Okay here's the next chapter. And sorry it's been so long since I last updated... mah bad... I'm busy alot.. and especially on sundays and mondays, and really, every day except fridays XD

For the next couple of days, Christian, and his guys were acting really rudely, and hostilely, when any of the new guys talked to either me, Eli, Tynk, Ry, or Letta. It was wierd. It was as if they were... jealous. But that would be stupid, becuase they barely knew us. But we were the only girls in probably a very long distance.

"Syrr!" Christian called from behind me. I smiled and shook my head. At least once a day he'd come over, just for the sake of flirting.

"Mhmm?" I answered.

"Miss me?" he smirked.

I sighed. "No more than I did twenty minutes ago." I answered. Nate barked out a laugh and Christian glared at him.

"You know, soon, survival of the human race is going to be a problem, and I just wanted you to know that I'm here when you decide it's time." he winked.

I rolled my eyes and looked over at Tynk, who was currently holding Harmony. "Calm your hormones Chris, there're minors here."

"They wont mind. They need to see two people loving each other, inside and out." he winked again and I raised my eyebrows. His mind was getting dirtier by day. I decided he might benefit from a loss of testosterone.

"In your dreams, and I shudder to think of what they entail." I fake shivered.

"You know it." he smirked and rode off, joining his friends.

I rolled my eyes and beckoned Tynk over, and she brought Harmony over as well, by default. "Sometimes that child annoys the hell out of me."

"Dake is really getting on my nerves as well. I think we sort of need an established place to stay soon, or else I am going to strangle him. No matter how good looking he is." she stated, getting angry, and then getting a dreamy look on her face. It was interesting to watch her emotions change so quickly.

"Maybe we need to... confront this issue." I smiled evilly at her and she got an oh-crap-what's-she-going-to-do-this-time look on her face. I guess I have done this sort of thing alot...

"Oh no."

"Oh yes." I grinned, already formulating the plan in my mind.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-.-.-...-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

I looked up and grinned when I saw that Syrr was riding towards us.

"Hey Christian." she smiled a little too sweetly. Something was up. "Wow. Now that I'm over here I'm getting a little hot..." she then looked at me, and looked like she was realizing something. "Probably because I'm next to you." she winked. Her long brown hair was tied up in a high ponytail, and her scar was pink, running up the side of her face, but not marring too much of her beauty.

"What's with your change of heart?" I smirked, thoroughly enjoying this.

"I don't know, maybe I realized just how devastatingly handsome you are." she smirked, and I swear I'd seen that very same expression on someone else, but I couldn't remember where.

"Well it's about time." I smirked, and her smile faltered a little, but it was back before I really knew it, and I thought I'd imagined it. Probably.

"Playing hard to get has gotten boring... now I feel like we can do so much more..." she was smiling and I sensed that that statement was meant to be suggestive, and it made me shiver- and sort of rethink this whole thing. Maybe I should've waited for another group... who'm I kidding? I can just avoid Syrr. We still need to eat! She put her hand on my thigh, and I was beginning to feel uncomfortable. This is only okay when I do it.

"Maybe that's not a good idea..." I said, taking her hand off me.

"Aww you're no fun." she pouted. "I had such big plans..." she winked.

"Syrr I think we need to spend some time away from each other for awhile..." I suggested, trying to let her down easy.

-.-.-.-.-.

I was looking at Christian, playing my part and was trying not to laugh. Any second now...

"Syrr I think we need to spend some time away from each other for awhile..." he suggested and I almost burst.

This was the perfect opening. "And now you know how I feel!" I dropped the act right away, and his expression changed right away. "I was just being you Christian. You need to back off sometimes! Or, I don't know, grow up! We're not here to flirt, we're here to go and find a nice place to stay for the winter."

"Wait..what?" he sputtered, looking extremely lost at the moment. Nate was enjoying this moment alot. He had tears running down his face, and he was almost falling off his horse.

"I. Was. Acting. Like. You." I enunciated every word clearly, and looked straight into his eyes, just so he'd know I meant it. Somehow in the middle of all this we still managed to make good progress, towards our unknown destination.

"So... wait, this was an act. To show me how annoying me is?" he looked sort of hurt.

"No, this was an act to show you that maybe, what we all need is a friend, not a flirt." I said, putting a hand on his shoulder, and looking into those beautiful, deep green eyes that you could only get lost in, and he managed a smile.

"But we also need someone to hold..." I do believe those were the most profound words I'd ever heard him speak.

"There's this quote I read on the internet. It said 'Never argue with an idiot- people watching might not know the difference'. So, for now, I'm going to leave, and let you think whatever makes you happy." I smiled, and rode forwards, picking the pace up a little, it was getting dark and we hadn't found a place to make camp yet- and we needed to soon. It would be extremely hard to do so in the dark, especially without flashlights, which, for one reason or another, someone forgot to bring.

Nice apocalypse kit, huh?

We seemed to have been making good time, getting from town to town each day, even though we couldn't go from city to city it was pretty good, to say the least. We were able to take shelter in homes for the most part, while we'd put the horses in the backyard, and three people watching, two on the roof, and one patrolling the grounds. We were getting to be all military style now. Wierd how only a few weeks ago I'd have been in my room reading, or gossiping, and now I'm taking care of all these people.

I sometimes wish that Ty or Cam had stepped up, that they had take the role of responsability, it'd be so much easier that way. I wouldn't have to constantly worry about our food supply, or our endless travelling in a direction that doesn't seem to be really going anywhere warmer. Braving the Canadian winter was going to be hard, for all of us, especially without the heaters, and especially for the people who are guarding/ taking watch outside. They would be extremely cold. But it wouldn't be much warmer inside.

I looked up and saw the first house, indicating that we were near the next town. The house looked like that new CHEO home. CHEO homes are these huge, homes that are the prize of a lottery, that helps raise money for CHEO- Children's hospital of eastern ontario- and they have a ton of room. I grinned, and looked at the others.

"Guess where we're staying tonight?" I called.

There were some whoops and 'yes's and I felt this elation inside me. At least tonight would be a good night. I everyone except Nate, Christian, Ry, Tynk and Dake outside, to watch the horses, and the others came inside the house with me. I looked around, and motionned for everyone to search the first floor, and we found noone. We then split up, some searching the bottom floor, and some searching the top floor. I was one of the people going to the basement, with Christian and Ry, and then the other three went upstairs. Halfway through searching the basement I heard a thump, and a cry of shock and pain. I looked at the others and rushed upstairs.

I saw Dake on the ground, Tynk in the arms of a girl a year or so older than me, with long black hair, and olive skin. She was holding a kitchen knife up to Tynk's neck, and Tynk was breathing heavily. Crap. Nate was standing in a ready postition, and would've taken on this girl, if she hadn't had a knife against Tynk's neck.

"Don't move or I'll slit her throat." she warned.

Tynk swallowed and the knife cut her neck, just slightly. "Let's be reasonable, we're just passing through, we didn't mean to intrude..." I put my hands up in the universal 'i mean you no harm' gesture, and took a slow step forwards. She pressed the knife a little harder, drawing some blood, and i stopped. This girl meant business. Dake growled, when he saw the blood trickling down her throat.

"What do you want from us?" I asked.

She paused for a second, and did this weird nod-thing with her head, and I realized that there was a child behind her. Three actually. Triplets, and they looked just like her too. Two boys and one girl. "I want protection, for all of us. I want you to take us into your band of whatever you'd call this."

"Done." I answered quickly. She looked into my eyes, and I looked into her brown ones, and she released Tynk, and she ran to me, grabbing her bow and arrows as she came.

"I hope you realize that threatening wasn't necessary." I said, looking at her. She looked astonished, but I just smiled and waved at the little ones, who smiled back, shyly.

"Well, there've been some people coming around... and taking people... I just want them to be safe.." she looked at them with love in her eyes.

"What're their names?" I asked. There was one boy, who was slightly taller than the other, and that was Ren. Riku was the other boy, and the little girl, was Reika, and her hair was down to her shoulders, but it was slightly curly at the bottom, where as the girl in front of me had hair to her elbows and it was pin straight. the boy's hair were buzz cut. "What about yours?" I asked.

"Miu." she answered, smiling. "Yours?"

"Syrr. This is Tynk, Ry, Christian, Nate and Dake." I pointed each of them out as I said their names. I then took a better look at my surroundings. I was in an opening, almost like a loft area, where a Tv was, with a few couches around, and a desk, and a lovely window view. The room Miu was standing in front of was one completely themed to Harry Potter. It was small, for a CHEO home room, but it was well done, and the bed was huge, easily fitting three people. At this time, Ren Riku and Reika were getting into it, and fell asleep soon after that.

"I think you should meet everyone else." I smiled.

When that was done, we all found somewhere to sleep, and were grateful for actual beds. It'd been awhile since the last time we'd slept in a bed had been a week or so earlier. Hard to believe. I slept in a king sized bed, with Ry and Lucy, and we had plenty of space to move around. The others were all also in a bed, somewhere, and some were on couches, which were just as comfy here. Three people were out on watch, as per usual when we stayed in a house.

This was one of those rare times I didn't have a night shift, and I was going to enjoy it. I woke up that morning alone in the bed, and the sun looked fairly high in the sky. I jerked up in surprise and saw that Christian was sitting on a stool near the foot of the bed.

"What're you doing?" I asked.

"I was reading, and waiting to tell you that we need to stay the night again, because Miu needs to pack everything for the triplets, and we figured we'd let you sleep in." he smiled, his brown hair in his eyes, as always.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Around noon, I think. It's hard to tell indoors." he answered, looking outside.

I flopped back down in the bed, and looked at him, sideways. "You don't need to sit there you know. I don't bite."

"I figured that you didn't really want to wake up with me in your bed." he winked and sat down next to me. I could feel heat radiating off him. He went back to reading his book, and I fell back asleep, content that I'd feel rested for once in my life.

When I woke up again, it was getting light out, and my eyes widened. I turned to Christian, and saw that he was asleep, the book on the floor, opened at the spine, and his arm was draped over me, and I turned to get out, and it just tightened. I sighed in annoyance, and he chuckled. "You don't get to escape that easily Syrr." I could hear the smirk in his voice.

"This would be defined as rape you know." I breathed.

"It's not rape if you like it."

"Then this is definitely rape."

He snorted and released me, much to his displeasure, and I walked to the bathroom, before realizing there was no more plumbing either. The stench that wafted up from the bathtub made me cover my nose and cough, running from the bathroom. i slammed the door behind me, and jumped back on the bed.

"Change of heart?" he smirked reaching out to me.

"You wish." I snorted. "The bathroom smells like- well shit, and I really don't need that right now." I shuddered just thinking about it and he nodded. My stomach grumbled, and I put a hand on it. "I'm gonna go grab some food. Coming?"

He nodded and we went down together. When we entered the room I widened my eyes and tried not to barf when I saw Mal and Justen kissing. Christian leaned close to me and whispered in my ear, "They're doing it, why can't we?"

"How long has this been going on?" I whispered back.

"They started talking alot, and they were getting really... friendly, and then now they're kissing. But back to what I just said. Why can't we?" he kissed my jaw and I elbowed him in the stomach, causing him to cry out in pain, and Ry and Justen jumping apart, Ry blushing, and Justen looking content.

I shook my head and opened the fridge, and then closed it firmly- someone had left the milk in there. I breathed deeply, and tried to get that stink out of my nose, and I opened the cupboard. I found a tin of Heinz Spagetti, and I opened it, enjoying it thoroughly- we'd run out of the good stuff ages ago, and were now stuck eating beans, and vegetables. Yummm- not. I moaned, and closed my eyes, savouring the taste. "This is fantastic."

"So are you." Christian said. I got butterflies in my stomach and pushed them away, instead studying the empty can beside him. I walked up to him and leant my head on his shoulder, the contact sending tingles through my body.

"I can't do this."

"Do what?"

"Pretend like I'm strong and powerful. Pretend like all my choices are good. Pretend like this doesn't affect me." I pointed between me and him, ending in a whisper.

He kneeled down, and grabbed my shoulders, looking me in the eyes. "Syrr, you are the strongest woman- hell person I've ever met- you'll get through this. You'll find a way to make every good decision, and you're going to do it with our help. You're not alone. And Syrr, if it affects you, why do you constantly push it away?" he asked finally, and I had to look away from his green eyes.

"Because I wouldn't know what to do if it went wrong..." I mumbled.

"I wont let it go wrong. We'll make it work. All you need to do is trust me, like I will do with you." he smiled, and took my hand in his. He brought it up to his mouth, and kissed it softly, and I hugged him tightly. "Thank you."

He smiled. "Let's go and see how Harmony is doing." he pulled me after him, and I followed him to a room that looked as if it was made for little children, and right in the middle sat Harmony, with Lucy behind her, and Ren, Riku and Reika were all playing with some Lego on the opposite side of the room. Miu was watching them, and lying on a couch in the corner, flipping through a magazine, without even looking at it.

"We should probably get stuff together, and pack all this food in our things again- and get the others some makeshift saddle packs. And we can let each child take his or her favourite toy with them." I smiled. Both Jessalyn and Lucy had taken their favourite stuffed animals, and a few keepsakes. Hell, so'd I. I'd hidden them amongst my clothes, and I'd even taken some clothes out to make room. There were some things that I just couldn't live without.

When we'd gotten everything ready, it was almost dark. I looked at everyone, and smiled. "We're going to sleep here for the night, and leave early. We still have a long way to get anywhere where it'll be warmer in the winter."

It was my watch tonight, first and I climbed up onto the roof, with the others on either side on the house on the ground. I curled up in a ball, frozen, and waited, ready with my bow and quiver. When Christian came to relieve me I grinned and climbed in through the window, collapsing on the huge bed. I woke up right when it was getting light outside, and I rallied everyone together.

"I think we should find something wagon-like... it'd be way easier to carry everything we have." I said.

Miu had a light in her eyes and burst out, "I know exactly where one is!"

When we got there, my eyes widened, but I didn't question it, the twelve foot-long, six foot wide carriage was a gift from God. I hitched Mia and Delilah to the carriage, and then hitched Harry, Zeus and Pearl in front of them, making a pickaxe formation. I got the reins attached properly, and sat in the seat. I then realized that neither Mark nor Elli had a horse to ride anymore, so I motioned for them to sit in the front with me. They both climbed in, but Christian stopped them.

"Mark you ride Kari. I'll ride with Syrr." Christian said. Mark just shrugged and hopped on Kari, who, as well as all the other horses, was not carying nearly as much as she had been before. I took the little kids- Ren, Riku, Reika and Harmony- in here as well, so they wouldn't have to ride, and packed Strawberry-who was no longer being ridden by Ren and Riku- with some extra things, seeing as we'd made this pretty heavy. We needed to balance the weight along the horses.

"Okay is everyone ready?" They all made affirming noises, and so I smiled. "Let's go."

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