"Just climb, Gallagher Girl." Zach's smirk was back. I climbed up the ladder, him right below me. I got in the helicopter and turned around, helping Zach up.

I looked up, expected to see Mr. Solomon, my mom, or anyone from the CIA.

But I didn't.

I looked up to see Mrs. Goode.

Zach's POV

I quickly grabbed Cammie's hand and yanked her behind me, pushing her against the now-closed helicopter door we had just stumbled through.

"What the hell?" I growled. We had thought we had gotten away, too. Damn it.

"I can take care of myself, Zach!" Cammie tried to shout, but it was muffled by the back of my shirt. I could feel her eyelashes batting up and down as she blinked, and she wriggled out of my grasp and peeked over my shoulder at my mother. I kept my hands tightly on her waist, not letting her move anymore.

"Yes, Zach, dear. She can take care of herself. Didn't you hear her?" My mom stepped out and tried to grab Cammie's wrist, but I leaned back even more.

"Don't touch her," I glared.

"Can't breathe," Cammie gave out a tiny little cough. I loosened up a bit, and she side-stepped out of my hold.

"Zach, I'm a spy too, remember? I don't need protection." Cammie glared at me.

"Can't help it. You're my Gallagher Girl." I frowned, reaching out and taking her hand again, needing some part of her to be with me, so I could have something to hold on to to make sure she's safe.

"Awh, isn't that sweet? My son finally found something he loves in life!" My mother pretended to swoon and batted her eyelashes at us, making a heart with her hands. It was kind of weird, actually, to see a smile grace her lips.

Even though it was a fake smile.

It was weird.

"Anyway, what were we saying before that horrid forest fire? Oh yes. We know you know what we need, Cameron. Your father must have told somebody, and it's either you or your mother."

"How would he have told me?" Cammie suddenly screamed. If I weren't a spy, I would have jumped. "I was a child when he went MIA! If he even did tell me, then I wouldn't have understood what he was saying anyway!"

"Liar!" My mother screeched. Cammie squeezed my hand at the intensity of her voice, but her gaze never faltered, staring at my mother's face straight-on.

"If he didn't tell you, then he...he must have hidden it somewhere inside of you! Installed a micro-chip inside of your brain, something!"

"He wouldn't have done that to me! He loved me – me and my mother – and he wouldn't have done anything to put us in danger!" Cammie's tone was threatening now, and her body was trembling with fury.

"It's a funny thing, a secret is. It eats you alive, my dear." my mother said harshly, harshly cupping Cammie's cheek and slashing her nail across it. Leaving a scratch, but not deep enough to cut skin and draw blood. I stepped forward, but Cammie stopped me with her hand.

"It eats you alive until you have to tell someone, anyone. It haunts you, it lingers behind your footsteps until you just can't take it anymore. You have to shout it to the world. You can't keep it to yourself, or you'll explode. A secret never stays one, no matter how hard you try to keep it that way."

"Then why are you so utterly convinced that I know it?" Cammie spat.

I looked around for an escape route. Things were getting too intense, too serious. A fight was coming, I could feel it in the air. The way my mother's hand kept twitching towards her belt, where several knives and napotine patches were stored. How the helicopter driver was nervously glancing at his controls, then my mother, then back at the sky in front of him.

Cammie could feel it too, I could tell, because she was slowly moving herself into a fighting position, an imperceptible crouch, knees slightly apart, arms ready.

Suddenly, I saw it. A parachute.

Right over to the right. It was withing reaching distance, but I would have to bend down to get it. Unless I slid it over with my foot. I squeezed Cammie's hand and, as quickly as I could, flicked my eyes into the direction of the parachute.

Stall her until I can get that in our reach. Was what I was trying to say.

She seemed to get it. She squeezed back and continued the heated argument with my mother again. I slowly inched my foot over to hook it onto a strap of the parachute, glad that my mother's attention was all on Cammie. Suddenly, my mother screamed something so loud even Cammie jumped.

But I guess it was a good thing, because the jump gave me an excuse to move, and I slid my foot all the way over and hooked it under the strap.

Now to bring it back to us, slide it on, hook Cammie onto it with me, open the door, and jump out.

Well, this was going to be easy.

Not.

I inched it closer. It made a small scratching noise.

I looked over at my mom, glad that she didn't notice.

Some assassin she is.

She was red in the face, her hair messed up, breathing heavily. It was over halfway to my now.

Suddenly, my mom pulled out a knife and held it towards Cammie. I heard Cammie gasp.

That gasp brought me to my senses.

I had to do this now, and I had to do this quickly. I lunged for the parachute, threw it onto my back, and grabbed the hook that was connected to it. I hooked it onto one of Cammie's belt loops, and flung the door open with the other hand.

"No!" I heard my mother shriek, lashing out blindly with her knife. I heard Cammie scream out, and then we were falling.

Falling through the sky, Cammie's hair whipping my in the face. I held her close to me, trying to protect her from some of the violent winds that was beating up on us.

You know that 'funny tummy feeling' you get when you go down on a roller coaster?

Yea.

It was here.

Except a million times worse. I felt like I was going to upchuck everything and anything I had in my stomach. As the ground got nearer and nearer, I quickly pulled the string to let the parachute come out. It jerked us back up painfully, and we let out a faint Umph.

We were slowly floating down now, and it was kind of peaceful, actually. The wind was blowing us every which way, and we were twirling around in the air. I was still holding her from behind, my arms wrapped around her waist.

"Do you think Bex and Grant are okay?" she asked quietly.

"They're strong, they would have made it out," I answered earnestly. I really did believe that. Grant was the strongest person I knew, and from the way Cammie talks about Bex, she probably was too.

"What if they didn't? Like in my dream..."

"They did, Cammie." I said sternly.

We fell to the ground, and I quickly caught myself on my hands before I smushed her to death. The parachute fell over us like a bright orange blanket, and for a second I was content just laying there, staring into her blue eyes. She smiled and raised her head a bit, pressing her soft lips onto mine. I went down on my elbows and tangled my fingers in her hair, deepening the kiss. She brought her hands up and teased the hairs at the back of my neck, twirling them with my fingers.

We broke apart, panting.

"I love you. Thank you for trying to protect me. Even though I don't need protecting," she glared.

It was then that I noticed that slightly deep gash on her cheek.

"Says the girl with a cut on her cheek! Does it hurt?" I frowned, reaching out to touch it.

"It's just a scratch, and no." She swatted my hand away, turning her cheek away from me.

We laid there in silence for a minute.

"...We should get out from under this thing, now. It's getting hard for me to breathe," she laughed. God, I loved her laugh. I just smiled real big and kissed her again, and then pulled away, smirking. She blinked, and bit her lip. She started to sit up, which meant I had to, too. We used our arms and pushed the parachute off of us, and her hair got all messy. I laughed and brought my hand to the top of her head, mussing it up even more.

She pouted and glared at me, with her hair going every which way. She looked adorable.

We looked around. We were in a flat stretch of land, no sign of civilization in sight. She tried to walk away from me, but was jerked back from the hook that was connected to me on her belt loop. She stumbled, and I caught her.

"Unhook me?" She asked.

"No," I smirked as I kissed her neck.

"Zach," she warned. I chuckled as I unhooked her, and looked around.

"This is bad. It will be extremely easy for them to spot us now, since we have no cover," I observed. We looked up. The helicopter was no where in sight.

"...Not that I'm complaining or anything, but wouldn't they have tried to jump down and get us back?" Cammie asked, confused.

I shrugged. "They only had one parachute, which we took. But I don't get why they didn't just take the helicopter down and land it, and then chase after us. They must have a plan..."

"You know what I don't get? How it's so flat and rocky here, but only a couple of miles ago was that forest."

"I don't think it was a couple of miles. We were in the helicopter for a pretty long time, and it was a Circle helicopter, which are five times as fast as normal ones." I explained.

"Oh." She said, looking down. She bit her lip, and tucked her hair behind her ear, but missing a few strands. I cocked my head to the side and looked at her, reaching out to finish what her hands were trying to do.

"Hey," I said gently. "What's the matter?"

Her eyes had glazed over and she got a far-away look in her eyes, as though she were thinking of something very hard.

She shrugged.

"You're still worried about Bex and Grant and that dream of yours, huh?" I asked.

She sighed and nodded, pulling her eyebrows together.

"It wasn't fair, Zach! I...we had just gotten them back, and now we have to find them again. I miss her. I miss my best friend," she choked out.

"I miss my best friend, too," I said quietly. She grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

Once.

Then four times.

Then three times.

"I love you, too." I smiled back.

"Let's start walking. We'll get somewhere...eventually." Cammie suggested.

We looked at the open stretch of rocky terrain, and looked at each other sadly, wondering how long it will take for us to see civilization again.

But most importantly, how long it will take for us to see our best friends again.

Hi guys!

Okay...to be honest, I really did not like this chapter.

At all.

But I've re-written it literally seven times, and I don't know where else to go with it. I didn't want Cammie to be captured yet, because then it would just be Zach trying to get Bex, Grant and Cammie? And we all know he would find Cammie first, and then Bex and Grant would just be like, "Hello? What about us?"

And yea. :/ I dunno.

Suggestions would be EXTREMELY helpful, and I'll try and update soon.

Thanks so much for reading.[: