Ok, looking back on my prior chapters I'm realizing my story has gone into a kind of slump (meaning it's been steadily getting worse and worse). Hopefully this chapter will break that trend…so please tell me if it does. Or if I'm delusional and my story's the best you've ever read (haha, JK.) I'd like to give partial credit to Bertle who made up my mind about what was going to happen in this chapter. I had thought about it but wasn't sure if it was too farfetched, but Bertle's review proved it wasn't-or that someone else has a mind as twisted as mine :)

"We knew they were tracking us. This doesn't prove your whole "tracking bullet" hypothesis." Derek countered, breathing hard.

I glared at him. "Well if not that, then what? How did they just find us?"

"Um…look, I know you guys are prepared for a whole debate on this but can we please have it later?" Simon looked pointedly at the nearest unconscious guard.

"Ugh," Tori groaned, using a low hanging tree branch to hoist herself to a standing position, "anyone else feel like they're swimming in pudding?"

"Not pudding. Pudding would make me happier. Maybe jello- the lime jello that nobody likes." Simon mused. For a guy who was just yelling at us to hurry up and leave he sure gets distracted easily.

"Let's go." We all started walking as fast as we could, which was painstakingly slow. It was like that time I had agreed to go to the gym with my Aunt Lauren and had had to walk around with weights tied to my feet, every step was a strain.

After about half an hour of walking I was feeling more or less normal. At least it only took the usual amount of energy to perform any given task. The others must have felt the same, for our pace picked up considerably. We even broke into a jog for a half mile or so until just plain exhaustion brought us back to a walk.

Finally we stopped again. "Ok, now you guys can argue." Simon said as he sunk to the ground and began rummaging in his backpack for a granola bar.

"We're taking the bullet out," I put in right away.

"No." Derek glared at me from where he was leaning back against a tree trunk.

"Why?" At this point the question was a mere technicality. I'd already heard the answer dozens of times.

"Too dangerous," he reminded me.

"We were just attacked. In our sleep! What do you think would have happened if you hadn't woken up?"

"Something bad," he admitted, "probably painful. It was pretty lucky that guard's yelp was loud enough."

I snorted. "Lucky? That was because he saw my rabbit crawling around!" I didn't know why it was bothering me so much that he wasn't giving me the credit. I guess a small part in the back of my mind had been hoping for his praise.

"Yeah, yeah, you're both wonderful." Tori looked exasperated. "Now can we please shut up and try and sleep? In case you haven't noticed, it's still dark out."

"Sorry," Derek muttered. "I'm kinda tense right now."

"Really?" Tori gasped with faked surprise.

"That was a good idea of yours, Chloe," he looked up at me earnestly and I saw the frustration swirling in his electric eyes. Poor Derek, he didn't know what to do. For him that was hell. I now felt silly for being resentful of him saying being woken up was "lucky" before.

"Thanks," I said, the word caught off by a yawn.

"I know we're all really tired but I think we should keep moving," Derek's motto: when in doubt- keep moving. "After all, the more distance we put between us and them, the harder it will be for them to find us again."

"They can find us anyway," I said but my heart wasn't really in the argument. Not at the moment, at least.

"Let's go," Simon sighed and dusted himself off, slinging his backpack back around his shoulders. Tori gave a little groan but didn't otherwise complain.

It was a relief when we stopped about an hour later. This time, even Derek couldn't keep his eyes open.

No one woke us up.

"They are going to find us again." I said decisively. We had just woken up (thankfully alone) and I had used the time to restart the argument. How many times had we had it by now?

"And taking out the bullet will prevent that?" Derek snapped.

"Yes!"

"Here we go again," Tori looked at Simon and rolled her eyes. A look of annoyance furrowed his brow. It was obvious they were both getting fed up with this.

"And you know this how?"

"I told you, Liz said-"

"I don't give a crap about what Liz said! She's not here! She doesn't know what the hell is going through our lives! She's a ghost! You think she'd consider it a hardship if you died too?"

That was over the line. "Liz is my best friend! Of course she doesn't want me to die! I can't believe you would even suggest that!" Out of the corner of my eye I saw Simon and Tori's heads swiveling back and forth between us as if they were watching an intense ping-pong match.

"I didn't say she wants you to die! I just said she wouldn't be overly upset if it did happen!"

"And you would?" My temper flared.

"Of course I would!" he yelled. "When will you understand that I love you!" He turned on his heel and stormed away into the forest.

I gasped, going totally numb inside as I tried to think back on all of our romantic moments. Was that the first time he actually said the l-word?

"Wow." Tori said at last when it became obvious no one else was going to say anything. "That was…"

"Dramatic?" Simon supplied.

"Yep. Very dramatic."

A rustle in the undergrowth ahead of us and Derek popped out. "Are you coming?" he growled, clearly not over his anger yet. We obediently followed him, trekking through the forest.

It was a silent walk, even more so than all the other ones we had gone on in the past few days. No one dared to say anything except Derek, who would occasionally mutter something under his breath. He kept a firm barrier of twenty paces between us so I couldn't make out the words, though I thought I caught my name at one point.

When we next reached a town we stopped to pick up some food. And get this- this town was actually big enough to have a souvenir shop selling t-shirts and a bus stop. Our luck had taken a positive turn at last.

"Ok, we'll split up. You girls go get some clean clothes-"

"Thank God," Tori plucked at her threadbare t-shirt with distaste.

"-And Simon and I will go buy some food. Ok? Meet back here in forty five minutes. Tori, do you have money?" he was carefully not addressing me, even though he knew Tori didn't have any.

"I don't but Chloe does," she said with a sideways glance at me. I nodded, even though he hadn't asked me for confirmation.

"All right. Just get enough clothes so we each have two outfits."

"And no hot pink t-shirts for me, please," Simon put in with a mischievous glint in his eye.

"Hmm…wasn't going to but now that doesn't sound like a terrible idea…" Tori teased, eyes equally twinkling. I studied their expressions as they grinned at each other and thought for the first time I noticed something close to romance there. Could Simon and Tori be falling for each other? The idea struck me as odd, but not impossible. However, the connection seemed to disappear as quickly as it had come as the boys turned and headed towards the food store.

Tori and I headed towards the souvenir shop (souvenirs for what I had no idea. Did anyone really want a t-shirt that says 'I heart Madisonville, PA' on it?). Fortunately we weren't the only pedestrians in this town, we passed several couples and one group of teenagers our age hanging out together in front of a coffee shop.

"So," I braved at last, "do you and Simon, you know, like each other?"

She looked at me out of the corner of her eye, not bothering to turn her head. "Why would you think that? I mean, I know I used to like him back at Lyle house when my choices were him and your ugly werewolf boyfriend," I glared at her and she hastened to add, "no offense or whatever, but I never really liked him."

I shrugged. "No, I mean it just looked like you two-"

"No." she said firmly with a little shake of her head, effectively closing the matter.

We had reached the souvenir store by now. It was empty except for us and the guy with the nose ring and Mohawk at the counter, bobbing his head to his ipod. I veered away from her down a different aisle, allowing my fingers to traipse along the scratchy cheap fabric. Still, I wanted those clean clothes so bad it hurt like a physical ache.

"Finding anything?" I asked Tori as we reunited at the end of the aisles.

"Hey, I'm not going to be picky. Just as long as they're clean," she said with relish.

I left the t-shirt aisles and started idly wandering around by the actual souvenirs- the snow globes, the magnets…

Then a keychain caught my eye. It was a small, engraved pocket knife. Perfect.

We were ready to check out twenty minutes later. We had picked out two t-shirts for each of us: X-large for Derek, Mediums for Simon and Tori, and X-small for me. Tori got a kick out of that. Unfortunately there were no pants being sold (though I wasn't totally surprised; only the big tourist centers get their logos on pants, like Disney world) so our jeans would have to be kept.

As we dropped our finds on the counter for the guy to check out, Tori's eyes bugged open. I followed her gaze to the pocket knife I had put there. "Later," I mouthed, and she nodded her understanding.

Outside the store, each of us laden down with shopping bags, Tori turned to me. "Ok, what's with the knife?"

"I have to get the bullet out." I responded evenly, praying she would understand.

Fortunately, she did. "Derek's going to kill you." she said matter-of-factly.

"I know," I sighed, "but I hate putting you guys in danger." She bit her lip but didn't say anything else.

The guys were already waiting for us at the designated rendezvous. "Find any clothes?" Simon asked as we approached.

"Yep," Tori nodded, "Hot pink just for you, Simon."

"Great," he looked less than thrilled.

We waited until dark before going to a public bathroom in the park to change and get clean. "You girls can go first," Derek said, nodding at the door.

"No, why don't you guys go first?" I offered, palms sweating. He had to accept if my plan was to work. Otherwise, they would get antsy waiting for me to finish my attempt at "surgery", maybe even coming in and seeing what was taking so long. No, I had to go after them.

Derek gave me a suspicious look but after a moment nodded. Ok. We'll be right out." I sat down beside Tori on the bench outside the bathroom to wait.

Pretty soon the guys emerged in the fresh t-shirts. "You don't know just how amazing this feels! Being clean-ah." Simon sighed in contentment.

"Well we will know in a few minutes if you two get your butts out of the way," Tori picked up one of her new t-shirts from the bag. I did the same, subtly tucking the knife inside it as I did so.

In the bathroom I quickly stripped down to my bra, peeling away the stiff shirt. A wave of nausea rolled over me as I pulled it over my head. It was hard to believe I had smelled like that for the past week.

Tori had already taken off her own shirt and was wetting paper towels and rubbing them all over her torso. "What?" She asked when she caught me giving her a curious look. "The closest we've got to showers right now."

"True." It was a good idea. I knew I should just get on with the "surgery" but couldn't resist the temptation of getting clean, so I copied her. I soaked the brown paper towel, before wiping it across my shoulders, reveling in the cool relief of cleanliness it brought as the excess water dripped down my chest. After so much grit and dirt from the road, it was heavenly.

I couldn't spend as much time getting clean as I would have liked, however. I pulled on my navy t-shirt. Tori was still washing herself with the wet paper towel, eyes closed in rapture. I picked up the knife from where I had set it down on the sink rim. Resolutely I flipped open the blade and raised the hem of my shirt. I unwrapped the strips of material wound around my waist. The bullet injury was dime sized, a deep puckered pink, scabbed over around the edges. I will not puke, I vowed.

Tori was done dressing by now. "I'm going to wait outside." she was pointedly not looking at the injury. No doubt she wanted to escape what was sure to be a gory scene. I didn't blame her. If I could have, I would have escaped too.

"Ok. Just…tell them I'm not done yet."

"Will do. But Chloe-" she turned from where she was at the door. "Are you sure you want to do this?" I nodded shakily. "Ok. Good luck." she opened the door just a crack and slipped out before the others could glimpse inside.

I took a deep breath and poised the blade above my stomach, lightly touching it to the injury. On the count of three, I promised myself. One…two…three…now. My hand didn't move. Ok…now. Still nothing.

Much as I tried I could not force myself to make the cut. I gritted my teeth and tried to force my hand but it didn't obey.

"Chloe?" A knock on the door. "You ok?"

"She's fine!" I distantly heard Tori snap. "Just give her a few more minutes?"

I was wasting valuable time. Why couldn't I have the guts to do it?

To my horror, the door opened and Derek walked in. "Chloe, what's taking so-" he froze in the doorway, eyes trained on the knife I was holding above my stomach. In three quick strides he was next to me, snatching the knife out of my numb hand. We stood there for a moment, both of us locked in place, him holding the open knife and me with one hand still raising the hem of my shirt. "You were really going to do it, weren't you?" he said at last, looking resigned. I couldn't move. "All right," he sighed. "We'll do it your way. Tomorrow night we will help you get the bullet out."

Now will Derek still help her? Or will he break his promise? Guesses?

And PLEASE (there is no other technological way to accentuate that word but it is really important) take my poll! Simon's love life is in your hands! So far a total of 11 amazing people have taken it…but Simon needs more support! I am getting close to the part where I was planning on talking about his love life so immediate responses will be appreciated! Thank you in advance! (and sorry I'm being so obnoxious about it…I just feel bad for Simon)