The Little Scout

Chapter Twelve

Tessa's POV

Tessa clutched her gun to her chest and ran. "Sophie." Tessa muttered.
"Tessa, it's okay, I'm here." She whispered back.
"I think we've lost them." Tessa panted, she clutched her knees and tried to get her breath back.
"But the only trouble is that we've also lost Ben and Jimmy."
"What? I thought they were following us?"
"They were. But they must've got lost too."
"You mean we're alone, just great. Just freaking great."
"It's not my fault..."
"I know, sorry. Guess, there's only one way to find them? Run back and hope to god that we do find them. Before the Mech's following us do." She took the lead and the girls tried to retrace their footsteps. A twig cracked under Tessa's boot and she jumped and almost screamed. She wasn't scared; she'd been on plenty of missions like this. Where she'd lost Ben or Hal or even Maggie. One time she lost the whole group and almost got harnessed, she never was good at directions. A large light washed over them and Tessa pushed Sophie down to the leaves on the ground. Tessa stared at her; tears were in Sophie's eyes. "Shush, its okay."
"I just wanted to get rid of them, to help. Now, now, I'm going to die." She sobbed quietly.
"We are not going to die, Sophie. We're going to shoot the hell out of that thing, run back to camp, and report the dumb freaks missing." Sophie nodded. "Now, on the count of three we skirt around the bushes over there and I will start fire. You run as fast as you can and I'll follow you."
"There's no way you can take it out."
"I'm not going to. It's a distress fire; they'll hear It."
"Ben and Jimmy?"
"No, Bill and Bob, of course Ben and Jimmy." Tessa snapped.
"What if it shoots back?"
"Then I'm hoping that I'm not going to get myself killed, are you ready?" Sophie shook her head. Tessa smiled sympathetically. "Where's that fighting spirit gone?" She joked. Sophie gulped. "On the count of three, One...Two...Three!" She shouted. Sophie set off and Tessa ran after her, letting her gun fire at the Mech. The Mech fire back but Tessa dodged them all. She heard Sophie scream and ran faster.

When she got to where the scream had come from, Sophie wasn't there. "Sophie!" She screamed. "Sophie! God, please, please." She shouted. She noticed Sophie's gun belt, Tessa picked it up. "No, not Sophie. Not another harnessed." She paced for a little while. "Sophie!"
"Tessa! Is that you? Tessa?" Someone shouted. It was Jimmy.
"Jimmy! Help! I've lost Sophie, is Ben with you?"
"No, I lost him." Jimmy stood a foot away from her.
"How?" She shouted.
"Calm down." Jimmy told her. "We were being chased, we lost you, and Ben went to find you. He didn't come back."
"Did they take him?"
"No, I would've heard him in distress."
"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT." She shouted at him. "We're going to get them."
"Have you got any bullets left?"
"No."
"We can't, Tess, we need more time."
"We can't just let them go missing. We're going, right now. We don't need bullets."
"Bull." Tessa punched Jimmy, hard in the face. He collapsed to the ground. "Okay, we don't need bullets." He muttered, clutching his eye. Tessa helped him up.
"Sorry." She muttered.
"Don't be, I'm used to it."
"We don't know where they went. At all."
"Sophie went that way, I heard something in the bushes when you hit me. And Ben..."
"Ben will be where we were. Where I was firing at the Mech. I'm going after him."
"No, Tessa, we can't lose each other. We'll go after Sophie first, leaving a trail for Ben."
"And what if they have him again?" Jimmy hesitated.
"What about Sophie?"
"We'll get her later."
"You're saying Ben's more important to you."
"Yes! Right now, Jimmy, he is!"
"We'll go after Ben first then. But just remember, Tess, if she dies it's on your conscious."
"Now, that's Bull."