Chapter 4

From Liam's point of view.

The whole group ran towards the forest surrounding the field as fast as possible, which actually wasn't that fast. Ruby jogged next to me, her hair swaying behind her as her feet bounced off the ground, and I couldn't tear my eyes away from her face, her lovely face, even after I bumped into my brother in front of me.

She had no idea how obsessed I was with her, and I cursed myself for calling us just friends. I could see the hurt in her face when I said that, and I should have corrected myself, told her that we were more than friends, but we had to run, and now it was too late. I'd have to take the chance the next time I got it, to explain to her how I felt, how I wasn't still mad with her despite what she thought. I don't know if she'd believe me even if I told her, though. I guess that was a risk I would eventually have to take.

When we were about ten yards away from the forest, I looked back over my shoulder as we kept running, and I could see the soldiers cresting the top of the hill overlooking this field. My eyes widened, and I grabbed my brother's shoulder.

"Soldiers," I said concisely, nodding my chin to the fifteen soldiers about to look at us.

"Everyone get down!" he shouted, and everyone immediately dropped to the ground and hid in the tall grass.

From my position next to Ruby, I could see the guards surveying the field for a few moments, and, apparently seeing nothing, turned back around and headed towards the city again. I released of breath of air from my lungs, relieved that we had not been seen.

Ruby smiled at me, relieved as well. I felt a little rush of heat inside of me at her smile. "Phew," she said. "That was a close one."

I smiled back, my nerves still a little tense from a small rush of adrenaline. I nodded at Cole, and he nodded back and told everyone that they could stand up.

"We need to get to the forest right now," Cole called out, "before the guards come looking again. If they do, we may not be as lucky."

We began jogging towards the forest again, and we reached it within a moment. After about half an hour, Cole called for a break, and all the kids dropped down against trees. We stood in a small clearing in the woods, packed dirt and tree roots beneath our feet, and I could see that it was getting dark. Cole, Ruby, Chubs, Vida and I called a meeting, and two Blue kids guarded Clancy all the while with guns pushed up against his head. He stared at us while we talked with a sly look on his face.

"What are we going to do with Clancy?" I asked in a hushed voice, watching his surreptitious expression, like he was planning something so clever. I just wanted to punch that smirk off his face so badly.

"I still haven't decided yet," Cole said, and then I looked at him, trying to wipe Clancy's face out of my mind. "I was thinking that maybe we can use him as leverage if we ever get into some trouble with the soldiers. We might regret…disposing…of him if we ever run into the PSFs."

"I'm trying very hard not to strangle him," I said, "but it's getting more and more difficult every time I look at his smug little face." Ruby chuckled next to me, and I had to stop myself from staring at her obviously.

"The smart course of action is to keep him for leverage, like Cole said," Chubs said.

"For once, I agree with Poky Little Puppy," Vida said helpfully. Chubs glared at her. "Despite the fact that I desperately want to kill him, he could be useful. And if he's not, then I'll personally do the honors of shooting him in the face."

"Even though I hate having him around with every bone in my body," Ruby said, "I'm thinking the same thing as you guys. He may be very useful if we get into any trouble."

"It's decided then," Cole said. "We'll keep him for now.

"On another note, I think we should camp out here. This is a good place for everyone to lie down, and we can keep guard in shifts. I think that the guarding should stick primarily to us, so I'll take the first shift with Vida and Chubs. Liam and Ruby, I think you can handle the second half of the night."

I wasn't too eager to spend half a night alone with Ruby, for fear of her still being angry or just ignoring me, but I knew that Cole was pairing us up in smart groups, so I didn't question his decision. I could tell that Ruby wasn't very fond of that idea either, though, because her face had a look of discomfort on it, like she was already picturing four hours alone with each other.

We all dispersed among the kids to help them settle in for the night, and Chubs cleaned wounds from the explosion. I walked around helping kids find comfortable places on the packed dirt, and about fifteen minutes later, when the sky was nearly fully dark, I finally finished helping the kids and then went with Chubs to find wood for a fire.

As we walked out in the forest, guns strapped on our sides, Chubs kept staring at me. I could feel his eyes on my face, but I kept my eyes straight forward, placing one foot in front of the other.

"Is something wrong?" he finally asked.

"No, unless you consider the destruction of the entire city of Los Angeles by the hands of the country's president to be something wrong," I said, and I instantly felt bad for snapping at him when he was just being nice. He didn't seem very hurt by it, but he chose to leave it alone and not say anything else for a little while.

As we found kindling and branches for our fire, the chill of the night seeped under my coat and cut into my bones, and I pulled my coat tighter around me to try to block myself from the wind. It was already cold in the daytime, but now, in the dark with only the moon for a dim light, I was freezing. I could see tiny snowflakes falling after a little while, which just made me feel worse.

As we walked, I tried to sort through all the conflicting thoughts in my head. I felt sadness for Jude, Ruby's friend, and for all the other kids who were killed in the explosion. I felt hatred for Clancy, that horrible scumbag that laid hands on Ruby and attacked his own mother. I felt exhaustion from all the things that had happened that day. I felt pain from my wounds and from my situation with Ruby. But most of all, I felt desire for Ruby, for her lovely face and wonderful personality and strength and kindness.

After a little while longer, we had found enough wood, so we brought it back to our camp. Cole came over to help us build the fire.

"Let me light it," he said. "We did this on our camping trip when I was 13 and you were 10, remember?"

He smiled as he said it, and he took two sticks and rubbed them together. A second later, fire sprang out from the twigs and engulfed the kindling in flame. I marveled at his ability to make the fire.

"Whoa, how did you do that so easily?" I asked.

He exchanged a look with Ruby, almost like they had their own secret or joke, and then he grinned and looked back at me. "I guess it's just from practice."

I nodded, not very convinced but too tired to bother pressing him. We had no food with us, so I found a spot on the edge of our camp and slept until my shift.