a shout, but I hear it as a whisper underwater, a buzzing of nothing replacing anything past that.
There's a crook to his lips at the edges, like he knows he has me now and that nothing Lucas is shouting is making a bit of difference.
All of a sudden, that peaceful quiet was obliterated around me... the loud shot rang through my ears. It pulsated through my head alongside the harsh throbbing pulse of my blood in my temple, gradually slowing.
"Get him off her!" His echoed shout rattled through the empty air; his hands loosened a little as he recovered from a jolt. It wasn't enough of a break because I still can't breathe and he's still looking down at me with a grit to his jaw of determination.
It means my once keen and sharp eye is empty, my eyes instead trailing and zoning out into the vision above me. The fizzle on my skin prickles, running over my entire body, slowly reaching up to my brain as if it were a sand timer.
Once it reaches my brain, it'll all be over.
There's a tumble of bodies above me, until he's off me, his hands gone from my neck, and I breathed.
Coughing immediately but I breathed.
I panic, taking in heavy gulps that don't seem to do much but hurt my diaphragm, my limbs were still dead to my brain so I still couldn't move. I just lay on the cold sharp gravelled track heaving up and down and coughing, I'm coughing so much that I think I might vomit. My chest rose high trying to take in as much air as possible, the only thing making me feel still alive is the slowly evaporating feeling of the pins and needles, receding back so my skin feels normal.
My vision became clearer, my head turned to the left where the man had disappeared to. Fallen was above him raining hell down with his fists.
Screaming at him in a whirl of whooshing noises through my ears.
"Ella!" I flopped my head to the right and back, there was Lucas, on the ground. The man's handgun held limply in his hand and his eyes staring right at me as I struggled to breathe.
He picked himself up, dragging his leg and that's when I could see the blood trailing behind him.
"Lu—" It couldn't come out and the minute he reached me he shushed me quietly. Shaking his head with tears shining in his eyes.
"Just breathe for me, okay?" He still sounded distant even with his lips moving against my ear, the palm of his hand pressed against my cheek.
I followed his instructions, taking in the biggest breath and holding it. My throat was already bruising, it felt like he had collapsed my trachea because I was training myself to breathe again.
"Have you told anyone where you are!?" My head turned left again, Fallen above a bloodied shape of a man now.
Now I could see the smirk of the man, his eyes falling to mine. The chill spread through my body when he refused to break eye contact, instead smiling a bloodied toothy grin.
"DON'T LOOK AT HER!" He said nothing in return and his eye contact only broke when Fallen slapped his head away and back to him. He dropped him to the ground, hips still straddling his as he loomed over him.
Fallen suddenly dug his thumb into the bloodied hole in his shoulder. The man cried out, replacing it with grunts of pain when he started twisting his thumb further in. His body wriggling under Fallen trying to get him off.
"Who are you with!?" He still said nothing and that infuriated him to no end, swiftly standing up and grabbing his gun from the waistband of his jeans.
Aiming it poised and ready towards the man's face.
"ANSWER ME!" Fallen shouted so loud it had me flinching, Lucas dropped a hand on my arm to reassure me.
The man turned to the side again, those dead brown eyes crinkling into a smile. My hand scrunched the dirt and mud within my hand when he spat blood in my direction. His eyes suddenly flitting back to an enraged Fallen.
"Fuck you."
All of a sudden, before me or Lucas could say anything.
The shot rang out.
The man's head smacking against the ground from the force of the bullet crashing through his skull. Blood pooling under his head and I stare in complete shock. Bile rising high in my throat that it took everything in me not to vomit.
Fallen didn't waste any time in pulling out everything from his pockets, sifting through each item in his hands, throwing stuff to the side when he was done. I couldn't hold my head up much longer though to keep an eye on him, I was exhausted, letting my body fall back onto the ground so my shoulder blades scrape against stones on the track.
I tried to get up, but the dizziness immediately hit me, my eyes seemingly vibrating side to side in my sockets and I feel Lucas pushing me back down again gently. A murmuring of gentle words that I don't hear nor understand.
"We need to get out of here." I look up to the side to see Fallen walking over to his, his voice gruff and short.
"Why? He's dead." Lucas spoke up, I grip onto his wrist beside me when my eyes shake again and my throat throbs in pain.
They sounded like they had megaphones, my head immediately flared in pain and even through my vision I can see him stumbling to get closer to me. His head dropped down to look at me and I'm sure there's a grimace on his face.
He'd been shot.
Twice in fact.
As Fallen gets close, the sounds of the grit moving under his boots becomes loud. Like it's right next to my ear before I can see him dropping down onto his knees beside me.
He looks over at Fallen, hissing at him. "And who do you think sent him!? Don't think they won't send someone out this way when he doesn't come back!"
He paused, before continuing with such a guttural tone I felt scared for Lucas. "If you'd stayed inside like I said... this would never have happened."
Fallen's eyes dropped from glaring at Lucas to me, gliding his fingers over my neck. My head is still fuzzy from the lack of oxygen that I just wanted to sleep.
"Are you okay?" His voice softening, his hand clasped around my arm, tightening slightly when I coughed out hard again. Wincing in pain as I did so.
I can only nod in response.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have left. I got here as fast as I could." He brought a hand back from my face and I could see the new bright red coating his fingertips, his whole face in a grimace.
It wasn't long before it morphed again into one of utter rage, similar to the one he had with the man. So much rage that it frightened me just looking at him.
"This is on you." A deadly tone rode on his voice, his eyes flitting away from me and to Lucas.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK7WVwfIUwy
The speckles of blood still evident on his skin only made his glare intense and unmoving as he lifted his head to glare head on at Lucas.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMbcL9Cq8Lp
Lucas' hand involuntarily tensing on my thigh.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa6vxdKE1iu
He stood up slow and dragged his gun from the floor. It's steel grating against the floor.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs3hpvuqrnz
"I should have burned you in that van when I had the chance!" He reiterated it, somehow sounding even more terrifying than before.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxl8Xtdtx67
His boot lifted and kicked, brushing past my head and landing hard into Lucas' face. The force throwing him backwards.
Fallen stepped over me quickly, I tried grabbing hold of his ankle, but he swiftly pulled it from my grip. He quickly dragged up Lucas from the floor by the front of his coat, pulling him further from my body. The thud of Lucas against the floor loud when he dropped him down away from me.
I panic, rolling over, trying to drag myself closer but it's too quick.
It's happening so quickly that I won't make it in time.
I can see Fallen's hand on the gun twitch, please... don't.
"NO!" Even through the soreness of my throat I still managed to shout it. My palm cuts against stones digging into my hand when I try to rise on my wobbly knees, my fuzzy brain doesn't help, I fall.
I stumble trying to get my knees under me but when I look up Lucas is already looking back at me, blood staining his nose and he shakes his head.
Don't look at me like that, please don't.
"FALLEN!" I shout, I'm so close but he doesn't look at me.
And neither does Lucas now, his eyes turning to Fallen.
My eyes barely focused but I was shaking my head uncontrollably.
He lifted the gun without hesitation and the shot sounded loud in the sky.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyiaoM52XDV
Birds fly up in response.
Everything stopped.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH3OflgaHSm
Everything fell silent.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSITYwr8JZP
Fallen's shoulders rise up and down quickly.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPLqbSpJWlB
And any further words felt stuck in my throat, tears stinging at my eyes.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWbrQJIwkrO
Lucas unmoving.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2pVPz1TQEa
