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One day turns into two, two into four, four into eight. Yay math. Charlie misses math. A lot of kids don't like school but Charlie often found herself wanting to be nowhere else. Maybe it's because wherever she was living was so much worse than multiplying and fractions. Fractions were fun. She really misses her bow, too. Or the feeling, the comfort, of a rifle held between her hands. She misses her family.
"Stop it," The teenager mumbles to herself and shakes her head. Knocking on a closed door, Charlie waits moment and slowly opens it when she hears nothing, knife raised and ready. The bedroom is empty, it's not hard to see.
Charlie throws her backpack onto the bed after closing the door behind her. She surveys the room once before searching it, looking for anything she can use.
The dresser makes a loud noise when she slides it in front of the door. Removing the gun from her waistband, Charlie sets it onto the nightstand before sitting on the bed. It's a vz 15 pistol. She only knows that because the loose floorboard she found it under had a manual along with a box of ammo. She got lucky there.
Grabbing the wolf pendant around her kneck, Charlie releases a breath and lies back onto the bed and closes her eyes.
A noise is what wakes her an unknown amount of time later. It takes the teenager a moment to realize that and when she does, she slides onto the floor and grabs her gun. She quiets her breathing to listen and reaches for her bag, sliding it onto her shoulders.
The noises are coming from downstairs. Someones in the house. There are more people out here than she ever thought. It's not comforting knowledge. Footsteps on the stairs has Charlie moving. She rushes towards the windows and unlocks one, struggling to pull it open. It's painted over but she feels it budging slowly.
When someone tries to open the bedroom door, she ducks beside the dresser.
"Hey, this door is blocked!" An unfamiliar voice calls out. Charlie feels her heart jumping into the throat and she forces herself to take a quiet, deep breath.
"Then push it open!" Another, more distant voice shouts back.
"You don't think I'm trying!?" The first voice shouts back and Charlie moves back towards the window, using all her strength to wrench it open as the man slowly pushes the dresser out of the way with the door.
Without glancing over her shoulder, Charlie climbs out onto the roof, closes the window, and moves out of the way just in time. She's sure if he'd seen her, he would've said something.
Charlie keeps her back as close to the wall as she can get it and creeps along the edge. She doesn't see anyone else on the street, she imagines they're - however many there are - all in the house. Maybe one on the porch. She really doesn't want to stick around long enough to find out.
"Find something?" Their voices are more muffled now but Charlie can still make them out through the thin walls.
"It was blocked from the inside, no other exit," Charlie scrambles to hold on when her foot slips and stands back up. "Check the roof." Eyes widening, Charlie ducks around the corner, nearly falling once again.
"Shit," The teenager whispers to herself. She'd just wanted to sleep for a bit, is that too much to ask?
"Nothin'."
"You sure?"
"I'm sure, damn it. Look for youself." Or don't, Charlie nearly says out loud.
It's not a short jump but what other choice does she have? She can't go back inside and she's not just going to hang out on the roof until they decide to move on. Who knows how long that'll be and they could still find her.
Charlie peeks into all the windows before she passes them. The roof dips lowest over the back yard. Sliding towards the edge, Charlie closes her eyes and listens. She tries to look under the roof but nearly falls and instead maps out her rout with her eyes.
"Okay," She whispers to herself and throws her legs over the edge. She tenses as if waiting for something to happen but nothing does. "Just count to three. Or down from three. Stop stalling." With a deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth, Charlie grips the edge of the roof. "One, two...three."
When her feet his the ground, Charlie falls onto her side, groaning. She pulls herself up and sets her back against the bottom of the porch and waits, listening. Satisfied that she hasn't been found out, the teenager creeps around the house to where there are no windows that will allow her to be seen from inside.
Rounding the corner, Charlie stops short, eyes widening. With all her stealthy peeking through windows and everything, you think she would've looked around the wall before blinding moving.
The man sees her, eyes widening in surprise himself.
"I don't suppose we can pretend like this never happened?" Her words only seem to further confuse the man but he shakes his head, snapping out of his stupor and he steps forward. The silent type then.
Charlie reaches for her gun a second too late. The man gets to her first, twisting them around until he has a knife to her neck. She has the gun and he still has the upper hand. Charlie will beat herself up over that later. If she gets out of this.
"Hey, boys, get out here!" He yells and Charlie winces, her heart beating heavily behind her ribs. Her hands grab the man's wrist. Think, Charlie, think. A deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth, Charlie listens to disgruntled shouts and approaching footsteps inside. "You'll never believe-"
The man is cut off by a grunt when Charlie manages to lift her foot and hit him between the legs. Though she herself doesn't get out unscathed, the knife nicks her neck, splitting her skin. Another feeling hits her neck but it's gone as soon as it comes. Charlie barely notices as she spins around to face the man, finally managing to get her gun up and point it at him.
"What's all the ruckus about?" A tired sounding voice asks lazily. Charlie looks to the back porch and to the man still hunched over and does the only thing she can. She runs.
The tree line isn't far. Charlie rushes towards it and doesn't look back. Not even when she hears the raised voices of many people behind her. In a very cliché manner, Charlie trips over something, a root, she guesses, and almost face plants.
Scrambling to her feet, Charlie holds tight to her gun and pushes forward, glancing over her shoulder when she hears those people gaining on her. Her ankle twinges when she puts weight on it, slowing her down. Despite this, Charlie continues as fast as she can, running through the trees. She continues in a straight line before stopping behind a tree to catch her breath. Her face screws up into a grimace and she lifts her leg off the ground.
Stopping, that was her mistake. You never stop. Glancing around the large tree trunk. Charlie sees three men walking towards her, looking in all directions before the middle one points for his companions to split up.
Charlie ducks behind her tree again when the middle man starts towards her. She could make a run for it but he'd definitely see her, call his buddies back to him. They have guns, some of them, at least. Or she can...Charlie looks down at her gun and her stomach churns.
Another deep breath in through her nose, Charlie holds it and backs further against the tree. She waits and listens. Turning her head to watch the man headed in her direction pass by her without noticing she's there.
Clenching her teeth, the teenager raises her gun and cocks it. The sound makes the man on the other end of the barrel freeze. "Drop it," Charlie whispers as hard as she can, gaze carefully watching the man turn to face her, gun still held next to him loosely. "I said, drop it."
"And if I don't?" He asks with the audacity to not even look worried.
"Thought that was pretty clear. I'll shoot you." The man barks out a laugh and if Charlie wasn't freaking out, she would've rolled her eyes.
"That's funny. Just put the gun down, girly."
"No," Did he really think she would just drop her weapon? She's not that stupid.
Sighing loudly, the man looks off to the side before nodding. "Don't make this harder than it has to be."
"I'm a teenager, I live to make adults lives harder," Charlie doesn't even know why she's saying these things. The words are just spilling out of her mouth without her consent. Probably caused by the same nerves that are making her hands shake.
"Suit yourself," Charlie's faster than last time. When the man lifts his gun to her, she squeezes the trigger. Her breath catches, her feet frozen to the ground. The man, now on the ground, groans in pain, clutching his shoulder. Charlie's a good shot, she's not sure if she missed because of the fear coursing through her or because she wanted to.
Charlie snaps back to herself when the man yells. She looks behind her before moving to take the gun he'd dropped. "You stupid bitch!" He spits and turns on his side, climbing to his feet.
Moving away from him, Charlie's eyes scan the trees, and for the second time that day, she runs.
"Get your asses over here!" The man's voice reaches her ears, making her heart skip a beat. She should've just shot him in the head, been done with it. Now he'll tell his buddies which way she went.
The forest in front of her is vast. Leaves crunch under her boots when her feet hit the ground. She can feel her rapid heart rate beating in her chest, she can feel it in her temples. Her lungs ache as she gasps for air. But she keeps going.
Charlie just can't catch a break, can she?
I'm just not good at writing bad guys lol.
More chapters out soon! I'm super excited for what's to come!
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed! I love reading what you guys think of this story!
Until next time, friends!
'-'