Disclaimer: If I owned the gone series, then I wouldn't have made a fanfiction about it

I don't know how long I'd been running, but when I finally stopped, I found myself at the gates of Coates academy, about five miles from where I'd started. I knew my way around the school relatively well, as my mum had thought about sending me here more than a few times. It was probably about midday now, and the kids at Coates should have been in their classes, but instead there was a large number of kids out in the field, either scared or confused. I could see the back of Drake's head, he was standing behind a boy a little older than him, maybe fourteen. He looked menacingly at any kids who weren't paying attention to whatever it was the boy was saying. There was a girl standing next to him, closer to the other boy, she looked like a supermodel, I guessed she was the other boy's girlfriend. There was a smaller boy standing behind the group, he looked like the sort of kid who would do whatever you wanted if you looked scary enough.

I walked through the open gate as quietly as I could, the boy speaking seemed to be either feared or liked by most people. A brown haired girl, who was probably about twelve stepped out of the crowd and began to argue, Drake tried to slap her and make her shut up, but she jumped out of the way with inhuman speed I walked close enough that I could hear what was going on, but I didn't walk any further for fear of being seen.

"Well," said the boy "anyone who agrees with Brianna will tell computer Jack, everyone else will come with me." the small boy (who I really shouldn't be calling small, as he's older than me) typed something on his laptop. I guessed he was computer Jack. The girl, who was probably Brianna, scowled.

"And then what, Caine?" asked Brianna, not giving up on whatever her argument was "You'll tell Drake to kill us?" Drake smiled in a way that suggested that he would like nothing more than for Caine to give that order.

A relatively large number kids raised their hands and said that they agreed with Brianna, and they would not follow Caine, even if he has them killed. You could tell that a smaller number of kids agreed with her but were too afraid to say so, and a few didn't seem to care but had been dragged to one side or the other by their friends.

The crowd began to disperse, Caine, Drake, and their group went off in one direction and those who agreed with Brianna broke into groups of three or four. I assumed that anyone who disagrees with Drake was either very stupid or very dangerous, and Brianna didn't seem stupid, but I had just run five miles without anything to drink, and I hadn't slept for about two days, so I decided to hope that Brianna was nice. She was standing by a tree, not doing much.

I walked up to her quietly, I stood behind her for a second, and I tapped her on the shoulder.

She whirled around and stared at me, she seemed to be trying to decide whether to scream and behead me with one slap or to hug me and treat me like a seven year old. "Hi," she said, apparently choosing something close to the latter "um.. what's your name?"

I smiled my awkward little smile and said "I'm Artemis." I coughed, "You're Brianna, right? I heard you talking to Caine—that's his name, right?" I coughed again, "Sorry, do you have any water."

She produced a bottle of water from her bag and handed it to me. I smiled in thanks, deciding that I liked her, and drank the water.

"Thanks," I said, realising that if she knew I was Drake's brother she'd probably have let me die of thirst.

"So," she said, apparently realising that I wasn't four years old, "What are you doing here?"

I wasn't sure of what to say to that, after all, telling the truth could result in her either feeling sorry for me, or her thinking I am a psychopath and beheading me with one slap. Of course, lying to her could result in her finding out the truth and causing the probability of her beheading me going up. "I was at the police station this morning," I explained, deciding to sugar-coat the truth, "My mum was killed, and they were interrogating me as a witness, and I think I got scared so I ran away and I came here."

"Oh." she said, "Do you have any older siblings"

" No." I said, "Not really." I usually wasn't one to trust people, but Brianna seemed trustworthy, and, I told myself, a friend might be nice.

"Not really?" she repeated, raising an eyebrow,

I opened my mouth to speak, realized I looked like a fish, closed it again, and finally said, "Drake's my brother, Drake Merwin"