Sibling Bond III:
The Runaways
By: Ani_Bookworm#1
A/N: Look at that, it's another addition of Sibling Bond! Wow. This one's for Jason, the only one who seems to care. *sniff* Thank-you Jason. You made me feel better about myself. *sob* Now, on with the story!J
Marco: "Come on Trisha, you don't really mean that. Don't even joke about something that serious." I couldn't believe her. I mean, sure, we'd been going steady for a couple of months, but still. Killing herself? I couldn't let that happen because, well, I guess I love her too.
"I am far from joking, Marco. I am dead serious. If you were to leave and never come back, I'd kill myself. I almost have many times. See this?" She thrust her wrist in front of me. On it was a long white line. I gasped.
"Yep. This is from a suicide attempt from when I was twelve, the year Dad left. I slit open my wrists, but my brother found me before I could bleed to death. Believe me, I'm not at all afraid of doing it again." The way she looked at me, I could tell she was serious.
"Fine, you can come, okay? My sister's not going to be happy about it though. I have to bring her because it's too dangerous for her here." Suddenly I thought of something. "You're not in The Sharing, are you?"
"Uh-uh. My mom tried to get me to join, but it sounds like a drag. So, you're really going to let me come?"
"Yeah, I guess so. But I have to warn you; we won't be in some hotel or apartment. At best, an abandoned shack or old tree house, maybe even a cave. Now go pack some stuff. Like clothes and food." She left me on her front porch while she went to get her stuff. I put my head in my hands. What was Jake going to say about this? He's probably going to lecture me on how I can't be taking every single person I know, or else it will seem too suspicious. It probably already seems too suspicious. I mean, a boy runs away after hearing he's about to join The Sharing. He takes his girl friend and sister with him. All of a sudden there's one less Andalite Bandit roaming around. The yeerks aren't stupid, they'll put two and two together.
Trisha bounded down the steps with a bulging tote bag.
"Ready." She exclaimed, kissing my lips. I sighed and let her pull me up by my hand, then started in the direction of the place we were going to meet Jake and Debbie at.
Nora: "What did I tell you, Hemlin-4-4-2?" My yeerk, Janice-8-3-9, said through my mouth to my husband's new yeerk. They both looked over the note my stepson, Marco, had left Jeremy. It read:
Dad,
I'm leaving for a little while. Just have to get away for a bit. Please, don't go to The Sharing and don't trust Nora, she's not what she seems. Don't show this note to Nora. See 'ya later. Love,
Marco
"Didn't I say that he was probably associated with the Bandits? What else could he be talking about, 'she's not what she seems'?" She gloated.
"Yes, it does seem that that's the case. But what good will that do us? He's gone now. The daughter of my host body is also missing."
"Don't worry about such trivial things as that, I have a plan. In a weeks time, you shall be calling me Visser!"
Debbie: "Marco!" I called to him as he neared with…Trisha! I didn't know she was coming.
"Hey, Deb. I thought you'd probably hassle Jake into telling you where I was." He smiled. His smile vanished as he looked around where we were standing. "You didn't tell anyone where you were going, did you?" He asked. I shook my head.
"No, I just snuck out of the house when Dad and Nora were out. I think they were going to The Sharing to get help for a search party."
"Perfect. Just what we need, two of them in the house." He mumbled. "Debbie, you know, now we can never go back." He said a little louder.
"What! Why?" I asked.
"I can't tell you right now." He said after looking at Jake. "Maybe later, but not right now. Come on, we have a long way to walk." He took our bags, hugged Jake, and led us to a trail in the forest, leaving Jake behind.
We walked about a half-hour before anyone spoke.
"Marco, do know where we're going, exactly?" I asked. Trisha didn't say a word; she was half-asleep, leaning on Marco's shoulder for support.
"Yeah." he answered.
"How long until we get there?" I pressed.
"We'll probably have to camp out tonight. If we're lucky, we'll get there sometime tomorrow evening. But listen, we might not stay there. Jake will come in two days telling us how far they're searching. We want to be at least fifty miles away from that. So I guess you could say we definitely won't be staying there long."
"Can we stop now? I mean, we're not going to make much more progress, and Trisha looks dead to the world already" I suggested. He considered for a moment and I was surprised by the look on his face. Like he'd made many decisions before, much tougher then when to stop for the night.
"Sure, I guess we're far enough away from town for the night. But if we hear anything that sounds like searchers, we're out of here." He said as he laid Trisha down and covered her. She was fully asleep in seconds.
He set up two more spots in the dirt and motioned for me to sit on one. He sat on the last one, eyes searching the forest for any sign of danger.
"So, she was awfully tired, huh?" I asked him, gesturing to Trisha.
"Yeah." He gazed lovingly at her sleeping face for a moment or two, then turned back to the forest. I guess I'm a pretty good matchmaker, they really seem to care for eachother.
"Why'd you decide to take her?" I asked.
He shrugged. I let it go, guessing he didn't want to talk about it.
"Well, I'm going to sleep." I announced with a yawn.
"Okay, goodnight, Debbie." He said.
"Goodnight." I replied, hugging him from behind. "And, Marco? Get some sleep." He didn't answer.
Jake: I gathered up the stuff that everyone had given me to bring Marco and the girls. Mostly notes and a tote bag full of food. I morphed a wolf and ran along a trail no one goes on so nobody would see a wolf carrying a Chicago Bulls tote bag.
As fast as I ran, I still had to demorph and remorph three times. I made the final morph to human then emerged into view.
"Hey, Jake. You're early. You're not supposed to come for another day!" Marco exclaimed.
"Yeah, I know. But I have bad news. The search parties are going to cover this area. They should be here in around three hours. They're stopping one hundred and fifty miles from here. Marco, man, this is serious. They're really intent on finding you. The best thing would be to start walking now, and not stop until you're good three or four states away. I can come with you guys for awhile, since my mom thinks I'm out searching, but I have to leave at around eight. I promised her I'd be home by one."
"Okay, thanks man. Come on girls, you heard him. We have to move, now." He told the girls. They started packing up the stuff, which didn't take too long considering the fact that all they had out were three blankets and a few cans which I assume held their breakfast.
Once they were done we started walking. We were heading West, from one coast to another. We were hoping that by nightfall we'd have gone fifty miles. That would bring us to a town called Allentown. They'd camp there for the night and I'd leave, morphing owl and hopefully getting home by one. We walked with few breaks, if fact, we only took three. One for lunch, and two when the girls got tired.
We finally reached a sign reading, "Welcome To Allentown." It was already midnight; we'd started out at six am. Somehow, we'd managed to walk fifty miles in one day.
"Hey, Marco. If you guys keep up this pace, you should be long gone before the searchers get here. I say they probably will be spending at least five hours in that town, searching every inch of it. I really have to go now; my mom's going to freak on me. I definitely won't be home until at least five. Write me when you get there okay?" I told him.
"Of course. I'll be under the name, Maurice Delivern. Your pen pal from the West." He smiled sadly. "I'm gonna' miss you, man. Here," he handed me a handful of notes. "There's one for all the guys. Take care, okay? I'll be back to help fight as soon as I can. I'm gonna' miss you, Fearless Leader." I pulled him into a hug before either of us could start crying. I couldn't believe that I probably wasn't ever going to see him again. We'd known eachother since forever and now he was leaving. 'Well,' I thought, 'Then we're just going to have to win this war a little faster.'
We separated after a minute, both of us were crying.
"Good-bye, Marco. You've been like a brother to me and I'll miss you right up to the day this war is over. The team's not going to be the same without you." I managed to get out through my tears.
"You got that right! If I stay, the team will be controllers. I'll miss you even more. You're like the big brother I never had, always getting me out of trouble. Win this thing soon so I can come back home."
"I love you, man." I choked out, hugging him again.
"I love you, too." He replied, hugging me back. I let go and went into the bush to morph owl.
"Jake! Wait!" Debbie called. "We have notes too. Here, one's for Dad, one's for Rachel, Cassie, and you. Trisha wants you to give this one to her brother, the name and address are on it. Good-bye, Jake. I'll miss you." She said, shoving the notes in my hand and hugging me. I hugged her back, then completed my walk into the forest, morphed owl and flew away.
Marco: I watched as the owl that was my best friend fly away until I could no longer see him. Then I sat down on the ground.
Trisha, who was more awake today, came over and sat beside me. She rested her head on my shoulder and raised her eyes to the stars.
"You gonna' go to bed tonight?" She asked me.
"I went to sleep last night." I answered stubbornly.
"No you didn't. I woke up really late and you were still up. Your blanket hadn't even been unfolded." She accused. "So, are you going to sleep tonight?"
"Maybe." I mumbled. She sighed heavily and kissed my mouth. I kissed her back. It was a quick kiss, I could tell she was upset with me.
"Goodnight." She whispered.
"Goodnight." I whispered back. She crawled underneath her blanket and I took out the tote bag Jake had brought.
I started looking through it. Inside were some clothes; shoes; a watch; canned food; dehydrated food; other survival stuff. But what interested me the most was the flashlight and notes. There were five notes in all, one from each of the Animorphs.
I opened the one from Cassie first. It read:
Marco,
Hi. I'm really sorry you had to leave, but I guess it was for the best. I hope you and the girls are doing okay. Jake told me you're going to try to get to at least Ohio. That's pretty far. Will you write to me when you get, well, wherever you're going? I hope you do. We're all really going to miss you. What are we going to do without your jokes? Rachel won't admit it, but she'll probably have an emotional breakdown with no one to trade insults with. And Jake's going to be more uptight then ever. I'm not trying to make you feel guilty about leaving, I'm just telling you how much you're going to be missed. I'm going to miss you an awful lot, Marco. Come back as soon as you can, and if that's never…I guess I'll see 'ya on the flip side. I have to go, good-bye Marco. Love and Peace,
Cassie
I smiled at the letter, Cassie was kind and god at reading feelings even on paper! I opened the next note. This one was from Tobias (in human morph):
Marco,
Hey. How's it in your part of the forest? Everything's fine here, except it's deadly quiet without you and Rachel squabbling. I'm not really used to writing anymore, so I'm afraid this is going to be a pretty short note. I see you've decided to take your girlfriend with you. Unfortunately, us Animorphs seem to be the only ones who have noticed she's gone. Her mom doesn't really seem to care and the popular crowd…well, you know how they can be. Mostly there's a big fuss about finding you. I'd hate to tell you this, but your dad has been made into a controller. With two controllers in the family, and the other two members missing, it's pretty bad. Well, my two hours are almost up; I really have to go. I'm going to miss you, man. Even though we never seemed that close, I've always kind of admired you. Being able to laugh and all. I've almost forgotten how. When you get back you can teach me how to laugh again, okay? Bye.
Fly free,
Tobias
I quickly folded the letter up and took out the next one. It was from Rachel:
Marco,
Hey. I don't really have much to say except, I'm really going to miss you. Sure, you're the definition of "pain in the neck", but I guess you've kinda' grown on me. I'm going to miss fighting with you (in more then one way) and even your lame jokes and annoying complaints. You're like an annoying little brother, I feel like I hate you, yet I can't imagine life without you. The fight's just not going to be the same, neither is life. I keep telling myself I'm not going to cry, but I think I might anyway. I'm going to miss you a lot Marco, take care of your sister and girlfriend. See 'ya later, okay? Good-bye for now.
Love 'Ya,
Rachel a.k.a.: Xena
I took a deep breath to keep from crying myself. I opened the next one, from Ax. 'This should be interesting.' I thought. I said:
Marco,
The way my human hand moves to form letters on the page is fascinating. Andalites, being a species with weak hands and arms, never developed this form of communication. Prince Jake has just informed me that I am to say a good-bye to you. I must admit, that it will not be quite the same now that you are no longer here. I will "miss you" as humans often say. I must leave now for my time in morph is nearly at its end. I once again must say how much you will be missed and now I bid you farewell.
Your Friend,
Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill
Cassie or Jake must have taught him how to write with a pencil. Considering how long it took him to learn how to dress, that must have taken awhile. I looked at my watch, which read 3:15 am. I decided to go to sleep after reading Jake's note. I opened it up:
Marco,
I can't believe you're actually gone. As you're reading this we've probably already said good-bye. I really don't want to again, so I'm going to make this short. All the years we've known eachother, I've always felt like you were my brother…maybe even more so then Tom. I hope you have a good life, and maybe I'll see you before the war's over. You have to write to me a lot, telling me about your situation. The rest of the gang and I pooled together five hundred dollars for you and the girls. We figure you can probably get bus fare across around five states with that, and then have some left over. We'll mail you money ever so often until you can get a good job. I'm really going to miss you, man. See 'ya.
Love Your Brother,
JJake
I neatly folded up all the notes and put them back in their envelope, where I found the money Jake had told me about. I figured how far we could go, and decided we should keep going until we reached Oregon. We could take the bus in Illinois and ride it all the way to Idaho.
I felt satisfied with the plan and decided to call it a night. I fell back onto the soft dirt, covered myself with my blanket and fell asleep instantly.
Trisha: When I woke up the next morning, Marco was already awake.
"Good morning, Sunshine." He greeted me. He sat beside me and kissed me. "Some breakfast?" He offered, holding out a can of cold green beans. I took them and ate. I was starving.
Come on, it's already 6:00." He exclaimed. "We have to go now if we're going to make it to Harrisburg by midnight." He finished, looking at the map he'd obviously gotten from the bag Jake had brought. He had little red dots marked on different towns fifty miles apart all the way up to Davenport, Illinois. Then there was a long gap until Boise, Iowa.
"What's the gap for?" I asked.
"That's where we're going to be taking the bus. The guys gave us money for the fair." He turned to where Debbie had fallen back asleep without her blanket.
"Come on, Deb! Up and at 'em! We gotta' get going." he called into her ear.
"I always knew you were going to get revenge on me some day." She grumbled, groggily sitting up.
We grabbed our bags and were on our way again. This time, to Harrisburg.
To Be Continued…
A/N: Yes, I had to put another dreaded "To be Continued" up again, and yes, it's because my mom is making me get off the computer. The next part will probably be up some time tomorrow evening. Bu-bye.
