The Outcasts (Chapter 2)

After awhile of walking, I glanced over at and caught her staring at Nerezza. I shot her an sickening glare but she just turned her head away from me, tossing her long braid to the side.
Kyros and Nerezza were leading the way to wherever the hell we were going. "We should take a break, we've been at this all day." Amaya whined. "Fine, fine, just stop whining." Kyros said.
They’re both horrid at first impressions aren’t they.
I rolled my eyes and sat on a fallen log. The gentle breeze blew my hair to the side and I could smell the freshness of the woods. Everyone else plopped on the ground, Nerezza opened his satchel that Kyros had given him and I. He reached in and grabbed four apples, one for each of us. "Here ya guys go."
He tossed each of us a bright red apple. I still wondered why out of all the people back at the base, why Kyros would pick us to escape with, I mean we weren't special whatsoever. In fact we were below average in the skill set range.
"We have to pick up the pace, if we keep taking these breaks the rangers from the base are gonna catch up to us."
"Aye.” answered Amaya.
We sat up and began walking again.
Nerezza nervously looked at me, "Hey, Ashia, when we get to safety and things turn to normal. Will you consider being more than friends with me?"
I quickly turned my head to stare at him in shock.
He stuttered, "W-we don't have to.” I lightly smiled,
"No I'd like that."
All that time Amaya had her concentration on us, with a hint of jealousy written on her face. Kyros was listening to everyone that walked behind him.

We arrived at a run down shack. "Well this is the place." Kyros announced.
"You've got to be freaking kidding me!"
“Hey you can either leave us or just suck it up." Nerezza sneered.
I rolled my eyes at their nonsense and walked into the shack.
It was dark, there was a little candle on a small table in a corner, but other than that the shack was bare. Kyros walked in after me and the rest followed. "Glad we got here before sunset." Kyros said as he sat by the small table.
“It gets freezing at night so we'll need to do something about that."
Nerezza and I sat on the floor and Amaya sat in a corner. Silence fell upon the old shack, until we heard quick footsteps and hollering from outside.
I motioned for everyone else to get close to the ground. The footsteps neared the door, heavy breathing came from the other side. A man peaked through the cloudy window to inspect inside the shack.
I felt my heart beating out of my chest, I kept repeating in my head, I don't want to go back to the base. We’ve made it this far.
The footsteps drew away from the door and silence came once again. I sat up and carefully looked out of the cloudy window. Nothing. As if no one had ever passed by this place. "I think we're okay now." I whispered. Nerezza nodded, "That was a close one."
I sat back on the floor. "We need sleep, we have an eventful day tomorrow." Kyros said.
"Yeah, but what are we supposed to sleep on?" Amaya asked.
Kyros motioned to the floor, "The floor."
Amaya let out a whine, “But the floor’s cold.” Kyros ignored her and leaned his back against the wall. I laid back onto the floor, and Nerezza kept getting closer and closer to me, filling the gap in between us. Kyros didn't sleep, he watched over us and kept watch for any other rangers trying to bring us back. "Ashia, you mind if I could maybe sleep with you, I am freezing." Nerezza whispered.
"Fine by me." I whispered back. He pulled me to his chest and fell asleep, I smiled and closed my eyes.


The morning rolled around. Warm rays from the sun shined through the window. I slowly sat up, Nerezza opened one eye and looked at me. "Morning." I said with a smile. "Good morning." he added. Kyros was blankly staring at the wall. Amaya was curled up in a ball, snoring. I reached for my bag, it was time for breakfast, we needed energy for today as Kyros said last night. There wasn't much in my bag to eat, I rummaged through it and found a small bag of dry cereal. I started eating, a turned my attention to Nerezza offered him some of the cereal. "Thanks." he said and took a handful of the cereal. Amaya sat up abruptly and looked at us in confusion. "What, something wrong?" Kyros asked her. "I'm fine, I just had a horrible dream." she said as she trailed off in thought. "So where are we going today?" Nerezza asked as he sat up.
"The city, we can get more refuge there." he answered. My eyes widened, the city? I've never step foot in a city, only small villages and the base. "Sounds great." Amaya excitedly said. We all stood up and grabbed our bags. I couldn't help the feeling of excitement and fear as we were going into the city. Kyros headed out the door, we followed. As we walked the smell of morning breeze was strong. "So what's the city like?" I asked. "Oh, it's pretty big, lots of people, shops, restaurants, that kinda thing." He explained. I never fancied lots of people and this made my head hurt just thinking about it.


A little while passed, we weren't walking through the woods anymore, we walked on the side of a paved road. Kyros claimed that this road lead to the city. I still felt nervous about going into the city, it was written all over my face. Nerezza kept giving me a glance, as if he was worried about me. My mind was buzzing around with thoughts like, what if we get caught, what will the boss do, are we going to get out of this alive. Maybe I was just a bit paranoid. All this what ifs were driving me insane on the inside. I began to add up the miles behind me, we had gone a long ways on foot. My thoughts abruptly stopped when Nerezza held my hand he laced his fingers with mine. I quickly looked at him and gave him a 'what are you doing' look. He smiled and looked forward. I just lightly smiled and shook my head. Amaya had a fixated glare at us, I looked at her but she just quickly turned away. I knew what her problem was, and I couldn't help her about that. Kyros was quietly talking to himself about what we plan on doing next. "We should take a break." Kyros blurted out. "Yeah, good idea."
We nodded in agreement and sat a little ways in the woods. I stood up and wandered off a little ways. I sat on a rock and tried to gather my thoughts. I heard the rustling of a bush. I quickly turned to the source of the rustling. "Who's there?" I asked and asked again. No answer. The rustling stopped, I decided to kick the bush and when I did my foot collided with someone's gut. A kid that looked about my age flopped out of the bush, his black hair had leaves in it from sitting in that bush for god knows how long. "Who are you?" I screamed at the boy. He quickly jolted up, "I-I’m Aden, sorry if I scared you." he stuttered. I attempted to walk away from this kid, but he just followed me.
"What do you want?"
"I just want someone to be around. The Rangers, they’re after me." he said, tears building up in his eyes. I sighed and kept walking, sure enough Aden followed.

When I arrived back with the others, they stared at the pale black haired boy as he just stood there, frozen. "Guys this is Aden, he wants to join us. The Rangers are after him too."
The others just looked at each other almost deciding what to do. Kyros shook his head yes and stood up. "Alright this has been a nice break, and hey, we even got a new member of this crazy club we got goin' on here." he chuckled.