Chapter Ten: Hopes Pov

"Why are you such a dick?" I asked Jace once everyone was eating our dust.

"What do you mean?" he asked as he jumped to a higher limb.

"Oh you know what I mean," I snapped. "Always making snarky combacks and picking on Emily. Why is that? Is because she's the weaker link? She's most ignorant?" I challegend him.

He paused, gritting his teeth together to keep from biting back at me. "I pick on Emily because..." he paused, looking for his words. "Look I don't try to pick on her. It's just my attitude. That's all. I don't try to be mean, it just happens. And no it's cos she's ignorant, which she is, it's not cos she's the weaker link, she's definitly not weak, that's for sure. None of those reasons. I promise."

I glared at him and scoffed.

"What? Do you not believe me?" he snapped, glaring back at me.

"And you're just getting this?" I asked, laughing sarcastically.

"Look," he stopped in front of me and grabbed me by my shoulders. I tried squirming to get out of his grasp but he held me firmly to my spot. "I act like this because I've lost to much. Yes cliche I know. Whatever. My parents were murdered when I was three, Kade was two." He paused. "And if you're wondering why Kade and I don't look like brothers, we're not. He was adopted. Anyway, our parents were murdered while we were still young. We were forced to live with our uncle who ran into drugs when I was twelve. Ever since then I've had to grow up really quickly. And believe me it wasn't fun. So I'm sorry if I sound like a dick. I just can't let Kade see me cry or he'll start getting all...question-y."

I paused, releasing my gaze from glaring to utter compassion. "I-I-I'm sorry Jace, I didn't mean-"

"Of course you didn't mean it, no one ever does. It's always 'I didn't mean to' or 'I didn't know'! It's always the same!" He turned and started climbing again, but I caught onto his ankle.

"Then this time it'll be different. I'm sorry I put a label on you before I got to know you. That was very...silly of me. I didn't want hurt you or cause you any emotional pain-"

"Nothing causes me pain anymore..." he trailed. "I don't show to much emotion except hate and sarcasm."

I approached him slowly, taking his hand as I came closer. I wrapped him in my arms and hugged him. He hesitated, not sure what to do, but finally he gave in a hugged me back.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled into his chest.

"It's fine," he smiled. "We should probably get going before our friends see us."

I chuckled. "Okay."

"Race?" he smiled down at me. For the frst time he actually cracked a grin.

I smiled. "Okay." I readied myself to race. "Ready...set...go!"

I sprinted off and darted through the tangled mess of branches. Jace close behind, right at my heels.

Crackling noises sounded below us as more zombies raced passed us. Gun fire echoed through the valley. My first thought was they're dead. But when I saw Emily sprint up across from us.

"What is it?" I mouthed.

"Hunters. Survivors!" she replied mouthing the words.

Jace tapped me on the shoulder. "What did she say?"

I sighed. "She said 'Hunter. Survivors!' so..."

"Oh." Was all he said.

Kennedy and Kade appeared behind her, Kade gripping her hand to help steady himself. She didn't seem to notice or care.

"Where to now?" she mouthed.

I turned to Jace. "Where to now?"

He paused, mapping Missouri in his head. "There should be a small opening with a camp ground. Maybe some more food." He gripped his stomach. "That good?"

"Perfect." I turned back to Emily mouthing what Jace had said to me, only slightly less detailed. She nodded when she finally understood what I meant.

Gunfire rang through the valley again. This time it was closer. Judging by the amount of time the echo took to get here, we only had about a minute before they spotted us and started firing.

"Go!" I shouted.

Emily and I sprinted first, escaping the cursed area with the Missouri hunters drawing near. Jace and Kade next. Then it was Kennedy. More zombies raced past as they heard the new delicious noise. Ew. Snarling, hissing and totally deadly zombies zoomed past us, barely noticing us at all. I looked to Emily. She'd seen them too and had stopped to make sure they didn't hear her or Kade or Kennedy. Jace didn't obey and he kept going, still very cautiously though.

Emily blew our seceret call that only we understood. No one else was aloud to know. It was a five note melody, simple but effective. I turned to hear once Kade and Kennedy had passed her. She pointed that she was going higher into the trees and looking for help. Before she could even start climbing something shot at her, grazing her arm. She groaned in pain as the cut started a steady stream. She ripped some frabic from around her waist and quickly tied to her arm. She glanced over in the direction of where bullet had come from. Her eyes grew wide. I glanced that way and watched as twenty or so hunters strolled our way. They shot again but this time at me, barely missing my leg.

Emily pointed up, indicating that she was gonna climb. I thought to myself that, that might be the best bet for me too. We'd catch up with the boys in a few minutes. I reached and used all the strength I could and pulled myself up. Climbing higher and higher into the big oaks, making sure to keep sight of the hunters, Emily and the boys. Emily blew our whistle again, pointing to the east. A small mall sat in the middle of everything. Convieniet. To much to be exact. Kade suddenly shot through the trees, appearing on the same branch as Emily.

"What's up?" he mouthed.

I pointed down, as the last of the hunters walked past us, three lingering behind to make sure everything was safe. Emily gasped and started climbing down through the trees. Kade grabbed her arm. They obviously started arguing because they were flailing their arms and Emily had a look of anger on her face. After a moment, Emily'd won. Woo.

She climbed down, standing as low as she dared, still blocked by some branches.

"Excuse me sir?" she asked.

One of the tall boys turned around and glanced at her, smiling.

"What do we have here? A small damsel in distress maybe? Do you need help down?" The boy walked over to her, reaching his hand up. She grabbed at her belt and pulled out her small gun, aiming it towards his head, right between the eyeballs.

Jace appeared next to me, grinning. "She might actually kill someone."

I began glaring again.

"Wh-Whoa whoa there. Now hang on," the boy said. "What's your name?"

Emily looked like she was going to punch the guy, which I hoped she did eventually. "Annabel." She finally answered.

They boy looked puzzled. "Judging by the way you hesitated to answer, I'm guessing your real name is not 'Annabel'." The boy sneered at her. "So tell me your real name, Little Miss Cutie."

"I'm not cute, first of all," Emily challegened the guy. "Second, it's Emily." She rejected the guys hand by spitting in it. "Yours?"

The guy whiped his hand on his pants. "Luke."

"And you're other two?" Emily snapped.

"Tyler and Zach," Luke pointed to the two guys behind him with their guns drawn, both aimed at Emily.

"This is awesome," Jace whispered into my ear, lips brushing over the skin. ' I watched helplessly as she made the stupid choice to jump down from her branch, nearly a few feet away from her competitors.

"What brings you out here?" Zach asked. He was a scrawny looking boy that a bigger attitude. Black hair covered his brown eyes, sunburned skin was hidden tightly under his armor and a set of knives were tied around his waist.

"I'm a trained assasin. Specialty; long distance." She started circling around them.

"You're an assasin?!" Tyler scoffed. "Prove it."

Emily was now reaching the area where Zach stood. I was hoping she'd see the knives and prove it to them that she was indeed an assasin. She seemed to have read my mind because before the three boys knew what happening, Emily had grabbed three knives out of Zach's belt and chucked them at a zombie, bird and a squirrel. Zach and Tyler looked astonished, Luke looked utterly unfazed by it. Emily stalked back over to face Luke.

"Belive me now?" she snapped.

He paused. "I believe you're actually some weakling who didn't know she could do that." He was walking forward making Emily back up and press her back up against a tree.

Why was she making herself seem vulnerable? Jace and I might've been wrong, she might be our weakest link.

Luke had her cornered now.

I looked straight into her eyes and saw what she had planned for the three boys.

"What is she doing?" Kennedy asked as he joined me and Jace.

"Yeah, what is she doing?" Kade and Jace asked at the same time.

I grinned wildly. "Just watch."

Luke put his hand at the edge of her shirt, playing with the fabric in his hands. "And you know what stupid weakling girls get when they're out on their own?" Luke sneered.

"Do they get candy?" Emily asked, giggling like a stupid blonde.

Man she was good at acting stupid and scared.

"It's a type of candy. It's long-"

"Ooh, is it a uh...king sized chocolate bar?"

"Not as wide. Close in size."

"Hmmm," she honestly looked like a stupid blonde, acting like she was actually interested in this. "Lollipop?"

"Not as...round..."

He reached for his zipper. Letting his pants fall to the ground, he inched his way towards her.

"Are we going to play dress up?" This time she almost sounded like a two year old. Her gaze landed on me as she pretended to be interested. She winked.

I was growing nervous.

"What's taking her so long?" Kade asked, jealousy creeping into his voice.

I began shaking as Luke reached for the bottom of her shirt again and pulled it over her head. He put his arm over her shoulder as she giggled absent mindedly. Tyler and Zach looked just about ready to get in on some of the action. I started fidgeting on the branch causing it to start shaking. Luckily they didn't notice. Luke brought his lips close to Emily's about to press them together until...Luke was flipped over and his back smacked against the tree. She grabbed Zach's wrist and flipped him over sending him flying to another tree. Tyler was her last victim, she twisted his arm over her shoulder and flipped him onto his back. She took a knife from Zach's belt and stabbed it into Tyler and Zach's foot. Both of them screamed in pain as the blade passed through the bone. She slowly walked over to Luke. She put each foot on one side of Luke's foot. He went to get up until she stabbed the knife into his left boot. He grunted with new found pain. She leaned down and said; "Am I stupid and weak now?"

I watched as his eyes scanned her body as she leaned over him, waiting for the answer. When she didn't get one, she dug the knife farther into his boot.

Finally Luke panted out; "No. You're not stupid."

"Good." She grabbed her shirt and before she put it on, she walked into the middle of the three. "Oops...did I do that?"

She then pulled her shirt on over her head and walked back over to Luke, grabbed his gun and left. He stuck something in her boot but I couldn't tell what it was and it was so quick I couldn't be sure that he actually moved.

Emily walked over to the other two and took their guns.

"Thanks for the presents!" she giggled and started skipping off, jerking her head at me, signaling me to follow her.

We met her at a small cabin that looked like the cafeteria to a camp. Which I'm pretty sure it was.

Kade whistled at her as she beant over to get the blood off of her shoes.

"Shut up," she snapped. "I can do same thing to you, too."

"Oh please, but do it completely naked next time!" Kade winked at her.

When did this happen?!

She slapped playfully across the face as he made fake in-pain noises.

I pulled her aside once the guys were away, taking a break, eating lunch and practicing new moves with Kennedy.

"So when did you and Kade 'happen'?" I asked her while nibbling on a dry carrot stick.

"What do you mean?" she asked as she plopped a potato chip in her mouth.

"Like start 'firting' with each other," I said.

She made an 'o' shape with her mouth. "Last night. I couldn't fall asleep so I was up with Kade for a little while. He snuck two quick kisses and that was it."

"Oh is that why you were all over his lap?" I said, trying to hide a grin at her reaction.

"Wait...what?" she sounded surprised by remark.

"You heard me..." I giggled.

"But that was n-not why I was in his lap, I must've fallen into his lap while I slept."

We paused for a few minutes, watching the guys train with Kennedy.

"Did Jace tell you who murdered his parents?" Emily asked slowly and shyly.

I jumped. How did she know that Jace's parents go murdered?

As if she was reading my thoughts she said; "I had a dream he was going to tell you. And it ended it before he told you. Then it started with the zombies chasing after us."

"Oh no, he didn't tell me. Did your dream tell you that Kade was adopted?"

"Yeah. Kade woke me up saying I had a worried/questionable look on my face." She sighed and took my hand. "I also had a dream of Gemma, Louis' siblings and Greg and his wife making it to our boat. Liam's family just after them. Everyone made it. That's great, isn't it?" She looked into my eyes waiting for an answer.

"That's amazing. Wait no...more than amazing. It's...OneDerful!"

She smiled up at me. "And one more thing. Tell Jace to wear a condom."

I looked at her shocked. "Huh?!"

She grinned up at me. She turned her attention back to the boys.

"What do you mean 'tell Jace to wear a condom'?" I got up and moved in front of her, nearly choking on my carrot stick.

She started laughing her Emily laugh that involved not being able to breath and snorting.

"It's not anytime soon. You guys get married. At least I hope you do. No name pun intended either." She took a deep breath. "Do me a favour and look at their aura's for me."

I looked at her like 'are you crazy?'. She nodded, so I used my concentration and glanced at their aura's.

Jace: Red meaning, in his case, energy, strength, anger and fear. Orange meaning, courage. Pink; love.

Kade: Red meaning in his case, energy, passion, fear and strength. Blue; loyal. Pink; love and friendship.

Kennedy: Red; Strength, ego, passion, energy. Orange; self-control and thoughtfulness. Yellow; optimisc, happy and friendly. Pink; love, sincerity, friendship.

"Jace is mostly red with a hint of pink and orange. Kade is mostly red -mainly passion- with a hint of blue and pink. And Kennedy is mostly red, pink and yellow with a hint of orange."

"Wai-wait. Kade has mostly red-passion?" she asked.

I chuckled. "Most likely towards you. -cough-"

"Great."

Kade and Jace came strolling over to us, sweat stains dripping down their shirts.

I could tell Emily was having a hard time from drooling over Kade. So much in fact that she had to get up and leave. Kade went and followed her, mumbling something I couldn't understand.

"Wanna come patrol the surroundings?" Jace asked me.

"Yeah sure," I answered.

He took my hand and we walked down to edge of the forest.

"What's up with your friend?" he asked climbing a tree.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean, she squirms in her sleep as if she's...figuring something out."

I paused. Should I tell him? He looked at me expecting an answer. "She uh..." I cleared my throat. "She can see the future in her dreams."

"Explain a dream..." he said to me.

I took a moment to study him to see if he was actually interested in this. "For one thing the zombies earlier this morning." He nodded his head. "She had a dream that you told me about how your parents were murdered." He jerked his head towards me.

"Really?" he asked.

I nodded my head slowly.

"Okay. I believe you."

I didn't tell him about him and the condom that Emily had said to me. Phew.