Chapter 6:

A bright light blinds me threw my eye lids. I'm not inside Mt. Weather. Or at least I think so, based on the jagged sharp things stabbing me in the back. But then again, this isn't the first time Mountain Men have drug me behind them as they walked. The real question is: will they live to tell about it? Or will I? That's a scary thought. Okay, enough thinking. I open my eyes and see trees with the sun light rustling their leaves. My hands are tied and so are my ankles. You see, last time they were dragging me by my hands and that didn't work out. So they think they are being smart by dragging me by my feet. No one's looked at me in the last twenty minutes, so they think I'm still out of it. Or maybe it was ten. I don't know, the pain in the back of my head is making it hard to think. As they dragged me along, I sat up quickly and pulled on the rope tied to my feet. The two men pulling me were yanked back and then swept off their feet and hit the ground. The rope around my feet slid off as soon as they let go off it. After taking their knives, I cut the rope that bound my hands. Tree bark flew into my face as a loud bang echoed in the trees.
To dodge the flying bark, I rolled away from the tree and found out the hard way that I'm on a hill. I tumbled down the hill first on my side and then head over heels, until a fallen tree broke my fall. Slamming into it chest first took all of the air from my lungs. First my head, now my ribs. Wonderful. Shouts echoed from behind me and I switched into survival mode. Ignoring any and all pain I rolled under the fallen tree, into a gap the tree didn't fill. Once on the other side I turned around just in time to watch an arrow dig into the tree, inches from my face. I need to run but I still can't breathe right. So I have to wait for them to find me or for-

"This is getting a little old, don't you think?" A man's voice, one I know all too well, yelled aimlessly into the woods. "Been running all your life. Don't you think it's time to think about surrendering?" No thank you. Surrendering is not an option; I have risked too much to give up now. Oh, and the man that wants to kill me is General Daniel Jacobsen. He's also the leader of the Mountain Men. And the man that took my father. But I don't have time to tell that tale.

"Yeah, I'll surrender when I'm dead." I know I just gave up my hiding spot but maybe that's a good thing. Two bullets shot threw the tree just to the left of me. "I know why the Grounders want me dead, but why you?"

"I don't want you dead, I want you caught." Didn't see that coming. "You've just made things harder than it should be." So that's his justification for using guns. Makes sense to me. I quickly stand up and look at him. His gun quickly aims at me, but doesn't fire. "There you are"

"Why do you want me?" my voice deeper than I thought it would be. I mean come on; this guy has got to have a good reason.

"Recently, we have acquired the leader of a group of Grounders. You might know her; her name is Anya" He smiles, after a few seconds, as he realizes that I'm swearing in my head. "I thought you might. You see, she was very very willing to tell us anything about you, but not anything else."

"So you know my favorite color. Big deal." Sarcasm comes way too easy for me.

"You don't get it," he lowered his gun, "I'm your father" What? That's not possible. "I wasn't captured by Mountain Men, I joined them willingly." That's not true, it can't be true.

"Even if I believed you, I'd never go with you" I ran to the left as fast as I could, dodging my "father's" bullets. Some dad. I get ten feet away before I stop behind a tree. I look around the tree and see that he's reloading so I take off again. As soon as the bullet shower starts up again, I stop. Then I hear more bullets, meaning that there are more men trying to shoot me. This is going on longer than it should. I jump out from around the tree just long enough the through my knife at Jacobsen. It sticks in his shoulder just as a bullet goes through my upper arm. I sink to the ground clutching my arm as the bullets stop. I peek around the corner and see one man walking toward me as the others take Jacobsen away. I press my back against the tree and slow my breathing down. I hear him getting closer and closer, until the tip of the gun is poking around the tree. I swung around the tree, low and fast, causing my fist to hit the man between his legs. That gun can protect him from everything but my fist. I take his gun and strike him over the head with it. I check to make sure no one's looking and then search his pockets. All I find is a few bullets reloads and two round, metal, balls that fit in the palm of my hand. I don't know what they're called, but I've seen what happens when you remove the small stick at the top. These will come in handy. I put those in my pockets and then take his vest and put it on. I'm not taking it for its looks; this thing can stop a bullet. Which reminds me about the one that passed through my arm; the whole now gushing with blood, from both sides. I stand as I glance around the tree. Then I run in the opposite direction, ignoring the pain from my head, ribs, and arm. Where I'm running too, I have no idea. I don't even know where I am; who knows how long I was out for.
I run for a few miles before my body makes me stop. I sit down beside a water fall and quickly give in to the water. I slowly slide into the small pool that forms at the base of the water fall. There is nothing like the feeling of water flowing through your arm. I float in the water for an hour, until the sun starts to set. Then I pull myself out and collapse on the rocks. I know what I should be doing: finding shelter, starting a fire, stopping the bleeding from my arm. But the need to sleep is too strong to fight off.

Five hours later…

I awake to see the brilliant glow of a butterfly, a few feet away. I try to move but quickly learn that's a mistake, as pain engulfs my body. Rolling over onto my back, I realize that I'm completely out in the open. And it's the middle of the night. The bleeding in my arm has stopped, but the puddle of blood I leave behind is not small. I stand up and then grab the gun. After stumbling a few times, I finally catch my balance and then start walking. The hours pass by as the sun begins to rise. I'm about to give up, knowing that I can't climb a tree like this, but instead I see a cave up ahead. I kind of know where I am now, but I don't know what's in that cave. Right now it's my only option. I approach the cave, but stop when I hear voices. I raise my gun and then continue cautiously. After walking through a dark tunnel, I see a light. The closer I get, the smaller the voices get until they just stop altogether. I'm half way through a doorway when something pulls on my gun. I instinctively pull the trigger, letting a bullet loose in the cave. I'm yanked forward again and this time the gun is removed from my hands and thrown across the floor. Someone grabs my collar and slams me against the wall. My eyes open to find that I'm pinned to the wall by a girl with short blackish hair. I brought my knee up into her chest and she doubled over as I slammed my left fist in to the back of her neck. Surprisingly she regained her balance very quickly and stood up before I could blink. Before I knew it her fist was in my jaw and mine in hers. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a man approach and pull us apart.

"Jade, enough!" he said as he pulled the girl back. It takes me a minute before I realize that I know who he is: Lincoln. Thank goodness, I found someone I know. This is weird. I never expected to see him again let alone show up on his door step injured. Thankfully he called off his attack dog. She finally stopped squirming and he let her go. I couldn't tell if he was shocked or concerned. "What are you doing here?" Lincoln asked me. But before I could answer Abigail stepped out from behind Lincoln and hugged me. The amount of shock on my face made Lincoln smile a bit.

"I wasn't expecting that" I said as she pulled away.

"How did you get away?" she asked.

"We can talk later, right now we have a bigger problem," some guy with a girlish haircut said, "Bellamy's been shot" I could feel Jade glaring at me as I looked around her. The boy, Bellamy, was lying on the floor propped up in the guy with the girlish haircut's arms with blood spilling out of his abdomen.

"You should've let me kill her" Jade said to Lincoln, while her eyes hit me like daggers. I would've defended myself but I don't have the energy for this. I tell Abigail to help Bellamy and then slide down to the ground.