Er. Yeah. Here we go XD.

I had my Xanadu.

We finally went to sleep in our seperate tents. Seth and I cuddled up in his sleeping bag, which were really quite comfortable. It had a built in pillow and was lined in something that kept in the cool and heat both, so even though the day its self had been pretty warm and the night had gotten cooler, the sleeping bag was the perfect temperature. I was between Seth and Stella, feeling very safe. I had a feeling that Stella, like Seth, may look weak but could actually kick some ass if it was needed. I was quick to fall asleep, but between the perfect temperature, tiredness from walking all day, feeling of safety, and Seth rubbing relaxing circles into my shoulders, I really didn't have a choice.

It seemed like I had been sleeping all day when I felt Seth shoot up in the sleeping bag.

"Seth? What the hell?" I whispered, trying not to wake the others.

"Sshh." He shushed me, quietly. This is weird. I looked over and saw Sara and Stella were both also awake, looking at Seth with faces that I'm sure reflected my own. What the hell is going on?

Seth quickly stood and phased his head part of the way through the tent, then the rest of his body. I heard him walking over to the other tent and I'm guessing he phased in judging by the fact that I didn't hear the tent un-zip but I did hear the boys talking.

Stella stood and zipped the tent open as quietly as possible, but if you've ever tried to un-zip a tent quietly, you should know that that's not possible. It's like the tent realizes what you're trying to do and decides to be as loud as possible. She, Sara and I all cringed at the noise. When we stuck our head out of the tent, I saw nothing out of the ordinary that would have caused Seth to act this way. We all pulled back in and zipped the tent as quietly as possible (still wasn't quiet), and huddled in the middle of the tent.

"What do you think's going on?" I asked quietly.

"No idea. He's your boyfriend." Stella joked.

"He's your brother." I turned the attention to Sara.

"I'm trying to read his mind, but I can't. You try, Syd."

So I did. I imagined the link between he and I, coursing from our tent over to the guys tent. Imagined his thoughts flowing into my head.

WHY THE HELL AREN'T THEY LISTENING TO ME? I KNOW I HEARD SOMETHING. I SWEAR, IF ANYONE GETS HURT BECAUSE THEY'RE TOO TIRED AND THICK TO LISTEN, I'LL KILL THEM! ESPECIALLY IF SYD GETS HURT. DAMN LAZY ASSES.

"He heard something. But the guy won't wake up. He's worried someones going to get hurt, but they won't even listen to him." I reported.

"Heard what?" Stella asked, sounding nervous.

"He didn't say."

But he didn't have to say, because he was back. And he looked furious.

"What's going on, Seth?" Sara asked.

"Nothing, guys. Just my paranoia, more than likely. Go back to sleep. We have a lot of walking to do tomorrow."

You know it wasn't just his imagination. But he's more likely to talk to you than one of us.

I'll see what I can do.

The other two crawled back into their sleeping bags. Seth was sitting in front of the unzipped door. I slipped up behind him, slipped my arms around his waist and laid my head over his shoulder.

"What did you hear?"

He grimaced. "Nothing, Syd. Just go get some sleep."

"Nothing? Really?"

"Really."

oh, boy. He was lying. I KNEW it. There's no way he hadn't heard anything. If he hadn't heard anything, everyone would still be nustled into their sleeping bags, sound asleep. The fastest way to piss me off is to lie to me. I withdrew my hands from around his waist, crawled back into our sleeping bag, and fell asleep without another word being whispered. I'm not sure if he ever came back to the bag. If he did, he didn't wake me. The next thing I remember is him placing kisses around my chin the next morning, whispering "wake up" in between the kisses.

I opened my eyes and pulled away, climbing out of the bag and escaping out of the tent into the open air where the others were slowly waking up. I don't forgive liars over a few sweet kisses.

"You look pissed, Princess." Travis noted. "What's up?"

"Nothing's wrong. Just still asleep." I lied. Does that make me a hypocrite?

"Just asleep?" Jon laughed. "I've seen you when you've just woken up. And I've seen you when you're pissed. I can tell the difference. And you're pissed."

I didn't really want to make a big deal about it. Seth had woken Sara and Stella and they had now climbed out of the tent, Seth looking confused as Hell and Sara looking worried. Stella was just stumbling around, basically a zombie. I took a little walk off in the woods with Jon and Travis.

"What did Seth say to you guys when he came in your tent last night?" I asked.

"Seth came in our tent last night?" Travis seemed genuinely shocked.

"Shit, you mean that was real? I thought I had dreamed it!"

"No. We were asleep and Seth just shot up out of the sleeping bag, told us all to be quiet, and phased out of the tent. We heard him trying to talk to you guys, then he phased back into the tent and just sat at the open door all night. He told me he didn't hear anything, which was a lie, and I didn't feel him come back to bed."

"He said he heard stuff walking around and he thought he heard voices. I swear, I thought I was dreaming. Otherwise, I would have at least investigated it." Jon sounded ashamed.

"He lied. He told me that he just imagined it. How can I trust him if he won't even tell me what's going on?"

"C'mon, Syd. He didn't lie, exactly. He just didn't want you to worry."

"If there's something creeping around our camp, I want to know. I want to be alert. Lying never does anything but get people hurt. I've been lied to far too many times to 'protect me', and all it did was get people killed. Like my parents, for instance."

"Don't worry about it. He didn't mean to anger or hurt you." Travis was trying to smooth it over, but no. I don't like being lied to. I can't STAND being lied to.

"Whatever." I walked back to the camp and heard them walking behind me. They went over to talk to Seth, who was already talking to Steven.

"You okay?" Sara asked.

"No. You heard him. He wouldn't say what happened. Just told me nothing was going on and to go back to sleep. He lied to me."

Sara and Stella just nodded. It seemed that they, at least, understood my hatred for being lied to. We packed up the tents, ate a quick breakfast, and then headed off. I made sure to keep my distance from Seth. I just felt like I couldn't trust him. Maybe I was over-reacting. Maybe he had done it to protect me, maybe it hadn't been THAT big of a lie. But it was still a lie.

Instead, I walked between Steven and Travis, both of whom were actually hilarious. Hearing stories of all the troubles they had caused in school, pranks they had pulled, times they had run from the law... I could see why these guys were friends. They were a hoot and I had a stitch in my side that had nothing to do with the fact that we had been walking for a while.

Then we were surrounded. One minute we had been walking, Jon and Seth in the lead, Sara and Stella a step in front of us, sometimes taking part of our conversation and sometimes holding their own, and the three of us in the back, the next there were suits all around us.

"Trackers!" I heard Steven whisper. Trackers? What was a tracker? It sounded familiar, and I searched my brain for what it could mean. Then I remembered. Government workers. Searched the woods and islands for rule-breakers. And while we looked innocent enough, our large packs were evidence that we were traveling, and traveling for no reason was illegal. We did have a reason, but I think that reason would be worse than having no reason at all.

"Afternoon, gentlemen." Jon sounded so grown and official.

"Where are you guys headed?" The head suit asked. No nonsense.

"Just out for a hike. Camping along the way, exploring."

"Unnecessary travel is illegal. Where do you come from?"

"Cisco."

"A bit out of your area, aren't you? Where are you headed?"

"We were going to the Capitol. We've never been, and thought it might be interesting to see."

"And your parents?" Although Jon's reasons sounded good to me, the Head Suit didn't sound appeased. He sounded suspicious.

"Ahhh. Well, they're at home. Thought we'd be well enough to go on this journey alone."

"There's been a lot of talk about rebellion. Stories of kids going against the government. You guys wouldn't happen to be a part of this rebellion, would you?"

"Course not. What reason do we have to rebel?"

The Head Suit pulled out a device. "Let me get your name."

Jon threw out his name, and while the Head was putting it into the device, I took my chance of taking my eyes off of him to look at the other suits. They looked like the bloody Men in Black. We were even in numbers, but they had weapons. Lethal looking guns.

"Son of two school teachers. Good grades. No criminal record. What about you?" He turned to Seth. If Seth gave him his name, he would look him up and find that he was the son of two scientists, imprisoned for their research against the government. Which would be a reason to rebel. Shit.

"Uh." Then he lunged for the Head. Two of the guys attempted to grab him, while two others shot at him, but it had no affect. He allowed the hands and bullets to phase through him, and quickly had the Head knocked unconscious on the ground. Jon took out the two who had shot at him, banging their heads together. Travis pushed me, Stella and Sara away from the group and the rest of them quickly took out the group. Sara had used her powers to either jam their guns or rip them from their hands, so they had a fair, hand-to-hand combat.

Jon yanked the device from the Heads hands and we all gathered the guns from the unconscious trackers. We were now armed and running on adrenaline. Our adrenaline allowed us to run about two miles before we finally slowed, then stopped for a lunch.

Travis had been talking about how "Awesome" that had been. I get the feeling that he didn't get into very many fights, and I have to admit that I myself found that pretty damn great. Even if I hadn't exactly been involved, it as empowering to know that our group had taken on a group of trackers and won. If we could win this battle, then maybe we can win the big battle, although, when I say the big battle, it is CONSIDERABLY bigger. But we finally had something that had been rather evading before.

Hope.

Eh, not that great of a chapter, but it's been a while since I posted so I figure something is better than nothing. But on the plus side, my Godchild's birth date was moved up to June 7th! Apparently, she was two weeks farther along than we thought! Yay!