Chapter Nine: Separate Ways

The boy and girl headed off into the woods and Jane, Slade and Xandar followed them. They'd been walking for five minutes when the boy and girl seemed to just walk through a bush, but as Xandar got closer he saw that they had just lifted up a camouflage net. He lifted it up and followed them through.

Xandar looked around the small den, there was only just enough space to fit them all in. There was a small wooden box with some tins of food and bottles of water in it and three old and worn sleeping bags. He turned to face the others.

"You three get some rest." He said pointing at Jane, and the boy and girl. "Slade and I will keep watch."

Without a word to each other the three of them climbed into the sleeping bags and within a few minutes they'd already fallen asleep.

"So what have you broken?" Xandar asked pointing at Slade's arm.

"I've not broken anything. I've dislocated my shoulder." Slade replied, grimacing as he did.

"So that's what that pop was when you hit the ground. Ok, this is going to hurt but you can't scream."

"What do you mean it's going to hurt?" Slade asked sounding slightly worried.

"Well I'm going to grab hold of your shoulder real tight, then your going to push against me as hard as you can and I'll be pushing back. Hopefully your shoulder will pop back into place. You'll have to bite down on this." Xandar explained, handing him a stick of wood.

"Hopefully! That sounds reassuring."

"You ready?" Xandar asked, grabbing hold of Slade's shoulder.

"Do I have any choice?" Slade replied, clamping down on the piece of wood with his teeth.

"No. On the count of three. One...Two...Three!"

There was a popping sound and lots of muffled yells from Slade, as he collapsed on the floor.

"You didn't say it would f*****g hurt that f*****g much!" Slade swore with tears starting to roll down his cheeks.

"Well it worked didn't it." Xandar pointed out.

"Yeah, but this is going to hurt like hell for a while. Talk to me about something to take my mind off the pain."

"Like what?" Xandar asked.

"I don't know. How about you tell me why you decided to break into a church full of murdering lunatics to rescue her?" Slade said pointing at Jane.

"I almost didn't." Xandar said looking over at Jane sleeping. "I was fully set to leave you both in there. I was even going to take your motorbike, I was sitting on it ready to start the ignition when I remembered the promise I'd made to her brother. Plus it seemed that fate was against me, there wasn't any key."

"That wasn't fate. I keep the key in my boot, so no one can take my bike." Slade explained. "And what promise?"

"Well I was taken in by Jane's family before the virus wiped out all the adults, and they looked after me. But only a couple of weeks after they took me in Jane's parents both died from the virus, so there was only the three of us left and Ian, Jane's brother, looked after both of us. About a month after the virus had started Ian got infected, we didn't think that he would because he was only 19, but he did and it took him a week to die. Just before he died he made me promise to look after Jane, as I was all she had left."

"Wow, talk about unlucky. Most people only lost the two parents but you lost your real parents, then your adoptive parents and then a parental figure. That must have been hard."

"Not really, I try not to think about it to much. Now are you going to tell me why you went snooping around a church full of murdering lunatics?" Xandar asked.

"Let's just say I was looking for someone." Slade replied evasively.

They both lapsed into a few minutes of silence, which was punctuated by a few snores and Slade's occasional groaning.

"You should get some sleep. I'm not going to get any with this pain in my shoulder." Slade said.

"Ok, but wake me up if you hear anything."

"Sure."

Xandar lay down on the floor and piled up a group of leaves to use as a pillow. He closed his eyes and slowly slipped away from consciousness.

***

"This is our new house. What do you think, Xandar?" A deep mans voice asked.

Xandar looked up at the house he was standing in front of. It looked like a normal house; it had a front door and four windows, with a well-kept front lawn.

"It looks great dad." He replied.

"It does, doesn't it, and you haven't even seen the pool yet." The male voice said with excitement.

"That sounds great, but why did we have to move, I liked our old house and my old friends." Xandar moaned.

"We've been over this dear, your father has been offered a promotion at Pandorax but we had to move here for him to get it. We'll be able to provide a better future for you now. And don't worry I'm sure you'll make lots of new friends." A female voice said softly.

"Yeah, right." Xandar said looking around at all the posh houses that lined the street. He wasn't sure that he'd get one with any kids around here.

***

A snapping twig woke Xandar up from his dream. He opened his eyes and had to quickly shield them from the suns glare.

"Did you hear that noise Slade?" Xandar asked.

There was no reply, so Xandar looked around to see if Slade was asleep but he wasn't there. Xandar heard another twig snap and he pulled the knife out of his belt and crouched down near the camouflage net ready to pounce. The net was pulled aside and Xandar jumped on the intruder pushing them to the ground, holding the knife to their neck.

"Whoa, easy. It's me Xandar." Slade managed to choke out.

Xandar removed the knife and rolled off Slade, letting him stand up.

"Where've you been?" Xandar asked sliding the knife back into his belt.

"I went to check out the area to see if they were still looking for us." Slade explained rubbing his neck.

"And?" Xandar prompted.

"Well I didn't find any trace of anyone, so I went to look by the church."

"You really do have a death wish." Xandar quipped.

"I got there and there were no guards like there were last time, so I looked inside and it was empty. They've all gone somewhere." Slade said sounding thankful.

"They've probably gone after the Mallrats."

"Who are they?" Slade asked.

"No idea, but I wouldn't want to be them." Xandar replied. "Shall we get the others up and head to the inn then?"

"Sure."

Xandar and Slade moved over to the three sleeping figures and woke them up. They explained what had happened and within fifteen minutes they had reached the inn.

"Son of a..." Slade exclaimed.

Xandar looked over to what Slade was swearing at and he saw the motorbike tipped onto its side and covered in dirt.

"I guess they didn't like not being able to use it." Xandar managed to get out before he burst out laughing.

Slade turned round and scowled at Xandar and was about to say something back when he was interrupted by another voice shouting.

"Peter! Sally! You're both alive." Paul shouted and he ran over and gave them both a big embrace.

Jane and Xandar walked into the inn, leaving Slade to mope over his bike and the siblings to their moment of happiness.

"You wait down here, Jane." Xandar said.

He headed up the stairs and into the room that he'd been asleep in the previous day. He reached under the bed and pulled out two rucksacks. He slung them both over his shoulder and headed back down the stairs. When he reached the bar area he saw Slade, Jane, Peter and Sally sitting at a table talking to each other. He stood and watched them for a few minutes smiling too himself.

"I wanted to thank you, Xandar." Paul said, making Xandar jump at the sound of his voice.

"It was nothing, it's not like I went out of my way to find them. They just happened to be where I went." Xandar said uncomfortably.

"It doesn't matter; I still want to thank you. Here take this." Paul said holding out a bag.

"What is it?" Xandar asked.

"It's got some cans of food, a couple of fish and a few batteries. I've given one to Jane too" Paul explained.

"I can't take this." Xandar said embarrassed.

"Yes you can. It's my thank you." Paul insisted pushing the bag into Xandar's hands.

"Alright I'll take it, but you should take your knife and photo back." Xandar said holding both of them in his hands.

"I'll have the photo but you can keep the knife, I've got plenty of them in the back." Paul said taking the photo off Xandar.

Paul then walked over to his brother and sister and sat down next to them. Xandar looked down at the bag and knife in his hands and smiled too himself again. He then looked over to Jane.

"Come on, Jane." He called "We should go."

Jane stood up and walked over to Xandar, taking her rucksack off him when she got there.

"I should be going too" Slade said, and he got up from the table too.

Peter, Sally and Paul walked over to the three of them and said goodbye and thank you many times before they let them out of the door. Finally they did, and once they were outside Xandar turned to Slade.

"So what did they give you?" he asked.

"Some fuel for my bike and a few food cans." Slade replied.

"Figures." Xandar said. "So where are you off too now?"

"As far away from you two as I can manage. I think trouble follows you around." Slade said with a smirk on his face.

"Funny, I was thinking the same thing about you."

"Stay safe you two." Slade said putting on his helmet.

"Yeah you too, and I hope you find who you're looking for." Xandar replied sincerely.

"Bye, Slade." Jane said.

"I'll see you around." Slade said and he started his motorbike and sped off into the fields.

Xandar and Jane stood there for a moment watching Slade drive off into the distance.

"Come on, Jane. Let's head off." Xandar said breaking the silence.

"Where to?" Jane asked.

"I don't know, but after this experience something tells me that we've got to find ourselves a tribe to join if we want to protect each other."

Xandar took hold of Jane's hand and they both started walking out of the little village and back onto the road.

***

A/N: That's the end of this story, but I should be posting the next part of Xandars tale sometime after christmas.